I'm Back!

It has been a long time, and since I've been at a game the Mariners have totally turned things around and have been at or above .500 for a couple of weeks. They've called up some young kids like Halman and Carp, and have been a blast to watch. I completely missed the last homestand, as I ruptured my disc and was flat on my back. I was able to watch them go 7-3, and wished I could have been there. So this will totally change my total game projection. Tonight was only my 13th of the year, our 34th home game. I'm guessing I will have a hard time making it to more than 40 games this year... I'd have to go on quite a tear. Sad, but overall health is more important! Coming into tonight's game we were 34-32 and only a game and a half behind Texas, solidly in 2nd place 3.5 games above the Angels, our opponent tonight. The last game I went to we were 19-24!!

Also, I turned 30 and got an AWESOME gift from one of my sisters of 5 scorebooks (they are the same as my very first!). This should last me years. I scored my first game in my new scorebook, and only second game of the year, tonight. It was exciting to score again. Unfortunately tonight resulted in a 6-3 loss. It was a much closer game than that.

We entered into this game 1.5 behind Texas and 3.5 games up on the Angels, Texas had an off day so we had a chance to gain a game on the Angels and a half game on the Rangers. Unfortunately, we couldn't pull it out. We had chances, we were in this game... but with a KEY play in the 5th inning the game opened up and we just couldn't get back into it has hard as we tried. When you give major league teams extra outs, you're bound to pay for it.

Ichiro has been struggling mightily at the plate and in the field this year... something that for me is nice to see because finally people have woken up to his flaws. He came into the game batting only .258 with a .311 on base percentage. Absolutely pathetic.

The Lineups

Maicer Izturis 3B
Torii Hunter RF
Bobby Abreu DH
Vernon Wells LF
Howie Kendrick 2B
Erick Aybar SS
Mark Trumbo 1B
Peter Bourjos CF
Jeff Mathis C
Dan Haren P


Ichiro RF
Brendan Ryan SS
Justin Smoak 1B
Adam Kennedy 2B
Miguel Olivo C
Carlos Peguero LF
Franklin Gutierrez CF
Mike Carp DH
Chone Figgins 3B
Jason Vargas P

I'm not going to get too much into specifics, due to the fact it is currently past 11pm and I'm exhausted. However, I will mention a few things. The Scoreboard

1 X 1 X X X 3 X 1 6 8 1 - Angels
1 1 X X 1 X X X X 3 8 2 - Mariners

As you can see... the Mariners had the lead into the sixth inning, which is when, with Mathis on 3rd and one out, Figgins fielded a grounder and threw home. Mathis was dead to rights, and would have been the second out of the inning, but Olivo could not hold on to the damn ball. Mathis scored, there was only one out... and two batters later Vernon Wells hit his 2nd Homer of the game (with Hunter on via the FC). Wells came into the game batting a mere .189 with only 4 HR on the year, and the Angels only had 2 TOTAL HR in the month of June coming into the game. This defensive lapse by Olivo was the decisive play of the game, in my opinion. He stunk it up at the plate too. He has 10 HR, leading all AL catchers... but the catching aspect is more important than hitting. I will continue to ride him on his "defense" until I see solid play.

Then, in the 9th inning a balk led to an insurance run... and suddenly it seemed hopeless. We went down in order in the 9th, including the 3rd K of the game by Mike Carp (he didn't have a good game, in his 1st AB he ground into a double play)

One thing I wanted to make sure I mentioned... in the 4th inning Peguero had an impressive AB. While it ended in a strike out, he had several powerful foul balls including one in which the broken barrel of the bat ended up at least 150 feet from home plate into shallow RF. It went further than the ball. He is a strong man, without a doubt.

Oh, can't forget Pauley. He threw another scoreless inning in the 8th. He has given up only 4 ER the ENTIRE YEAR, the best in the AL. The dude has been lights out, and at this point deserves to be an All-Star

I had a Baked Potato for $7.75 and then my sister (she had nachos) went and got us some cookies in the 5th inning. There were 8 mini cookies for $3.50, which seems like a good deal!

The attendance was 20,238.

The Mariners dropped to 7-6 when I attend and 34-33 overall.