Felix With 5th Complete Game

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!  What a way to end the month of August.  Carp tied the Mariners rookie mark for RBIs in a month, Felix passed Jamie Moyer for 2nd on the strike out list (trailing only Randy Johnson) as well as passed 200 strike outs in a season for the third year in a row.  This game had it all, fantastic defense, pitching, clutch hitting, and a come from behind 2-1 win.

Angels  (73-62)

Aybar SS

Kendrick 2B

Hunter RF

Trumbo 1B

Callaspo 3B

Bourjos CF

Trout LF

Mathis C

Haren P

Mariners (57-77)

Ichiro DH

Gutierrez CF

Ackley 2B

Carp 1B

Olivo C

Seager 3B

Wells RF

Ryan SS

Robinson LF

Hernandez P

With Felix and Haren on the mound, we knew it had the potential to be a great game.  When both pitchers are on, they're ON.  As with the majority of fantastic pitchers, you have to hit them in the first couple of innings or it will be a long night.

Haren gave up a walk in the first and a double in the second... which was followed by retiring the next 15 batters until a single by Carp in the 7th inning.  It was an inning in which we loaded the bases but weren't able to break out for a run. 

At that point we were trailing 1-0 thanks to a leadoff broken bat single by the speedy Trout in the 3rd who came around on another single by Kendrick after advancing to second base on a sac bunt.  The single by Kendrick followed Felix's 3rd strikeout in the game, Aybar, which made him pass Jamie Moyer to the number 2 position on career strikeouts at 1,240.  He ended up with another 6 on the night.

Felix wasn't perfect, but he was definitely sharp.  At one point, from the 4th to the 8th inning, he retired 12 in a row.  His final line:  9 IP, 109 P, 5H, 1 R, 9 K, 1 BB

So here Felix is, pitching his ass off again and looking at another complete game loss.  We got to Haren in the 7th but were unable to score.  Needless to say, I was less than confident with Robinson and Ichiro up 1 and 2 in the order in the top of the 8th.  As predicted, neither produced.  But Gutierrez, having refound his stroke in the month of August, got a single up the middle and WE WERE ALIVE!  Ackley quickly followed with a single of his own and we had runners at the corners.  All we needed was a single to tie or a well placed double to put us ahead.  Carp came up to the plate, needing those two RBI sitting on the bases to tie Danny Tartabull in 1986 for most RBIs by a Mariners rookie in any month (25).

After a pitching change in which Haren was pulled, on a 2-1 pitch Caro smoked it... and I mean smoked, to left center which got past Bourjos for a double that scored both runners!  The crowd went nuts.  Carp had tied the rookie record, we were up 2-1, and with the way Felix was pitching there was no doubt he wouldn't come out to complete the game.  To the roar of the crowd, he came trotting back out to the 9th and retired the first two batters via strikeouts.  Then, Trumbo took a 1-1 pitch deep to RF, but thankfully it was grabbed at the warning track for the final out.  Everyone went home happy and pumped up from the excitement.

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