Cheney Stadium is 40 miles and a world away from Safeco Field. There, on August 6, the AAA Tacoma Rainiers are playing the Albuquerque Isotopes in a matinee, and Morrow is set to start. The crowd, composed almost entirely of prepubescent day-camp attendees, sounds like they took a collective huff of helium when they roar. They love it when the Tacoma mascot, Rhubarb the Reindeer, douses the first-base umpire with a bucket of water, and they're also delighted to dance along when Rhubarb does the funky chicken. Along the first-base line, several members of the Rainiers' bullpen are chatting with a rather top-heavy young lady as the rest of the team jogs onto the 9,600-seat stadium's playing field.
Amid the frivolity, Morrow is making his first start since his winter in Venezuela. He fires off his warm-up pitches—fastball, fastball, changeup, slider, slider, and two more fastballs—before Albuquerque's leadoff hitter, Tommy Murphy, comes to the plate. Morrow throws two fastballs outside the strike zone before Murphy swings at another and misses. He then manages to poke a grounder to second baseman Luis Valbuena, who tosses it to first baseman Craig Wilson for an easy out.
KEVIN P. CASEY
Drafted as a starter out of Cal, Morrow’s Mariner career has been confined to the bullpen.
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Struggling with his control early on, Morrow throws three straight balls to Robert Andino before the Albuquerque shortstop grounds out to Tacoma's shortstop, Tug Hulett. During the next at-bat, Morrow's fastball finds its way to the corners of the strike zone, and he whiffs first baseman Tagg Bozied to end the inning.
Morrow's lone blemish comes against Dallas McPherson in the second inning, when the Isotope designated hitter bangs a double off the fence in left-center field. But Morrow gets Michael Ryan to ground out and Jason Wood to pop out to first base before Rainiers manager Daren Brown removes him from the game. (As is customary for pitchers attempting to build endurance, Morrow is governed by a tight pitch count, 35 in this game, which will increase incrementally with each start).
The Rainiers would go on to an easy 8–0 victory. Afterwards, Morrow squeezes through the cramped Rainiers locker room with a Coke and a couple slices of pizza. The entire clubhouse at Cheney Stadium is about half the size of the Mariners' locker room. There are no plush leather couches, no big-screen TVs, no catered meals. But for Morrow, the Cheney locker room is at least as comfortable as the Mariners bullpen.
Morrow's happy with his start, he says, although it was short. He talks a little more about his outing—how his full windup felt a little wobbly, being unaccustomed to it after so much time spent pitching out of the stretch when summoned into games with runners on base. But is he excited? Morrow, as eager to talk about himself as ever, answers, "Yeah!"
For once there's a crack in his exterior. Here, in a minor-league locker room after his first minor-league start, Brandon Morrow's doing something he rarely does. He's smiling.
jfroehling@seattleweekly.com
