Scott Servais can dish it out too.
Following the Mariners’ 7-3 spring training win over the Dodgers Monday, Trevor Bauer chalked his disastrous fifth inning (three homers, five runs conceded) up to one where there “really wasn’t any thought of sequencing.” Mariners manager Servais focused on Bauer’s scoreless opening four frames and issued the perfect sarcastic response.
“Certainly Bauer was on top of his game early,” he said, per The Seattle Times. “I just wanted everybody to know our guys weren’t trying the first four innings. We decided to try in the fifth inning last night and it worked out. Our guys started trying. I know he had said maybe he wasn’t trying in the fifth, but our guys were trying in the fifth. We just didn’t take it seriously the first three to four innings.”
Through 17.2 spring training innings with his new team, Bauer has registered an underwhelming 4.08 ERA, though he didn’t seem concerned about Seattle’s five-run outburst.
“I was just throwing pitches,” he said. “That’s not a really good mind frame to be in when you’re trying to get guys out. But I was just finishing off the night, trying to get my pitch count up.”
Bauer’s preseason form should be taken with a grain of salt, as the controversial pitcher admitted to throwing with one eye shut for most of an inning earlier in spring training in order to challenge himself. When asked if his players had his eyes open vs. Bauer (in reference to the Dodger’s previous antics), Servais mustered another sneering response.
“Our guys were hitting with one eye shut for the first four innings,” he said. “We were also trying to breathe through our eyelids as we are focusing on different things that will help us throughout the years. I just want to make sure everybody understood they weren’t trying the first four innings.”
The Mariners’ first meeting with Bauer’s Dodgers this regular season is set for April 19.
