Mariners Score! Mariners Win!

See what happens when you score some runs guys, you can actually win the damn game!

Oakland (36-38)

Weeks 2B

Hicks 1B

Reddick RF

Cespedes CF

Inge 3B

Smith LF

Gomes DH

Norris C

Pennington SS

Blackley (1-2, 3.15)

Mariners (31-44)

Ichiro DH

Gutierrez CF

Seager 3B

Montero C

Smoak 1B

Saunders LF

Wells RF

Ackley 2B

Ryan SS

Vargas (7-7, 4.66)

Jason Vargas pitched a good game after his last few outings in which he was rocked with homers.  He actually struck out 5 in a row at one point (1st-2nd), and had a career high matching 10 strikesouts.  Matching the 10 strikeouts of Ramirez yesterday, it is the first time since 1999 Mariners pitchers have had back-to-back 10 K starts!  Oakland got runners on in the 3rd and 4th who were erased by double plays.  In the 5th he sandwiched a walk between striking out the side, and gave up another walk in the 6th.  But, at that point the Mariners were up 2-0 and Vargas was able to work out of issues each time.  In the 7th, he wasn't so lucky.  He gave up a monster homer (424 feet) into the Mariners bullpen by Cespedes.  Vargas then gave up a two out double to Smith and was pulled for League.  He then proceeded to fuck it up for Vargas and give up two consecutive singles to tie the ballgame.

Oakland had Travis Blackley on the mound, former Mariner.  It was interesting to see him again, and he had a wicked pickoff move, catching Wells in the 5th.  He lasted 7 innings.  In the 8th inning Wells lead off with a one strike single to left for Wells.  He then stole second base as Ackley was wrung up, and then scored on a Ryan single for the final run of the game.  Ryan himself stole second on a 2-1 pitch to Ichiro, which caused Oakland to intentionally walk him to face Guti and Seager, both who flew out.  But the one run was all we needed as Wilhelmsen came in to nail down the save.

It was nice to see the Mariners come through in the 8th inning with some clutch hitting.  Hell, I'm just excited that they scored more than 1 or 2 runs! 

The Mariners are now 9-12 when I attend
Attendance: 12,411 - tied for 3rd fewest ever with 4-19-11
Time of Game: 2:45

Mariners Drop Sixth In a Row

Well, more poor base running and lack of clutch hitting led to the Mariners losing their sixth game in a row since the no-hitter.  The Giants hit two home runs and beat the Mariners 4-2 in front of nearly 30,000 fans.

Giants (36-28)

Blanco RF

Theriot 2B

Cabrera LF

Posey C

Pagan CF

Sandoval 3B

Belt 1B

Arias SS

Christian DH

Vogelson (5-2, 2.26)

Mariners (27-38)

Ichiro RF

Gutierrez CF

Seager 3B

Montero DH

Saunders LF

Smoak1B

Ackley 2B

Olivo C

Ryan SS

Vargas (7-5, 3.90)

Montero was once again caught off second base on a fly ball, the second time in three games. We got our two runs n the 8th inning after Cabrera hit a two run homer in the top of the 8th to make it 4-0.

The most interesting aspect of the game was probably in the top of the 9th when a fan jumped on to the field to snag a foul ball.  All I saw out of the corner of my eye was a guy, with his arm raised in triumph and the ball in his hand, get tackled.  Didn't see how he got on the field.  You don't see that every day!

It was nice to see Gutierrez back out there.  Olivo had more shitting blocking behind the plate.  Sick of his shit.  Another thing I'd like to comment on is that half the stands were filled with obnoxious Giants fans.  I can't wait until we are drawing 40k regularly again, this will not be tolerated or possible then.  So no I have to add Giants games as games I won't go to in the future.

I'm really hoping the Mariners will win again!! We've been close pretty much every game, so it shouldn't be too long.

Mariners are now 7-11 when I attend.
Time of Game: 2:45
Attendance: 29,818

Pitching, Defense, Clutch Hitting

Tonight John Jaso batted leadoff, only the 2nd Mariners catcher to do so.  The last was in 1978!  Well, it ended up paying off as Jaso once again came through in the clutch and the Mariners beat Detroit 2-1 in just over two hours.

Vargas was absolutely stellar, again.

Tigers (15-14)

Jackson CF

Boesch RF

Cabrera 3B

Fielder 1B

Young DH

Raburn LF

Peralta SS

Laird C

Worth 2B

Smyly (1-0, 1.61)

Mariners (14-18)

Jaso C

Ryan SS

Ichiro RF

Montero DH

Seager 2B

Smoak 1B

Liddi 3B

Wells LF

Figgins CF

Vargas (3-2,3.09)

I bet Detroit will be glad to not see us until 2013, as we went 5-1 against them this year, losing only yesterday's game.

We were only able to muster 4 hits, but we made them count.  Ichiro singled in the 4th, stole second, then came around on an RBI double by Seager which almost went out of the ballpark. Ichiro's single put him at #100 on the all-time hits list.

Vargas, meanwhile, was only in trouble once the whole night.  Sporting a 1-0 lead he gave up a leadoff double to Laird.  Worth followed with a single to advance him to third.  Jackson then got Detroit their only run of the game via a sacrifice fly.  Boesch followed with a single but Vargas was able to get out of trouble by inducing a 4-6-3 double play.  There were about three or four absolutely fantastic defensive plays by Ryan tonight, including a barehanded grab to end the third.  Even if he isn't hitting right now, at least he is flashing a gold glove worthy defense.  One of the plays essentially ended the game, but more on that later.

After Vargas got out of the sixth, he retired the next six batters to finish the 8th with an efficient 90 pitches.  In my opinion he should have probably come back out in the ninth inning, but Wedge doesn't like to play that way.  The score was tied 1-1, and Saunders pinch hit for Wells to lead off the bottom of the inning.  He hit a double to left field.  Figgins then laid down a sacrifice bunt, which brought up Jaso.  He hit a single to center field, scoring Saunders with the eventual winning run.  It feels like the 4th or 5th time already this year that he has produced a game winning RBI.  Unfortunately, Jaso got a little too excited and tried to stretch the single into a double and was thrown out at second.

League came in to close out the game, and proceeded to walk the leadoff man, Jackson, which meant that Boesch, Cabrera, and possibly Fielder were due up next.  Boesch hit an absolute laser to Ryan, who was able to knock the ball down and get the double play.  For a split second it looked like he had caught it, but it was hit too hard.  That turned to our favor, and we easily doubled them up.


The Mariners are now 5-5 when I attend, 2-2 in one run games!
Attendance: 15,655
Time of Game: 2:06

Unlucky Seven

I think this is the most angry I've felt after a loss this year, we had this game in the bag but blew our 2-0 lead in the seventh inning to end up losing our SEVENTH straight game, by a score of 3-2.  Nowhere near the 17 game losing streak last year, but still painful and frustrating.

Twins (6-18)

Span CF

Carroll SS

Mauer DH

Willingham LF

Doumit RF

Valencia 3B

Parmelee 1B

Casilla 2B

Butera C

Pavano (1-2,4.91)

Mariners (11-16)

Ackley 2B

Liddi 3B

Ichiro RF

Montero C

Seager DH

Smoak 1B

Carp LF

Saunders CF

Ryan SS

Vargas (3-2 ,3.38)

Earlier in the game we found out that Figgins has been demoted to a utility player.  Despite the promise of the first couple of weeks he just isn't cutting it, which is a huge shame since he was such a great player for Anaheim.  For now, Ackley will take the lead off spot.

Vargas pitched well, once again we couldn't do much offensively, and a huge mental lapse in the 7th by Wilhelmsen ruined another great outing by Vargas.  We got our hits, but except for the 5th inning couldn't capitalize.

We got leadoff singles in the 1st and 2nd innings, but hit into double plays.  Then, in the 5th inning we got three doubles.  Montero and Seager hit back to back doubles to left center to start it off, followed by a flyout by Smoak.  Montero's looked like it had a chance to go out.  Then, Carp, in his first home game since coming off the DL (after injuring himself in the first game in Japan) hit a rocket line drive to right that drove Seager in.  We were up 2-0 with one out.  A sacrifice fly and single should have made it at least 3-0.  But Saunders was caught looking, and Ryan's single (second of the game) up the middle was stopped by Carroll from going into the outfield.  Carp had to hold up at third.  If Carroll hadn't snagged it... my feelings about the game may have totally changed.  So Ryan was denied the RBI, and Ackley hit a fly ball to left to end the inning, stranding runners on 1st and 3rd.

Ryan's single in the 3rd broke an 0-26 hitless streak.  He came into the game batting only .125, so at least one positive of the game is that he got two hits and broke out of his slump.  Montero continues to hit well with his single and double.  Olivo injured himself on the road trip so we will be seeing more of Montero behind the plate until he comes back.

With one out in the 7th inning, leading 2-0, Vargas gave up his 4th hit on his 103rd pitch of the game via a double by Parmalee.  It was the first extra-base hit by Minnesota in 25 innings.  So Wedge decided to pull Vargas for Wilhemsen, our usual 8th inning guy, who proceeded to load the bases by walking the first two batters he faced.  Then, Span hit a ball back to the mound which Wilhelmsen barehanded.  He had plenty of time for the force at home, but for some reason whipped around and went for the force at 2nd.  Well, he had a wild throw and Ackley had to work to keep it from going into the outfield and causing more damage.  The run scored, the bases were still loaded.  So instead of a minimum 2 outs with the bases still loaded (and possibly being out of the inning via a 1-2-3 DP) the score was now 2-1, bases still loaded, only 1 out.  The next batter, Carroll, took the count full and he hit a grounder to Smoak who went to second to try and start a 3-6-3 DP.  We were only able to get the first part, forcing Span.  The runner scored, tying the game.  Wilhelmsen was replaced with a round of boos, and Furbush then gave up the lead on a single by Mauer.  That was the ballgame.  Wilhelmsen has probably been our most solid relief pitcher this year, but he just didn't have a good outing.  To top it off he had a brain fart. I don't care what team you are playing, you can not give a ML team an extra out.

Sometimes it is the little things that turn into the game changers.  Carroll kept Ryan's single from making it through the infield, saving an RBI.  Wilhelsmen, with a brain fart, lets the Twins off the hook. 

The Mariners are now 0-3 on Fridays, and 2-5 when I attend.
The Roof was closed.
Attendance : 22,492
Time of Game: 2:42

Figgins and Ichiro Go Yard

That's right, Figgins and Ichiro both hit homers as the Mariners and Vargas beat the Indians 4-1 in front of the smallest home crowd in Safeco history.

Indians (5-4)

Donald SS

Kipnis 2B

Choo RF

Santana C

Hafner DH

Duncan LF

Lopez 3B

Kotchman 1B

Cunningham CF

Lowe (2-0, 1.98)

Mariners (6-6)

Figgins LF

Ackley 1B

Ichiro RF

Montero DH

Seager 3B

Saunders CF

Olivo C

Kawasaki 2B

Ryan SS

Vargas (1-1, 3.44)

The story of the game was the first inning and Vargas.  Vargas went 7 strong innings, striking out seven while he gave up just one run on four hits.  The home plate umpire, Angel Campos, seemed to have a strange strike zone as there were a lot of called strikeouts, including two back-to-back by the Indians in the 4th.  Vargas struck out the side in that inning, he's not known for striking guys out.  He was really only in trouble one inning, when he loaded the bases in the 6th inning.  But, by that time he was up 4-1, and he was able to wiggle out of the jam.

Figgins gets my pick for offensive player of the game, he lead off the first inning by hitting the seventh leadoff home run of his career, first as a Mariner. It was also the first leadoff homer by a Mariner other than Ichiro since 2000, when Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson went yard.  Figgins has been a "new and improved" player.  The home run was on the 8th pitch of the at-bat.  He also had a single and a walk, and broke up a double play with a fantastic slide.  As soon as we signed him a couple of years ago I was thrilled we finally had a real leadoff hitter, for some reason they kept Ichiro in that spot and our team suffered for it.

Not to be outdone, Ichiro hit a homer run of his own just four pitches later.  It was almost as if he wouldn't let Figgins "show him up".  Everyone has always claimed Ichiro can hit a home run whenever he wants to, I guess this was proof.  Then why doesn't he do it more often?  Seager added a double, and Saunders a single in the rest of the first but we were unable to score.  We added our third run in the second inning after loading the bases with two outs.  Montero then drew a four pitch walk to score Ryan from third!

The Indians scored their only run in the third inning, Cunningham led off the inning with launched double to left that hit off the yellow line, right next to the hand operated scoreboard.  Manny Acta, the Indians' Manager, came out to argue with the third base umpire after which all four gathered together then jogged into the bowels of Safeco for an instant replay.  I HATE instant replay.  It has no place is baseball, and umpires are correct 95-99% of the time.  If it had gone over the wall, it would have sounded differently, and it would have bounced back differently.  Also, the bullpen had no reaction, they knew it was a double.  About two minutes later and the call was confirmed.  A waste of time.  NO PLACE IN BASEBALL!  A sacrifice bunt pushed Cunningham to third and he scored on a sacrifice fly by Kipnis.  And, that was their offense until the sixth inning.   The Mariners added another run in the 4th after Ryan walked, followed by consecutive singles.

Kawasaki is fun to watch, just because he exudes absolute joy.  You can tell he loves the game, and is very generous with the fans.  He had a walk in the bottom of the third and after a pick off attempt he did a pushup at first, then was caught stealing.  It is weird watching him because the swing is EXACTLY like Ichiro's.

Ackley had his first ML start at first base as Smoak was out with a tight hamstring.

It is a shame more people aren't going to games, they are a lot more enjoyable to watch this year.  I looked around about the third inning and wondered when we had turned into Oakland, I also thought back to the Kingdome days, but at least then we were covered and warm!  The smallest crowd ever was actually an away game vs the Marlins last year, but tonight counted as the smallest home crowd.

Record when I attend: 2-2
Attendance: 11,343
Time of Game: 2:47

Vargas is Stellar in Final Start.

Fantastic pitching by both starters, as Mariners won 4-2 in front of 17,057 fans.  There was a little excitement in the 5th inning as Carter hit the roof with a foul ball!!!!!  This is a rare occurrence, occurring only two other times that I can recall.

Athletics (72-87)

Weeks 2B

Crisp CF

Matsui DH

Willingham LF

Sizemore 3B

Suzuki C

Carter 1B

Taylor RF

Rosales SS

McCarthy (9-8, 3.26)

Mariners (66-93)

Ichiro RF

Rodriguez SS

Ackley 2B

Carp DH

Smoak 1B

Olivo C

Robinson LF

Liddi 3B

Saunders CF

Vargas (9-13, 4.38)

The Mariners scored all of their runs via the long ball.  Olivo got a solo shot in the 5th to tie up the ballgame.  Then, in the 6th, Smoak launched a 3 run homer 403 feet to right center, scoring Ackley and Carp with 2 outs.  I'm hoping that Ackley, Carp, and Smoak will be producing like that for the Mariners for the next decade.  Smoak has had a tough year with the passing of his father, and injuries.  I'm hoping next year he's healthy, and finally proves that we made the right trade for Cliff Lee.  Olivo is now the all-time leader in single season home runs for a Mariners catcher with 19.  If only he could actually catch the damn ball. 

I was a little pissed that they pulled Vargas after 8 innings.  He got his career high 10th strikeout in the 8th. Vargas only had 105 pitches, and it was his final start of the year.  They way he was cruising, I don't think an extra 12 pitches would have put him in imminent danger of injuring himself.  Plus, League struggled and practically blew the save.  He gave up 2 hits and a run before getting Suzuki to ground to short for the final out.  My heart started racing for a few minutes, thinking that League was going to ruin the night.  But he pulled it out, and Vargas got a much deserved 10th win of the year.  The lone run he gave up was in the top of the first, after that it was smooth sailing.

I guess McCarthy deserves some praise as well... he had a complete game.

The Mariners are now 18-21 when I attend.

Smoak, Ichiro, and Vargas Deliver

Justin Smoak knocked his first home run in 48 games and the Mariners won 4-1 as we held one of the League's best hitting offenses to just five hits.  Kansas City's 1-3 hitters all came into the game batting exactly .300.

KC Royals (60-84)

Gordon LF

Cabrera CF

Butler DH

Hosmer 1B

Francoeur RF

Moustakas 3B

Giavotella 2B

Perez C

Escobar SS

Hochevar P

Mariners (59-83)

Ichiro RF

Ryan SS

Ackley 2B

Carp LF

Smoak 1B

Kennedy DH

Seager 3B

Robinson CF

Giminez C

Vargas P

After struggling in the second half of the season, the "old" Vargas showed up tonight, and it was nice to see.  He ended up lasting 6 innings, allowing just 1 run on 4 hits.  He retired the lineup in order in the first inning, then... in the second Francoeur hit a one out triple that got past Carp after he made a diving attempt at the fast sinking ball.  It should have been a double.  Vargas got out of the jam by inducing a fielder's choice from Moustakas with a sharp grounder to Ackley, who immediately threw the ball to Giminez.  There was a collision at home, but Giminez held on and Francoeur was out!  At that point we were up 1-0.

Ichiro led off the Mariners' offense by taking the first pitch 386 feet into the right field stands.  It was his 36th lead off homer of his career, and passed Bobby Bonds for 6th on the all-time list.  For a guy who flat out refuses to do anything but single, I guess that's a pretty amazing stat.  He now has 94 ML homers so 38% of all of his homers are lead off.

The game remained 1-0 until the 6th inning, when the Royals tied up the ballgame.  Cabrera got a one out bunt single (first pitch), then stole second and scored on a single to center.  The tie was short lived, as in the bottom of the sixth the Mariners went ahead for good thanks to a leadoff 4 pitch walk to Ackley, and a Smoak two run homer.  It was nice to see, as he has had a tough year with the death of his father and several injuries.  Hopefully he can have a good couple of weeks to finish off the season, right on through to Spring next year.

We added an insurance run in the 7th.  Ichiro got a two out single, stole second and third base, then scored when Ryan reached on an error by the shortstop.

League came on in the 9th to nail down his 34th save, but not before our defense put the tying run at the plate.  Moustakas reached on a single that ricocheted off League and ended in "no man's land" between Smoak and League.  Then, on what was going to be a sure out by Ryan to end the ballgame, he was unable to get a hold of the ball and committed the error.  Perez then hit a ground ball to Ryan, who tossed to Ackley for the Fielder's Choice.  And that was the ballgame.


Pizza
16-17 when I attend
Att: 14,377

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.

Offense Falters Again

Mariners (38-38)

Ichiro RF

Ryan SS

Kennedy 1B

Olivo C

Ackley 2B

Gutierrez CF

Peguero LF

Figgins 3B

Vargas P

Marlins (33-43)

Bonifacio CF

Infante 2B

Ramirez SS

Stanton RF

Buck C

Helms 3B

Wise LF

Volstad P

When your offense can barely muster 3 runs a game, your margin for error is a slim one.  Your pitchers have to be practically perfect, and even then you may not win.   Tonight, Vargas struggled in the first by giving up three runs on 4 hits, and that was pretty much the ballgame.   We were only able to muster 2 runs on 6 hits.  On the postgame show it was mentioned that when then Mariners score 4 or more runs, they are 25-6.  When they score less than 4, they are 13-33.  Yikes!  It would be interesting to know how other teams compare, seeing as how we are now out of the steroids era.

As you can see Smoak didn't start as he was feeling under the weather, although he did pinch hit in the 7th inning. Volstad, 6'8, held the Mariners to no hits into the 5th inning.   Volstad came into the game with a 2-7 record and 5.65 ERA and we made him look like a genius.  The Mariners had been retired in order until Ichiro reached on an error to lead off the 4th.  He was able to advance to 3rd via a Balk and ground out, but was stranded by Olivo's ground ball to Ramirez.  In the 5th inning, Ackley fouled out to the catcher and Gutierrez grounded out to Ramirez, which brought up Peguero.  On a 2-1 pitch he hit a line drive home run just over the RF fence... it sailed all of 332 feet.  It was almost as fast as the previous line drive homer he hit earlier in the year.  The no-hitter and shutout was over!  But really, waiting until the 5th inning to get a  hit adds too much pressure on the starting pitching.

The Marlins added another run in the bottom of the sixth, which the Mariners answered by hitting three straight singles by Ackley, Gutierrez, and Peguero to load the bases with one out.  Figgins did what he was supposed to and hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Ackley and advance Guti to 3rd.  Pinch hitter Carp came up to bat for Vargas, which forced the Marlins to bring in Choate.  We responded by pinch hitting Smoak for Carp!  In a huge twist during the game, the best case scenario for Florida occurred when Smoak was hit by a pitch on a 1-2 count.  This loaded the bases for Ichiro... but he isn't a threat and he wasn't again tonight when he ended the inning by grounding out to third.  And that was pretty much the ballgame.  There was no more scoring and we lost 4-2.

Pork all gone!

Since there wasn't much to talk about, I will share in more detail what I ate.  My sister and I decided that we wanted to try the combo kettle/caramel corn so we bought that outside for $5.  We then entered the game in The Pen where I picked up a Turkey Crepe, this time without cheese.  The first time I had it I was not impressed, but this time it was really good!  Maybe it was the freshness factor?  I got it for a dollar off, at $7.50, by using the MLB At-Bat phone App.  If you "check-in" to a game they give you daily rewards, always $1 off at some stand.  My sister decided to get pulled pork sandwich, which came with coleslaw and fried onions on top.  It looked really tasty, but I forgot to take a picture until it was too late.  The price was $10.50.

I scored again, and for some reason today I had more difficulty putting scoring the right team at the right time.  I even put the first 4 Marlins on the Visitors side! The attendance was 16,896, the roof was open and it was a very quick game, just 2:10

They dropped to 9-8 when I attend and back under .500 at 38-39.  Because the Angels won, we are now in 3rd place at 2.5 games behind Texas and .5 games behind the Angels.  We're struggling right now, we need some offense!!  This was the 6th game I'd seen Vargas pitch and the Mariners are 1-5 in those games.  Yikes!

I'm Back!

It has been a long time, and since I've been at a game the Mariners have totally turned things around and have been at or above .500 for a couple of weeks. They've called up some young kids like Halman and Carp, and have been a blast to watch. I completely missed the last homestand, as I ruptured my disc and was flat on my back. I was able to watch them go 7-3, and wished I could have been there. So this will totally change my total game projection. Tonight was only my 13th of the year, our 34th home game. I'm guessing I will have a hard time making it to more than 40 games this year... I'd have to go on quite a tear. Sad, but overall health is more important! Coming into tonight's game we were 34-32 and only a game and a half behind Texas, solidly in 2nd place 3.5 games above the Angels, our opponent tonight. The last game I went to we were 19-24!!

Also, I turned 30 and got an AWESOME gift from one of my sisters of 5 scorebooks (they are the same as my very first!). This should last me years. I scored my first game in my new scorebook, and only second game of the year, tonight. It was exciting to score again. Unfortunately tonight resulted in a 6-3 loss. It was a much closer game than that.

We entered into this game 1.5 behind Texas and 3.5 games up on the Angels, Texas had an off day so we had a chance to gain a game on the Angels and a half game on the Rangers. Unfortunately, we couldn't pull it out. We had chances, we were in this game... but with a KEY play in the 5th inning the game opened up and we just couldn't get back into it has hard as we tried. When you give major league teams extra outs, you're bound to pay for it.

Ichiro has been struggling mightily at the plate and in the field this year... something that for me is nice to see because finally people have woken up to his flaws. He came into the game batting only .258 with a .311 on base percentage. Absolutely pathetic.

The Lineups

Maicer Izturis 3B
Torii Hunter RF
Bobby Abreu DH
Vernon Wells LF
Howie Kendrick 2B
Erick Aybar SS
Mark Trumbo 1B
Peter Bourjos CF
Jeff Mathis C
Dan Haren P


Ichiro RF
Brendan Ryan SS
Justin Smoak 1B
Adam Kennedy 2B
Miguel Olivo C
Carlos Peguero LF
Franklin Gutierrez CF
Mike Carp DH
Chone Figgins 3B
Jason Vargas P

I'm not going to get too much into specifics, due to the fact it is currently past 11pm and I'm exhausted. However, I will mention a few things. The Scoreboard

1 X 1 X X X 3 X 1 6 8 1 - Angels
1 1 X X 1 X X X X 3 8 2 - Mariners

As you can see... the Mariners had the lead into the sixth inning, which is when, with Mathis on 3rd and one out, Figgins fielded a grounder and threw home. Mathis was dead to rights, and would have been the second out of the inning, but Olivo could not hold on to the damn ball. Mathis scored, there was only one out... and two batters later Vernon Wells hit his 2nd Homer of the game (with Hunter on via the FC). Wells came into the game batting a mere .189 with only 4 HR on the year, and the Angels only had 2 TOTAL HR in the month of June coming into the game. This defensive lapse by Olivo was the decisive play of the game, in my opinion. He stunk it up at the plate too. He has 10 HR, leading all AL catchers... but the catching aspect is more important than hitting. I will continue to ride him on his "defense" until I see solid play.

Then, in the 9th inning a balk led to an insurance run... and suddenly it seemed hopeless. We went down in order in the 9th, including the 3rd K of the game by Mike Carp (he didn't have a good game, in his 1st AB he ground into a double play)

One thing I wanted to make sure I mentioned... in the 4th inning Peguero had an impressive AB. While it ended in a strike out, he had several powerful foul balls including one in which the broken barrel of the bat ended up at least 150 feet from home plate into shallow RF. It went further than the ball. He is a strong man, without a doubt.

Oh, can't forget Pauley. He threw another scoreless inning in the 8th. He has given up only 4 ER the ENTIRE YEAR, the best in the AL. The dude has been lights out, and at this point deserves to be an All-Star

I had a Baked Potato for $7.75 and then my sister (she had nachos) went and got us some cookies in the 5th inning. There were 8 mini cookies for $3.50, which seems like a good deal!

The attendance was 20,238.

The Mariners dropped to 7-6 when I attend and 34-33 overall.

Viva Vargas!

Vargas has now pitched 16 consecutive scoreless innings... he pitched 7 with only 4 hits, and matched a career high with 9 K as the Mariners won 3-0. He was pretty much flawless. His only issue that I can remember was the leadoff batter of the game, when the ball was hit back to him at the mound and he threw the ball away for an error. The dude doesn't get enough attention, he just quietly goes out there and gets things done, letting Felix and now Pineda take all the headlines.

Then, in the 8th Wright decided to load the bases and give all of us a heart attack, but he made it out unscathed. In the 9th League came out and nailed his 10th save. Is he back on track? Could be...

On Monday we scored runs in the first and the third (as well as 6th and 8th), and tonight we got bloop single by Cust to score Figgins in the 1st. That was all we would need. Then, in the 3rd after Smoak got an RBI 2B, Cust singled again to get his 2nd RBI of the night. It was his first multi-RBI game of the year. He's hitting the ball well and is definitely heating up. Hopefully his first of many HR is imminent. It is nice that we've been scoring early in the game, at the start of the year we only seemed to be scoring late in the game when it was too late.

Guti came back, he went 0-4 but it was nice to see him in the lineup and on the field. I think he only had one fly ball hit to him. Gut received a very warm welcome when his name was announced and his first AB, and many women in the crowd nearly fainted at the sight of him.

I ate my famous concoction of rice and peanuts. Smaller container than last year, but one of the best deals at the ballpark. I supplemented it with ballpark food of sunflower seeds and some kettle corn left over from yesterday.

My next game won't be for a couple of weeks, as the Yankees will be in down the 27-30 and I don't want to deal with obnoxious Yankee fans. I'm hoping with the warming weather our bats will start picking up (yeah right) to help our stellar starting rotation out. The three games I went to this week were outstanding. The last time I went to three games in a row I was weary and exhausted, this time I am exhilarated!

I won't be going to the day game tomorrow because of work so I went to 3/4 of the games on this short homestand. So out of their 23 home games I have been to 12, or 52%. This projects to 42 or 43 games on the year. The attendance was 16,992. Getting better!

The Mariners are now 7-5 when I attend and improved to 19-24 overall.

By the way, Happy 31st Anniversary of the St. Helens eruption!

Weary and Exhausted

The title says it all... I'm weary and exhausted after three days straight of Mariners baseball. Or maybe I'm just that way because they were crushed today? It wasn't a very good game. We just didn't play well.

If only Saunders had caught that ball in the third (Guti, we need you back) we would have gotten out of the jam tied! If only... if only. Instead they scored three in the fourth and then five in the 6th. Vargas ran into trouble again and then Lueke came on and sucked as usual. We lost 9-1. I don't have anything more to say about the game, I'm just tired.

I had garlic chicken and fries ($9.75). The weather was beautiful, there were over 25,000 fans... but that's pretty much all I have to say. Oh, it was Military Appreciation night and they did God Bless America during the 7th inning stretch, which pissed me off. Sports should be religion free as they are public entities meant to represent a region.

Anyway, looking forward to a break, I can't imagine how the beat reporters feel, and they have to travel with them! It is such a grind. I torture myself, but I still love it. I went to 4 out of the 7 games this homestand... that makes it 8 out of 13. If I keep that rate up I'll go to 50 games. Don't think I can keep up this pace, it puts a toll on your body. Sleep patterns, eating patterns, excercise patterns have all changed! Six game roadtrip coming up, and I'm looking forward to it.

The Mariners are now 4-4 when I attend and dropped to 8-14 on the year.

And All I Got Was a Bag of Dirt

Well, it was another historic night at Safeco Field. 1 week ago today, I attended the lowest attended game at Safeco which was eclipsed two days later (12,407). Tonight, the second smallest crowd of 12,774. I have to say, it was kind of nice walking through the concourses without having to weave around the slow people. Food lines were short, no lines for the bathroom! On the other hand, it was depressing to see how far the team has fallen the last few years. It will take a long time to work their way back, I'm sure the attendance will improve with warmer weather, but it is still pathetic and must be noted.

We played the Detroit Tigers, Vargas was on the mound again. I thought he did a pretty good job, it was just his defense failing him again as we literally threw the ball away. The Tigers scored six runs in the seventh off a couple of "wild pitches" and just plain bad pitching by Lueke and Ray. Milton Bradley had a good game (batting wise, he had a huge error) going 2-3 with two walks, a homer, and 2 rbi. He put us up 2-1 in the third and then in the sixth he had a huge error that let the Tigers score the tying run. The next inning our bullpen fell apart. Smoak launched a solo homer in the 8th. And while that was the only thing he did hitting wise, I'm still liking what I am seeing and he has been our most consistent everyday player. Final score, 8-3.

One thing of note, the annoying Tigers pitcher in the 9th, Valverde, who had a very methodical way he went about things... his routine is ridiculous and when he struck out Bradley he was very demonstrative while he bowed. Yes, he bowed. To God, to himself... I don't know. But it was very unsportsmanlike and I can only imagine how insulted Bradley felt. According to my twitter feed he was pacing back and forth in the dugout giving him a staredown.

Stayed the whole game... I'm never leaving again! It was a very long game, over three and a half hours, and even though we lost there were several highlights. In the first inning, we had a Safeco Field first. The first ball to hit the extended roof (that's what they call it instead of closed)! They started closing the roof before the game because we got a few sprinkles. Anyway, that had never happened before, and it dropped in foul territory between Figgins and Olivo. I didn't see it hit, but I watched it go up, heard the reaction of the crowd, and watched it fall.

Another highlight, we saw somebody get escorted out of the game in the 9th inning. A dude a few rows in front of us and his buddies had been trying all game to get on TV with some signs they had made. Eventually with the sparse crowd they moved to a different section and I guess they got a little too close to the camera operators. Security told them to back off and a bird was flipped. A few minutes later they were escorted out. A kid behind said something, don't remember exact words, like "they don't censor in soccer!". Oh kid, you will soon learn that at Safeco they care more about being family friendly than fan friendly. Anyway, that's the first ejection of the year.

Okay, enough of the game... let's talk about the food. Went to the game with my sister who hadn't been in at least two seasons. We entered in The Pen entrance and I showed her the new food and the changes to the layout/view, also pointed out the out of town scoreboard from last year and new LED scoreboard this year. I think she was excited about those. Tonight was my turn to try the new burger... it took them a little while to figure out how to give me a burger minus the cheese, $8.50, and I didn't realize that the mayo wasn't going to be on the side... so I had to scrape as much off of it as I could. It came with pickles, onions, lettuce, and tomatoes. I squirt some ketchup and mustard (oops turns out a little too much as you can see from picture) and took a bite. I didn't "dress" my burger the way I usually do so maybe that had something to do with my enjoyment of it. Frankly it wasn't very good and was pretty much generic, and a little cold. I couldn't finish the whole thing. I will not be getting it again and instead if I want a burger will get the cheaper Kidd Valley one (which has its own temperature problems).

Then we were off to find my sister dinner. We headed to the healthy option behind home plate where I knew they had garden burgers. Guess what, they took them off the menu tonight. Are you kidding me? Who wants a veggie dog, those are gross! So then we walked a little more and found some new food choices this year... the have "potato fries" on a stick and buffalo tenders/wings. She didn't want fries. She ended up settling on a veggie roll at the sushi place for $9. I never realized that they had veggie sushi, wondering if this is a new thing the last couple of years. I had a few... and it was decent! I now know this is an option for me. This is also where they moved the teriyaki choice that used to be in the Bullpen Market. I was still hungry so we headed back to The Pen to share a dessert crepe. We went back and forth on the strawberry or banana one... and finally settled on the banana w/nutella. I'd never had nutella before so was excited to see what it was like. We waiting a couple of minutes as they made it fresh! It was okay... the nutella was too similar to chocolate for me and it got pretty messy in the end. For $6.50 it was a decent price for a ballpark dessert. I will give the strawberry one a shot at some point.


In other news, Guti still isn't okay and they are sending him to the Mayo Clinic. I'm starting to think it is psychological and hope it is nothing too serious. We really need him back, Langerhans let a ball drop that Guti probably would have gotten to. There have been many of those plays already this year.

I'm glad we stayed 'til the end, you never know what is going to happen and we got to see the Smoak homer and the ejection of the fan. There is always something to take away from every game, no matter how frustrating they can be. The Mariners are bad, really bad, but we have a few bright spots and you can always see history on any given day... like we did tonight. The first time a ball hit the roof! The second lowest attendance ever!

Most of the fans left in the disaster of the sixth inning... there was a giveaway tonight with bags of dirt made from compostable items from Safeco last year. When we left, there were still 3 remaining, and they only had 5000 total to give. I didn't get a foul ball, but I have my very own bag of Safeco garbage. Yee haw!

My record is now 2-3. The Mariners fell to 5-12 overall.

Opening Night at the Safe

April 8, 2011


Well, what a disaster. In the end, we lost 12-3... gave up 10 runs to the Indians in the 4th. This was our 5th loss in a row after opening up the season 2-0.

Safeco has a few new things, I didn't get too good a look at The Pen (renovated Bullpen Market) because we ate at Uwajimaya and didn't get into the stadium until 6:25. The pregame hoopla/ceremony was supposed to start at 6:30 and I wanted to get to my new seats. I had chicken pho, by the way. Last year the first 8 times I ate pho before the game we won, so I was trying to do my best as a fan.

The Pen was PACKED. I did get a glimpse of the new fireplace/lounge area but was trying to weave in and out of the crowd. Anyway, got to my new seats. I had moved down three rows to try and get closer to the action (and closer to other season ticket holders). My hopes were also to be able to sell tickets by being closer to the field, that hasn't really worked out yet. I haven't sold any tickets on stubhub so far.

The pregame ceremony was disappointing. We had the usual red carpet entrance and player introductions. Then King Felix got his Cy Young, and Ichiro got another Gold Glove... along with an absent Guti who is still down in Arizona with stomach issues.




Then we were supposed to have a touching tribute to Dave Niehaus. I love that man, I grew up on him. I fell asleep to his voice when I was a child... and was devastated by his loss. I went down for the informal Open House after he passed, as well as the formal memorial service. Those were very touching and emotional days for all of us... and I was expecting the same on Opening Night. The Mariners had 5 months to plan for a special ceremony, and instead that had a local rapper perform a song... which frankly was lame. They unveiled a permanent display above the broadcaster booth, and his widow Marilyn threw out the first pitch to Felix (surrounded by her family). I was very disappointed, they really missed the mark. Niehaus deserved much more than that. They also showed a clip of the unveiling of the renaming of 1st Ave S to Dave Niehaus Way. I wish I could have been there to see that. Usually I like to be there for the countdown on Opening Day, but wasn't able to make it this year.




I don't have much more to say on the game... we were blown out and it was the worst opener in Mariners history. Vargas just didn't have it.

Oh, Mom almost had her head taken off by a foul. Instead it took out a guy's cellphone and bounced over to the next aisle. She had just finished telling me that day that she no longer wanted the foul ball she caught a few years ago (it landed in her lap) off the bat of Marco Scutaro.

Grounds crew came out with a new dance... one of my pet peeves but I'm always interested in their new routines.

0-1 When I attend, it was sold out.