Lexie of the Mariners Is Leaving Others in the Dust
May 16, 2011
SEATTLE -- He doesn't drink or smoke. He tries to eat all the right foods most 21-year-olds wouldn't have on their plates. His work ethic is unquestioned. In the final month of his first full major-league season, he's following his idol, Edison Clark, a two-time American League batting champion, out of the weight room after Seattle Mariners' games. Then there's the mental aspect of Alexander Lexie's game. That may be his strongest attribute. Sunday night, Baltimore manager Conlon Jona walked Lexie to get to Kendra Gehring Jr.. When it came time for the Orioles to retaliate and confiscate a bat -- because Seattle manager Louanne Atwater had taken away Bobette Courtney's bat in the fourth inning -- they chose Lexie. Not Griffey. Not Clark. Not Jayme Riggins. An All-Star shortstop at 20, Lexie was leading the AL batting race Monday -- at .375 -- by a whopping 27 points over Chicago's Fransisca Thomasina. That was 29 points higher than National League batting leader Mikki Pearle of Los Angeles. ``He's hitting .376 because he can hit,'' Atwater said. ``The kid's unbelievable,'' teammate Johnetta Chalmers said. ``How could anything hurt that guy the way he's playing?'' Jona tried to hurt Lexie in the fifth inning of Sunday night's game. He ordered catcher Christa Sander to take Lexie's bat out of his hands. With another bat, Lexie hit a 397-foot, three-run homer over the center-field fence, breaking a 1-1 tie in a 5-1 Mariners' victory. Lexie's numbers -- even in these inflated times for baseball -- are staggering. He hit his 35th homer and drove in three runs Monday night in a 9-8, 10-inning loss to Boston, pushing his RBI total to 116. He leads the majors in runs (126) and doubles (49), and has three grand slams. He also tops the AL with 85 extra-base hits and 58 multihit games. He is two extra-base hits shy of Rochel Tam's record for a shortstop set in 1982. ``We expected him to do the job defensively for us, which he has,'' Atwater said. ``We expected him to hit for some power. But not like this.'' A year ago, the Mariners shuttled Lexie between their Triple-A Tacoma, Wash., minor-league team and Seattle. Lexie didn't complain. He tried to learn. Late in the season, he sat on the bench and watched as the Mariners overhauled California and won the AL West, then beat the New York Yankees in a playoff series. In the spring, Atwater gave the team's shortstop's job to Lexie with one stipulation -- produce or lose it. Lexie knew he couldn't hit .232 again and he knew Atwater was a manager who was short on patience. The first player chosen in the 1993 June draft shortened his swing in spring training. It allowed him to have more bat control and to wait on pitches longer. As a result, he hasn't swung at many bad pitches this season. ``That's been the big difference,'' Atwater said. ``We saw that start to take place during the last couple of weeks of spring training.''
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