Noesi Loses 1-0 as Offense Fails Again

Yikes... Noesi went 8 strong innings and gave up the only run of the game via a leadoff homer in the 7th.  Unfortunately his teammates had plenty of opportunities to score yet couldn't capitalize.  We have yet to win since the combined no-hitter.

Padres (21-41)

Venable RF

Cabrera SS

Headley 3B

Quentin DH

Kotsay LF

Alonso 1B

Maybin CF

Hundley C

Amarista DH

Marquis (0-1, 3.00)

Mariners (27-36)

Ichiro RF

Ackley 2B

Seager 3B

Montero C

Smoak 1B

Saunders CF

Jaso DH

Wells LF

Kawasaki SS

Noesi (2-6, 5.99)

As stated above, Noesi pitched a fine game with one mistake, and that was the ballgame as we lost 1-0.  We had some opportunities, eight hits and four walks, but we just couldn't get that clutch hit when he needed to.  Montero had a huge base running blunder in the 3nd after leading off with a single and advancing to 2nd on a Smoak walk.  Saunders hit a line drive to left, and for some reason Montero didn't notice what was going on, and he was doubled off second.  No chance was that ball dropping in.  To top it off, the very next pitch was a wild one advancing Smoak to second.  We could have had runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out!  Montero's young, but that's no excuse.

Smoak hit a ball deep to center in the 6th which was hauled in at the warning track.  After what happened yesterday in which he hit two very long fly balls... he was visibly irritated and slammed his helmet to the ground.   The very next batter of the game, Kotsay, hit a homer to right field.  And that was the ballgame.  It was pretty funny.  It was almost as if... "Hey Smoak, watch me, this is how you hit a homer at Safeco".

I guess the biggest news of the day is that there were several players moved today. Gutierrez was picked up from the DL, Carp and Pryor both placed on the DL, Liddi and Beavan sent down to AAA, and Delabar, Wells, and Ramirez recalled from AAA.  Good to see Wells back, and especially Gutierrez who has been bothered by injuries the last couple of years.  I hope he can return to form soon.  He wasn't in the lineup tonight, but should be tomorrow.

I've decided to make a change to the blog, it is getting to be too much to get so detailed.  Plus I get behind, as I'm writing this it is actually June 21st and they have an off-day in San Diego.

The Mariners are now 7-10 when I attend and have been shut out 3 times.
Attendance: 13,931
Time of Game: 2:46

Mariners Come Alive Too Late as Felix Struggles

Felix made his first start in 11 days after straining his back in his last start.  He continued his struggles of the last few weeks as he gave up 5 runs on 9 hits, and his offense gave him only 1 run. They scored three in the bottom of the ninth inning to make the final score 5-4, but it was too little too late.

Padres (20-41)

Venable RF

Forsythe 2B

Headley 3B

Quentin DH

Alonso 1B

Denorfia LF

Maybin CF

Hundley C

Cabrera SS

Richard (2-7, 4.58)

Mariners (27-35)

Ichiro RF

Ackley 2B

Montero DH

Seager 3B

Smoak 1B

Olivo C

Saunders CF

Figgins LF

Ryan SS

Hernandez (4-4, 3.42)

I'm hoping he can chalk this start up to being rusty, and not that Felix has lost it.  He was in trouble from the very beginning and didn't retire a side safely until the 5th inning.  The very first pitch was a bunt base hit by Venable. They caught him stealing, but Felix then proceeded to give a two out walk  an then hit a batter.  Thankfully he was able to get out of the jam with no damage.  The Padres got their lead batter on in each of the first four innings.  Denorfia singled in the 2nd, but Felix was able to get a double play and got out of the inning.  Unfortunately, he walked the leadoff guy in the 3rd, Cabrera, who ended up scoring on a two out single for the first run of the game.

Saunders was the first base runner for the Mariners in the third, but was doubled up on a Figgins grounder.  We scored our only run, until the ninth inning, thanks to a broken back single by Ichiro, Ackley single, then Seager ground out.  

Felix gave up 4 runs in his final inning.  He gave up a leadoff walk, then a bloop single that fell in-between Figgins and Ryan.  In fact it hit Ryan's glove, but he was trying to make an amazing over the shoulder "Will Mays" basket catch and just ran out of room.  Denorfia then hit into a fielder's choice to make runners on 1st and 2nd with one out.  Felix then gave up 2 consecutive singles then a "wild pitch" .  The ball hit the dirt before it crossed the plate.  Really, though, that was on Olivo.  He is a fucking catcher and needs to BLOCK THE DAMN PLATE.  Cabrera followed it up with an RBI single to make it - with one out.  He was then picked off of third, and Venable struck out on the next pitch to end the damage.1

Saunders had a fantastic games, 3-4 on the night and some nifty base running.   He almost had a grand slam in the sixth but hit the ball to deep left center and only made it to the warning track.  In the 5th he had a double down the left field line and then immediately stole third on the next pitch.  After Figgins was caught looking and Ryan walked, Ichiro ground to third to end the inning.  Until the 9th, our best opportunity to score was the sixth inning when we loaded the bases on three singles.  But, Saunders didn't quite get enough of the pitch.  He did, however, in the 9th inning.  With 1 out, down 5-1, he LAUNCHED a homer to deep center, and estimated 428 feet, for his 7th home run of the year.  Figgins then doubled, followed by pinch hitter Kawasaki who singled in Figgins to make it 5-3.  Ichiro singled on the next pitch to make it runners on 1st and 3rd with 1 out, and the winning run at the plate in Ackley.  He struck out, but the ball got past the catcher and Kawasaki scored to make it a 5-4 game.  Montero ground out to end the ballgame.  There was some excitement at the end, but unfortunately it was too late.  We had all kind of opportunities, and need to eventually break through on a consistent basis.  Felix can't be perfect every time.

Stephen Pryor, injured himself in the 9th inning, looks like a pulled groin.  Hopefully he isn't out too long.

The Mariners are now 7-9 when I attend

Attendance: 13,084

Time of Game: 3:02

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.

Vargas Goes the Distance

Well that was refreshing to see!  As I had stated in a previous post, the Mariners were 1-5 in games I attended that were started by Vargas.  Most of those losses were because of our inept offense.  Well, tonight we had hitting up and down the lineup and over multiple innings!!!  Hell, we even scored in the first as we beat the Padres 6-0 on Turn Back the Clock Night (to 1984).

Padres (37-45)

Denorfia RF

Bartlett SS

Headley 3B

Ludwick LF

Guzman DH

Maybin CF

Hudson 2B

Rizzo 1B

Hundley C

Moseley P

Mariners (39-42)

Ichiro RF

Ryan SS

Kennedy 2B

Smoak 1B

Cust DH

Peguero LF

Gutierrez CF

Bard C

Figgins 3B

Vargas P

Vargas was Efficient and effective tonight, the very first pitch he got an out, and started the game retiring 13 of the first 14 batters he faced. The six hits he allowed were scattered throughout the game and he never seemed to run into trouble.  He just quietly mowed them down.  There were some fantastic defensive plays, including a line drive to Figgins and a potential hit into a leaping, stretching grab by Ryan in the la tter innings.  I don't think I've ever seen someone snag a ball quite like that.

His final line... 9 IP, 106 pitches, 6 H, 7 K, 0 BB to improve to 6-5 with a 3.57 ERA.

I wanted to look back at the six previous starts I'd seen him pitch to look at overall performance.  I recall a couple of bad ones but mostly outstanding ones with a lack of run support.  So in the previous 6 games 2 were quality starts.  The Mariners scored a total of 12 runs  those 5 losses which is 2.4 runs per loss. In the 2 wins, the Mariners have scored 9 runs which is 4.5 runs scored per game.  However, he has shut out the opponents in those two wins for a 0.00 ERA.  Basically, he has to be perfect to win.  That, is a shame. In only 2 of the games has he not pitched 6 or more innings.

Apr 8, L (0-1) 12-3, 63 P, 3.1 IP, 7 R, 9 H, 1K, 0 BB

Apr 18, L 8-3, 114 P, 6 IP, 2 R, 6 H, 4K, 2 BB (QS)

Apr 23 L (0-2) 9-1, 100 P, 5+ IP, 6 R, 6 H, 3K, 3 BB

May 18 W (3-2) 3-0, 115 P, 7 IP, 0 R,  4 H, 9K, 2 BB (QS)

Jun 13 L (4-4) 6-3, 108 P, 7 IP, 5 R, 6 H, 6 K, 2 BB

Jun 25 L (5-5) 4-2, 87 P, 6 IP, 4 R, 8 H, 4 K, 2 BB

Our lineup had contributions tonight from pretty much everyone in the order.  Everyone reached base, although Ichiro only through a fielder's choice.  We scored 1 in the 1st, 3 in the 3rd, and 1 more in both the 5th and 6th innings.  Jack Cust had his 6th bases loaded BB in the 3rd, his 6th of the year to tie John Olerud for all-time in a season.  Smoak snapped an 0-22 slump.

Ichiro 0-5, 1 R

Ryan 2-4, 2 R, 2B, SB, BB

Kennedy 2-4, 1 R, 2B, BB, 2 RBI

Smoak 1-3, 2 R, 2B, BB

Cust 1-2, 2B, 2 BB, 2 RBI

Peguero 1-4, 2 RBI

Gutierrez 0-3, 1 BB

Bard 1-4

Figgins 1-4, SB

As you can see Ryan had another solid night.  The more I see, the more I like.  He struggled early on in the year but the dude is just a solid ballplayer.  He hustles, has a great attitude, and produces at the plate.  Kennedy has been our most consistent batter of the year, but he's 35ish and would be a number 7 or 8 hitter in any other lineup.  Hell, he'd probably be the backup infielder!  But, he's still out there practically every day and continues to produce.  Our unsung hero of the first half, without a doubt.  Cust seems to be producing the last few games, but is still only batting .222 on the season!

Attendance was 23,616, I didn't score for the first time in awhile.  Ate Pep Pizza and Garlic Fries.  Bro in Law had some beer, pizza, and a pretzel.  Oh, we munched on some peanuts too and had a good time.  It was an interesting game with clutch hitting, great defense, and masterful pitching by Vargas.

Improved to 10-9 when I attend and  40-42 overall.  We remain 3.5 games back of Texas in 3rd place.