Indians (5-4)
Donald SS
Kipnis 2B
Choo RF
Santana C
Hafner DH
Duncan LF
Lopez 3B
Kotchman 1B
Cunningham CF
Lowe (2-0, 1.98)
Mariners (6-6)
Figgins LF
Ackley 1B
Ichiro RF
Montero DH
Seager 3B
Saunders CF
Olivo C
Kawasaki 2B
Ryan SS
Vargas (1-1, 3.44)
The story of the game was the first inning and Vargas. Vargas went 7 strong innings, striking out seven while he gave up just one run on four hits. The home plate umpire, Angel Campos, seemed to have a strange strike zone as there were a lot of called strikeouts, including two back-to-back by the Indians in the 4th. Vargas struck out the side in that inning, he's not known for striking guys out. He was really only in trouble one inning, when he loaded the bases in the 6th inning. But, by that time he was up 4-1, and he was able to wiggle out of the jam.
Figgins gets my pick for offensive player of the game, he lead off the first inning by hitting the seventh leadoff home run of his career, first as a Mariner. It was also the first leadoff homer by a Mariner other than Ichiro since 2000, when Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson went yard. Figgins has been a "new and improved" player. The home run was on the 8th pitch of the at-bat. He also had a single and a walk, and broke up a double play with a fantastic slide. As soon as we signed him a couple of years ago I was thrilled we finally had a real leadoff hitter, for some reason they kept Ichiro in that spot and our team suffered for it.
Not to be outdone, Ichiro hit a homer run of his own just four pitches later. It was almost as if he wouldn't let Figgins "show him up". Everyone has always claimed Ichiro can hit a home run whenever he wants to, I guess this was proof. Then why doesn't he do it more often? Seager added a double, and Saunders a single in the rest of the first but we were unable to score. We added our third run in the second inning after loading the bases with two outs. Montero then drew a four pitch walk to score Ryan from third!
The Indians scored their only run in the third inning, Cunningham led off the inning with launched double to left that hit off the yellow line, right next to the hand operated scoreboard. Manny Acta, the Indians' Manager, came out to argue with the third base umpire after which all four gathered together then jogged into the bowels of Safeco for an instant replay. I HATE instant replay. It has no place is baseball, and umpires are correct 95-99% of the time. If it had gone over the wall, it would have sounded differently, and it would have bounced back differently. Also, the bullpen had no reaction, they knew it was a double. About two minutes later and the call was confirmed. A waste of time. NO PLACE IN BASEBALL! A sacrifice bunt pushed Cunningham to third and he scored on a sacrifice fly by Kipnis. And, that was their offense until the sixth inning. The Mariners added another run in the 4th after Ryan walked, followed by consecutive singles.
Kawasaki is fun to watch, just because he exudes absolute joy. You can tell he loves the game, and is very generous with the fans. He had a walk in the bottom of the third and after a pick off attempt he did a pushup at first, then was caught stealing. It is weird watching him because the swing is EXACTLY like Ichiro's.
Ackley had his first ML start at first base as Smoak was out with a tight hamstring.
It is a shame more people aren't going to games, they are a lot more enjoyable to watch this year. I looked around about the third inning and wondered when we had turned into Oakland, I also thought back to the Kingdome days, but at least then we were covered and warm! The smallest crowd ever was actually an away game vs the Marlins last year, but tonight counted as the smallest home crowd.
Record when I attend: 2-2
Attendance: 11,343
Time of Game: 2:47
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