SPORTS
Friday, February 21, 2020
East Oregonian
B3
Mariners’ young duo hoping to make mark in starting rotation
By JOSE M. ROMERO
Associated Press
PEORIA, Ariz. — The
future of the Seattle Mar-
iners’ starting rotation is
now, with left-hander Justus
Sheffield virtually assured
of a spot and fellow rising
prospect Justin Dunn a top
contender to join the group.
Both got a taste of the big
leagues last season when
they made their Mariners
debuts. This season they
figure to be a major part of
Seattle’s rebuilding process
as it enters its second year
following a 68-94 season.
“Every year’s a step for-
ward, but mainly this year
I’m looking forward to
going out there and compet-
ing and changing this thing
around,” said Sheffield, who
was 0-1 in eight games,
including seven starts, and
posted a 5.50 ERA over 36
innings.
The club appears to have
set expectations for Shef-
field, which he appreciates.
“As they should,” he said.
“As anyone should. Every-
one has a sense of responsi-
bility of going out there and
proving what they can do.”
Sheffield, 23, is in his
second spring training with
the Mariners. He’s learned
from last season that base-
ball is a game of failure, he
said, and that he has to get
past the bad outings and
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File
Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais watches spring training baseball practice on Feb. 13,
2020 in Peoria, Ariz.
“I’M GOING TO CONTINUE TO FIGHT. I’M NEVER
GOING TO BACK DOWN FROM ANY CHALLENGE, ANY
OBSTACLE THAT’S IN MY WAY,”
— Justus Sheffield, Seattle Mariner
move forward.
“I’m going to continue
to fight. I’m never going to
back down from any chal-
lenge, any obstacle that’s in
my way,” Sheffield said. “I’d
love to stay here. I love the
organization and I love the
direction that they’re going
so I’m excited to be a part
of this.”
The Mariners are largely
a young team, but with
42 pitchers seeing major
league action and a number
of prospects called up as the
team struggled last season,
there’s a level of familiar-
ity with each other in spring
training. Many players have
already been minor-league
teammates and bonded over
having been traded from
other organizations, Dunn
said.
Dunn, 24, and Sheffield
were teammates at Dou-
ble-A Arkansas last season,
and Dunn was a Septem-
ber call-up for Seattle and
pitched in four games.
Each outing was pur-
posely shortened. He never
pitched more than two
innings in a start, but came
away with the sense that he
belongs at the major league
level.
“I have the ability to
have success here,” he said
when asked about what he
took from last season’s out-
ings. “Second, is that it’s the
same game. Once you slow
the heart rate down and get
back to playing baseball, the
same game you were play-
ing since you were young,
it’s the same type of game.”
Dunn, who did not reg-
ister a decision last sea-
son but overcame a rocky
major-league debut to com-
pile a 2.70 ERA, is aware of
the competition to be in the
rotation.
“Hopefully, at the end of
the (spring) I’m getting on
a flight to go to Seattle,” he
said. “But all that’s out of
my hands. I just have to go
out there and be me and put
myself in a good position.”
Mariners manager Scott
Servais said Sheffield and
Dunn learned a great deal
from their brief big league
experience, noting Sheffield
“made some huge strides
going forward.”
“Everybody wants to
bolt them together but they
really are different in where
they’re at with their devel-
opment plan,” Servais said.
“Both of them have a chance
to really impact our future.
We’d love to see it happen as
soon as possible, but under-
stand there’s a timeline, you
have to be patient.”
Servais is looking for
consistency from his young
starters in 2020.
“Is that going to be there
every time out? We hope
over time,” he said. “But
being realistic, there’s prob-
ably going to be some really
good outings, maybe some
where they struggle.”
Notes: The Mariners
held their first full squad
workout Tuesday with 70
players taking the field, the
most since Servais took
over as manager before the
2016 season. Only Dee Gor-
don wasn’t in camp as he
awaits the birth of his child.
… Servais accepted some
players’ challenge to taste
some Louisiana hot sauce
Monday, and said he paid
the price. “It didn’t go so
well,” he said with a laugh.
Green, Mannion
lead No. 24 Wildcats
past Oregon State
JOSE M. ROMERO
Associated Press
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
Seattle Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki fields balls during batting practice at spring baseball training on Feb. 13, 2020, in Peoria,
Ariz.
Haniger upbeat after offseason of surgeries
By JOSE M. ROMERO
Associated Press
PEORIA, Ariz. — It
will be months, at best,
before Mitch Haniger is
ready to suit up and take
the field for the Seattle
Mariners.
But after three surger-
ies in seven months and
two within the last four
weeks, Haniger is in a pos-
itive frame of mind.
The 2018 All-Star out-
fielder said Thursday that
he isn’t feeling much pain
from surgery in his core
area in January plus a
back procedure earlier this
month.
“Excited to be in camp
with the guys and be
around everybody,” Hani-
ger said. “Hopefully I can
contribute to the team as
much as I can during this
time that I’m not going to
be on the field.”
Haniger said he believes
he can play at some point
this season.
“I tend to and I hope
so and I expect to be,” he
said.
Haniger, who hit .285
with 26 home runs and 93
RBIs in 2018, took time to
rehash his recent timeline
of medical events. It all
started last June when he
fouled a pitch off his groin
area during a game.
Haniger went on the
10-day injured list with
a ruptured testicle, and
in August went out on a
rehab assignment. But he
began to feel back pain
and was shut down for the
rest of the season.
Haniger said that early
in his rehabilitation last
summer he tore an adduc-
tor muscle attachment in
his core, which eventually
excited that I can move
forward,” he said. “I have
a clear plan to get back on
the field. Whenever that
may be, I don’t know what
timetables are as of right
now.”
The first step in Hani-
ger’s rehabilitation process
from his latest surgery is
“I THINK I CAN GET THROUGH
ANYTHING. BEEN TESTED IN A
LOT OF WAYS THESE LAST SEVEN
MONTHS.”
— Mitch Haniger, Seattle Mariner
led to his back pain. The
injury went undiagnosed
and he continued his work
into the offseason.
He felt good enough
physically in early January
to ramp up baseball activ-
ities, until one morning
he woke up in a great deal
of pain and could barely
walk. That led to the core
surgery.
His back pain got worse
when he started his rehab
from the core procedure,
and an MRI showed a her-
niated lower spine. So on
Feb. 13 he underwent a
small repair of vertebrae
in his back.
“I’m really happy now
that the problems are fixed.
Surgery intervention was
needed to fix both of those
issues and now I’m really
simply walking, he said,
with no lifting, bending or
twisting.
Visibly thinner with-
out the muscular frame
he builds when in game
shape, Haniger said he’s
learned a good deal about
mental toughness. He
enjoys working out and
said he gets skinny if
he isn’t bulking up with
weights.
“I think I can get
through anything. Been
tested in a lot of ways these
last seven months,” he
said. “But I’ve done a lot
of work in that department
over the years and con-
tinue to put in more and
more work every year.”
Mariners
manager
Scott Servais said he’s
glad Haniger is at spring
training with the team.
Haniger, 29, is one of the
few veterans on a largely
young Mariners roster.
“It’s going to be a pro-
cess for him just trying to
get the strength back and
work from there,” Servais
said.
Haniger’s
absence
opens the door for Jake
Fraley or Braden Bishop,
two players who made
their big league debuts last
season, to start the season
in right field as the Mari-
ners move forward with
their rebuild. Veteran Car-
los Gonzalez, a three-
time All-Star in camp on a
minor-league deal, is also
in contention.
Notes: Longtime Mar-
iners star Ichiro Suzuki
will throw out the first
ball in the regular-season
opener March 26 at home
against Texas. The 10-time
All-Star outfielder, 46 has
been shagging flyballs
and pitching batting prac-
tice in spring training as a
special assistant/instruc-
tor. He started the Mari-
ners’ first two games last
year when they opened
in Japan, then retired as a
player. ... Servais said left-
hander Nestor Cortes Jr.,
who arrived in an offsea-
son trade with the New
York Yankees, is sched-
uled to start the first game
of spring training Satur-
day and work a couple of
innings.
TUCSON, Ariz. — Ari-
zona rolled past an undisci-
plined Oregon State squad
89-63 on Thursday night.
Josh Green scored 18
points and Nico Mannion
scored 12 of his 16 in the sec-
ond half for the 24th-ranked
Wildcats (19-7, 9-4 Pac-12),
Max Hazzard scored 13 of
his 15 points in the second
half and Zeke Nnaji added 13
points and seven rebounds for
Arizona.
The Wildcats made 10
more free throws than the
Beavers (15-11, 5-9), with help
from three technical fouls
against Oregon State.
“They shot 15 free throws
and we shot 28,” Arizona
coach Sean Miller said. “It was
about our aggressiveness.”
Oregon State also commit-
ted 21 turnovers to lose for the
third time in five games.
The Beavers lost leading
scorer Tres Tinkle to his sec-
ond technical foul for a high
elbow with 13:17 remaining
and Arizona up 52-40. Ore-
gon State coach Wayne Tin-
kle, Tres’ father, was assessed
a technical moments later.
Wayne Tinkle didn’t
expect his son to lose his
composure.
“That was uncharacteris-
tic,” Wayne Tinkle said. “But
I tell you what, he’s been rid-
den like American Pharaoh
all of the stinkin’ league (sea-
son). And he’s got to be better.
He’s got to play through that,
but I’ve told people that if the
way the game is being called
isn’t changed, then something
silly is going to happen. It’s
very unfortunate. He’s not
that kind of player. He’s got to
keep his head about him.”
After the technicals, the
Wildcats took control with a
12-3 run to cruise to victory.
The Wildcats won for the
sixth time in seven games and
are tied for second place in the
conference.
Arizona avenged an 82-65
loss at Oregon State earlier in
the season.
“It wasn’t something we
talked about, but I think as a
group, we kind of had that in
mind,” Mannion said. “We
owed them one.”
Jarod Lucas scored 18
points and Kylor Kelley added
14 points and eight rebounds
for Oregon State. Tinkle
entered the night averaging
18.3 points per contest, but he
was held to 10.
The Beavers turned the
ball over four times in the
first four minutes. A steal and
dunk from Green gave the
Wildcats a 10-2 lead at the
16:01 mark.
“My main goal coming
into the game was just try
my hardest on defense, bring
energy to the team and do all
the dirty work and energize,”
said Green, who had four
steals.
Oregon State went almost
five minutes between bas-
kets early in the game, but
trimmed an 11-point deficit
to 19-15 on a layup by Ethan
Thompson with 9:33 to go.
Christian Koloko’s dunk
out of a timeout gave Arizona
a 35-22 lead, the Wildcats’
largest lead of the first half.
Green scored 13 points before
the break to give Arizona a
40-30 lead. Nnaji’s two free
throws with 15:34 left gave
Arizona a 47-34 lead early in
the second half, and the Wild-
cats maintained control from
there.
Big picture
Oregon State: Plenty of
observers felt the Beavers
had the experience and tal-
ent to be an NCAA tourna-
ment team this season, but
they will have to go on an epic
run in February and March
to get in. The opportunity is
there for a strong regular sea-
son finish, with games at No.
14 Oregon, whom the Beavers
beat once this season, and at
home against struggling Stan-
ford and California, before the
Pac-12 Tournament.
Arizona: The Wildcats are
right in the thick of the reg-
ular season title race, with a
home game against Oregon
— which fell at Arizona State
Thursday — and home games
against Washington State and
Washington to end the regu-
lar season.
Highlight reel
Miller singled out fresh-
man center Koloko for his
play — five points and three
blocked shots in 10 minutes.
Soon after Tres Tinkle was
ejected, Koloko swatted away
a shot from Thompson, which
led to Hazzard’s driving layup
at other end for 56-40 lead.
Up next
Oregon State: Heads north
to face Arizona State Sat-
urday night in Tempe, Ariz.
The Beavers lost at home to
the Sun Devils 82-76 on Jan-
uary 9.
Arizona: The Wildcats get
a chance to atone for a 74-73
overtime loss at Oregon last
month when they face the
Ducks at home Saturday
night.