Seattle @ Tampa Bay preview
Tropicana Field
Last Meeting ( May 14, 2010 ) Seattle 4, Tampa Bay 3
Mike Sweeney made headlines with some choice words for his teammates earlier this week.
Lately, he’s been making headlines on the field - and they are paying great dividends for the light-hitting Seattle Mariners.
Sweeney and the Mariners look to continue their recent tear at the plate against James Shields and the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday in the second of a three-game series.
A 16-year veteran, Sweeney stirred the pot this past week when he challenged his peers to a fight during a team meeting.
The crux of the situation stems from a report by Seattle Times-Tribune reporter Larry LaRue that accuses the iconic Ken Griffey Jr. of being asleep in the clubhouse during a pinch-hitting opportunity earlier this month.
Two Mariners’ players were cited as anonymous sources, and Sweeney challenged them to identify themselves and fight him. On Tuesday, Sweeney told Ken Rosenthal of Foxsports.com that the issue is done.
“We will support and fight and take a bullet for Ken Griffey Jr. if we have to. He’s our teammate,” he said.
“Nothing is going to divide this clubhouse, especially a makeshift article made up of lies. We don’t think there are two players who said that. I challenged everybody in that room – if they said that to stand up and fight me. No one stood up.”
And since no one obliged, it appears Sweeney has decided to take his anger out on opposing pitchers.
Sweeney has homered in consecutive games and has ignited the Mariners’ offensive resurgence. Overall, the Mariners have six homers in the past two days. No small feat considering Seattle entered Thursday with a major-league low 13 home runs.
Franklin Gutierrez and Adam Moore also homered in Friday’s 4-3 win over the major league-leading Rays.
The sudden change in run production is music to the ears of the pitching staff, since it has been snake-bitten by the offense all season. Seattle’s team ERA is 3.64, good for eighth in baseball, yet it is tied for the third-worst record in the majors.
Jason Vargas has been an integral part of the Mariners’ staff, and hopes get some run support this afternoon.
Aside from Sweeney, another hot bat that could help Vargas belongs to Ichiro Suzuki, who has six straight multi-hit games - one shy of his career high.
Vargas hasn't needed much help recently, though. The fifth-year veteran has yielded more than three runs just once in six starts, and that was his first outing of the season.
The right-hander allowed one run and four hits in 7 1/3 innings of an 8-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Sunday.
But he lost his only career start against Tampa Bay last May. Coincidentally, Vargas faced Shields - the Rays’ scheduled starter on Saturday. Vargas allowed three runs and four hits in 6 2/3 innings of a 5-2 setback.
Tampa Bay, which had its three-game winning streak snapped Friday, hopes history repeats itself. Shields (4-1, 3.13) yielded just two runs, eight hits and struck out 10 in that meeting.
He had been on fire this season, winning four straight starts before allowing four runs – two earned – and a season-high 11 hits in six innings of a 4-0 loss to Oakland on Sunday.