Lloyd McClendon looking for clean baseball from Mariners

The formula for success is simple, according to Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon.

BY SHANNON DRAYER

May 21, 2015, 10:56 AM Updated: 11:38 am

"I think we have done everything we could to shoot ourselves in the foot the first 40 games of the season," M's manager Lloyd McClendon said. (AP)

(AP)

BALTIMORE – The parents of quadruplet 2-year-olds could learn a thing or two about patience from Lloyd McClendon.

“I know I have got a good club,” the manager asserted when asked what he sees in the Mariners after 40 games. “We haven’t hit our stride, but I don’t think there is anyone in that locker room that feels like this club is drowning. I like the attitude, I like the way they go about their business.”

Then why isn’t this reflected in their record? That is not a tough question for McClendon.

“I think we have done everything we could to shoot ourselves in the foot the first 40 games of the season,” he said. “We didn’t run the bases, we didn’t pitch, we didn’t hit, we didn’t catch it. All the major things that every club goes through (over) the course a year where you shoot yourself in the foot, we’ve done it all in the first five to six weeks. We just haven’t played good baseball, the type of baseball we are capable of playing.”

Hitters will go through slumps. Pitchers will have bad outings here and there. That’s part of baseball. Controllable mistakes are another thing. The Mariners flat-out haven’t played clean baseball for the majority of the first quarter of the season.

McClendon believes perhaps 10 percent of their games have been clean, and by that he means error-free with good base-running and good relief pitching. The starters have come around and he points to that as the best reason for optimism for the remainder of the season.

“We are starting to roll from the pitching standpoint,” McClendon said. “We had the hiccup with the (Taijuan) Walker start, but other than that our guys have been very consistent, and that is really encouraging because when you get that type of pitching it leads you to believe you can put streaks together and I don’t think that is going to stop now. I think the guys have hit their stride, are in their groove and they are going to give us great opportunities to win ballgames.”

There is no doubt that success begins with the starting pitching, but the rest of the club needs to fall in line as well. The Mariners aren’t looking for this group to do anything more than play to the back of their baseball cards and play clean baseball. Do what they are capable of doing.

“I think we are like a club that is spinning our wheels right now but once they hit the ground we are going to take off,” McClendon said. “I think we are real close.”

Hopefully for the Mariners, McClendon is right. They can ill afford to let much more of the season pass under their wheels.