Undefeated in August

I know, I know... this was the first game of the month.  BUT we cruised to an 8-4 victory thanks to a bases clearing triple by Ackley in the 5 run 2nd inning.  '

Oakland Athletics (49-59)

Weeks 2B
Crisp CF
Matsui DH
Willingham LF
Sweeney RF
Jackson 1B
Pennington SS
Suzuki C
Sizemore 3B

Cahill P

Mariners (45-62)

Ichiro RF
Ryan SS
Ackley 2B
Carp DH
Kennedy 1B
Olivo C
Wells LF
Figgins 3B
Gutierrez CF

However, the game may have been decided in the 1st as Beaven loaded the bases on three straight singles, weird singles, with nobody out.  But he got out of the jam and that was pretty much the only trouble he got into until the 7th.  The first hit was a ricochet off his leg followed by a line drive right over Ryan into center, who was going to 2nd to cover Weeks.  Weeks advanced to 3rd and then Matsui, batting .528 on a 9 game hitting streak, hit to 3B that ended up a single as Figgins tried to tag Weeks.  Stupid choice, Matsui is slow and would have been out.  So, the bases were loaded.  But then rookie pitcher Beavan got the next two batters and called strikes and Jackson ended the inning by flying out to Wells.  If they score there, who knows what happens the rest of the game goes.

We knocked out 16 hits.  Our first was in the first inning, a double by ryan to right field.  In the 2nd inning, after the A's went in order, is when we did our damage.  Olivo flied to center on the first pitch, then Wells, on his first pitch, got a broken bat single right past their 3rd baseman.  It was followed by a Figgins bloop single to left, then a Guti double to right that scored Wells.  Ichiro loaded the bases via a fielder's choice as he hit a chopper right to 3B.  Figgins was looked back to the base and Sizemore couldn't get Ichiro in time on the throw.  Unlike the Athletics in the first, we were able to punch through with the bases juiced.  Ryan picked up an RBI with his single to left and the bases were still loaded.

Which brought up Ackley, coming into the game batting .305 with 5 homers and 20 RBI.  The best hitter on our team since he came up.  The dude is ridiculously good.  He's the best in the majors right now at batting with two strikes, and he didn't disappoint tonight.  On a 1-2 count he lined to RF, but the ball bounced in front of Sweeney and over his glove as he was trying to dive for the ball.  It went all the way to the wall and Ackley had a 3RBI triple.  It is already his 5th triple of the year.  Carp and Kennedy both grounded out to end the inning, but when all the damage was over we had 9 batters, 5 runs, and 5 hits.

We traded Fister and Pauley away on Saturday to Detroit for the new Casper Wells (in the lineup for his second game) as well as Charlie Furbush (P) and a couple of minor leaguers.  We also were able to trade Bedard to Boston on Sunday!  I am sad to see Fister go, I really liked him.  Underrated guy, consistent... his only issue was lack of run support.  Wells ended up getting 2 singles, a run, and was hit by a pitch in his final at-bat.

Figgins was pinch hit for in the 3rd, lots of speculation but it turned out hit hurt his hip flexor diving back to third in the 2nd.  Smoak pinch hit for him in the 3rd and ended up going 2/3 with a walk and two runs scored.  Ended up being a good night on his supposed night off.  Pretty much everyone in our lineup had a good day, only Kennedy failed to reach base.

Ichiro 1-5, R, RBI
Ryan 3-5, 2B, R, RBI
Ackley 2-4, 3B, 3B, BB, R, 3RBI
Carp 1-4, BB,
Kennedy 0-5
Olivo 3-5, RBI
Wells, 2-4, R, HBP
Figgins 1-1, R
Smoak 2-3, 2B, BB, 2R
Gutierrez 1-4, 2B, R, RBI

We added three more runs in three separate innings.  In the 4th Ackley got a double and scored on an Olivo single.  And, in the 5th and 7th Smoak led off each inning with a hit (single and then double) and scored on a wild pitch and soft bloop single by Ichiro.

The attendance was 23.335.  I ate Garlic Chicken and scored the game. The Mariners improved to 11-13 when I attend!

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Same old, same old.  The Mariners had come into this game having dropped six in a row.  Well, let's make it seven as we fell to the AL West leaders Texas Rangers by a final score of 4-0 infront of 30,551 on 2001 116 wins Bobblehead Night.  You know things are bed when you can barely draw 30k on bobblehead night.  We mustered only 2 hits through the first 8 innings against Colby Lewis, and got a token 2 in the ninth.  Our scoreless inning streak now runs 26 innings.

Texas Rangers (52-41)

Kinsler 2B

Andrus SS

Hamilton LF

Beltre 3B

Cruz RF

Moreland 1B

Torrealba C

Chavez CF

Lewis P

Mariners (43-49)

Ichiro RF

Ryan SS

Ackley 2B

Olivo C

Kennedy 1B

Cust DH

Gutierrez CF

Seager 3B

Peguero LF

Fister P

Fister was great as usual, the first three innings he let the leadoff man on each time, who ended up scoring in the first and second to make it 2-0.  Then he retired 15 in a row until the 8th when the Rangers tacked on 2 more.  It didn't matter.  1 run would have done it.  Absolute BULLSHIT!  Where is our fucking offense?   We don't have a singular batter above .300 batting average.

I'm not going to get into this one too much.  Tomorrow is the 2001 celebration with Lou Piniella and players like Charles Gipson, Bret Boone, etc.  MacLemore threw out the first pitch tonight

Ate Garlic Fries, Roof was closed.  Scored.  First time seeing Seager at home.  We are now 9.5 games behind the Rangers.  The Mariners dropped to 10-11 when I attend.

Offense Fails Fister

The big story of the game is in how the only run of the game scored... but if the Mariners had been able to muster a mere TWO RUNS, it wouldn't have mattered.  Instead, Doug Fister picked up a complete game 1-0 loss.

Padres (37-46)

Venable RF

Bartlett SS

Headley 3B

Ludwick DH

Denorfia LF

Phillips C

Maybin CF

Rizzo 1B

Gonzalez 2B

Luebke P

Mariners (40-42)

Ichiro RF

Ryan SS

Gutierrez CF

Smoak 1B

Halman LF

Cust DH

Bard C

Figgins 3B

Wilson 2B

Fister P

Interesting lineup for the Mariners with Gutierrez in at the number 3 slot, obviously to try and get his .192 batting average going.  Wilson was in at 2B because Ackley was out for the second straight game to rest bruised ribs.  Well, with Ichiro, Cust, Figgins, and Wilson in there with the way Guti has struggled and Smoak mired in a slump... we were pretty hopeless.

The only two hits for the Mariners were from Greg Halman, batting 5th.  The kid doesn't play enough!  He was 12/34 (.353) coming into the game and went 2-3 with a double in the 2nd and single in the 5th.  The only other base runner for the Mariners the entire game was Ryan who reached on an error in the 7th.  He stole a base but then ended up being stranded at third.  The Mariners only had 29 total plate appearances, 2 above the minimum.

There were questionable calls by Homeplate Umpire Phil Cuzzi throughout the game.  There were 8 called strikeouts (4 by each team), and in the 5th inning after a "discussion" with Phillips (caught looking) and Manager Bud Black... he let Maybin advance to 1st on a THREE BALL WALK.  I was scoring and thought that I had missed a ball somewhere.  Nope, it was confirmed that there were only three balls in the at-bat.  Why nobody noticed in the Mariners dugout is beyond me.  Unfortunately Maybin ended up coming around on a hard hit single through short... and that was the ballgame!!

Fister didn't deserve this.  He retired the first 11 he faced until giving up two consecutive singles in the 4th.  Then, the phantom walk in the 5th.  He went the distance, maybe was even better than Vargas yesterday, but it didn't matter 'cause his teammates were inept.  His final line:  9 IP, 114 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 7 K .

Needless to say everyone was talking about that walk after the game.  It is one of those fluke things that happens sometimes, and if the Mariners had scored two runs it wouldn't have mattered.  Unfortunately, the baseball gods were not on our side tonight.  I'm just so pissed off at the lack of run support for Fister this year.  His 3-9 record is absolute bullshit!

I ate a Gyro and picked up a Brendan Ryan autographed baseball in their Mariners Care Auction.  The attendance was 22,798.

They dropped to 10-10 when I attend and 40-43 overall.

April 9, 2011

We lost to the Indians, 2-1, which makes it our sixth straight loss after starting the season 2-0.

Well, what can I say... I see very little improvement from last year. In fact, I felt like we had more of an offensive threat in the final few months of the season with Russell Branyan in at DH. Figgins is off to a slow start yet again, although he had two solid hits today, and we're really missing Gutierrez both offensively and defensively. In our six game losing streak we've averaged 2.3 runs per game and have a .202 batting average. That's not gonna do it, not even in the National League

It seems like we make every pitcher look like Cy Young, the newly crowned one Masterson who struck out nine through six. We wasted another fine outing by Doug Fister (love this guy) by committing yet another miscue in the field. On a Sac fly in the 4th, Bradley threw to where he thought was a cutoff man. No such dude, and Fister ended up booting it into the dugout letting another run in. That was the ballgame.

It was frustrating, we had opportunities but couldn't come through. Especially frustrating was Ichiro's AB in the 7th when he floundered with a bunt back to the pitcher with two outs. Obviously his intention was to not hit it back to him, but for a guy who is supposed to be such a master of his craft he screwed up and killed our chances. The dude should have been trying for a hit, not a bunt... and since we've all been told numerous times he can hit a homer whenever he wants, why didn't he? Because he isn't perfect, far from it.

Erg, we need a freaking hitter... or maybe two.

Got Thai (Garlic Beef), they have brown rice as a choice this year but they didn't have any... supposed to arrive this week. Their prices were raised yet again. I went and checked out The Pen a little closer, checking out the food options. There are Tortas, Wood Fired Pizza, Crepes, and Burgers. I think I'll try the Crepes on Monday but unsure if it will be filling enough.

During one of our rallys, an obnoxious kid in the aisle over got up on his seat, turned around, and tried to get "The Wave" going. The Wave is one of the most obnoxious things you can do when your own team is up to bat... very distracting to the fans around you. People started yelling at him and after about 10 attempts he finally got the picture and sat down.

Mariners are now 0-2 when I attend. Next game will be the 11th with King Felix on the mound. I don't go to Sunday games.

Oh, forgot to add that we arrived around 5pm for Felix Cy Young Bobbleheads. The announced attendance was 30,309.