Felix Goes the Distance, M's Win Again!

I've been a bit sick this homestand, tonight was the first game I'd been to. Since the last game, they had gone 7-3 (including 5-1 on roadtrip) to enter the game at 15-17 and just three games behind Anaheim for the AL West lead. Okay, I know they are the LA Angels of Anaheim but sorry... they're not in Los Angeles! I can't believe I'm saying it but we are now 16-17!! Who would have thought!

Let's talk about this game, it had a little of everything. My sister said "I've never seen that before" when referring to the 4th inning blunder by Jack Wilson. With a runner on first and no out, Ramirez sacrificed with a bunt up the first base line, but it turned into a base hit when Olivo picked it up and found no one covering first... which should have been the second baseman as Smoak was charging for the ball as well. This turned into a huge mistake as there should have been one out and instead runners on 1st and 2nd. Pierre, on 2nd, ended up coming around to score the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly which should have been the third out of the inning.

In the 8th We had a rundown! A runner was caught off third after taking too large of a lead on a groundball to the shortstop Ryan, who made a heads up play and threw to third. After a couple of throws the runner was out and it provided a lot of excitement 'cause at that point we were still tied.

There was a Bradley ejection in the 8th, he got into the face of the HP umpire on a called third strike as Figgins slid into third with a steal. Konerko had earlier had a few words, but Milton was tossed and Wedge had to run out and hold him back from the umpire or he would have been facing a suspension. He waved the bat around a little. That was exciting but was lacking in the fun of those classic Lou moments when he would kick dirt, toss his hat etc.

Felix was outstanding, went 9 innings on 5 hits and just 2 runs (1 shouldn't have happened). His last out he was so fired up, my sister commented that she had never seen him that excited, that he is usually so calm. Oh no, he gets excited... and tonight was the perfect example. He picked up his 4th win of the year already.

Brendan Ryan had the game winning hit up the middle with pinch runner Kennedy on 3rd. The bench emptied and the crowd went wild, we had won the game 3-2! He had come into the game on an 1-23 slump, so this was a huge hit for him. He also had our first hit, a double, earlier in the game.

Smoak continues to impress me... since coming back from the bereavement list he has hit .353 with 3 HR, 13 RBI and OPS of 1.127. He had another good game with a key 2B, RBI, and a BB.

Ichiro Bobblehead night, annoying! But, over 31,000 fans got to see a great, entertaining ballgame. My sister and I both got pizza (Pepperoni) from The Pen and enjoyed it, but we both agreed that it wasn't enough food as we were still hungry. An annoying aspect was that I asked for the white pizza but five minutes later it still wasn't ready, and I was starving so I gave up. About halfway through the game we got some Kettle Corn ($4.75) which was decent, but the stuff outside is cheaper and better!! We had fun and she reported that it was her third game this year already, which was more than all of last year. No Dancing Grounds Crew today, but they did do YMCA early in the game which I hadn't seen in a long time. Some famous skater dude named Rob Dyrdek threw out the first pitch and my sister tried to get his autograph but the line was too long.

This will probably be my only game of the homestand since I am under the weather and need to fully recover. However, I do feel the fresh air and great game helped me out. I will see, it will be very tempting to sacrifice my health since we're one win from .500! At one point we were 4-11.

Oh, the roof was closed and they wore those ugly teal tops as you can see in the celebration picture up top.

The Mariners are now 5-4 when I attend!