"If only Jack Cust could feel as centered at spring training as a pair of his home run blasts looked the other day.

Cust knows he's starting to get the timing down on his swing when his long balls fly out to dead-center or the opposite way to left-center. And that's what happened against the Texas Rangers on Saturday, though Cust admits that spring training is usually the last place he's able to feel truly comfortable.

"I usually don't feel comfortable at spring training," Cust said. "There's too much stuff going on. Too much down time when we aren't hitting. You're standing in the field a lot. There's too much time to tinker with stuff and when I do that, it tends to mess me up."

Cust continued to swing a hot bat in the first inning of a 4-1 win over the San Diego Padres on Sunday, driving home Chone Figgins with a single to right off Padres left-hander Wade LeBlanc. The hit off a southpaw was big, since the Mariners are hoping to give the left-handed-hitting Cust the majority of designated hitter at-bats this season against both righties and lefties.

But later in the same contest, Cust also showed part of the downside to his game by striking out his next three times up. He has struck out a team-high 18 times in just 44 at-bats.

The Mariners can live with Cust's feast-or-famine results at the plate if he keeps his power numbers up and manages an on-base percentage around his career .378 mark. He's nowhere near that in Cactus League play, checking in at .328 to start Sunday's game, but as Cust says, he has never been much of a spring training performer.

It's only in recent seasons that Cust grew comfortable with the DH role to begin with. He used to prefer playing left field because his numbers were better when he could keep his head constantly in the game."