Historic Night at the Safe

It was a long, cold, night in front of the fourth smallest crowd in Safeco Field history, 12,461, as the Mariners blew an 8-1 lead to lose 9-8 to the Cleveland Indians. It was also a game in which a couple of players had career nights, and the Mariners attained their 50,000th hit and 25,000th run in team history.

Indians (4-4)

Brantley CF

Kipnis 2B

Choo RF

Santana C

Hafner DH

Duncan LF

Kotchman 1B

Hannahan 3B

Donald SS

Masterson (1-1,  2.77)

Mariners (6-5)

Figgins LF

Ackley 2B

Ichiro RF

Smoak 1B

Seager 3B

Montero C

Saunders CF

Ryan SS

Jaso DH

Millwood (0-0, 1.50)

There were three ex-Mariners in the starting lineup for Cleveland: Choo, Kotchman, and Hannahan; as well as the son of a former Mariner (Brantley).  The game started out with Millwood in trouble, he gave up a leadoff full count single to Brantley, who ended up stealing second.  Montero was much better than the previous game in making it a close play at second.  He will continue to improve, hopefully.  Millwood got Kipnis and Choo to fly out, but walked Santana and then gave up an RBI single to Hafner.  Just like that, it was 1-0.  The Mariners went down in order in their half of the first,

Nothing truly of note until the third inning, except Smoak got the first of a new career high 4 hits in the 2nd inning, this after the Indians went down in order.  In the top of the third, Smoak got all three putouts, unassisted, broken up by a single by Choo.  Then, in the bottom of the third, our offense started to kick in.  Ryan got a walk with one out, then Jaso hit his first home run as a Mariner to right, putting us ahead 2-1.

In the bottom of the 4th and top of the 5th, 13 runs scored and 23 batters came to the plate.  It lasted around 45-50 minutes and started out epically awesome, followed by total exasperation as we wasted a seven run lead!!!  First, the Mariners.  Smoak lead off with his second single of the game on the first pitch, followed by yet another first pitch single by Seager.  Seager' hit was the 50,000th hit in Mariner history!  Montero swung at the first pitch but flew out to left for the first out.  Saunders got a single off a 3-0 count to right, and the bases were loaded!!!

Ryan, believe it or not, drew a bases loaded walk, his second walk of the game, to force in Smoak.  That run, our third of the game, was the 25,000th run in Mariner history!  In one inning we surpassed two pretty cool milestones.  Everyone was really pumped to see Jaso up with the bases loaded, as he had hit a homer in his first plate appearance.  Well, he got another RBI with his second... by getting hit by the pitch!  So we had loaded the bases and scored two runs via a walk, and a hit batter.  On the next pitch, Figgins got a sacrifice fly to center to score Saunders.  Ackley drew yet another walk, Ichiro got a two rbi single, and we had batted around.  Smoak, in his second at-bat of the inning, got his THIRD single of the game, driving in Ackley.  At this point Masterson was replaced.  Seager then hit a fly ball to left, ending the inning but not before we had pushed across six runs on five hits.  We were up 8-1, and all 12,461 seemed very confident.

The confidence and lead would not last long.  The Indians quickly roared right back with double and a single to start the inning.  Then, on what was a routine double play, Ryan bobbled the ball and couldn't get an out.  You can't assume a double play, but it was as routine as they get.  The runner scored, and instead of two outs with only one run in, there were runners on first and second with nobody out.  You can't give a ML team extra outs, no matter the score.  That was just the window/opportunity Cleveland needed.  It could have been a whole different ballgame if Ryan's head had been in the game.  He's one of the best fielders out there.  Two more singles produced two more runs and it was 8-4 with two runners on with the cleanup hitter at the plate.  He launched a three run homer to right and it was now a run run ballgame, and Millwood's night was over.  They added another run to tie it up.  In total, 13 Indians batted in the 5th inning.  The produced 7 runs on six hits.

It seemed like we were going to quickly answer back, as we got the first two batters on via a walk and an error.  But they were stranded there as Ryan and Jaso struck out swinging, and Figgins.  That was pretty much their last chance until the 9th inning.  In the sixth, Smoak got a broken bat single with two outs, his fourth hit of the night.  All singles, but a career high.  Two were hit to opposite field, and I'm hoping this means he will break out of his early season struggles.  He entered the game batting just .186.

The Indians added a run in the 7th to go up 9-8, but this was never a game in which I felt we had no chance.  In the 9th inning we nearly pulled it out thanks to a wacky play.  After Smoak was retired for the only time of the night, Seager had a fantastic at-bat with a single to right on the eighth pitch.  Montero, on the first pitch, hit what was probably a game ending double play.  However, it took a very strange hop and hit the shortstop in the face, the ball ricocheted to shallow center and Seager was at first.  There were runners at the corners with 1 out.  All we needed was a sacrifice fly, and the ballgame was tied.  Kawasaki came into the game to pinch run for Seager, and Olivo for Montero.  But Saunders was unable to get a deep fly, and there were two out.  Ryan then drew four straight balls and walked for the fourth time in the game.  That is a career high for Ryan too.  Bases loaded!!  But it wasn't to be as Jaso ended the game with a routine fly to right.  And, after 3 hours and 33 minutes, the ballgame was over.

Some promising events occurred, our offense is definitely improved from last year.  We scored 8 freaking runs!  However, it is our pitching that is going to be an issue this year.  Also, we only had one extra base hit the whole game, Jaso's single.  We should and could have broken this thing wide open. I always joke when we score a bunch of runs that we need to "save" some offense for the next game, especially because Vargas is on the mound tomorrow and the Mariners tend to not score much for him.  But, in this case, I wish we hadn't.

I would say that Smoak and Ryan with career highs were the players of the game, but Ryan's 4 walks and two runs didn't make up for his huge mental error in the 5th inning.

Oh, another record was made today but not at the game.  Former Mariner Jamie Moyer, now pitching for the Rockies, won his first game of the year.  He is now the oldest pitcher to ever win a game, at 49 years and 150 days old.  Awesome feat by a man who took the entire 2011 season off to have Tommy John surgery.

Record when I attend: 1-2
The Roof was closed the entire game.