That, of course, changed when the season began and as always in baseball, the ball found the new guy quite a bit. Some plays were routine, but a number have been anything but. Some have been just plain unfortunate. Case in point, the ball hit to him in the fifth inning of the Mariners\u2019 3-1 loss to the Rangers Monday off the bat of Danny Jansen. What should have been a routine play on a slow-running catcher turned into a hit thanks to an assist from the turf at the edge of the infield.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got stuck,\u201d said Donovan half matter-of-factly, half disgustedly after the game. \u201cIt kind of retreated me, I tried to plant on my foot and I think it got stuck in the turf, and I just had nothing (on the throw).\u201d<\/p>\n
It was just one play of a number of plays that didn\u2019t feel comfortable at his new position.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not something you can run from,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of one of those things (where) you have just got to keep preparing (while) understanding I am not playing to the standard that I set for myself defensively and that I have done the last few years. So that\u2019s frustrating, but my biggest thing is I just want to help the team, and I don\u2019t feel I am doing a very good job with that over there and I will continue to prepare. And ultimately, I do want the ball hit to me and I do want to make those plays, and unfortunately I am going through some growing pains right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are no shortcuts. Game experience is game experience, but Donovan leads with preparation in all he does. He is confident work will help him get past the growing pains he is experiencing now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am already thinking about what I want to do when we get back,\u201d he said. \u201cSome live off the bat, some live flip fungos<\/a>. Just getting used to it. Yeah, I can sit here and say that I have had some tough plays, but they are plays that I should make and plays they are counting on me making. So it\u2019s definitely frustrating, but I will continue to prepare.\u201d<\/p>\n At the plate, Donovan has been one of the few bright spots in the Mariners lineup. It\u2019s a lineup he and others spoke glowingly of in spring training, a lineup they believed should put pressure on starting pitchers day in and day out. Five straight losses, two of which saw two or fewer Mariners record hits, was not what Donovan and his teammates expected. It is not, however, as Donovan pointed out, foreign territory.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are going to go through lulls like this,\u201d he said while crediting what the pitching staff had done. \u201cUnfortunately, we are just kind of getting hit with some adversity at the beginning. You can look at it one of two ways. You can say, \u2018oh, poor us,\u2019 or you can say we take this and we can see what we are really made of and we can get over this hump now and we can get on a roll. I mean personally, I would rather us go through it now, see what we are made of and kind of establish our identity and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n Seattle Mariners coverage<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0Watch: Seattle Mariners\u2019 Refnsyder robs Rangers of home run<\/a>
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