Offense Falters Again

Mariners (38-38)

Ichiro RF

Ryan SS

Kennedy 1B

Olivo C

Ackley 2B

Gutierrez CF

Peguero LF

Figgins 3B

Vargas P

Marlins (33-43)

Bonifacio CF

Infante 2B

Ramirez SS

Stanton RF

Buck C

Helms 3B

Wise LF

Volstad P

When your offense can barely muster 3 runs a game, your margin for error is a slim one.  Your pitchers have to be practically perfect, and even then you may not win.   Tonight, Vargas struggled in the first by giving up three runs on 4 hits, and that was pretty much the ballgame.   We were only able to muster 2 runs on 6 hits.  On the postgame show it was mentioned that when then Mariners score 4 or more runs, they are 25-6.  When they score less than 4, they are 13-33.  Yikes!  It would be interesting to know how other teams compare, seeing as how we are now out of the steroids era.

As you can see Smoak didn't start as he was feeling under the weather, although he did pinch hit in the 7th inning. Volstad, 6'8, held the Mariners to no hits into the 5th inning.   Volstad came into the game with a 2-7 record and 5.65 ERA and we made him look like a genius.  The Mariners had been retired in order until Ichiro reached on an error to lead off the 4th.  He was able to advance to 3rd via a Balk and ground out, but was stranded by Olivo's ground ball to Ramirez.  In the 5th inning, Ackley fouled out to the catcher and Gutierrez grounded out to Ramirez, which brought up Peguero.  On a 2-1 pitch he hit a line drive home run just over the RF fence... it sailed all of 332 feet.  It was almost as fast as the previous line drive homer he hit earlier in the year.  The no-hitter and shutout was over!  But really, waiting until the 5th inning to get a  hit adds too much pressure on the starting pitching.

The Marlins added another run in the bottom of the sixth, which the Mariners answered by hitting three straight singles by Ackley, Gutierrez, and Peguero to load the bases with one out.  Figgins did what he was supposed to and hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Ackley and advance Guti to 3rd.  Pinch hitter Carp came up to bat for Vargas, which forced the Marlins to bring in Choate.  We responded by pinch hitting Smoak for Carp!  In a huge twist during the game, the best case scenario for Florida occurred when Smoak was hit by a pitch on a 1-2 count.  This loaded the bases for Ichiro... but he isn't a threat and he wasn't again tonight when he ended the inning by grounding out to third.  And that was pretty much the ballgame.  There was no more scoring and we lost 4-2.

Pork all gone!

Since there wasn't much to talk about, I will share in more detail what I ate.  My sister and I decided that we wanted to try the combo kettle/caramel corn so we bought that outside for $5.  We then entered the game in The Pen where I picked up a Turkey Crepe, this time without cheese.  The first time I had it I was not impressed, but this time it was really good!  Maybe it was the freshness factor?  I got it for a dollar off, at $7.50, by using the MLB At-Bat phone App.  If you "check-in" to a game they give you daily rewards, always $1 off at some stand.  My sister decided to get pulled pork sandwich, which came with coleslaw and fried onions on top.  It looked really tasty, but I forgot to take a picture until it was too late.  The price was $10.50.

I scored again, and for some reason today I had more difficulty putting scoring the right team at the right time.  I even put the first 4 Marlins on the Visitors side! The attendance was 16,896, the roof was open and it was a very quick game, just 2:10

They dropped to 9-8 when I attend and back under .500 at 38-39.  Because the Angels won, we are now in 3rd place at 2.5 games behind Texas and .5 games behind the Angels.  We're struggling right now, we need some offense!!  This was the 6th game I'd seen Vargas pitch and the Mariners are 1-5 in those games.  Yikes!