Game 1, Rangers at Mariners

DMZ · March 31, 2008 at 2:47 pm · Filed Under 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

Comments

271 Responses to “Game 1, Rangers at Mariners”

  1. tgf on March 31st, 2008 6:55 pm

    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.

  2. JMHawkins on March 31st, 2008 6:55 pm

    The two out double is now good situational hitting? In what situation is a double with runners on base not what you want?

    Situational hitting: When you find yourself at bat, it is a good situation in which to get a hit.

  3. rsrobinson on March 31st, 2008 6:56 pm

    Wow the M’s are drawing some walks today. What’s up with that?

  4. ocelot on March 31st, 2008 6:57 pm

    252: Remember, there’s a tiny strike zone with this ump…But still, yeah, 7 walks?

  5. mr.smartypants on March 31st, 2008 6:58 pm

    PUTZ WOOOOO

  6. ndrfx on March 31st, 2008 6:59 pm

    Let’s go JJ!

  7. argh on March 31st, 2008 7:00 pm

    a tiny strike zone

    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.

  8. Jar on March 31st, 2008 7:01 pm

    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.

  9. G-Man on March 31st, 2008 7:10 pm

    That’s one.

    90 more and we might have something.

  10. argh on March 31st, 2008 7:13 pm

    So where’s Angie? She must have had at least 2 more kids since the end of last season.

  11. mln on March 31st, 2008 7:15 pm

    Mariners win. Angels lose. The M’s are now all alone in first place!

    Steve Phillips is a genius for touting the Mariners.

  12. SeabassP on March 31st, 2008 7:17 pm

    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.

  13. lailaihei on March 31st, 2008 7:19 pm

    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.

  14. jlc on March 31st, 2008 7:26 pm

    262-And is that something I should look forward to or be afraid of?

  15. lailaihei on March 31st, 2008 7:29 pm

    Question: Is there a site that shows which batter RBOE more than others? Because I swear Ichiro racks up more than his share.

  16. joser on March 31st, 2008 7:29 pm

    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.

  17. Typical Idiot Fan on March 31st, 2008 7:43 pm

    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.

  18. SeabassP on March 31st, 2008 7:56 pm

    264 – Oh baby…definitely looking forward to…

  19. thehiddentrack on March 31st, 2008 8:02 pm

    “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.

  20. pgreyy on March 31st, 2008 10:01 pm

    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.

  21. WardP on April 1st, 2008 12:34 am

    Tonight was much better..

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