SEATTLE (AP) – Robinson Cano was only supposed to hear the jeers and boos cascading from the spectators when he was playing on the road.
Hearing them at Safeco Field after strikeouts and weak grounders was not envisioned when he signed a $240 million, 10-year contract with the Seattle Mariners.
“I always stay positive and every at bat for me is a different one. I’m not going to overthink,” Cano said. “I haven’t done my job lately. Just go game by game and play hard every single day.”
Cano’s unexpected struggles at the plate are just the tip of one of the biggest underachievers in baseball to date. Picked by many observers to be a playoff-bound club thanks to Cano and the addition of Nelson Cruz, the Mariners’ 2-9 homestand left them seven games under .500 at 25-32, the second-worst record in the American League.
Seattle became just the fourth team in major league history to score no more than three runs during any game of a homestand of 10 games or longer, following the 1913 Chicago White Sox, 1968 Houston Astros and 2010 Mariners. The three prior teams had only 10 games to fail in, according to STATS.