Pineda Goes Eight

Royals (60-86)

Gordon, LF

Cabrera, CF

Butler, DH

Hosmer, 1B

Francoeur, RF

Moustakas, 3B

Perez, C

Getz, 2B

Escobar, SS

Paulino (2-10, 4.60)

Mariners (61-83)

Ichiro, RF

Ryan, SS

Ackley, 2B

Carp, LF

Smoak, 1B

Kennedy, DH

Olivo, C

Seager, 3B

Saunders, CF

Pineda (9-9, 3.74)

Pineda went a season high 8 innings, but the first inning did him in.  He only had 14 pitches, and it lasted around 4 minutes... but the three runs the Royals quickly scored were all they needed as the Royals won 4-2.  Gordon lead off with a double to right, advanced to third on a groundout, then scored easily on a fielder's choice by Butler.  Hosmer then hit a two run homer to left field and just like that it was 3-0 before the Mariners were up.  Pineda pretty much sailed the rest of the way, scattering a few hits.  Like most good pitchers, the first inning was the key.  Felix has learned how to stay focused a lot better now, Pineda will too.  Hard to remember that this is still his first year.  He has a lot of promise.  So it was another quality start, for naught.

The only offensive highlights for the home team were two homers by Smoak and Carp (2nd and 4th innings).  They Mariners struck out 16 times and only had two hits, the solo shots.  They got on base two other times via a walk and an error but only had 29 total at bats, two above the minimum. Such a shame, another team and Pineda probably would have at least escaped with a no-decision instead of his 10th loss of the year.

On a funny note, when I went down to my seats at about 20 minutes before the game started a woman said she had reported my backpack to the ushers because I had left it unattended.  What a paranoid woman!  I told her that I've been doing this since I was a kid and that a lot of people do it.  I went up to tell the ushers in case they had called security and they all rolled their eyes and laughed about it.

Torta and Fries
Att: 17,884
16-18 when I attend

Mariners Shut Out

Not much to say with this one, Danks went the whole way and we were shut out 3-0.  The higlight of the game was in the ceremonial pitch as Larry Bernandez (Felix Hernandez's commercial alter ego) threw out the first pitch.  It was Larry Bernandez bobblehead night.

White Sox

Pierre LF

De Aza RF

Konerko DH

Ramierez SS

Dunn 1B

Lillibridge CF

Flowers C

Morel 3B

Beckham 2B

Danks P

Mariners

Ichiro RF

Gutierrez CF

Ackley 2B

Carp 1B

Olivo C

Wells LF

Pena DH

Seager 3B

Ryan SS

Pineda P

Pineda retired the first 9 in order, then go into trouble in the 4th as Pierre led off with a high chopper of an infield hit.  Followed by two consecutive singles and then a sac fly, and we were down 2-0.  That's all Danks needed, but they added another in the 8th on a solo homer. The Mariners were only able to muster three hits and 1 walk, striking out 10 times.  At least the game was only 2 hours and 9 minutes, so it was over quickly.

Burger, Att 30,522

The Mariners fell to 13-16 when I attend

Homer Happy

Well it was a night of launched rockets with the Blue Jays in town in front of 28,530 fans, which seemed to be half Blue Jays fans.  I called them Stealth 'cause it is very unlike the Red Sox fans when you can definitely see the RED stand out.  Well, it was nice to get them to go quiet later in the game as the Mariners came back and went ahead for good in the 8th inning.

Blue Jays (61-59)

Escobar SS

Thames LF

Bautista RF

Lind 1B

Encarnacion DH

Rasmus CF

Lawrie 3B

Hill 2B

Arencibia C

Alvarez P

Mariners (52-67)

Ichiro RF

Gutierrez CF

Ackley 2B

Carp 1B

Wells DH

Olivo C

Robinson LF

Seager 3B

Wilson SS

Pineda P

Pineda definitely wasn't the sharpest we have seen him.  He gave up three homers, none to league leader Bautista (34), but the real problem was all the walks, 5, in just 5 innings.  He walked the leadoff batter of the game and on the next pitch, Thames launched a homer to right that traveled 357 feet.  It was nearly the same thing in the 3rd inning, except the leadoff batter grounded out to second.  Bautista walked and then on a 1-0 pitch Lind hit a two run homer himself.  In the 4th, Lawrie lead off with a 1-0 homer to left that went 409 feet that put them up 5-4, the score held until the 8th inning.

The Mariners got three in the 2nd to go up 3-2.  Wells lead off the inning by being plunked on the back.  Then, after Olivo Flied out to right, Trayvon Robinson (rookie acquired in one of the deadline trades) hit a solid ball to left that the fielder just got a hand on, but couldn't pull in.  He ended up with an rbi double and it could have maybe been a triple!  On the night, Trayvon had 2 hits (2 2B), and RBI, and run scored.  In only his second big league game last week, he went into the stands to bring back a home run.  Seager then walked, and Jack Wilson got an rbi single advancing Seager to third.  Wilson advanced to 2nd on the attempt at home with heads up base running   So with 1 out and runners on second and third up came the "mighty" Ichiro.  I was pleasantly surprised that he actually produced with runners on, by getting a sac fly to left. Guti then flew out to right. Guti continues his hot streak, extending his hit streak to 8 games with a first inning double.

The Blue Jays went ahead in the top of the third with their 2nd homer... and then in the bottom of third up came Carp. He had entered the game with a 14 game hitting streak, and for some reason I felt like he was going to knock it out.  Sure enough, on a 1-1 count he launched a solo shot to Left Center for 416 feet, and the ballgame was tied!  He hit another game tying solo shot to right in the 8th inning.  After a pitching change, in came Wells who was not to be outdone, and hit the game winning homer to left.  Back to back homers sure are fun to see!  It was a back and forth night, and boy am I glad I stayed.  At one point it was looking like it would be a 3.5 hour game.

League then came in and nailed down his 30th save.  The win went to rookie Wilhelmsen, the first of his career.

The Mariners are now 13-13 when I attend, and are now out of last place in the AL West, having overtaken Oakland.

Brisket.

On a side note, congrats go out to Jim Thome for launching two homers himself today, the second of which was career #600.  He is only the 5th player to ever hit more than 600.  Bonds, Sosa, and Rodriguez do not count as they have all been accused of or have admitted to using performance enhancing drugs.

Three Peat

Wow, so much to talk about on this one. Since the last game I went to, the Mariners had gone 0-6 coming into the game including a disaster of a road trip in which they lost 4 out of the 5 games the final AB.... and 2 rain outs in Cleveland. The Twins came into the game having lost 8 in a row and the worst team in baseball. Someone had to win, I'm glad it was us... although we tried to make it interesting in the top of the ninth!

Pineda was scheduled to start yesterday but because of the postponement he was pushed back to today and Felix to tomorrow. It didn't faze him, in fact he had no-no type stuff through 2.2 innings. I was just starting to regret not bringing my scorebook when he gave up a single in the third. Overall he gave up three hits and hit a batter while striking out seven in 7 innings. The dude's composure is well behind his years. I keep waiting for him to falter, it will happen eventually, but right now he sure is fun to watch and brings excitement to the ballpark. As the late, great Niehaus said "DIABOLICAL!"

The only trouble he got into was in the sixth inning, through no fault of his own. With two out Luis Rodriguez committed and error, one of three in the game, which was followed by a single by Kubel (who sucks defensively, by the way) and then hit Morneau to load the bases. At that point it was a two run game after we'd scored single runs in the 1st and 3rd innings. But Pineda gathered himself and got Cuddyer to hit into a Fielder's Choice. The game was pretty much over at that point... all that was in his way from a win was our bullpen (at least League was sitting after blowing four consecutive outings... first time in Mariners history for a relief pitcher, by the way). It was our defense that almost failed us...

We got some insurance runs in the bottom of the 6th that we ended up needing, with the first back to back homers of the year for the Mariners by Kennedy and Peguero. It was Peguero's 2nd HR of his career. The first was Friday in Cleveland (which was last official game) so he has hit them in two consecutive games. I have never seen a homer like Peguero's... it was literally a line drive straight over the fence. It would have kept going if not for the stands. Kennedy also had a sacrifice in the 8th inning to make it 5-0. I won't mention his error in the 9th, it was a routine dribbler to him just a few few off of first (a little league play) and he simply bobbled it. Could have been because he had just moved over there due to Smoak being pulled for precautionary reasons?

Anyway, we almost threw the 9th away with two errors, the other was by Figgins which should have resulted in a game ending double play. They scored two runs but we hung on and ended our losing streak. Sure hope we can put together something on this homestand, tomorrow we're going for the sweep in the short two games series.

One annoying note, the radio was 5 seconds behind the action for the first five innings... which was REALLY weird and kind of off putting. Eventually it was fixed.

Attendance was 14,859 with the roof "extended" before the first pitch. The giveaway was yet another "bag of dirt", which means I now have three. I found out that you could "check-in" at Safeco and receive deals/specials so I was intrigued. I downloaded the free MLB at-bat application for my cellphone and used it for the first time tonight. The free version is sort of lacking in features but I was able to get $2 off a Torta. So I only paid $6.50 which is pretty good for ballpark fare. Too bad the torta still isn't that great.

The Mariners are Now 6-4 when I attend and are 17-23 overall.

He is GOOD!

I like him, I really like him! Pineda was on the mound again tonight, the second time I've seen him in person. Seeing as how he's a rookie, you expect him to have a troubled outing now and then. 4 starts in and we haven't seen it yet. Sure he's run into a few bad innings here and there, but like all good pitchers he bounces back and makes the adjustments as needed. We saw this again in the second inning when he threw 30 pitches yet got out of the jam after walking the first two batters by striking out the next two and then getting a groundout to first. Then Pineda sat for a long time while the Mariners scored three runs in the 5th... so he had some issues in the top of the 6th but made it through. He now has a quality start in all of his games this year. A quality start is at least six innings with 3 earned runs or less. Still waiting for him to blow up...

As you can see from the picture I had a Gyro ($6.50). This is the first game of the year I scored. I went to Kinko's earlier and made some copies. It was a good game to score, only a few issues with the scoreboard failing to turn over statistics fast enough There were great plays turned in by Figgins in the 4th (sliding catch of a foul ball) and 8th (line drive). Kennedy had another couple of quality defensive plays including throwing out Kouzmanoff at home in the 5th inning, at that point the game was still 1-0. When you have pitchers sharp and dealing, same goes the defense. Both pitching and defense have been outstanding the last two games, and we've had just as much offense as we've needed!

Kennedy continues his hot streak. He led off the 2nd with a single and scored. Then in the 5th he had a 2 RBI single after we had loaded the bases on a single and three straight walks (Cust had walked in a run previous to Kennedy). So Kennedy went 2-4 with 2 RBI and 1 Run scored. Cust's bases loaded walk was his fourth of the season! He has 7 RBI total on the season and 4 have come via a bases loaded walk!

It got a little dicey in the 9th inning... Wright came in and loaded the bases with two consecutive singles and a walk after striking out the first batter. He'd been pretty much lights out this year (his last two appearances he needed only 2 pitches total). So we was pulled and in came Brandon League. The dude scares me, it seemed every time last year he had inherited runners he would have troubles. Well, with the tying run at the plate he picked up his 5th save of the year after inducing pinch hitter Conor Jackson to ground into a game ending double play. Until he proves otherwise on a consistent basis I will always have heart palpitations when he comes in to the game with runners on.

We're now 8-13 on the season and the Mariners are 4-3 when I attend! We've had two shutout wins in a row.

Oh, and since it was Earth Day we all got to take home another bag of dirt!

Two In A Row!

I was wavering for a couple of days on whether or not I should go to tonight's game. Well... after the come from behind win and the fact that I was a horrible fan and left early (regardless of how crappy it was), I decided I really needed to get to the ballgame for rookie Michael Pineda's first start at Safeco Field.

I did not expect perfection, I did not expect him to be "that good", but DAMN. He can bring it. As the late, great, Dave Niehaus called it... "DIABOLICAL". He's 22 years old, stands 6'7" and at least 265. He's got long legs and his first pitch was 96 mph. He stayed consistently 96/97 throughout the game. It was just a beautiful thing to see, that's the best way I can describe it.

There were 15,500, fourth lowest ever, but we had fun. Pineda struck out 7 but it felt like more. Justin Smoak saved the game in the bottom of the 8th with a runner on 3rd and 1 man out (thanks to Olivo error). With his back to HP he caught a foul ball near the stands, turned around, and fired a shot to Olivo on one hop. Patterson, the runner on third, was dead to rights. Inning ending double play and that was pretty much the ballgame as League came on in the 9th for the save. Most people stayed until the end, learning their lesson from yesterday.

Langerhans hit his third home run of the season in the third, he's leading the team in homers, although it is early. He had three all of last year. I'm liking what I am seeing from him at the plate, his defense is certainly lacking and we need Guti back yesterday, but he's shown me enough in the first couple of weeks that I want him around. Saunders is another one I am liking right now... but like I said with Guti coming back soon we're going to have too many outfielders. I'd like to see Langerhans/Saunders split time in the field and have Milton as the DH. Cust just isn't doing it for me right now. He strikes out a lot and so far he hasn't shown much power, which is what we brought him in for... to walk and hit homers.

Olivo is just how I remember when we had him in 2004/2005. He can't hit, and his defense is crap. Today he had four plate appearances, accounting for 5 outs. Defensively he practically gave the game away with a passed ball that allowed runners to advance to 2nd and 3rd in the 8th (taking away the DP possibility to get Pineda out of a jam and 8 shutout innings). Instead the 2 came around to score on a single by Patterson and Pineda was out of the ballgame. Patterson ended up stealing and then advancing to third on the error by Olivo... after which Smoak saved the day with his fantastic defensive play.

Tuesday's they always have deals on food (like two dollar hotdogs) and tickets. This year they've implemented a double discount for Season Ticket Holders of merchandise. Usually we get 10% off. I knew I needed a new hat 'cause my Pilots hat is getting pretty grungy. So I went to the team shop before the game and ended up with a new hat, two Ryan Rowland-Smith shirts, and a sweatshirt... all for $52! I will definitely be going back another Tuesday 'cause I need a new coat. My old ones are too big or got ruined by my cats.

After the team shop I headed back to The Pen to continue my exploration of the new food choices. Tonight I went to the "Cantina", which was formerly the Bullpen Pub, and picked up a Chicken Torta for $8.50. It is made to order and I declined the jalapenos and sour cream, but it came with a bean? spread, onions, and avocado. Thumbs up for letting people pick and choose what they want (hint, hint Crepe) but it was just okay and got soggy very quickly. The White Pizza still wins out, last on the list is a Burger. I will try one next homestand.


Toronto fans were pretty quiet and subdued until they started rallying in the 8th inning. I'm pretty sure they were in shock from yesterday's game. The crowd was in a good mood and joking around a lot. Yet another annoying kid, but this time he was in the row in front of me. He stood on the seat most of the game but was one seat over so no view was blocked. Best game of the year so far with great pitching. The game had everything, excitement, highly tense moments, errors, a great defensive play, and most important of all a WIN! I'm not going to the day game tomorrow, so I made it to 4 out of the 6 games on this homestand. They will be going to KC for a short trip this weekend, then it all starts over again! Things are looking up, it is much less dire than a couple of games ago. This is why I love baseball. Such a roller coaster.

The Mariners improved to 2-2 when I attend... on a 2 game winning streak!