OAKLAND, Calif. -- Ichiro leads. Chone Figgins follows. Ichiro edges off first base. Figgins watches him out of the corner of his eye.
Ichiro measures the pitcher. Figgins measures Ichiro. It's a game within the game. Think of this as baseball's version of "Dancing With The Stars."
Theirs is a hardball pas de deux. Bending at the knees, maybe four strides off first, Ichiro wiggles his fingers. In the batter's box, awaiting the next pitch, Figgins waggles his bat.
Hitting behind a base stealer is one of the most difficult jobs in a difficult game. It is Figgins' new assignment with his new team, the Seattle Mariners.
"He's a very intelligent player and he has a great feel for the game,' manager Don Wakamatsu said of Figgins. "So I don't think it's a big adjustment."
Still, in this first week of their first regular season together, Figgins still is learning what Ichiro likes to do. Still learning the steps. Still following Ichiro's lead.
It isn't automatic. And it isn't easy.
"We're working on that," Wakamatsu said before Tuesday night's game with the Oakland Athletics. "We tried to do the best we could in spring training, but not all the situations are the same.
"As we grow and as those guys get to know each other, we'll get better and better and I think we'll be able to come up with a system where they can read each other a little better."
The Mariners are going to run as if they're playing in Pamplona. Even Tuesday, against Oakland starter Dallas Braden, who virtually is impossible to steal against, they wanted to put the game in motion.
"If we can't steal bases we have to be a little more creative," Wakamatsu said. "Maybe we hit and run more. Maybe we bunt more. We have to look at every option we can."
But you need runners to run. You need hits to hit-and-run. Through their first 19 innings of the season, the Mariners have managed only 11 hits.
Braden struck out 10 in seven innings. Even the most creative teams can only manufacture so many runs.
The only Mariners run came off a double by Franklin Guttierez, a Braden balk and a wild pitch.
It didn't exactly look like Murderer's Row, but it is becoming Mariners' Row. Through the first two games, small ball looks like shrinking ball.
"We've got to manufacture something," Wakamatsu said after the 2-1, 10-inning loss, "and we weren't able to get on base to do that."
Ichiro and Figgins had their chance in the eighth inning. Ichiro worked a two-out walk from reliever Brad Ziegler. Switch-hitter Figgins followed, facing lefty Craig Breslow.
Would Figgins let Ichiro run? Would the Mariners, who had only one runner in scoring position through seven innings, try to get Ichiro to second before letting Figgins swing?
Figgins out-thought the situation. He got impatient. It can happen when a team isn't hitting. He tried to bunt and popped it weakly to Breslow for the final out.
"I do realize," Figgins said, "because I'm a guy who likes to run and Ichiro likes to run, there are situations, when I'm at bat, where I have to be a little more patient and give him a chance to run."
It is to Figgins' credit that he gracefully has made all of the adjustments asked of him.
He was the leadoff hitter last season with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. And he played third. This season, he bats second and plays second.
"You have to be more patient (hitting second), but that's no problem because it's something I've learned over the last four or five years," Figgins said. "I've become more patient. If I get my pitches to hit, I'm going to be ready to hit it.
"But getting him (Ichiro) to second is more important than having him at first, so I'm going to be patient and let him run, but other times I'm going to be ready to bunt, or hit-and-run, or do whatever it takes to move him."
Ichiro and Figgins are a pas de deux in progress.
But they could use a little more help.
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