The Mariners face Angels lefty C.J. Wilson Tuesday night, which means for the first time this season, we’ll see how Seattle’s new-look lineup fares against left-handed pitching.
A season ago, the Mariners struggled against left-handed pitching—OK, they weren’t exactly an offensive juggernaut against righties or lefties, but with a left-handed dominant lineup, the numbers were even worse against left-handed pitching—but over the offseason they worked to address that deficiency, most notably by signing DH/outfielder Nelson Cruz. The Mariners also added INF/OF Rickie Weeks, Tuesday’s leadoff hitter and outfielder Justin Ruggiano, which means when they face Wilson, they’ll do so with just four lefties in the lineup: Robinson Cano, Kyle Seager, Logan Morrison and Brad Miller.
“We have much better balance,” McClendon said. “We have veteran guys who have pretty decent track records against left-handers, so I feel better.
The Mariners didn’t hit for average last year against pitchers of either handedness, batting .240 against lefties (25th in baseball) and .246 against righties (20th), but there was a big difference when it came to generating any pop out of their lineup against left-handers. Against righties last season, the Cano and Seager-led lineup had a .394 slugging percentage, which ranked a respectable 11th out of 30 teams, while against lefties that number dropped to .342, which ranked 29th.
“We ran a lot of left-handers out there last year against left-handers, and I don’t know how we did it, but we beat them,” McClendon said. “But I feel much more comfortable with this lineup.”
While it was known that Weeks would start Tuesday against Wilson, what wasn’t necessarily expected was McClendon’s decision to put Cruz in the outfield and have Weeks DH. That decision wasn’t tied to the hamstring injury that briefly limited Weeks in spring training, but rather just a McClendon’s desire to get Cruz an occasional game in the field.
“Rickie’s fine,” McClendon said. “Just playing Nelson in the outfield and Rickie’s DHing… I’m playing him in right field today. There was no deep thought to it, I’m playing him in right field. Rickie is DH. His hamstring is fine.”
Weeks, a second baseman for almost his entire career with Milwaukee, spent time mostly in the outfield and also first base during the spring. He also did some pregame work at first base prior to batting practice Tuesday.
“There will be times when (Weeks) might be in left field, he’s DHing today,” McClendon said.
As for breaking Weeks in at a new position, McClendon said there’s no trick to easing him into action at this point: “Just put him out there. I’m sure he’ll be fine. He’s had plenty of fly balls, he knows the speed of the game, he just didn’t get a lot of action in spring, but we can’t run from that now. He’ll play some left field, he’s just not playing left field today.”
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