Game 1, Rangers at Mariners
Let’s stay calm, okay, let’s not lose our heads. It’s-it’s-it’s-it’s a fine ID, it’ll-it’s gonna work, it’s passable, okay, this isn’t terrible. It’s up to you, Fogel. This guy’s either going to think here’s another guy with a fake ID, or here’s McLovin, the 25-year-old Hawaiian organ donor. — Superbad
My thoughts on the team, or what Dave believes about the season, don’t matter at all to what happens this season. All the team has to do is take the field and win, over and over, for us all to see the Mariners to have a chance at the postseason success we all want.
So win.
Dave adds: Watching Ryan Zimmerman hit a walk off bomb to open the Nationals new park last night, I was reminded that baseball often gives us amazing stories that sound straight out of a movie. We can talk about probability and likely scenarios all we want, but in the end, there’s always a chance that baseball writes a narrative that just doesn’t go along with expectations. Here’s to hoping the 2008 Mariners narrative blows probability out of the water. Go M’s.
3:45 Seattle time. Millwood v Bedard. FSN or another outlet, depending on where you are.
Rangers
2B-R Kinsler
SS-R Young
CF-L Hamilton
3B-L Blalock
DH-B Bradley
RF-R Byrd
LF-L Murphy
C-R Laird
1B-L Broussard
Mariners
CF-L Ichiro!
2B-R Lopez
LF-L Ibanez
1B-R Sexson
3B-R Beltre
RF-L Wilkerson
DH-B Vidro
C-R Johjima
SS-R Betancourt
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Baseball today! Real baseball!
I wish I weren’t so busy so that I could have had time to get into a fantasy league. I find that it really helps offer some context.
I am so pumped for this season, although it worries me a little bit that all (or most) of the ESPN talking heads have picked the Mariners to win the AL West. They are never right.
Oh and I need to get my money right so I can get my MLB.tv
Kinsler’s out with the flu. Advantage Mariners.
#3 – Advantage Mariners – Disadvantage my fantasy team.
[deleted, off-topic]
Yay for playing Texas while I’m in stuck on an Air Force base in San Antonio! I’m only down here two more days and I get them on tv for both.
Let’s do this.
mlb.tv is completely out of whack for me. I can’t watch any games, and I’m getting error messages even on archived games (it says I’m logged in on multiple computers and/or that I have blackout restrictions on EVERY GAME, lol.) So whatever. I’m going to go do something constructive, like drink myself to sleep. Yay Opening Day
#7 – Anyone in your family or friends know your user info and/or password? I know that happened to me a couple times when my friends were using it when I didn’t know about it.
#8 – Negative. No one has my info. I called and they are having massive outages since 1pm today. Awesome!
Broussard batting ninth? Wow, I’m pretty sure we never saw that during his stay with us.
7- I downloaded their speed plugin (nextdef) and it ended up messing up all my feeds. IF you happened to install it I suggest uninstalling.
I sure hope they put Sexson in the fifth spot eventually, and put Beltre in cleanup.
Broussard starting?!! I had no idea.
Prediction Mariners win 5-3
Ichiro has 2 hits
Sexson has a homerun and 3k’s
Vidro gets thrown out trying to steal
yep gonna be a good game……..
It’s here, it’s really here. Today should be a recognized national holiday… God it’s good to have Baseball again.
It’s always tough to tell by TV audio, but when Jarrod Washburn ran out on to the field, I think two people in the stands were clapping….
I hate opera singers doing the National Anthem at baseball games. My wife, who has had extensive voice training, doesn’t like them, either.
I don’t mind the opera singers, I don’t care for the “alternate” versions though that are sung in different melodies and keys. When it comes down to it, just play Jimi Hendrix’s version and that would be alright with me
Thank God for Slingbox. I can watch the game from work on my laptop. I’m really started to get pumped up. Go M’s!
MLB Gameday has Kinsler leading off. Is this right, I thought he was out.
Nooooo!!
I just bout mlb.tv premium and after some mucking about with the install, it says I’m signed in with multiple computers and will not let me in. Anyone know how to get this thing fixed? I’ve restarted the computer a few times, it doesn’t help.
MLB.tv is jacked right now. I have been watching games all day and just randomly started getting weird error messages.
#20 according to #7 it seems that MLB.tv is having some technical issues. Probably because a ton of people are signing up for it today.
Per Baker’s blog, Kinsler is back in the lineup despite the flu.
Kinsler was introduced as the leadoff hitter and came out with every one else as their names were called.
Drag.
Some of the best national anthems I’ve heard have been done by opera singers. In fact I’d rather see them done by a trained opera singer than any “pop” star or current personality simply because the national anthem is hard to sing and a trained voice does it much better than an untrained one.
The brawts are cooking, the beer is cold, MLB.tv is disappointing everyone, it is finally baseball season!!
Roseanne Barr did the only anthem I ever want to hear again.
My MLB.tv connection is up, but no sound – generally, that would be okay, but opening day without Niehaus isn’t really opening day.
I had the multiple user login thing earlier today, by the way, and it got resolved, so hopefully the rest of you get it fixed too.
Yep, Erik Bedard is good.
If the rest of the season goes thois well…
I am with Dave, no audio… or I can go radio and no visual.
I can watch that curve all year!!
Oh god a strikeout to start the season…I think I have wood…
Nice way to start. We’ll take 200 more of those, please.
Well, that’s a good way to start.
I’m a fan of the Krusty the Klown version.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
First Blowers “no question” stall: five pitches into Opening Day (“I don’t think there’s any question about it”)
Auspicious…
BTW, nice shiny new comment buttons!
And…
Not so auspicious.
If the rest of the season goes this poorly…
Not a bad pitch – Kinsler just put a good swing on it.
Uh….
I want Jones back.
He must not have had a good grip on that pitch? Maybe Baker will have a better explanation this time.
Welp…there goes that aforementioned wood…
the o/u on Bedard HR’s is three. I will still take the under.
Uhh, you have to make that play Jose.
If the rest of the season is this ugly…
safeco scorer strikes again.
Interesting start…I like how ol’ Dave said owned.
Walking Hank Blalock, who can’t hit lefties at all? Not good.
Come on Erik
Let’s hope this is just the nerves of pitching for a team that actually has a chance of winning…and that he shakes it off soon.
Well, this season’s a writeoff.
Calm down those nerves Erik, I still have faith.
I recall Griffey saying he uses a black bat to get the benefit of the doubt in check swing calls. Clever.
He’s just not throwing the curve for a strike. That’s an issue.
Sims and RR are worried about Erik’s pitch count already. Goodness.
he’s not really looking bad. The homerun clearly shook him up a little bit and his control’s been off since, but the Rangers are showing a lot of patience at the plate. The curve looks fantastic but he has to get people behind in the count to get swings at it. And the Lopez error didn’t help.
He didn’t practice the curve much this spring. It may just take a couple of innings. *being positive*
That pitch inside looked pretty good…..
30 pitches…not too good, glad he got out of that just giving up one though…
Well, not his best work, but still – a strikeout and three weak groundballs; you’ll have a good year if that’s what happens when you struggle.
Not happy with the HR, but not the worst first inning we have ever seen by a new Mariner………*be positive*.
Bedard’s line last year for his first game…
4.2 6ER 2HR 3k 2BB
First game jitters might run in his blood…
Yay MLB.tv Audio!
I heart fangraphs.
Ok, Mariners, let’s go!
My season wish is that you win over 90 games or under 70 games… do that and I’m a happy fan.
That’s not too much to ask, is it? That means out of the 163 possible season records, I would be happy with 142 of them, if my math is correct. So I’m only asking them to avoid 13% or so of the possible outcomes.
I’m easy to please.
Hmmm, “worst first inning… by a new Mariner”; which would that be?
Apparently that pitch on the inside corner won’t be a strike tonight.
If anyone is still having audio troubles with MLB.TV I downloaded the Microsoft Silverlight that it suggested and now have audio.
Did they rule the ‘error’ by Lopez a hit??
That’s the Lopez that sucks – chasing a pitch that he can’t possibly do anything with just for the sake of making contact. Boo crappy Lopez.
When will they ever know if the RAUUUUUL turns into boos?
Uhh, Ibanez was the opposite of consistency last year, Mike. He was brutal in the first, then went bananas in August to salvage his season. But keep on praising the franchise icon…
He saw 7 pitches though…that good.
At least they were some what patient……
when they were showing that side view of Bedard, it looked like Jamie Moyer for a second…
That thing was smoked – not a good pitch.
I got home from work early, and my infant son and I are sitting on the couch, watching the Mariners play baseball.
Life is good.
Silva and Vidro are sitting side by side – must be the closest part of the dugout to the buffet.
Gerald Laird’s Gameday photo looks like he’s just taken a huge hit of nitrous….
Joyce is not giving anything on the inside portion of the plate.
where’s the curveball? Bedard seems to be prescribing to the Bad Felix pitching method here in the second inning.
Wow, he’s not giving him anything on either corner.
Finally threw the curve for a strike – needs more of those.
I ended the season with MLB.tv, and now I am watching gameday…this is awful…
How was Broussard received? I’m at work, checking in on GameDay.
Now that was a nasty curveball.
It seems that every count is going full…
Batting average soul destroyer up next! Woohoo!
Woo hoo only 1 allowed on base!
Fitty-four pitches through two. Better warm up Sherrill.
Nice to see a pitcher throwing a lot of pitches and not giving up a lot of runs. The flashbacks of HoRam and Weaver are fading already.
I remember a few years ago you’d be watching on TV and you’d see a sharply hit groundball off your screen toward third and you closed your eyes and just listened for the error….now you just wait and watch the Beltre smoothness. good times, good times.
Will beers in Seattle be free if Sexson goes 0 – for? That would be awesome.
Richie gets jammed by an 86 MPH fastball? That’s a good sign…
This strike zone is tiny.
not a bad at bat by Sexson, but that last pitch sure looked like a strike….
Didn’t think Sexson would pull that one out after the first few pitches.
I heart Beltre.
Turbo clutches out right here. Bank on it.
Turbo makes his first appearance of the year…
92- Sherrill’s gone. We need long relief from that knuckleball guy…
No GIDP no GIDP no GIDP
Yeah, I think Joyce needed some more time in spring training to work on his strike zone.
Turrrrbbboooooo?
102 – I know. Joke.
rally needs. to . stay. alive.
We should have spent more time on situational hitting during SP.
[admin hat on]
Just as a friendly reminder, please be kind to the server and limit your refreshing, especially with this being the first game thread of the year and we’re all pretty pumped.
[admin hat off]
Men on first and second with no outs, and can’t even get one of them in? Feh.
My son cried all through Turbo’s plate appearance. Two months old and he already has taste.
(Although you might be able to chalk that up to this morning’s vaccinations. He has been cranky all day.)
The fans in the stands are in no mood for anything less than awesome.
Not only are they a bit testy about the action on the field, but they actually booed a “new between innings feature: Mariner-aoke”.
(Deservedly so as it was brutal. Luckily, the actual game is merely frustrating our high expectations.).
That’s the view from 329 row 4 anyway.
109: Obviously, they need to be bunting more. /sarc
106-I know, me too.
I’m sure a bunt was considered.
Hamilton is going to be a BEAST for the Rangers. Health be damned, he’s got one helluva presence to him already.
This warning is probably more warranted over at LL, which is running something close to 400 comments per half inning.
man that strike zone is tight
Is Bedard getting squeezed as badly as MLB Gameday makes it appear that he is, particularly on the low fastball?
I’ll let Graham handle that.
Joyce is having a brutal day.
Oh, goody. MLB.tv is convinced I’m in a blackout zone despite being in -Cleveland-. Not to mention that their CS phone line automatically disconnects after 45sec. GRRR.
Man, Bedard isn’t very hot so far.
Except that LL is run by a server-rich soulless conglomerate, while we’ve got just the one.
i like how bedard is getting absolutely hosed and the texas players are the ones who are arguing…that makes sense.
Nothing better than a terrible umpire with a temper.
Wow… right on target Dave. Brutal.
Oh, goody. MLB.tv is convinced I’m in a blackout zone despite being in -Cleveland-.
Have you considered punching yourself in the face?
ya, that pitch count is getting pretty high. Wasn’t our bolstered staff supposed to give our relief guys some, uh, relief?
Yeah, it’s too bad Shulock retired. That guy set the gold standard for poor umpiring and low ejection threshold.
I watch baseball for the narrative….
Joyce would not get the Jamie Moyer nod of approval.
Thanks, Dave. Are these inside pitches as close as Rizzs is making them sound?
#121 – I got that message for a while, but now I’m onto the one where mlb.tv continues telling me that I’m logged in on another computer. I just signed up for the product this morning, so that’s fairly interesting. I called and they said they were having failures across the board since 1pm today. Yeah, no shit. Next time try to actually prepare for MLB’s Opening Day of your product for gosh sakes!
79 pitches through 3 innings. Without even seeing the pitches I can tell Bedard’s getting squeezed.
Thanks, Dave.
In case it wasn’t clear, I was playing off of Ichiro’s quote about Cleveland from last year.
Are these inside pitches as close as Rizzs is making them sound?
Yep – Joyce’s strikezone apparently doesn’t include the inner half of the plate.
126/134 – That was very funny.
Whew. Through three – not sure if I should keep listening to the radio or turn on the TV when I get home. Sounds like actually seeing these pitches, and the subsequent calls may be more frustrating then just hearing them.
126: Seriously I LOL at that one Dave. I can’t wait for Ichiro’s next gem.
I doubt we’ll see Bedard past the fifth. We’ll probably be getting an early look at the ’08 bullpen.
Dave 134 :
Trust me, I got that one
Being a student here in Cleveland who vociferously roots for the Mariners, I got ribbed plenty for that prosaic comment.
Tight strike zones definitely don’t favor the Mariners. =/
Bedard will have to improve his efficiency significantly just to see the fifth.
Wheee. The Opening Day smorgasbord, a taste of everything from the bullpen. :frown:
The dancing grounds crew is butchering Jacko’s “Bad”–while Joyce and Washington go at it…
Sometimes moments just happen.
Is Millwood pitching well or are we just swinging at everything as usual?
140… Tight strike zones aren’t the biggest of the Mariners worries. Their lack of ability to do ANYTHING offensively is the #1 problem so far.
……. Strike zone is horrible though…
More bad hitting than good pitching. Millwood’s made some bad pitches and the team just hasn’t done anything with them.
We knew the team wasn’t going to be able to hit. At least we’re not being surprised by it.
I think it shows the state of both these clubs that the strike zone is tiny yet neither team can do anything with the bats.
Texas is much better against RHP than LHP, and Bedard’s one of the best LHP alive. Don’t make any judgments about their offense from not scoring any runs off of him in Safeco.
Ibanez beating out the grounder. Woo!
That wasn’t a bad at bat by Sexson until he chased that ball way low and outside…
Richie Sexson with the Funk Strikeout!
Sexson probably herniated a disc diving for that outside diving pitch.
Beltre just hit a low and away slider! Hard!
Small ball. Incredibly small ball.
154: and then gets nailed at 2nd…
After a first look, I don’t think Beltre was out there.
Close call, though. I understand what the ump was seeing on the first look.
But dang, it looked like he had a good pitch to run on, and Laird was slow getting it out and down there.
If the ball beats you by that much on the bounce, you need to just walk away.
Gotta look at the bright side.
The Mariner’s offensive juggernaut *almost* got a runner in scoring position.
Wow I’m surprised by the impatience by the crowd today. The early Safeco crowd is usually quite forgiving and just happy to see their guys.
I for one am glad that the people there are expecting to see a good game instead of just guys that they can attach an “ie” to the end of their names. It’s about time fans expect more than mediocrity.
Error #! for Yuni
Gee, if we had a tall first baseman, maybe he could have knocked that one down.
…and that will be it for Bedard…100+ pitches through five in the 1st game, you have to think he is done.
Many ill omens in this game…
Lopez looking lost; Bedard getting squeezed; Yuni making errors; the Mariners getting themselves out of inning after inning despite a home plate umpire with a strike zone the size of a paperback book.
Got to love baseball in the snow…
Thanks to ESPN.com’s GameCast for giving me Wilkerson’s 2007 home splits! Those are super-helpful since he doesn’t play home games in the same ballpark this season.
Rizzs thinks Vidro has a chance for a bunt base hit…riiiiiiight.
That is how a SS is supposed to dodge the slide and turn the DP.
killer double play brought to you by, Turbo!
I don’t think I’m ready for baseball yet. And Mother Nature seems to agree.
Vidro with the double play. Shocking!
Vidro GIDP. Whouda thunk?
Do my eyes deceive me or did we just draw a walk?
re: Yuni’s error – if you can’t assume the double play why is it he gets an error there? I get he threw it away but still but the result is the same…
OMG it’s Lauren! Yayyy!
Dave Sims on the DP: “we’ve seen that before…” So true Dave so true.
All the bad signs from last year are still here:
Poor hitting, worse defense, pitchers who throw way too many pitches too early in games, Sexson and Lopez are lost, and Vidro still hearts the DP.
eyes DMZ strangely That must be a Yayyy of “yippee, another poster who really isn’t all that informed but likes to jump in with supposedly witty comments!”
PS: Love the new submit button!
A Kenji walk? Didn’t expect to see that within the first week of the season.
174: He gets the error for allowing the hitter to advance to 2nd. Had the ball been knocked down by the overly large 1st baseman who looked lost, and the runner been just on first….no error.
What if I find them actually witty? Is that okay?
We need a better defensive catcher…
I missed the Mariners half of the fifth, looks like Vidro still can’t help but GIDP whenever the opportunity presents itself.
182 – yeah, someone who can throw guys out trying to steal.
It’s awesome, although I may be newly doubtful of your taste and/or sanity. Wait, scratch the “newly.”
I see that Adam Jones went 0-for-2 today for the O’s…
I see that Adam Jones went 0-for-2 today for the O’s…
If he goes 3-4 with a HR, does that mean Bedard will throw a shutout?
You’ll hear?
Michael Young is a good fielder.
My man-crush on Ichiro! continues.
Woo! Let’s get something started.
180 – thanks – Sexy did look lost. I just don’t want Yuni to get down on himself early in the season.
Jose!
ahhhhhh
Whooooo! A run! I remember those!
I spell Raul with 18 U’s.
Raul with the RBI. Sign that man to a contract extension!
Rauuuuuuuuuuuuul!
Rauuuuuul! Those first 6 innings were about are warm as fuzzy as the weather here in Raleigh today. Thank you M’s and MLB.tv! GO MARINERS.
Richie fails to get a runner home from 3rd with less than 2 outs. Boo. Hiss.
HAHAHAHA.
“Not a lot of speed on the basepaths right now…”
Would’ve been even better if Turbo was on base, but he’s too busy getting ready for his next GIDP.
Yes! Nice job Beltre
Yay leads!
Nice start for Beltre
Rauuuuuul! Those first 6 innings were about are warm as fuzzy as the weather here in Raleigh today.
The weather here in Seattle is cold and fuzzy. (snowflakes are sort of fuzzy).
Good greif, if we’re going to get Cleveland’s weather, can we at least have their DH?
Sun just came out here in West Seattle in perfect concert with the Ms taking the lead. Now if Green can just keep his pitches somewhere within 5 yards of home plate….
If Green makes it through the 7th quietly, who comes in as the “right-handed set-up man” for Putz?
The Walla Walla Wonder, that’s who.
Ouch, hat trick for Broussard.
Well, now that we’ve had our first regular season look at Bedard, while it wasn’t what we had hoped for a in a perfect world, if him struggling constitutes a 1 k/ip and only one run given up, I can’t wait to see what he can do once he settles in.
As an aside, does anyone else think that SF’s game today was a microcosm of things to come for them? Zito got rocked, and they didn’t score any runs . . .
man, Green is looking great right now!
Our offense is going to be terrible. Derek is right, Vidro is about done as a hitter. The pitching better to be darn good, because there will be a lot of 2-1 games.
Lopez?! I know that’s not an error, but dang, if he doesn’t slide, he probably gets that . . .
arggh….Jose
207-The giants are likely going to be bad, but picking on a team like that is bad karma.
In happier news, the Angels of mid-Southern CA are losing…with any luck, we could be atop the AL West at the end of the night! Great effort by Sean Green to keep us in it. Surely we can find someone better than Turbo…
#207. SF is probably the worst team in the NL this year. Their offense will be lucky to score 650 runs without Bonds. There is no indication that Zito has turned around. Caine and Linecum aside, there aren’t much in that pitching staff.
Green did look much improved this inning, didn’t he?
Wow lots of people completely ridding off Vidro..He will probably bat a hollow 310….I really doubt he is “completely done.” Not an ideal DH but not a completely worthless batter..just because he is 0-2
What happened to Zito? Wasn’t he 116 ERA+, 220 IP like 2 years ago? How is it that he’s looking this bad this soon, and in the NL no less?
213- I know that Zito hasn’t been a particularly good pitcher now for several years, but my question, is what happened to him? He’s still fairly young. Has his control gone to hell? Is the curve no longer working? Has he lost velocity? All of the above? Anyway, I just find it odd he could go from being so good to so bad so quickly, while still relatively young in baseball terms . . .
..just because he is 0-2
Correction, 0-3.
Johjima with 2 walks today.
Johjima walking is almost as rare as Bloomquist going yard. The end must be near.
Yeah, I’m really happy to see him taking pitches like this. In other news, I’m going on 30min on hold to try to fix my MLB.tv…
Zito only looked good if you judged him on his ERA. Once you abandon that useless statistic, the truth became clear.
Wilkerson, jeesh… I know it’s early, he sure looks expensive today. Strange strike zone early. I heard an announcer say Milton Bradley is a career 300 hitter!?!? Uh, not quite. VIVA LA BASEBALL!!! Go M’s
Vidro’s bat speed looked really slow. All he could do today was pull couple outside pitches to the right side of the infield. If your bat speed has slowed down, you try to hit it to the opposite field, not pull it. That’s why I think he’s done.
Best situation of the day here with 2 on 1 out 2-1 to Ichiro. Blow it Open Guys!!
Lopez has had 3 2-0 counts today and Johjima’s walked twice — did the plate discipline lessons work?
FUNK WP!
HA
Those fans reaching for that ball should have their season tickets yanked.
The two out double is now good situational hitting? In what situation is a double with runners on base not what you want?
Anyway, way to go Lopez.
last pid: 24648; load averages: 39.07, 13.93, 6.45 up 324+20:38:55 21:30:05
263 processes: 45 running, 195 sleeping, 2 stopped, 2 zombie, 19 waiting
I was waiting for a ‘situational hitting’ comment. I didn’t have to wait long.
Double plus good, Lopez.
Gotta love the aggressive baseblundering.
Jonah Keri from espn.com:
The mention of outs on balls in play from an ESPN writer is impressive, to put it lightly.
If Jose Lopez did that on his own, he should be taken into the clubhouse and beaten with a fungo bat.
If McLaren asked a slow footed player to steal 3rd with a lefty at the plate and one out, McLaren should be taken into the clubhouse and beaten with a fungo bat.
Ah, sweet, sweet aggressive baserunning. Can we just call it ‘manufacturing outs’ now and get it over with?
Also, how is a ground ball a double? Does David Murphy have Ibanez’ range in LF?
O’-Flaherty looks good.
Sub-out Wilkerson for the last bit?
Thank god for insurance runs…
No, It’s cool guys. McLaren told them to give up the run so he could bring JJ in, and then we would have a better chance of winning.
Someone apparently didn’t tell O’Flaherty that he had to establish his fastball. He was just lights out with that breaking ball, making Rangers hitters look ridiculous. His ERA won’t reflect it (yet another reason it’s a pointless stat), but that was a tremendous outing for EOF. If he would have put on 60 pounds over the winter, I’d have sworn that was Sherrill out there.
Pretty solid middle relief work today. Now bring on JJ.
240: No kidding…EOF was incredible there. No contest pitching. Now all we need is a complete game from Felix tomorrow to make up for wearing out half the bullpen to win this one…
Sorry to ask–I’m stuck at work–how did Lowe look?
You ALWAYS have to establish that fastball. Just ask Eric Gagne. His repeatedly established it belt high at 91 mph.
I think the bullpen will turn out all right. Green, O’Flaherity and Lowe all look good.
Nothing wrong with using the ‘pen this much today. They were well rested coming out of ST and have an off day on Thursday. It’s not a problem.
Oh and I just started watching so I noticed the lineup. SEXSON HITS CLEANUP? AHEAD OF BELTRE? Who manages this team, Dusty Baker?
Does this mean that the M’s coaches no longer believe that their pitchers need to, “Establish the fastball?”
243 – Lowe threw three pitches but they were 95 mph so can’t complain too much. And he got a groundout.
249–thanks. I realized after I posted that there weren’t many pitches to look at, but that sounds great. I had thought there were reports that his velocity wasn’t back yet. Maybe the Safeco gun is giving him a few MPH.
Situational hitting: When you find yourself at bat, it is a good situation in which to get a hit.
Wow the M’s are drawing some walks today. What’s up with that?
252: Remember, there’s a tiny strike zone with this ump…But still, yeah, 7 walks?
PUTZ WOOOOO
Let’s go JJ!
Which from where I was sitting Joyce suddenly expanded for Beltre’s 2nd strike of his last at bat. Only inside pitch on a right-handed batter I saw him call a strike all night.
If the whole team has all the sudden learned to take some walks, I think this could be a pretty good offense…
I am not holding my breath.
That’s one.
90 more and we might have something.
So where’s Angie? She must have had at least 2 more kids since the end of last season.
Mariners win. Angels lose. The M’s are now all alone in first place!
Steve Phillips is a genius for touting the Mariners.
OK, we are now atop of the AL West…if we do this wire to wire…I will fly to Seattle and run on the field naked.
haha McLaren is funny.
“Erik kept us in the game.”
“Gave us a chance to win.”
“Worked some counts.”
Way to string together baseball cliches there.
262-And is that something I should look forward to or be afraid of?
Question: Is there a site that shows which batter RBOE more than others? Because I swear Ichiro racks up more than his share.
You ALWAYS have to establish that fastball. Just ask Eric Gagne. His repeatedly established it belt high at 91 mph.
He certainly did that today, if you caught the 9th innning of the Brewers-Cubs game.
Thoughts:
Erik Bedard looked better then what his stat line will show, and there were a couple of defensive gaffes that didn’t help him out either. I feel comfortable with him as one of our starting five.
Sean Green appears to be exclusively using his sidearm approach this year, and his sinker is really biting hard. He made Kinsler look incredibly stupid on a slider out of the zone, too.
Eric O’Flaherty was just impressive. He had the righties looking really stupid on a sharp changeup and the lefties couldn’t even touch the curve / slider. He’s going to be just fine.
Mark Lowe threw three pitches and got an easy groundout. The first pitch was a hard, biting, diving slider that Laird looked silly on. The other two were mid 90s fastballs. He looks strong and healthy, which bodes well for Morrow’s future.
Putz’s last splitfinger to Hamilton was absurd. Yes, I know Gameday shows it as a slider. It wasn’t.
The pitching definitely looks fine, as we expected. The hitting and defense needs serious work.
264 – Oh baby…definitely looking forward to…
“Putz’s last splitfinger to Hamilton was absurd. Yes, I know Gameday shows it as a slider. It wasn’t.”
I’m not sure what that was. I suppose it could have been the splitfinger but it was going 83 and didn’t drop. It looked like a straight changeup to me.
Good win for the M’s and I think this was a good game for the fans.
The feeling around me as the game started was Randy-esque–in that they expected to see Bedard look absolutely perfect and unhittable. This game calmed that fever–but you still got a 1 run on 1.75 hits performance from the guy…
Yes, there was no magic return of the big lumber that perhaps some fans thought Sexson was due for…but, he also wasn’t the one killing rallies and ending innings with weak whiffs, tonight.
The defense, which we all know will be our Achilles heel all season (barring some major roster shake-ups) didn’t push us into any endless nightmare innings…
All in all, a win in rain and snow and a strike zone the size of a dippin’ dot…and a cooling of MarinerNation jets a bit, lest expectations and the sheer impossibility of THIS roster to meet them result in combustion…you can’t complain.
Tonight was much better..