Mariners notebook: Starting rotation stepping up

ARLINGTON, Texas – Don’t look now but Mariners starters have put together a string of decent to stellar outings over the last week. Over the last six starts they have posted a combined 1.68 ERA, lowering their season mark from 6.21 (last in the American League) to 4.50 (ninth).

Taijuan Walker has done his part, giving up just one earned run in his last two starts. What was particularly impressive yesterday is that he was able to pitch seven solid innings without his best fastball. His velocity was down but the pitch had life and he was able to locate it. Despite the success with the fastball, manager Lloyd McClendon said he would like to have seen Walker use his changeup a little bit more. Walker is comfortable with his changeup but is not quite seeing what he saw in spring training with the pitch.

“I feel like I am still learning about it,” he told me during his interview for the pregame show. “I’m not getting as many swings and misses with it, but I am getting ground balls with it and getting outs with it. As long as I keep getting outs with it, that’s fine – especially early outs. If I can get strike one and throw my changeup and get an out, I will take that over a swing and miss and having to throw another pitch.”

Walker has double-digit-strikeout stuff but he is learning that he has other weapons as well. He’s learning to pitch. The process is so different from a veteran, a Felix Hernandez or a J.A. Happ for example, guys who know their stuff and know the competition. Watching Walker and Mike Zunino working together is interesting. They have their meetings before the starts but the dialogue is ongoing during the game with the two talking between innings, laying out plans for the upcoming innings.

In the seventh inning of yesterday’s game, with runners on first and third, Walker received a visit from McClendon. As his skipper emerged from the dugout, Walker had a thought that he might be pulled. He wanted to stay in, he said. It was his game. As McClendon crossed the line onto the field, Walker realized he wasn’t going to the bullpen. McClendon told him that Robinson Chirinos would be his last hitter. Give it everything you have got. One pitch later, Chirinos was out and Walker was heading back to the dugout with seven innings in the books and a good opportunity to pick up a W.

“I just think those are moments that you build character,” McClendon said when asked why he left Walker in. “We could have easily gone to the bullpen and said, ‘Hey look, don’t let him lose the ballgame here.’ Sometimes you have got to take a step up and I thought that was one of those moments.

“I think it’s got to be a character boost. This game is all about confidence, about tempo, about timing and when you can go out and perform like that, you got to build off that.”

Lineup!

Austin Jackson, CF
Justin Ruggiano, RF
Robinson Cano, 2B
Nelson Cruz, DH
Kyle Seager, 3B
Rickie Weeks, LF
Logan Morrison, 1B
Brad Miller, SS
Mike Zunino, C

J.A. Happ, LHP

Notes

• Tom Wilhelmsen threw again today, this time stretching out to 120 feet. When he brought it back in he threw about a dozen pitches from 60 feet. Not quite a flat-ground session as the catcher was standing, but close. He is scheduled to throw a bullpen Friday in Houston.

• When Wilhemsen’s throwing session was finished, pitching coach Rick Waits came into the dugout and listened in as I finished my interview with Walker. “Taijuan, that’s good she’s talking to you,” he said with a smile. “When things are going poorly she talks to me!” True.

• How tough has the middle of the order been? Well, if intentional walks are any indication then pretty tough. The Mariners lead baseball with 12 free passes so far this year.

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