Mariners notebook: Extra work being put in to help Robinson Cano, Fernando Rodney

CLEVELAND – We will see if the day off did the Mariners any good. The team left Seattle Sunday so Monday was a full day off with no travel, which is always good and doesn’t always happen with the team having to fly more miles than any other club in baseball. After the day off, optional early batting practice was scheduled and most of the team took part in it.

“There’s a lot of guys who are not swinging well so it’s nice that guys are willing to put the time in to try to get better,” manager Lloyd McClendon said of the turnout.

Robinson Cano was one of the players who took extra work. It hasn’t been a matter of business as usual for Cano in his pregame work as McClendon and the coaches have been focusing on of a couple of areas where they have seen problems with his hitting. There has been work put in on the mental side as well, according to McClendon.

“I don’t think any of us in this room can relate to what he is going through because he is one of those elite athletes, a superstar,” McClendon said. “It’s like Michael Jordan not being able to hit a jump shot. Is there a little bit of embarrassment? Probably so. Frustration? Probably.

“One thing I pointed out to Robbie is the same things that got you to this elite level are the same things that are going to get you out of it. Those things are inside here (heart) and none of us can measure that. I think when all things are said and done, when you look at his full body of work in the course of a 162-game season, his numbers are going to be there. He was born to hit.”

Tonight he will be hitting third.

Lineup!

Logan Morrison, 1B
Austin Jackson, CF
Robinson Cano, 2B
Nelson Cruz, RF
Kyle Seager, 3B
Seth Smith, LF
Mark Trumbo, DH
Brad Miller, SS
Mike Zunino, C

Roenis Elias, LHP

LoMo leading off

For the second time in two weeks the Mariners are facing Chris Archer and Corey Kluber back-to-back. Nelson Cruz has had the most success against Kluber, going 4 for 6 with a double and home run. Kyle Seager is 4 for 9 with a double.

Logan Morrison is 2 for 6 with two walks against Kluber and once again finds himself at the top of the lineup. While this is not ideal, McClendon is just looking to get one of his better on-base guys at the top while the team has been struggling. The addition of Mark Trumbo makes this easier as that gives him a more experienced bat lower in the order.

“He has the ability to get on base,” McClendon said of Morrison. “He’s not driving in a lot of runs, but he takes his walks, gets his base hits. I’m just trying to put more guys on base in front of these sluggers of ours.”

As for Morrison’s lack of speed, that is not a concern for now.

“I guess we make a big thing of guys leading off,” he said. “Hell, I led off. To me it’s really no big thing. Obviously you lose the speed at the top of the order but other than that the guy probably gets an extra AB, he has the ability to take walks and grind out at-bats. I guess in that sense it’s good.”

McClendon wants to keep running

I asked McClendon about the recent failings on the basepaths. The Mariners are dead even in steals and caught stealing and that obviously is not good. Despite the lack of success recently, McClendon is not about to put the brakes on his team.

“Unless we are swinging the bats extremely well we can’t go station to station because it’s just not happening,” he said. “We are not getting the big hits when we need them. We are trying to push the button a little bit to help guys out so I don’t see us backing off of that. You want to make the commitment to trying to be a team that runs the bases properly, steals bases. You get thrown out two or three times in a row, you can’t stop and say, ‘I’m done.’ It just doesn’t work that way.”

I talked to Austin Jackson, who has been thrown out four of his last six stolen-base attempts, for my pregame interview and he said that it is a little bit like pressing at the plate. When things aren’t going well and you are trying to make things happen, if you aren’t careful you can get jumpy on the basepaths. Like hitting, you have to push through it.

The plan for Rodney

Fernando Rodney most likely will not be brought in if there is a save opportunity tonight, but we could see him in higher leverage situations soon.

“When the pitching coach comes back to me and says we think we got this mechanical stuff worked out, he will pitch eighth and sometimes ninth inning,” McClendon said.

There is a twist, however.

“I’m committed to right now if he is closing out a game maybe getting him help maybe on the front end if there is a tough lefty or something,” McClendon said. “Anything to try and jump-start him. We need him. If we are going to make a run at this, be as successful as we think we are going to be, we have got to have him. The other kid (Carson Smith), he’s got greatness written all over him, but if we think we can run him out there three or four days in a row, it’s just not going to happen.”

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