SECTION 331

I listened to the game at work the other day, but didn’t really get the opportunity to hear or see much of yesterday’s game. Looks like I didn’t miss much, either day.

So what do we have here so far? A 4-2 road trip, which isn’t so bad, right? Chone Figgins is hitting and fielding acceptably compared to Chone Figgins as Mariners fans usually know him; and that’s great, we’ve been waiting for the past two years to see things like this from Figgins, and I’m happy he is coming around and seems to be a different Figgins in general than he has been here so far. I have long wanted that big grin to mean something, and it finally seems like he’s having fun here.  Jesus Montero is getting a little more playing time, even if it is only at DH (which I still disapprove of). Michael Saunders is taking care of business, and Alex Liddi is showing a bit of flare too. And all of this is great. I’m trying to avoid thinking about how our sweep of Detroit might have been due to facing the lesser pitchers in their rotation – down that road lies madness, quite frankly – and just enjoy the fact that the road trip is what it is; four games won out of six games played.

So I hate to be the person pinning frustration on just one player. I know that some of the problems the Mariners have been having as of late are due to multiple issues, some of which are easily solvable problems (plate patience, for example, is a big one I’ve been grappling with lately, and RISP, anyone?), but for the love of all that is holy, can we bench Miguel Olivo, even for a little while? Brendan Ryan makes a throwing error a few weeks ago and sits for a game, Eric Wedge said, to learn accountability. Miguel Olivo constantly makes throwing errors, passes balls, and has a sub -.200 batting average for the past month, but is still run out onto the field because he is viewed as an everyday starter. What the hell, Wedge?! I know a lot of people are upset about this, and I’m not trying to pile on in that sort of blind anger sort of way; generally speaking, I don’t feel one way or the other about Olivo. But this has to stop. The fact that he keeps getting put on the field day after day while one player makes one defensive mishap gets sat out for a game seems like a terrible strategy. And it’s not engendering confidence in the fan base, either. My feelings on Olivo are literally nothing compared to what I’ve seen around the internet and in talking to people about this team. Fans are not happy about the fact that he is getting game time; and even the recent home runs are not going to change that.

I also find myself interested in the way that Wedge has been using the bullpen. April is just coming to a close, and already it’s easy to tell who will be sent out to throw when the game is going badly for Seattle. Do we really have that little confidence in Hisashi Iwakuma, Erasmo Ramirez, and Lucas Luetge? Steve Delabar and Tom Wilhelmsen have already earned their yearly paychecks. Because I am not a baseball manager, I usually tend to believe that regardless of how I personally feel about what’s being done with the lineup, surely there has to be a reason for the calls made and the lineups set out. Baseball people know what they’re doing, right? I should just keep my opinions to myself and let the baseball team be the baseball team. But I am disappointed in the lack of Iwakuma; he’s been playing major league baseball for a month and has thrown five innings. Five. That’s it. Keeping him in the pen and not using him is not going to improve his numbers.

If I saw Olivo being held accountable for the things he’s done (or not done) so far this season, I might feel like all players on this team were being held equally as accountable for their actions. And I know that Brendan Ryan is one of the team’s darlings, and fans love him, so it seems like more of a slight when a popular player is benched and a less popular one is not. But the fact that Olivo has not yet been held accountable for any of his errors doesn’t not demonstrate that all players are equal here, and it certainly feels like Eric Wedge either doesn’t see or doesn’t care what Olivo does behind the plate. And I don’t know which is more offputting from a fan standpoint. All I know is that I’m a huge advocate for justice in all forms, and it doesn’t feel like justice is being served here. It feels like Eric Wedge is ignoring badness where it’s convenient for him to do so, and the rest of us get to watch the results of that call in glorious HD.

This isn’t the criticism it might seem like. I want to be proven wrong. I will still hope that Miguel Olivo hits well, throws well, and doesn’t allow his pitchers to throw “wild” (and that is in quotes because of the dubious nature of a wild pitch during yesterday’s game), and calls a good game. I will do this because Eric Wedge isn’t giving me a choice. I will also do it because I am a Mariners fan and ultimately the team’s success as a whole is what matters. But just once, once, I would like to see things handled a little differently. One home run does not eliminate the throwing error on a pickoff attempt that allowed a runner to score yesterday. It just doesn’t. So I am going to hope that Wedge levels the playing field a little by sending the same message to Olivo that the rest of us want sent; give him a rest for a game. Surely he could use it.

EDIT: I got all drunk on power there for a minute and forgot to mention how sad I am at the passing of George Sherrill’s elbow. Not really sure how one obtains the need for Tommy John surgery when one spends so much time not actually using his arm, but it has happened, and there is little the rest of us can do about it. I was really looking forward to having a healthy number 52 back in our midst, but baseball does not care what I want. Here is hoping Sherrill’s surgery goes smoothly, his recovery quickly.

The sweep of the Tigers pleased me greatly, I just didn’t have time to write about it. I was able to listen to yesterday’s game on the radio at work, though. I find that if I set the portable radio off to the side of my desk and turn it a certain way, I can get decent reception. There is still a high-pitched airwave whine just under the sound of game, and if I try and take it with me anywhere else on my floor the reception is hit-or-miss depending on where I’m standing, but I can indeed listen to the day games at work. I feel like I’ve eaten a bunch of sand after it’s over, but I can do it.

Tigers players suffered for their crime of allowing a sweep. Adam Wilk was sent down to their Triple A affiliate literally minutes after losing to Felix Hernandez. Yesterday, Brandon Inge got cut from the roster entirely. And this morning, it came to light that Delmon Young decided to get drunk last night and physically assault, allegedly, a Jewish panhandler, in what is being called a possible hate crime. I would never have thought that the Mariners would have the ability to cause such chaos for other teams. Feel the power of .500!  The Mariners batting lineup, for its part, has been exhibiting a little power and a a lot more contact, which is great to see. Justin Smoak and Miguel Olivo both took some chunks out of Rick Porcello yesterday, to the delighted surprise of just about everyone on Twitter (I fire the internet up at work for the important plays, sure) me included. It was a nice series to see, especially considering the amount of anger that seems to have been building up in the fanbase everywhere lately. I sometimes get the feeling that Mariners fans are always looking for a reason to be angry with everything the team does. Can’t be angry at a sweep. We needed it.

Tonight’s series opener with the Jays in Toronto started off a little slow. Granted I was focused on elevating my knee (I’ve re-aggravated my hyperextension again) and checking Twitter and trying to catch up on email, but outside of a little well-played small ball to score our first run in the third, it was just another low-scoring game. When the Ms tied things up in the top of the 7th, I perked up a bit more. We went through three pitchers in the bottom of that inning, in an attempt to keep the Blue Jays at bay. There was a lot of pressure put on all three of them, and whan Lucas Luetge gave up a line drive to Adam Lind with two out, I figured the inning was as good as done in the Jays’ favor. But that line drive went to Ichiro, who easily fielded it, then shipped it all the way to Miguel Olivo, who dove out of his way to tag JP Arencibia out just as he was making a wide slide into home. Yeah, it’s only one play; but nobody makes that play like Ichiro Suzuki, and it’s the kind of thing that puts just a bit of frosting on the cupcake of Miguel Olivo. I think I have just officially run out of metaphors.

Tom Wilhelmsen was our final pitcher in the 8th inning, but his wheels came off pretty quickly, and the Jays managed two runs off of him. Francisco Cordero took over the closing game for Toronto, and Michael Saunders, surviving off the taunts of the Canadian crowd, too him long out to center field to seal the score up a little bit and make it a one-run game. Miguel Olivo didn’t exercise the same patience that Saunders did, and got two swinging strikes before popping out over left field. Kyle Seager replaced Casper Wells, and it looked like the game might be over as he lined out to third base. But a throwing error granted him the bag, keeping the game alive. Munenori Kawasaki came out to pinch run for Seager, and Cordero played a little cat-and-mouse for a while, trying to pick him off while Dustin Ackley patiently waited. The whole situation seemed to jangle the Jays. JP Arencibia caught a pitch and tried to pick Kawasaki off from the plate, but wound up overthrowing by a great deal, and Kawasaki took great advantage of it, racing all the way to third base. Cordero instead decided to simply put Ackley on base.

With two outs and men at the corners, John Jaso came to the plate. Jaso put the 6th pitch he saw into play, right into what should have been the waiting glove of Jays center fielder Colby Rasmus. Rasmus dove when he maybe shouldn’t have, though, and the ball went under his glove and bounced off his throwing hand. This resulted in Kawasaki scoring to tie it. Dustin Ackley was sent home by third base coach Jeff Datz, but was gunned out at the plate by cutoff man Kelly Johnson at second. Little Charlie Furbush took care of the Blue Jays in order. He had to do it with 20 pitches, since Edwin Encarnacion put up such a fight, but he still did it.

Extra frames gave the Mariners a chance to load the bases with one out by hitting everything through the gap in left field.

And then it happened.

Michael Saunders, weary of being  bullied the entire game by a stadium full of his countrymen, took a Luis Perez slider, the fourth pitch he saw, over the wall in right field! Everyone goes home, including most of the Jays’ fans, who left their seats and headed for the exits en masse. Game at 9-5, Mariners. And it was not over yet.

Brandon League threw 8 pitches. Then it was over.

I have to be honest, I didn’t know what to think about this game when it started. This team looked like an entirely different team than the one that got perfecto’d by Phil Humber last week. There was plate patience, there were singles, there was power hitting; it’s like last week’s Mariners don’t exist any more. I’m not ready to cast doubt to the wind just yet, but this was an impressive game; and I would have said the same thing even without the win. If the team keeps this style of play up, the rest of this year is going to be a lot more fun to watch. Well done, boys, well done!

Earlier today, this news came down about Michael Pineda. I saw it via Twitter, but didn’t have much time to do any reading about it. What a shame. I’m not being sarcastic about that, either. I was not happy about the loss of Pineda from our roster, and now I’m just sad for him altogether. Yankees fans would never have appreciated him the way we did, and now they’ll never get the opportunity to really see what we saw while he was here. And poor Pineda, going to a team that every player would love to play for, and having to ditch his first season there because of an injury. It sucks all around. If you’re looking for any gloating here, you won’t find it. I just feel awful about the whole situation. I can be happy that it didn’t happen here, that we didn’t have to lose him and scramble to find a replacment, but that doesn’t really go far. They say 12 months for recovery, and it probably will be, but I hope it is less, for Pineda’s sake. He may never be the same guy again. I’d like to indulge in the belief that he will be, but after seeing what Erik Bedard went through with his labrum issues, I fear the worst. Get better soon, Big Mike!

I got home in time for the second inning of today’s game, just in time to see the Mariners take three runs from the Tigers. This was in addition to the one they already had in the first inning via a series of singles. By the time dinner was ready and large dark clouds were hovering over my house, the Mariners had grabbed two more runs, giving Felix a nice comfy six-run lead.

In the bottom of the third inning, Brennan Boesch took the second pitch he saw and pulled it into the deck above right field. I don’t care how bad a pitch it was, or how impatient Boesch might have been to hit it, it’s got to feel pretty sweet to hit a dinger against Felix Hernandez. Not that I approve, but I’m not an all-or-nothing fan, so might as well give Detroit a run. I have a bit of a soft spot for the Tigers and for Detroit as a city. If the Mariners had traded Adam Jones to Detroit in my more formative baseball years, perhaps my relationship with the Tigers would be the same as my relationship with the Orioles; but it was not in the cards, so I must admire Detroit from afar.

Felix’s final line was 7 innings, 1 run, 4 hits, 3 walks, and only two strikeouts, but the Tigers only had 5 hits up to that point, so I can forgive the lack of strikeouts because obviously the Mariners fielders were doing their job tonight, and there was nothing to worry about. Felix was relieved by Lucas Luetge (did it without looking), who had a nice smooth 8th inning, throwing 10 pitches, allowing one hit and getting two strikeouts. Not too shabby, and it’s nice to see someone other than Steve Delabar or Tom Wilhelmsen on the hill. Not that I mind either pitcher, but we have a bullpen full; let’s use it!

Erasmo Ramirez was sent into the 9th in lieu of Brandon League, and his first pitch was up by first batter Prince Fielder’s noggin, a 95MPH fastball. Fielder did not look happy about it, but Fielder has looked pretty glum the past two nights anyway, and I am guessing that having a baseball thrown up near your face is probably not going to make you smile at the thought of how much it would tickle. Fielder got a single out of it soon after, but I see a plunking in our future. Slow motion replay showed that there was no way that the near-miss was on purpose; I think Ramirez was just trying to pitch high in the zone and it wound up curling inwards and up. It happens. Whether or not it will be forgiven remains to be seen. Delmon Young sacrificed his turn to run in order to move Fielder to second with a grounder out. Alex Avila was the next victim with a swinging strike out, and it occurred to me that no, the Tigers are probably NOT too terribly happy about having a series taken away from them by the same team that just got swept by one of their division rivals.

Jhonny Peralta took a walk on four balls, and Ramon Santiago singled to right field to load the bases. I had a moment of terror, because it’s the Mariners and stranger things have happened with a large lead, but Don Kelly popped out on a 78MPH changeup, and the Mariners win 9-1 and take the series.

At this point in the season, Michael Saunders has had about a third as many plate appearances as he had with the Ms last year. His SLG is twice what it was during that short time. He has 5 RBI so far this year compared with the 8 from last year. He was batting below Mendoza only a few days ago, and now sits somewhere around .230 (FanGraphs hasn’t updated just yet, I don’t think, so I’m not sure of the exact percentage). That whole rubber band training from earlier in ST doesn’t seem so funny now, does it? I will be keen to see if he can keep it up, but for now it seems like he’s warmed up at least a little bit. I miss Franklin Gutierrez’s defense, but Saunders has been hitting, and that is what we need, so I’m totally content with this. Everyone was swinging and making contact tonight, and that is nothing to complain about.

So things are looking up for us now, which is great. I hope that some of the fans who were disappointed in the team’s performance against Chicago last week can find a little solace in these two wins, and especially in the 15 hits from tonight’s game. The Tigers may take tomorrow’s afternoon game away from us, and that is fine. But for now?

I am exhausted from what turned out to be a nearly-four hour game down in Tacoma last night, and the subsequent drive back to Seattle. I’m useless these days without a good 7-8 hours sleep, and I am stuck here with less than six, so this is going to be a bit of a chore here.

My friend Justin and I drove down to Tacoma yesterday afternoon, winding up at Cheney Stadium a little earlier than I had thought we would. On the rare occasions I make it to a Rainiers game, I normally leave West Seattle somewhere between 4.30 and 5 to try and avoid as much of the weekday rush hour as possible, and usually still wind up getting stuck in some mess down around Fife. But it looks like the newly-completed ramp to 16W has taken some of the pressure off the roadways down there, and by 5.25 or so, we were forking over a five-spot to the kids who man the parking attendant checkpoint. I have not been to Cheney since the remodel, and was happy to be greeted by its new facade:

That is quite a change! I park all the way out there because it’s easier to leave. Don’t tell anyone, it’s a trade secret.

We got our tickets and hung around on a bench out front for a half hour, chatting and waiting. When the gates finally opened, we wandered around to see what our food options might be for later, and I grabbed a pint of beer before we went to our seats. Anthony Vasquez (who is starting tonight, coincidentally) was sitting and waiting to give autographs to whomever might want them. I debated it for a few seconds, then decided against it. I’m still not that person.

Those of you who haven’t been to the revamped stadium yet should know that the main structure is still intact; the exposed underside of the stadium that used to be home to the bathrooms and the main concession stand is now home to the bathrooms and a lot of wall. The concessions have been moved to the outer side of the interior yard. In the photo above, if you look at the section of building off to the right side of the staircase on the ground level, on that side and the mirroring side of the ticket office in the middle there are the concessions.

Here’s what things look like inside:

The view from our seats in section M, over the (now) visitor’s dugout and first base line.

View of the field, which looks pretty much the same, until you take a little bit of a closer look…

Is that a bullpen? It sure is! A nice, safe, fenced-in. nobody-gets-hurt-with-a-foul bullpen.

The outfield looks pretty much the same…

And where those rickety bleachers used to be by right field, a lovely well-kept grass berm:

Even the lower box seats are a little more set apart from the rest of the seating now, and there is order-from-your-seat service down there now. Either that, or that woman was really into carrying beer around on trays.

So we sat there for a while, Justin checking his fantasy basketball team’s progress, and me taking pictures as the Rainiers wandered out onto the field and started to warm up.

Guillermo Quiroz, getting ready.

I don’t know what is happening here. He did it for quite some time. I am thinking either stretching or praying, because the alternative involves him running around in a circle with his forehead on the bat and trying to run a straight line, and sadly that never happened.

Just before the National Anthem (sung by a local school or church group, I did not catch which), we went out to grab some food so we could get back to our seats before the game started. I got fish and chips, and Justin had a salmon burger and fries. My dinner was way better than any food I’ve ever had at Cheney before, and Justin’s food not only looked great, but he verified that it was in fact excellent. I am pleased to see the upgrade; part of what I never liked about going there was the fact that the food was so run-of-the-mill. There have been definite improvements made. The stadium also boasts a “best hot dog in baseball” which I did not get to try yesterday, but might have to go back for. I do love a challenge.

A full stomach and a “Play Ball” kid later, the game was underway, with Forrest Snow starting on the hill for Tacoma.

And while Snow did all the work, Shawn Kelley sat around being lazy…

Had I any way of knowing what would happen during this game, I would have brought a note pad to try and describe it. If you want a game recap, the News-Tribune has one here. Snow was pelted pretty hard in the first inning, with the Grizzlies grabbing 3 runs off of him before he settled down and got some work done. And the first few innings were just difficult to watch. In the bottom of the first, with no men out, no men on, and no runs scored, Trayvon Robinson did this:

What you are seeing (in case it’s not obvious) is Trayvon Robinson attempting to bunt. He also showed bunt, which is why bunting never works. With a score of 3-0 in the first inning of a game with nobody to move forward, Trayvon Robinson attempted to bunt. I am still busy trying to figure out if this was manager Darren Brown’s decision, or if Robinson just became creative on his own. But the fun doesn’t stop there…Luis Rodriguez did the same thing. Both men wound up out. I know this is a huge shock to anyone reading this. Were it not for the following three singles and some awful pitching on Fresno’s part, that first run might never have come in.

The game continued on, and the bullpen picked up some more people to hang out with…

In the fourth inning, Snow took a comebacker to the ankle, forcing him to his knees in the dirt.

There was a delay while teammates and coaching staff came out and checked on him…

When it was determined that Snow was alright after some warmup tosses, the game resumed. Unfortunately, Snow must still have been reeling a little from that ball, because the Grizzlies fetched two more runs that inning from him. Things started looking pretty bleak for Tacoma, and even though I like to say I’m used to it and joke about the way things go for fans of all things Mariners, it was a little depressing. But it’s never over until it’s over.

The Rainiers managed to threaten a little in the bottom of the 4th, with a single, and a walk, but Johan Limonta made good and sure we wouldn’t get far (that’s sarcasm), grounding out to end the inning. As he started to wind down a little, Snow was replaced in the 5th inning with a fellow named Brian Sweeney, who held his own until the 8th inning. throwing 2.2 innings, allowing 4 hits, no walks, no runs, and one strikeout.

The rest of the game, well, the recap is here. But the writing there is just words, and doesn’t do justice to some of the bizarre flubs, throwing and fielding errors, and general confusion that contributed to what started from around the 6th inning to turn into a rubber game worthy of Miguel Batista himself. I looked at the clock in the 6th inning, and upon seeing the time hovering around 9.15, figured I was right on pace to be home by around 11pm. I could not have been more wrong. The Grizzlies stalled. They had mound conferences. They attempted pickoffs. They used four more pitchers. Reliever Shane Loux got ejected by the home plate umpire, though I am not sure for what. What should have taken maybe an hour turned into an hour and 45 minutes.

And while Fresno spent their time panicking and going through their bullpen like they were at a Black Friday sale, Oliver Perez took Sweeney’s place in the top of the 8th and finished out the pitching game. The Rainiers offense in turn took it upon themselves to tie the game in the 8th inning, and after more stalling than I may have ever seen by an opposing ball club, finally won the game with a walk-off single from Carlos Triunfel.

Everybody hugs, and I get to go home and sleep.

Were it not for Justin, I might not have made it through. He may be my new favorite person to go to a game with. He’s a Seahawks fan, and he’s loud. Being at a ‘Hawks game, though, is not like being at a minor league ballpark, and he spent most of the last part of the game keeping me awake and some of the people sitting around us entertained. I took some time to live-Tweet his anti-Fresno taunts during the game, and it would not surprise me in the least if he and some guy up in the suites were audible over the radio broadcast. It was a great night and a great win made better by my two cozy jackets, and I will try and not let so much time go by before I make my way down to see the Rainiers again.

Oh, and I also got to see mascot Rhubarb get lightly taunted by a police officer carrying a taser, so that was kind of funny.

As I post this, the Mariners post-game show is on, and the Mariners have just secured a win against the Detroit Tigers with Jason Vargas getting that win, and Brandon League getting the save he should have gotten last week when Felix was pitching. So smiles all around from this little corner of the internet. Felix will go up against Adam Wilk in Detroit tomorrow, and I hope the bats can pull out some offense for him this time. Meanwhile, I am sleepy and need to start thinking about getting some make-up rest, and I have no proper sign off or ending to this post. Good night!

I am not reading anything else about yesterday’s failure to launch. Occasionally when I’m not completely sure of what I want to say, I take time to comb over other blogs and news articles and see if anything analysis-wise piques my interest, or maybe shakes me out of any shock I might feel after a game like yesterday’s. But I’m not going to do that this time.

So it was a disappointing game. I don’t know if I would have felt the same way if I had actually been there, but I was sitting in an office 21 stories above the street, and less than a mile away, listening to events unfold on the radio; so it was really just depressing, not exciting, hearing at-bat after at-bat against Phil Humber wasted. Humber threw less than 100 pitches over 9 innings. I didn’t see this game, and work got in the way of me trying to multi-task as far as truly hearing the radio a lot, but based on that information, I would assume that the Mariners batting lineup were just hacking at anything that was thrown to them. The fact that Humber gave up no walks further drives that home. So regardless of what Eric Wedge said during this interview, the fact of the matter is, our batting order lacked discipline in a way that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before. Humber wasn’t doing anything original. He threw 97 pitches, about 2/3 of those for strikes. That’s pretty normal. I know I’ve made jokes about this in the past, but was this really a game that was a victory for Humber, or was it simply yet another defeat in a long list of Mariners defeats? Maybe you could say a little of both, but I’m not so sure that’s true.

If I had been there, I probably would have cheered Humber on towards number 21. Or at least sat in stunned silence as it happened and waited around after the game to take a lot of pictures, like so many other people did. It was history being made, after all, and it’s fun to see baseball history being made, right?

I really don’t want to get down on the Mariners this year. Not yet. But so far I feel like I’ve been more annoyed with baseball than having fun with it. And the fact that I am annoyed makes me more even more annoyed, until I am this massive ball of annoyance, and then I just don’t feel like I’m having fun anymore. This team is a team that I don’t hate. I’ve even been liking Chone Figgins so far this year, and that’s treading some dangerous waters. I don’t even really mind Miguel Olivo, not technically. But we can’t keep walking down this path.

In the last post I made, I was talking about being apprehensive about this season. I don’t know if it’s just what’s happened to me so far with the home opener, or if it’s what I’ve been reading online or talking about with people in daily life, but I am getting the distinct feeling that a lot of fans are just as concerned about the season – this early in the season – as I am. Even though this past Friday was my do-over night, there was just something about the vibe in the stadium that felt a little off to me. In spite of the loss on Friday, I had a pretty decent time, stayed warm, even got some fish and chips, and Tom seemed to enjoy himself too. But the general atmosphere of everything seemed sort of off to me. There is something I can’t quite place my finger on, but watching the Mariners play is sort of becoming a chore.

Yeah, it was only one game yesterday. And the day before. And the day before that. It is hard to gain perspective when perspective involves so many losses so soon. So I just went to the standings listings, hoping to gain some perspective. Here it is. Maybe I shouldn’t be so down on the Ms after all. I mean, we’re level with Oakland, and we’re ahead of the Angels by a half a game. If the Angels lose to the Orioles and we can pull one out today against John Danks…oh, dear….

I don’t want to end this on a bad note, so I have some pictures from Friday night’s game, a game during which Tom and I never made it to our seats because we were watching things from the Lookout Landing over left field, then towards the end from the main concourse over right. I never had to put on all three jackets, and the sunset was beautiful even if the game being played on the field might not have been. I talked to a White Sox fan who shortly lamented the loss of Mark Buehrle to the Marlins, then echoed my general sentiments about the transitional phase of the Sox to a group of younger players. It was a good night, really.

Hector Noesi in the wind up.

An as-yet unidentified Sox player getting a small lead on Justin Smoak.

Brendan Ryan and AJ Pierzynski, who I think I’m just going to lay off of for a while. I am not a fan, but he doesn’t deserve most of my ire, and I’m not entirely sure why I harbor any ill will against him. Rumors, maybe.

Miguel Olivo, hacking. The ball is already in Pierzynski’s glove.

Dustin Ackley, taking.  I have seen more Ackley jerseys at the stadium already this year, which makes me very happy. I hope he lives up to the amount of love that fans have already started to give him.

Hisashi Iwakuma getting ready to fire one off. I was happy to see him in the game.

Jesus Montero, getting ready to swing.

Ball in the dirt.

I appreciate any patience readers can provide with me while I get the feel for the new camera. It’s coming along nicely though.

Tomorrow, if the weather holds up, I am going to see a baseball game. My original plan was to drive myself and my friend Justin up to Everett to see what I thought was a UW Huskies game against a smaller Seattle college. Justin is finishing up his degree at UW currently, so I thought it would be fun. It turns out, however, that I got the schools mixed up, and it’s actually the Cougars, not the Huskies that will be playing up at Everett Memorial Stadium. I got a bit of scorn via text message from Justin, but that is what you get from someone whose state college days are long behind her, and who has a trade degree from Edmonds Community. All was not lost, though, and it turns out that the Tacoma Rainiers are playing a game against the Fresno Grizzlies. I wish it was the Las Vegas 51s, but beggars/choosers/ etc. So hopefully the weather stays nice and I will get my first visit to the newly-renovated Cheney Stadium.

In the meantime, however, the weather is nice today, so I’m going to spend it outside some, maybe watching, but most likely  listening to a little Mariners baseball, and enjoying what are supposed to be above-70s temperatures. I will look forward to my next visit to Safeco Field, which is happening on the 4th of May, Justin Smoak Train Night! Mostly, I will just continue hoping for the best for my Ms and believing that things will get better. It’s still early in the season, after all.

I didn’t write on Wednesday because I was tired, and I didn’t even make it through yesterday’s game because I was even more tired. I was so tired in fact, that the last thing  I remember before falling asleep on the couch is the 2nd inning, then Felix’s victory scream after his last strikeout in the top of the 8th inning (maybe?), then hearing something either on TV or the rest of the house, and realizing that the game was over. In my haze, I saw a score of 0-1, so  I went to bed think that we had won. A text conversation with my friend Jessica this morning revealed that in fact we had lost 2-1. I was immediately glad I had not gone on Twitter to talk about how happy I was to take the series from the Indians. To say I’m disappointed in Brandon League is putting it lightly; but he’s not the only one. Our bats obviously didn’t do anything against Cleveland, either. Not like on Wednesday or even the night before. I just saw this article over at Lookout Landing. This bit pretty much reflects my reaction when I heard the news:

Almost an entire game. All that was left after Felix was three outs, but we trust Brandon League to get three outs, because Brandon League is good, and three outs aren’t hard. When Felix left the mound – when Felix shuffled off the mound, roared and lurched and pumped off the mound – that was it. It never even crossed my mind that Brandon League could blow it. I had forgotten blown saves. I remember them now.

It’s the beginning of the year, but I totally get this. Even as I am happy for the new season, I am apprehensive about it. Not for me, but for the team. I don’t have much time right now to go into that thought, but I might hold onto it and revisit soon.

Today, though, I am very much awake and ready to go back to Safeco and see some baseball. The White Sox’s Chris Sale goes up against Hector Noesi, and though I have not really had a good amount of time to warm up to Noesi, I am excited about going back to the field and trying this again. I just feel like if I have a good experience tonight, then I can go into the rest of the year feeling positive and really looking forward to things, like I can just settle in and enjoy the rest of the season. Maybe that sounds ridiculous and trite, but I just want a regular night at the ballpark. I want to be able to give it another go; I want to be able to write a happy post about an early-year experience at a ball game. In about 4 hours, I get my chance.

First of all, if you didn’t see it earlier here, you might have seen it here, or maybe here…and if none of those places, then you will see it in probably a bunch of places tomorrow, when the news has some time to circulate. The Mariners are offering makeup tickets to home games for the next 30 days or so. It was mentioned via Mariners Mail, the ROOT Sports NW TV broadcast, and multiple news sources Tweeted and re-Tweeted it just prior to the start of tonight’s game against the Cleveland Indians. This is a lovely gesture. The Sounders have done such things in the past, (their ticket make-up was due to shoddy play, not issues with anything outside the team – but it is still something that is almost unheard of, it seems), and I think it was the best possible move the Ms could have made. I would have been content with them just fixing things so that it doesn’t happen again next year, but this is a step in the right direction, as far as how the Mariners deal with their fans on a more personal level. The momentum from last year shouldn’t stop; the team’s foray into social media was an excellent idea, and has < think, been successful in getting fans to feel a little more like the team cares about the people who pay them to play baseball. The people behind the Mariners are not nameless and faceless, and this is all thanks to their marketing folks making themselves available to the general public. I didn’t know what to expect with this situation, but I think this move speaks volumes, and I commend the folks in charge for making the decision. I will definitely be taking advantage of it.

Tonight’s game was an interesting one, and it did not start off well. Kevin Millwood had a lot of left-handed batters to face, and spent a lot of the first inning pelting the upper outside corner of the strike zone at them, giving up two hits and a run during that time. The second inning was pretty much 1-2-3 for both Millwood and opposing pitcher Justin Masterson, but the third inning was the tipping point for the Mariners, with a two-run homer from John Jaso, then Masterson completely collapsed in the 4th inning, loading up the bases and walking several runs in, including the 25,000th in the history of the team. This game also saw the 50,000th hit in the team’s history (courtesy of Kyle Seager), so keep that in your mental Rolodex for next year’s Mariners Melee trivia at FanFest; because I may forget it by tomorrow. Maybe not tomorrow. By the time I’m 50. So I have a little under 10 years to relive the glory of this game. I’ll try not to abuse it.

The Indians may have given us 6 runs in the 4th, but Cleveland giveth and Cleveland taketh back with a vengeance. The Indians completely  battered Millwood, taking back 6 runs of their own in the top of the 5th until the score had shifted back to a one-run game. Millwood was kindly asked to leave the mound after throwing 4 full innings of 9-hit, 7 run, 6 earned run, 83-pitch ball. Erasmo Ramirez replaced him, but all for naught. Ramirez loaded the bases and then gave up the tying run before Charlie Furbush was brought in to replace him with a tied game at 8-8.

Furbush didn’t have a terribly easy top 7th. He gave up a single and a walk, but then as Tom Wilhelmsen started to warm up in the bullpen, Furbush changed his tune and threw some curveballs to get ex-Mariners Casey Kotchman and Jack Hannahan both out swinging before Wilhelmsen took the mound to allow a single RBI to Jason Donald. Michael Brantley grounded out to second, but with one run up and it now being a relievers game, anything could happen.

The Indians brought in a reliever named Joe Smith. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Joe Smith. He is a side-armer approaching a submarine delivery, so I should remember him. But his name is Joe Smith so maybe not.

In the bottom of the 9th inning, Kyle Seager singled, as did Jesus Montero. Montero’s hit was listed as “ground ball to center fielder Michael Brantley, deflected by shortstop Jason Donald”. Nowhere does it mention that Donald deflected the hopper with his face. Donald was lucky that the ball bounced first, because taking a line drive to the jaw like he did would have definitely resulted in some time spent on the disabled list. After some checking from Cleveland’s medical staff, he got up and was ready to go again, the right lower side of his face red in the cold. Michael Saunders saw many pitches from reliever Chris Perez, then flew out to shallow left field for the second out. Brendan Ryan was our final hope, and took a walk after almost being called out on strikes with a tightly checked swing. John Jaso came up and everyone left in the stands went nuts as the bases loaded up.

John Jaso took a few pitches before flying out to shallow-ish right field, as the noise of the crowd abruptly died. Bummer.

So tonight I did something I’ve been wanting to do for about a week now. Brooks Baseball has scatter charts for pitchers to show location, calls, speed, and other factors for both pitchers and batters. But I’m not great at reading these damn things yet, so I made my own location chart, for Kevin Millwood, with the help  of Game Day. It wound up looking like this:

Yes, I’m sure your four-year-old nephew could do this, but I’m still new at the science-y side of the game, so first things, first, right? It’s not 100% accurate, but I’m pretty confident I got most of them on here. Even the pitch that wound up in the dirt in the top of the 1st. Most of Cleveland’s lineup were left handed tonight, so you can see where Millwood spent a lot of time trying to avoid them in the outside upper corner of the strike zone. It’s not scientific by any stretch, but unless I just don’t know where to look, Game Day doesn’t show this view of where all pitches fall – so far as I can tell, once they’re gone there, they’re gone, and all you have is type and speed in the game summary. In any event, this was a fun little thing to do, and it represents part of Kevin Millwood’s four innings tonight.

So that is that. In spite of the loss, this was an entertaining game to watch. Glad I got to do it from the warmth of my house, but thanks to the Mariners makeup game offer, I’ll be out of here and back at the field sooner rather than later. For now, though, 5AM comes awfully early for those of us who are still up at 11. Cheers and goodnight!

Fresh from ye olde email inbox:

Many of our fans who attended Opening Night at Safeco Field on Friday, April 13, experienced long lines at concession stands due to a failure of the software system that operates cash registers and credit card transactions. Because of that, the fan experience at Safeco Field was not up to our high standards and that is unacceptable. We are sorry.

Please come back to Safeco Field, as our guest, for any Mariners home game in April or May. There are 18 games you can choose from (beginning Wednesday, April 18). Each make-good ticket will come pre-loaded with a free $5 TicketPlu$ credit that can be redeemed at Safeco Field concession stands.

We know that this offer can’t take away the anger and frustration that many fans experienced with long lines at concession stands, but we hope you will give us a second chance to provide a great experience at Safeco Field.

Anyone with an Opening Night ticket stub or proof of purchase can claim their make-good tickets at any Mariners Team Store or the Safeco Field box office beginning April 18. The tickets will be in the same seating level as your Opening Night tickets (Suite, Diamond Club, All-Star Club and Hit It Here Café ticket holders will receive a choice of Main or Club Level tickets). If you don’t have your ticket stub or proof of purchase, please call our customer service line at 206-346-4001 between 8:30am-5:30pm for assistance.

Thank you for your continued support of Mariners Baseball and we hope to see you soon at Safeco Field.

HELL YES I WILL.

Thank you, Mariners, I may be seeing you sooner than I anticipated.

More later…

Yesterday was a little, uh, exciting, after my morning post, so I took the evening off. I watched the game with some friends, and we grilled some chicken skewers and chatted and I tried to chill out on my “Friday” as much as possible. Had a few online run-ins with people who chose to miss the point of my complaints about the home opener, but that is going to have to be their problem, not mine. Having someone marginalize you when they don’t fully understand what they’re talking about is always frustrating, but it’s not something I care enough about to attempt to fix. “Haters gonna hate”, as the kids say these days.

I woke up really early this morning, and debated going to the game, but it became apparently that my bank account was really not into that idea. I am trying to save some money to buy some replacement furniture, so spending money on a game was not much of an option. I had another opportunity offered to me, but by the time that occurred I had already kind of mentally set up my Sunday, so I had to decline. My first season game is the first Saturday in May. I wish I could get back there sooner and sort of have a do-over for Friday, but I just don’t think I have the time or money to make that happen.

Today was Jackie Robinson Day. I love Jackie Robinson Day because hey, Jackie Robinson. I hate Jackie Robinson Day because if I’m not terribly familiar with the players on the opposing team, everyone’s wearing number 42, and I’m hosed. Hate is too strong a word, though. So maybe I’m just lightly annoyed by Jackie Robinson Day, while at the same time thinking it’s really cool. Let’s go with that.

Brendan Ryan got things started off right for the Ms in the second inning by pulling a ball over the left field hand-operated scoreboard, driving both himself and Kyle Seager home. Justin Smoak followed up with another one in the third inning, a screamer into the right field lower deck. The A’s were not interested in letting us get too far ahead, however, and tied it up on the 5th. Blake Beavan allowed both Kila Ka’iahue and Anthony Recker on base via a single and an HBP, respectively, and Eric Sogard hit a home run on a 90MPH fastball left in the top middle of the strike zone.

The Ms did not leave the A’s their lead for long. Ichiro took an outfield double away from A’s pitcher Graham Godfrey, sending Chone Figgins home and Dustin Ackley to third. Jesus Montero, the last batter of the inning, took 7 pitches of speeds running the gamut from 75MPH to 90MPH before being called out on strikes, but a 3-5 game in our favor is much more cozy than a tied game.

Montero was evidently kind of hot about the strike call, because he got into it with the home plate umpire for a few moments at the beginning of the 5th inning. I saw some yelling and Eric Wedge shaking his head from the dugout, and then business as usual, so whatever it was that was said or done was resolved fairly quickly.

Blake Beavan lasted 7 full innings before he was replaced by Tom Wilhelmsen. Wilhelmsen gave a walk to Coco Crisp, but that was as far as things went; Seth Smith moved Crisp to second with a ground out, but Yoenis Cespedes struck out swinging and Josh Reddick grounded out to first.

It was all Brandon League’s game in the top of the 9th, and I was thinking that it wasn’t really an easy one, but in retrospect, I guess it wasn’t all that bad. A little drama maybe, but not enough to cause any worry. League made Cliff Pennington ground out, but Kila Ka’aihue (by the end of the season, I will do that without looking) obtained first on a line drive to left field. Daric Barton took over Anthony Recker’s position in the lineup and got to first one what could have possibly been a game-ending double play. Eric Sogard saw only two pitches before he lined out suddenly to Dustin Ackley covering the gap between first and second base, and before I really had any time to think about it, the game was over, the Ms take the series from Oakland, and I get a complete day tomorrow to just reset everything.

I think the next game I am going to try and make it to will be the Justin Smoak Train night on Friday the 4th of May. I have a season ticket for the 5th, and that is all very well and good, but I just figured out earlier today that I should have a train car for every year I’ve been a fan; I think. I seem to be missing one or two, but I don’t know if it’s because I really don’t have them all, or if one of the cats might be responsible for pulling them off the shelf in our spare room. I’ll figure it out.

Everyone have a nice day off. Reset on Tuesday, the Cleveland Indians come and visit. We’re already quite aware of how we do against the A’s and the Rangers, let’s see what the AL Central has to offer.

Initially I wasn’t going to write about my experience on opening night. If anyone who reads this was following me on Twitter last night, you probably saw me unleash a multi-Tweet tirade about what happened, and really that should be enough. But I feel I would be remiss if I just glossed over it all. Plus, before that, I was having a pretty good time, and a lot of fun using the new camera, and if I don’t write about it, it just wouldn’t feel true to me. I have cooled down a lot by this morning, but this post will likely sound as if I haven’t. I’d like to make it clear that I am not upset at the people I know who work there. I don’t know what happened exactly or how it could have been prevented, but this was my opening night…

I got out of work around 3PM, after getting up at 5AM to make it to work an hour early so I could flex my schedule. The last two hours of work were torturous. I just wanted to be at the game, say hi to some folks I knew, and get down to baseball. I met Tom at Temple Billiards, grabbed a beer, and soon enough people started filing in. Fellow Mariners enthusiast Paul Marsh and his brother in law and another friend showed up; I believe some of the Lookout Landing crew had planned to meet there around 5; but I couldn’t wait, I was excited to get to the game. So Tom and I finished our beers, and walked down Occidental to the stadium. The crowds weren’t really opening day crowds. We didn’t even have to wait in a line to get into The Pen entrance. Once inside, there were more people, but it was easy enough to grab another beer before their happy hour ended, chat with the concessions girl who works there and always recognizes me, and just take in the atmosphere. Neither of us knew what we wanted to eat yet, so we took our time, figuring maybe somewhere in the middle of the game we’d be hungry and go grab a bite. It was a risk I’m sorry I took.

As The Pen started to get more crowded, and it drew closer to 6.30 (and opening ceremonies), we grabbed the elevator up to the 300 section, and took some pictures, and enjoyed the weather. It was the first home opener where the roof was open in years. The sun was out, people seemed in high spirits, and I got a patriotic shot from over center field.

See? Beautiful day for a baseball game.

We strolled around the top deck towards our seating section, and stopped at a concession stand so I could get a hot dog and one last beer. I had been thinking over the past few days that I’d give the new sushi bar a shot, but figured there would be other days, and I just wanted to keep things simple. Tom and I stood in line for a while before I started to notice that all the registers had a little red laser-light blinking on them. This had happened downstairs too, but I didn’t see any signs or hear any conversations in passing that anything was wrong, so I kept waiting. When we got to the front of the line, we were told that the registers could not accept debit or credit cards, and that they were now cash only. Tom fortunately had a $20 in his wallet, and paid for two beers. I put the dog off, thinking we’d wait a few innings and by that time their problems would be fixed.

We found our seats, got settled, and I started taking a bunch of photos to get used to the action of my camera. The opening ceremonies were similar to previous years, but it didn’t matter. I was at a baseball game, I was excited about it, and let’s play ball! They did their red carpet run, where the players come out of the center field gates with fireworks and, this year, a song I really love. This last bit is important, because sports venues rarely play music I like, so seeing all of this happen to a current favorite was starting to make for the perfect evening.

I couldn’t choose just one player to take photos of, and I wanted to add my voice and applause to the crowd as the boy were called out. The colors were marched out by the police and fire departments…

And this was the sight on the field, just prior to the National Anthem, which was sung by a very capable 12-year-old from Alaska.

Just prior to the National Anthem, though, there was a moment of silence for Frank Mattox and Greg Halman. In the moment, I had completely forgotten about this, and it took me by surprise. I stood there and sniffled for a few moments, and Tom put his arm around my shoulder, which only made it worse.Tom’s not a sports guy, but he knows how much it means to me.

If it is one thing the Mariners organization really does excel at, it’s pre-game program time flow. They followed up a sad moment with two happy ones; a young Make-A-Wish girl whose cancer is in remission taking her turn – in full Mariners gear – to run around the bases, and Mike Cameron’s return to Seattle to throw out the first pitch, and announce his retirement as a Mariner.

The ceremonial first pitch was thrown to Cameron’s teammate  – who else – Ichiro. After the pitch, the two gave each other a giant hug and had their pictures taken for posterity.

And then the Play Ball kid, and the King’s Court in full effect, and we have ourselves a ball game!

The lineup was announced again as they took their places on the field to the strains of (if I remember correctly) Nirvana, everyone cheers and freaks out over Felix, we take our seats and it’s game on.

That would be Josh Reddick, he of the mouth guard, taking a single out of the King.

After the second inning, I realized that hunger was starting to get the best of me, and what I really wanted was just some good old-fashioned stadium junk food. A dog, maybe a soft pretzel or a corn dog or something. So we left our seats, and this was the last picture I took from them, thinking that I would be able to get more shots from elsewhere in the field…right?

So we wandered around the top deck towards left field and the Lookout Landing. The lines and crowds seemed strange. People didn’t look particularly happy, for being at a ball park, and the lines were long, like really long, with big crowds of people blocking the walking traffic flow. But still, there was nothing out of the ordinary, really, not that I noticed. We made it to the Lookout Landing Lounge, a new feature of the park. I noticed a girl with a little cardboard bowl of corn dog bites. Perfect! I would eat my baby corn dogs, and take some pictures of the field and the sunset – everything was going to be just fine.

And we waited in line. And waited. And waited. After a good 10 minutes of not really moving much, I realized that the cashiers were just standing behind their machines, looking at the crowd, and that only one person was taking money from anyone. So I decided to ask “Is everyone cash only?” The girl nodded at me, explaining that the machines were down. At this point in time, this was not a problem; I would simply go down to the BECU machine on the main concourse over left center field, take out some cash and go get food. Right? Tom followed me down the stairs, and we pushed our way through an increasingly large and irate crowd, past the King’s Court section (which I hear was just terrible when people who were sitting there were trying to get their shirts), and to the BECU machine. In back of at least 30 other people. We stood there and listened to the drunk guys in front of us talk about it like it was some kind of conspiracy (“This is how they make their money, man!“  *insert straight face from me* The school system and simple economics has failed you, sir), before deciding that maybe the ATMs outside would be a better option. We went down the stairs, and tried to get out the door at the bottom of the stairs, but were stopped by an older gentleman in a Mariners NW green jacket, who told us that we couldn’t leave through that door. The open door he was just standing next to. He instructed us to go towards the entrance to The Pen, so we pushed our way slowly through more people…and found it locked, with no guards or any indication that we could leave. I attempted to talk to a fellow who was letting a couple of police officers, and told him we just wanted out, that was it. He apologized and said he couldn’t let us out. A man in charge of a door couldn’t let us out of a ball park.

Growing increasingly frustrated, we went back up the stairs, and back towards through the mess of people waiting in line for Grounders and to get back to the King’s Court seats, trying to cross an impossible crowd of people. I am probably not conveying exactly how bad the crowd situation was. I have been to less crowded mosh pits at sold out Henry Rollins shows than the group of people I was in last night. If there had been a fire or emergency of any kind, people would have been trampled to death – and I don’t say stuff like that lightly. It was a disaster.

Still, I was not giving up. I had waited through winter for this night, and I wasn’t going to let the failings of a few registers mess things up for me. So we were patient – or rather, I was patient, Tom had just about had enough of everything – and figured we’d go out of the building via another set of stairs in the left field area. We walked down these stairs, and were confronted by two NW green-jacketed employees, who told us we couldn’t get out of those doors, either…

I want to make it absolutely crystal clear that nowhere, NOWHERE, were there any signs or indications that this was the case. I also want to make it clear that these two employees treated us as if we were idiots for even thinking we could walk out of that door of the stadium.

By now, I had the start of a headache related to both stress and a lack of dinner, and I looked at Tom and said “Let’s go.” He stopped me and asked if I was sure, and I said yes. Even if we were able to get money, or food, we would miss the entire game in the time it would take us to acquire both of these things. It was then that Tom noticed a cardboard, handwritten sign on a nearby coffee stand, mentioning that the registers were down. This is where I make another thing completely clear – this was the ONLY sign we saw regarding the register situation. There were no signs anywhere, no announcement made over the PA (which would have been the smart thing to do, if you’re becoming a cash-only establishment for a few hours, quite suddenly), no alerts or notices about anything. And people were leaving the left field entrance in droves. I was one of them. My one last thought as we left was trying to get some cash out of the ATM outside and maybe go grab a dog from one of the street vendors; but the line outside was also growing in length, and I had to draw a line somewhere.

We stormed out of the stadium, with me vocalizing my frustration all the way back to the car (and Tom listening, bless him). We wound up coming home and ordering pizza (not nearly as delicious as corn dog bites), and watching the Mariners on TV, lose 4-0 to the Oakland A’s. I’m not even going to go into what looked like some really miserable concessions people, who I also felt sorry for, having to deal with what was undoubtedly a furious crowd. But not one of those concessions people thought to make a sign or use the talking microphone method of getting the word out – and that is just bad.

I don’t know what happened here. I vaguely remember something similar happening last year, but it didn’t last long. And I know I’m not the only one who had this experience. I was just the most vocal, and I have a Twitter account. What I do know is that it will make me think twice about going next year. Why subject myself to that kind of madness when I can invite a few friends over, grill my own hot dogs, and get food from my own kitchen and walk out my own door if I need to without being given the kind of attitude that I got, I feel I need to reiterate, for trying to leave the stadium? And if the Mariners keep playing 4-0 games I might have to think twice about my season ticket holder status, which completely bums me out.

I am normally the biggest pro-Mariners person you know. I defend my team, I love my team, I want to see them and the organization that puts them in front of me succeed, absolutely, undeniably, unquestionably. But this experience and the game it hovered around was just awful.

It is now time for me to go to work. I hope others had a better night last night than I did. I will be watching tonight’s game from the safety and comfort of my own living room, with concessions from our grill and refrigerator. And I hope my next post will be happier than this one.

Tonight:

• No Miguel Olivo in the lineup, Jesus Montero goes 1 for 3.
• Kevin Millwood does fantastic job; 6 full innings, 4 hits, a run. Lucas Luetge does fantastic job: 1.1 innings, 1 hit, no runs. Steve Delabar does not-so-fantastic job, 0.2 innings pitched, 2 hits (both home runs).
• I was not in the mood for a game like this. I had just started to enjoy pitching duels (regardless of their causes), but I was not prepared for this. Spent a lot of time on Twitter, and commenting to Tom about ROOT Sports’ coverage of a giant man eating a giant hot dog in the stands. Now that I know that dog is 3,000 calories (not that it surprises me), I am not as excited as I was initially to go to Arlington and try it. But I would still try it, because life is a thing to be severely cherished and then cut as short as possible. Like hair.
• John Jaso brought a little to the table with a single to score Michael Saunders in the top of the 9th to put the Ms ahead by a run on what seems like a really bad night for Joe Nathan. After small-balling their way into one run in the top of the 8th, the Mariners did the same thing to tie the game in the 9th, and Jaso’s single was the icing on a very slow and strange cake.
• Brandon League was either painfully deliberate, or I lost consciousness from holding my breath for too long, but after what seemed like the longest bottom of the 9th ever, the Mariners did not get swept and will not be coming home off of a massive defeat. We didn’t win the series and we might not even tie it, but I really don’t care. A win is a win is a win, and we have some work to do tomorrow morning. I will be attempting to listen from the office.
• I am officially having a really difficult time waiting for Friday. I got the thumbs up to arrive/leave an hour early for some pre-game fun, and just because I know that I might be a little distracted by the fact that I finally get to see live baseball for the first time this year, and I don’t think I could last much past 3pm. As it is, I’m not sure I’ll last much longer than 2pm. Friday is going to drag.

So enough for now. I wasn’t going to write, then I figured I would, and now this post is terrible, but at least it exists. Yay, baseball!

My plan to go to Spring Training next year might have been foiled due to finances vs Things I Need To Do, and the possibility of saving for a larger trip during the regular season. I have wanted to take a tour of stadiums for a while, and if I play my vacation time right, I might be able to take a two-week extended absence to do a west coast itinerary during the beginning of the regular season. The plan would be to see if I could fit in a Giants/A’s/Dodgers/Angels/Padres trip, then either over to Diamondbacks territory or all the way down to Houston for the Astros (I’ve never been to Houston, the promoters there were just awful), then back up to Arlington, up to Arizona, and ending in Colorado before coming home. I’ve taken similar trips for tours when I was still playing music, and it’s a pretty easy trip with a lot to see; and one of my baseball dreams is to sit in the purple row in Coors Field, if it is not otherwise reserved. So much research will need to be done for this; but it will be well worth it. Technically, we could even stop in Seguin, Texas, so I can see that giant walnut!

Anyway, will think about that later; for now, I have to go to sleep so that Friday will get here quicker!

I love these 5pm games. I step off the bus, have a little time to unwind, and baseball and dinner can happen together! I had the game on while Tom did our taxes. Even with the agonizing maybe-we’ll-hit-and-maybe-we-won’t pace of the game (and subsequent shutout), I’m pretty sure I had the better of the two jobs.

I don’t know that I necessarily expected much from this game. The Mariners are definitely different this year so far, but it is early in the year and I need to be cautious for at least the first month or two. I got way too excited way too early last year, and there are many miles to go before we sleep. It’s difficult though, to keep a level head. Every game is a microcosm, every play another reason to judge a player or the team as a whole favorably or unfavorably. And every night, I feel like I am seeing some of these guys for the first time. I actually like that a little; it keeps the game a bit more fresh and lively for me, and makes staying indoors in increasingly nice weather worth it.

Probably the thing that seemed to cause fans the most distress tonight was the fact that Brendan Ryan had been benched to be made “accountable” for an error he made throwing during yesterday’s game. While I get the point of the benching at its most basic facet, I don’t agree with it at all. As many others pointed out this evening while Miguel Olivo was sliding head first into first base to be the last out of the top of the 7th inning, Olivo has been allowed to remain in games making countless bad plays (and passing balls) and hitting miserably, but Ryan makes one error that he was visibly upset by, and he’s the one who gets the benching? I’m going to have to assume that this is some boys club nonsense that I don’t understand, because regardless of how many “conversations have been had”, you don’t keep trotting out a subpar player – especially when we have other catchers – while removing one of the best shortstops in the league from the lineup. Jesus Montero went 2 for 3 tonight as a DH, and Olivo went 1 for 8 in last night’s and tonight’s games combined. We are starting the year off by wasting Montero a little, and I find that unacceptable. It’s unfortunate that Eric Wedge doesn’t seem to.

In positive news, though, after having a 0-48 hit record against Neftali Feliz for quite some time, we actually managed to take a few nips out of him tonight. Four, to be precise. The first one came from Justin Smoak, which seems appropriate somehow (he also hit his second of the evening later in the game). The other two of them came from Jesus Montero, but I’ve already been down that road, so I won’t go there again. There were some great defensive flashes, and some not-so-great plays (it’s a Mariners game!), and there were times where we attempted to mount threats against the Rangers, but you can’t play small ball in Arlington; especially not when the Rangers cane play it so much better and bring the power when it’s needed. I’m not giving up on the small ball approach, just saying that this series is not evenly matched.

Blake Beavan did a stellar job tonight, so it is regrettable that the rest of the team could not give him any support. His final line was 6.1 innings pitched at 88 pitches with 58 for strikes. He gave up 6 hits, a run, and a walk. Three strikeouts; that isn’t so terribly impressive, but the fact that he was able to limit the hard-hitting Texans to one run is nothing short of amazing. He gets the loss, of course, but there will be other games, and lesser teams to battle. I am looking forward to seeing him take care of business, since he seems to be settling into his new role just fine. Tom Wilhelmsen also was on the button, pitching 1.2 innings of one-hit, no run ball.

Lastly, where the hell is Casper Wells? Outside of Olivo I have no real issue with tonight’s lineup, but I actually forgot there was a guy named Casper Wells on our team until someone mentioned his name on Twitter. Hilariously I have had no problems with Chone Figgins in left field – in fact during the third inning of the game, he made a great running catch on a fly off Mitch Moreland’s bat. He nearly ran headlong into the back wall doing it, but he did it, and the end result is what matters – also that he doesn’t get injured.

This team is going to be a hard one to figure out for me for a while. We seem to have the building  blocks to do really well this year, and I’m liking some of the bullpen (some of them still need work), so I guess we’ll see. ‘Cuz that’s what you do with this game.

I finally got my tickets for Opening Day today. Either the mail got misdelivered or someone swiped them off our porch, because I had to call last week and find out why I had received my season ticket holder ID cards, but not the tickets themselves. The good folks at the ticket office, however fixed the problem. Not as smoothly as I would have liked, but I have all the tickets I paid for, and that is all that matters. I cannot fault them for not working on my personal timetable. I would, however, like to punch to sleep whomever decided that stealing my mail was a good idea. But never mind that – there’s regular season baseball to talk about!

Yu Darvish’s first inning did not go well; nor did his second or kind of his third. A series of walks and runs, a wild pitch, and a lot raised eyebrows from the Arlington fans later, the Mariners were up 4-0 fresh out of the gate. The first inning lasted around 40 minutes (41 or 42, depending on which media source you ask), the Mariners batted around (literally and figuratively) almost twice, and Darvish came out of it having thrown over 40 pitches and allowed us our 4 runs. The Rangers pelted Hector Noesi around enough to accomplish two runs of their own, pulling up a little slack. I had that familiar sinking feeling that I get (and I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with it, too) when the Ms blow someone up and then get a little revenge meted out, but at least I figured I’d see an interesting game. I was not wrong.

In the second inning Darvish got Dustin Ackley to ground out, so I figured he had settled down and was about to demonstrate why Texas had paid into the three-digit millions for him. Then Ichiro hit a double, and then Kyle Seager hit a double, so that was exciting, right? Michael Saunders was called out on strikes shortly thereafter, however, so Darvish managed to save himself. I’m sure Rangers fans were thankful.  I have been somewhat pleased about the way the Mariners have been hitting so far. I know we’re only three games in, and two of those games have been against the A’s, and this one was against a guy who will likely improve quickly so that the next time we face him we won’t have it so easy so early on, but I’ll take what I can get.

What I got next, however, was a Nelson Cruz three-run bomb on a 93MPH fastball to tie the game at 5-5. I have nothing creative to say about that at all. Nelson Cruz is a monster, and he’s always going to be a monster until he’s not anymore. I didn’t see where the pitch landed in the strike zone due to attempting to answer an email, but it doesn’t matter. Cruz is just a Mariners killer. Noesi’s pitch count was starting to elevate, and I can only imagine how nerve wracking this game must have been for him. His final line was not pretty, either; three full innings pitched, 6 hits, 7 earned runs, 3 walks, and 2 home runs. Game Days says ERA is 21.00. I wish they would use FIP instead, but it’s not like that number would probably be any better, so I’m not going to think about it just now.

Mitch Moreland got hold of a Noesi fastball that was up and in just a little, pulled it over the right field wall with Mike Napoli on base, and Noesi was the first of two pitchers having a bad night to be pulled from the hill. Righty Erasmo Ramirez, sporting the high socks, came in to face Ian Kinsler with no outs and nobody on base. Kinsler hit a liner to Kyle Seager at third and was thrown out easily at first. Those pesky changeups, they’ll get you! Ramirez wasn’t so lucky with Josh Hamilton, though; Hamilton put his bat on a ball up and in as well and took it into the berm over center field. As Michael Saunders jumped up to try and grab it, it landed easily in the hands of a fan who had hopped the fence, caught it, and then proceeded to do The Sprinkler for a few seconds before running back to his seat. I could have gone without that last bit, but who knows what I would have done in the same position; though I think I can safely say not a dance from the early 1990s.

With the score sitting at 5-8 Texas in the top of the 5th, Darvish was set to face the lower middle of our order. He struck out Michael Saunders, and took out Miguel Olivo and Munenori Kawasaki with a ground out and fly out, respectively. I put the laptop down for a little while, until Alexi Ogando was brought into the game to spell Darvish in the 6th, and the crowd at Arlington gave Darvish a standing ovation. I can understand some applause, but a standing ovation for that performance seems kind of unnecessary. Had the Rangers not been up by 3 runs, Darvish gets a few applause and a cup of Gatorade in the dugout. I have no major feelings on this one way or the other, it just seemed overly enthusiastic for a guy who kept them quiet for the first three innings of the game. I suppose I can just acknowledge that the team support is a positive and leave it at that.

Ramirez had a better inning in the 6th, getting the top of the Rangers batting order out with help from his defense rather quickly. Munenori Kawasaki made a nice play on a grounder off the bat of Josh Hamilton, twisting around to throw to first, where Justin Smoak scooped it up just before Hamilton reached the bag. Kawasaki made Ogando work a little during his at bat, too. All the pitches were 4-seamers, and all in the mid-high 90s, but Kawasaki took his time before finally grounding out to end the top of the 7th. This is the first game I have really tried to observe Kawasaki, the player who had a crush on the Seattle Mariners and presented no problems to us should he not make the team. Now that he’s on the team, I think I really like him. This is his first-ever stint in Major League baseball, in a new country, and he acts like he’s been to the rodeo before. He seems very relaxed and full of concentration, not nervous or rattled at all. I am so far very happy he’s here, and I’m looking forward to seeing him play in person.*

Steve Delabar lasted three batters before he was pulled so that George Sherrill could deal with right handed pinch-hitter Craig Gentry. One of Delabar’s batters was Nelson Cruz, again flaunting his power, but with a comebacker that Delabar was barely able to deflect with his mitt before it was planted in shallow center field for a single. Delabar came off the hill looking remarkably calm for a guy who had almost just been accidentally murdered, but maybe you just don’t have the time to think about stuff like that in the heat of the moment. Sherrill took Gentry out with ease, a simple ground out to first.

The game pretty much ended for real in the bottom of the 8th inning when Ian Kinsler took an 86MPH pitch from Sherrill and turned it into a screamer over the left field wall. Since I know my Mariners, this is where my post will be ending. One could make the argument that the game ended for real in the bottom of the 4th, but generally speaking, I try to stay upbeat until the 8th inning.

Tomorrow is another day. Blake Beavan faces Neftali Feliz. It hardly seems fair, but it should be over around 8pm, which allows me some time to polish a post and maybe watch an episode or two of Deep Space Nine. I was going to complain about the odd schedule this year, and the increased number of day games, but I want to make a concerted effort to spend more time outside this summer, and the day games will help me do that.

Oh, and how about that Kyle Seager? This season may actually be a little bit of fun!

*I was told by fellow fan and excellent bowler Daniel Carroll via Twitter that while the team was in Oakland, Kawasaki would run out in between innings to help Ichiro warm up in the field. Kawasaki needs a “Like” button so I can press it a lot.

Thanks to ESPN, I was able to watch about half of the Diamondbacks/Giants game tonight, and thanks to the DBacks hitting and JJ Putz’s still-stellar closing ability, was able to finish that game just in time for the Mariners game in Oakland to start. There is not a day that has gone by since 2008 that I have not missed JJ Putz. A day during the regular season, anyway.

Meanwhile, in Mariners Land…

Our first run of the evening came in the third inning on a Chone Figgins bunt. I would repeat that, but it would just kill your soul, and I’m working on being a better person. Figgins bunted, Brendan Ryan (who hit a double off the back wall previously) put on the wheels and made it home. The bunt itself was fielded by third baseman Josh Donaldson who threw it into Figgins’ shoulder blade, instead of Jemile Weeks’ glove, so Figgy wound up safe on first. Dustin Ackley singled, then made second base on a passed ball, and Ichiro took a walk to load the bases. Justin Smoak took an 0-2 count, and McCarthy started throwing balls. Smoak popped one up to center, and Yoenis Cespedes caught and then dropped the ball. The out was recorded. Jesus Montero popped one out to right field that was caught – and then dropped, again – by Josh Reddick. The out, again, was recorded, but Figgins made it in to score. Kyle Seager smacked one up the middle which sent Ackley and Ichiro home. Miguel Olivo popped out just beyond the third baseline. Somewhere in his deepest mental recesses, Brandon McCarthy punched a water cooler.

Yoenis Cespedes took a chunk out of Vargas in the bottom of the 4th, a cutter in the mid-80s with a man on base. The stadium went nuts and I can’t say that I blame them; it was ridiculously hard-hit, and Vargas left it in the middle of the middle of the strike zone. The ball couldn’t have been any more in the middle if it had tried, and it made it up into the second deck of the Coliseum. Won’t be the last time, I’m sure.

As Brendan Ryan took a nice slide into home for our 7th run in the top of the 6th, boos rained down on the field. The umpires had declared a foul on Jemile Weeks in the bottom of the 5th that Weeks did not agree with, and manager Bob Melvin stormed out of the dugout and tried to argue the A’s case; so they already had that indignity to deal with. Replay showed Ryan very clearly in, but I can see where people in the stands might not have been able to tell what had happened. I’m sorry, Oakland, but Ryan was in safely; Kurt Suzuki just didn’t touch him in time.

Vargas attempted to field in the bottom of the 6th on a Josh Reddick hit, but overthrew to second, missing the out. After getting Jonny Gomes to fly out for the first out of that half of the inning, Vargas was taken off the hill  and Steve Delabar was brought in. Delabar threw a strike and a foul to Cespedes before a 95MPH fastball that caught Cespedes swinging for out number two. Delabar got the final out of the inning, and the crowd got quiet. Probably. the broadcast went to commercial and I wasn’t there, but that’s usually what happens, right? I figure it’s probably universal.

The Athletics put their third pitcher of the game on the hill for the 7th inning in the form of Andrew Carignan, who got Jesus Montero out on a checked swing, then walked Kyle Seager with four 4-seamers, all outside the strike zone. Seager’s walk was for naught; Michael Saunders popped up unceremoniously to third base. Inning over. Delabar worked a nice smooth bottom of the inning, and I’m fully willing to admit that while I might be wrong, I think Delabar has made at least a small case to be our long relief guy. Who was our last real long reliever? Sean Green? I could probably remember someone who was good for more than an inning or a fraction of an inning if i tried, but it’s late and at this point, I’m editing this thing.

Tom Wilhelmsen took over in relief in the 8th inning, and put two men on base, then gave up an RBI to pinch hitter Seth Smith. Runners were at the corners for Yoenis Cespedes to come to the plate for the fourth time. After getting Cespedes out swinging (!!!), Wilhelmsen dealt to Kurt Suzuki with his best serious face on. Wilhelmsen got Suzuki to a full count before painting the corner with a 4-seamer that Suzuki swung at for the final out. Suzuki was obviously not pleased with the call, and the crowd – perhaps knowing that things were done – remained silent.

Fautino De Los Santos (I will never remember that) ….well, he’s a pitcher for the Oakland A’s. I would love to comment on his performance, but it is difficult to do that when I can’t truly see it. Game Day says he was good enough to take out the lower bottom bits of our order, so there’s that. Baseball waits for nobody, so while the network tried to fix their feed, Angie Mentink and Bill Krueger took over at the post-game desk, and tried to talk about the game thus far and fill in time. Brandon League got Josh Donaldson to fly out to center field. Kila Ka’aihue took a single from League, and the broadcast went to the radio feed. Cliff Pennington flew out to left field. Jemile Weeks put an 86MPH splitter in play, grounding out to second base. Final score 7-3 Mariners.

I can’t get super excited about this win. I mean, I’m happy about it, I swear; I had a nice taco dinner and some wine, and some Mariners baseball, and that is a great evening. But I have never felt good about beating the Oakland A’s. I would imagine that it has a lot to do with the fact that I don’t really view the A’s as a threat, in my mere few years of being a fan. I don’t view them as a threat to the point where I almost kind of like them; but I already have another awful AL team that I follow, and I can only deal with so much losing. The A’s are kind of like the Ms, only they live just outside of San Francisco; another city by another body of salt water, where the weather is often kind of iffy, and I don’t feel quite right unless I’m wearing two jackets. I just can’t hate them. There is a lot more gratification in beating the Yankees or Rangers, and I can only imagine the amount of fun I will have watching our pitchers strike out Albert Pujols (fingers crossed!), but the A’s have always been a little engine that could, for the most part, and I kind of want them to succeed. I am a terrible baseball fan.

I can, however, love and have thoroughly enjoyed the game that was played this evening, and the fact that baseball season is finally back. Thanks for that, Mariners. See you tomorrow (hopefully – I’m looking at you, Root Sports NW).

BUT THEY HAVE HARNESSED THE POWER OF THE SUN!!!!

Thanks to my friend Kelly, whose father works for the company, for the link. With as much waste as is generated every year by sports stadiums, it’s great to see the Ms carrying on what I have viewed as a long Pacific Northwest tradition of ecological friendship. I know very little about solar energy in practice, and it seems like there might be more bang for the buck if the panels were installed on the roof of the stadium rather than the parking garage, but 400,000 KW hours doesn’t sound like anything to shake a stick at. Here is another link about the project, due to be up and running by the home opener on April 13th.

Now if InSpec could put little solar panels on the bats to generate a little slugging power, we’d be all set.

EDIT: Aaaand the Mariners’ own MLBlog has the story from five days ago. I am destined to be behind schedule on everything this year.