Mariners notebook: McClendon lets Felix be Felix, and it pays off

It is always good to return from a couple of days off to a team coming off a win, and I would go so far as to say it was a big win at that.

I don’t call many wins big, especially this early in the season, but the game Saturday had the feel of one you could look back on months from now and say was a turning point, or maybe more precisely a getting back on track game.

Early on the game looked like the four that preceded it – early mistakes, missed opportunities, a bad call. Things did not appear to be going in the right direction.

Felix was on, however. The quad he strained was still a factor but he pitched through it. He threw six brilliant innings and let his manager know he had more in the tank by fighting for another inning. This is something we saw Felix do for years before Lloyd McClendon’s arrival, but with his new skipper he had an understanding. He knew that McClendon was trying to manage his innings for the long haul and trusted his decisions.

The animated discussions in between innings became a thing of the past – until yesterday. Felix wanted to stay in and McClendon, to the surprise of many, let him.

Watching the game on TV I was a little surprised but I understood that this was about more than the three outs that Felix would get in the seventh. This morning I asked McClendon why he let Felix have a say in the matter this time. McClendon initially was coy about his reasons.

“Maybe I wanted him to go out there, and maybe I wanted him to think it was his idea,” he said with a laugh.

“There were a lot of important things that happened yesterday,” he continued after a pause. “No. 1, Felix built his pitch count to 110, which was important. (Mike) Zunino got his confidence back, we got a win and (Fernando) Rodney got his confidence, he got his swagger back. So there were a lot of good things that happened yesterday, and a lot of that had to do with Felix going out and getting through seven.”

This was not just about Felix.

“It is always for the whole team, not the individual,” said McClendon.

The pitch count was important. Felix threw 47 pitches in his last spring training start – 97 Opening Day and just 81 against Oakland. Keeping Felix in also set up the bullpen nicely. More than anything though, it gave the team a spark. McClendon let Felix be Felix and his team responded.

Lineups!

Mariners

Austin Jackson, CF
Rickie Weeks, DH
Robinson Cano, 2B
Nelson Cruz, RF
Kyle Seager, 3B
Justin Ruggiano, LF
Willie Bloomquist, SS
Logan Morrison, 1B
Jesus Sucre, C

James Paxton, LHP

Rangers

Leonys Martin, CF
Elvis Andrus, SS
Prince Fielder, DH
Adrian Beltre, 3B
Shin-Soo Choo, RF
Adam Rosales, 1B
Rougned Odor, 2B
Jake Smolinski, LF
Carlos Coporan, C

Ross Detwiler, LHP

So after all of that good on Saturday we have a completely different lineup. McClendon is playing for the long haul and with a lefty on the hill on a Sunday he is going with his lefty/Sunday lineup. Zunino gets his day off with the day game after a night game and Jesus Sucre gets some work. Rickie Weeks is back in the lineup after a couple of days off. Good to see Ruggiano as well.

McClendon plans on using the entire roster this season so they all need to play and regulars need to learn to take a day here and there and use them to the best of their advantage for rest and work.

Notes

• The Mariners are debuting their new home alternate, cream-colored uniforms. The players are big fans of the new unis.

• Sucre was my guest on the pregame show and he told me he had no question Rodney would have a good outing yesterday.

“I was in the bullpen yesterday when he was throwing and he was feeling great,” he said. “He was throwing hard in the bullpen warming up. I told Mike Rojas, this guy looks good today. He’s not messing around. His first pitch was 96.”

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