Erstad Has to Back Off Just a Tad

SEATTLE —  Darin Erstad has made a smooth transition from the outfield to first base, playing Gold Glove-caliber defense all season, but the switch has come at a price.

Erstad’s biggest fear in moving to the infield -- that crouching with his glove on the ground with each pitch would put an extra strain on his lower back and hamstrings -- was realized this week when lower-back spasms knocked him out of Sunday’s game in the fourth inning and sidelined him Monday night.

“The last couple of weeks I’ve been [dealing with] it,” Erstad said. “I got fatigued, in general, and it locked up. I thought I could play, but it started to spasm. I can’t move very well. It’s pretty uncomfortable. I’m trying to calm it down with treatment, and hopefully I can play [tonight].”

Erstad, who is batting .312 with six home runs, 27 doubles and 60 runs batted in, arrived at Safeco Field on Monday afternoon and tried to talk Manager Mike Scioscia into starting him. But when his warmup attempts failed to loosen his lower back, Erstad resigned himself to the bench.

Casey Kotchman started at first Monday night, and Chone Figgins moved from the ninth spot in the order to Erstad’s second spot. If Erstad can’t play tonight, Andres Galarraga would probably start against left-hander Bobby Madritsch.

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Left-hander Jarrod Washburn came into the Angel clubhouse with two plastic bags filled with deer jerky packed by his father in Wisconsin and shipped to Seattle.

One bag, Washburn opened and shared with his teammates. The other was sent to Mariner right fielder Ichiro Suzuki, but not as a congratulatory gift for a phenomenal season in which Suzuki is on pace to break George Sisler’s season record of 257 hits.

“The last time I was here, I asked [Seattle infielder Scott] Spiezio to ask Ichiro for an autographed bat,” said Washburn, an avid hunter who will start against the Mariners tonight. “The guy who brought the bat over said Ichiro wanted some deer jerky.”

Deer jerky?

“I guess he goes for the in-depth scouting report -- he wants to know every single thing about everybody, even what they do in the off-season,” Washburn said. “Maybe that’s how you break records.”

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Aaron Sele managed to retain his rotation spot despite one of his shakiest outings of the season Saturday night, when the veteran right-hander gave up eight runs -- four earned -- and six hits in 1 2/3 innings of a 13-6 loss to the Chicago White Sox.

Sele gave up seven runs and 10 hits in 3 1/3 innings of his previous start, a 12-7 loss to Boston on Sept. 1, but that didn’t prevent Scioscia from selecting him to start Thursday night’s series finale against the Mariners.