Two things
Mike Snow · May 15, 2009 at 10:27 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Ichiro hits two home runs in a game. Yuniesky Betancourt draws two walks in a game. From this, we must obviously conclude two things:
1) We should discuss trading Ichiro more often
2) Betancourt should be benched more often
Soooooooooo selfish!
unless the mariners got the most insane offer for ichiro, i don’t think they should get rid of him. i feel like he’s still got a few good years left with him!
I’m pretty sure I saw a brain slug hiding under Yuni’s hat tonight.
Yes. Please.
lol!
wow, just watched the reply. That last out was dang close! Balentine all the way to the warning track! Imagine if that had gone out!
Sports center did not show either of Ichiros home runs, big surprise, huh.
Anyone catch the post game show on 950? A boston fan from spokane (representing the spokane hooters!) got some air time and when asked why she was a boston fan she explained something along the lines of, “i like their colors, the mariners have boring colors.” Well, whom ever and why someone chooses to root for a team is fine, but at least it sheds light on the types of Boston fans found in safeco field 😉
Not that it’s going to happen, but I’d love nothing more than to see Ichiro put this team on his back and just go street-rat-crazy.
I’m sure tonight was a fluke, with good pitches to hit out, and he’ll go back to his usual role and style of play. But for just a brief moment, I was able to pretend he was our #3 hitter… and.. I kinda liked it.
Even though it’s logical to trade Ichiro, I’m 100% against it. He’s the only reason why I’ve watched Mariner baseball in recent years. They’ve had plenty of chances to trade other players for decent talent. The Bedard/Adam Jones trade is like Bavasi giving this organization the middle finger on the way out. I’m sick of it. If they’re going to rebuild that’s fine, but there’s nothing wrong with winning while rebuilding and I’d like to see them do it with Ichiro remaining a Mariner.
Let’s have Seattle icon retired as a Mariner. Leave something for the posterity. He is should always be remembered only as our Ichiro….
I wonder who will end the season with the most:
Ichiro (home runs) or Betancourt (walks)?
They are currently tied at four.
You mean pink and green???
Nice win but pretty lucky.
You do realize, of course, that a team or player only gets called “lucky” if they win, right?
That brings about my favorite saying, and one I fully believe…
“I’d rather be lucky than good any day”
Two walks for Yuni. It will be nice to meet the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
I’d rather be good.
Ichiro! getting traded can be discussed but I think from a sentimental perspective we should keep him as long as he wants to be here. BTW Brad Nelson is a FA? Wasn’t there some discussion of picking him up? Or do we have too much of a glut at 1B?
Why settle? I’d rather be great.
Nice win but pretty lucky.
Almost every single game could be considered lucky, because random chance is a huge part of baseball. The Ms are 7-7 in one run games, so it’s all coming out in the wash.
With that said, Aardsma’s inning went: smashed line-drive right at Branyan, well-hit gapper that is a double on most people not named Ichiro, line-drive single, deep fly ball that is probably a 2-run homer in a lot of other stadiums. Not exactly a dominant pitching performance. Aardsma has incredible numbers so far, and should be the Ms’ highest-leverage reliever, but his almost-nothing-but-fastball approach makes me nervous.
Aardsma was also pitching for the third night in a row, for what it’s worth. I’d still be more worried about his command than the fact that his fastball may get hit hard once in a while.
One of the things Wak said in spring training was that certain things were going to be left in the clubhouse under his regime. Nonetheless, I think we can imagine some of the words that passed between him and Yuni over the past three days. I don’t think there is anything you can do with Yuni’s style longterm, but if the result of a couple of days in the doghouse is performance like Friday (just the number of pitches he saw would be helpful to the team), I’m all for it.
I would not be optimistic that Yuni’s reaction to today was “hey, this patience at the plate thing can work good for me!” But I’ll take it one day at a time. And if this was an audition for the Red Sox (who need a shortstop and have pieces we could use), I’m all for his impressing them (as unlikely as it is that Theo Epstein would be fooled by a single day’s performance).
It was Uni’s pants I tell you. Leave em up and take a walk.
I tell you what, my wife (who knows baseball pretty well) looked at me like I was crazy when I was dancing over Yuni’s 3-2 walk. I honestly thought he wasn’t even trying or caring, but watching that AB gave me just the slightest glimmer of hope.
I’d rather be good for 162 and lucky in October.
Write-up “Ichiro: Deep Impact” in the Boston Globe today…
(sportswriters/their editors these days are soooooo original — “Deep Impact” is the name of a disaster movie)
You forgot:
3) The world is coming to an end.
We were all imagining it with horror while it was happening, believe me.
Yuni took the first 11 pitches thrown to him, and 14 of the first 15. In fact, the only times he swung in yesterday’s game were on an 0-1 count in the 6th inning with two aboard (may have been signaled to protect the runners) and with the count 1-2 and 2-2 in the 8th inning leading off. This would suggest that he was under a fair amount of pressure not to swing in a hitter’s count. In fact, I think it may be reasonable to suppose that he was risking more than a benching this time.
3) Randy Johnson didn’t get his 299th win
4)RJ’s pitching like a M’s 5th starter
The good news about RJ not getting that win is that we can all cheer against him getting one in Safeco, too, because it won’t be a “special” one if he does. (I would’ve been cheering against him anyway, but I know some would’ve been tempted).
I was dreading Fox baseball today because I knew we were going to get “treated” to the Angels-Rangers contest, and I am already sick to death of those two teams (the only upside would be that one of them was guaranteed to lose). So I was overjoyed that it was rain delayed and Fox was forced to show the game I really wanted to see, Santana vs RJ.
However, it appears we missed at least one interesting development in that AL West game: Lackey, in his first start of the year, hit the first batter (Kinsler) and managed to get himself ejected from the game without retiring a batter. Kinsler went on to score (off Loux, who was rushed into “starting” this game) but of course that run was charged to Lackey… who now officially has a season ERA of infinity. (Technically, division by zero does not result in infinity, but that’s how the sports sites appear to be handling it… though I’m hoping to find a badly-coded one that just crashes attempting the computation).
When RJ came in from the bullpen for the D-Backs at the fourth game in Safeco, I cheered him along with everyone else. From then on, he became the opposing pitcher. I’d love to see our right-handed lineup take him yard.