He is GOOD!

I like him, I really like him! Pineda was on the mound again tonight, the second time I've seen him in person. Seeing as how he's a rookie, you expect him to have a troubled outing now and then. 4 starts in and we haven't seen it yet. Sure he's run into a few bad innings here and there, but like all good pitchers he bounces back and makes the adjustments as needed. We saw this again in the second inning when he threw 30 pitches yet got out of the jam after walking the first two batters by striking out the next two and then getting a groundout to first. Then Pineda sat for a long time while the Mariners scored three runs in the 5th... so he had some issues in the top of the 6th but made it through. He now has a quality start in all of his games this year. A quality start is at least six innings with 3 earned runs or less. Still waiting for him to blow up...

As you can see from the picture I had a Gyro ($6.50). This is the first game of the year I scored. I went to Kinko's earlier and made some copies. It was a good game to score, only a few issues with the scoreboard failing to turn over statistics fast enough There were great plays turned in by Figgins in the 4th (sliding catch of a foul ball) and 8th (line drive). Kennedy had another couple of quality defensive plays including throwing out Kouzmanoff at home in the 5th inning, at that point the game was still 1-0. When you have pitchers sharp and dealing, same goes the defense. Both pitching and defense have been outstanding the last two games, and we've had just as much offense as we've needed!

Kennedy continues his hot streak. He led off the 2nd with a single and scored. Then in the 5th he had a 2 RBI single after we had loaded the bases on a single and three straight walks (Cust had walked in a run previous to Kennedy). So Kennedy went 2-4 with 2 RBI and 1 Run scored. Cust's bases loaded walk was his fourth of the season! He has 7 RBI total on the season and 4 have come via a bases loaded walk!

It got a little dicey in the 9th inning... Wright came in and loaded the bases with two consecutive singles and a walk after striking out the first batter. He'd been pretty much lights out this year (his last two appearances he needed only 2 pitches total). So we was pulled and in came Brandon League. The dude scares me, it seemed every time last year he had inherited runners he would have troubles. Well, with the tying run at the plate he picked up his 5th save of the year after inducing pinch hitter Conor Jackson to ground into a game ending double play. Until he proves otherwise on a consistent basis I will always have heart palpitations when he comes in to the game with runners on.

We're now 8-13 on the season and the Mariners are 4-3 when I attend! We've had two shutout wins in a row.

Oh, and since it was Earth Day we all got to take home another bag of dirt!