Mariners notebook: Zunino looking to shake off rough offensive start

LOS ANGELES – Mike Zunino’s rough day got rougher in the final seconds of the Mariners’ walkoff loss to the Dodgers Tuesday night.

On the play at the plate he jammed his wrist while making the tag. Down at field level it was immediately apparent that something was not right as Zunino jumped up and shook his left wrist then dropped to a crouch as the Dodgers celebrated, cradling the wrist in his other hand. This went on no more than a couple of seconds before he jumped back up, shook it off and headed to the dugout.
After the game he said he was okay, and he is in the lineup today.

Perhaps not as easy to shake off is the disappointing start at the plate that Zunino is off to. He has struck out to end 12 of his last 22 plate appearances. When asked if there was anything from spring training he was trying to get back to in an attempt to get this turned around, he laughed.

“Yeah. Hitting the ball,” he said.

That’s the beauty of Zunino. Obviously his start has been frustrating but aside from the occasional blowing off of steam he never seems to wallow in his struggles. That wouldn’t be good for his pitchers, himself or anyone who walked into that clubhouse. He knows that and moves on. His struggle is his struggle and his alone. It is his responsibility to get to the bottom of it and he sees what everyone else is seeing: he’s expanding the zone.

“I think I am getting to 0-2 quicker than I want to but I think I’m not getting good pitches to hit early in the count,” he said. “Sometimes you get 0-2 and you have to try to battle. Then you start to swing a little out of the zone. I think I just need to stay patient and wait to get pitches to hit.”

Zunino put in extra work at the plate this spring. He feels good about his stance and mechanics. He also believes his pitch recognition has been there.

“That was the big thing I focused on this spring,” he said. “I raised my sights up and you try to leave everything down, which leaves you susceptible to fastball up in the zone.”

He doesn’t feel that he is too far off, having just missed or fouled straight back pitches he was covering in Arizona.

“Obviously it’s frustrating,” he said, “but you’re going to go through that stretch one time during the season and I hope I can use this, tweak some things and get on a little hot streak.”

Lineups!

Notes

• Felix Hernandez threw his flat-ground session in right field as the team took batting practice and everything looked normal. Before he even took the field, manager Lloyd McClendon said he would be the starter Saturday so it would appear that there is little to no concern about the leg and ankle issues Felix encountered in his last start.

• In case there was any doubt, McClendon said that he would go to Fernando Rodney if there was a save situation tonight. “Two times he just wasn’t good,” McClendon said. “You got somebody else you want to put out there?”

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