Mariners fire hitting coach; hire Ex-Cub Elia

TORONTO -- The slumping Seattle Mariners fired hitting coach Jeff Pentland on Monday and replaced him with special assistant Lee Elia.

Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi said he hoped a "different voice" would help the team with the worst record in the majors. Elia, who turns 71 next month, was Seattle's batting coach from 1993-97 and is perhaps best known for a tirade he once unleashed as manager of the Chicago Cubs.

Elia will handle Pentland's duties during the Mariners' three-game series at Toronto that started Monday night.

Seattle made the move less than a week after team president Chuck Armstrong ripped into the coaching staff. Expected to be contenders in the AL West, the Mariners began the day at 22-41. They have scored two or fewer runs in 20 games.

The Mariners were next-to-last in hitting in the AL at .248 and were last in the majors in on-base percentage (.305).

Out of the playoffs since 2001, the Mariners lost 2-1 at Boston on Sunday, their sixth defeat in seven games.

The 61-year-old Pentland was in his third season as Seattle's hitting coach. He was the only holdover from 2007 when the Mariners overhauled their seven-man coaching staff.

"Jeff has an excellent and proven track record, and those of us who have worked with him are well aware he knows hitting," Bavasi said. "Unfortunately, we have consistently, and for an extended period, underperformed at the plate and we are hopeful that a different voice might help the situation."

Elia is in his 47th season of professional baseball. He was a part-time special assistant to manager John McLaren and was in uniform as an instructor during spring training.

The former manager of the Cubs (1982-83) and Philadelphia Phillies (1987-88) was at home in Florida during the parts of this season that he wasn't with the Mariners.