Game 1: Mariners vs. Oakland @ Tokyo
Opening Day of 2012. I know it’s tougher to get excited about the game when it’s on at 3am, when we’ve got more spring training games to slog through and when it’s only March 27th. Er, 28th. But opening day is still opening day, and Felix is still Felix.
Here’s the first M’s line-up of the season:
1: Figgins (no, stay awake, it gets better)
2: Ackley (2b)
3: Ichiro! (RF)
4: Smoak (1B)
5: Montero (DH)
6: Carp (LF)
7: Olivo (C)
8: Saunders (CF)
9: Ryan (SS)
SP: KING FELIX
The M’s face off against Brandon McCarthy, twitter superstar and 2011 league leader in FIP. Yoenis Cespedes gets the start in CF, but hits 9th. Seth Smith, the OF acquired from Colorado for Guillermo Moscoso starts in the clean-up spot and plays DH. The name the A’s have selected to get the start today from their impressive collection of AAAA 1Bs is…Brandon Allen. Eric Sogard gets the start at 3B ahead of Josh Donaldson, which is funny because Eric Sogard gets an opening day start.
GO M’S! I NEED CAFFEINE!
UPDATE: This isn’t exactly news, but, for the good of the order: the M’s have moved Franklin Gutierrez and Adam Moore to the 15-day disable list.
Feel free to use the comments of this as the game thread, or follow along with Dave’s commentary in CoverItLive below.
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93 Responses to “Game 1: Mariners vs. Oakland @ Tokyo”
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Wow, we are all crazy for staying up.
I am getting the coffee on now, Big Bang Theory season 4 is going to get me through for the next couple hours…Then headed to Emerald Queen to watch, OPENING DAY BABY!!!
GO M’s! FELIX!
It’s opening day!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apparently, SeatGeek thinks this game is in Australia: http://seatgeek.com/tokyo-dome-tickets/
Wow, we are all crazy for staying up.
Yep, call me Mr. Nutters. I’m gonna be watching at home.
PREDICTION: Jesus Montero goes yard tonight.
Question, and I’ve only 55 minutes to confirm this. I live in Cali and thus bought the MLB TV package to catch the games. I don’t get root sports here. Am I correct in that I cannot watch the game live? My understanding is that mlbtv will tape delay the game. WTF?? If I’m missing something please let me know.
Oh and I went on nike.com today and customized a mariners hoodie with monteros name and number on the back! I’m stoked!
I know it’s tougher to get excited about the game when it’s on at 3am
I beg to differ!
1: Figgins (no, stay awake, it gets better)
Haha! Classic!
I’m so stoked! Finally some baseball again. Super excited to see the unique setting too. Hopefully the M’s will have a de facto homefield advantage with their Japanese fanbase too.
35 minutes… Couldn’t stay asleep long enough… Been awake the past 45 minutes… Getting ready for hot dogs and peanuts at 3am! Go M’s!
Oh, and I’ll add to this one:
“PREDICTION: Jesus Montero goes yard tonight.”
PREDICTION 2: USS Mariner fans go yawn tonight.
Okay, okay… But seriously: Ackley hits for the cycle, first time of his someday record total in MLB history.
(Raise your hand if you’ll also probably watch the replay tonight, too. *laugh*)
Game starts at 9pm here in Australia which is perfect for me!
The PI screw is a couple blocks from the park, IVs inserted with caffeine flowing.
No 30 minute pregame show?? On Opening Day? That’s just unacceptable.
Mariners are back! Yay. Now let’s hope Felix was worth the long evening.
TV on. Sound off. Closed captions on. Fiance and cat, asleep beside me. King’s Court shirt on. Gameday audio stream and like a dozen different browser tabs, poised.
I am a dork.
Baseball at 11pm. Weird.
Figgins bound to lead off with a triple.. odds are he’s due
Anybody else watching this in Japan? This is my first M’s game in primetime in over five years.
YES!! I am so happy! M’s return with the best record in MLB by 2 games…awwww baseball. I dream of next year with a good lineup and a starting staff of FELIX!, Hultzen, Paxton, Ramirez, Walker…And will have fun watching our young hitters take a huge stride this year.
Figlet lol.
Ichiro!
I don’t know about anyone else, but the live blog isn’t working for me.
nice to see ichiro start out with a classic ichiro hit! any chance we see kawasaki this game?
Anyone else feel the odd sensation of the crowd not being as mic’ed up and “overhyped” on the Japanese coverage as they get in our broadcasts (the audio/video is a Japanese feed). It’s an eerie silence, comparatively, to our overcompressed, over loud audio. Even the cheering is very quiet, relative to Roots broadcasts.
Long live the King! And welcome back, gang.
I woke up early to see the game, but missed Figgins’ at bat, luckily.
I think Blowers and Sims are doing a good job, considering.
Felix!
Looking good.
Montero fitting right in as a middle of the order Mariner bat.
Swings at the first pitch, grounds out gently to third.
(McCarthy is good, granted…)
Looks like the same old lineup.
…the /ridiculous-overreaction tag didn’t show up which ruined the joke.
What was that, 5 total pitches to the middle of the order? Geez
Why does it have to be the A’s?
Gonna get a bowl of cereal. I may doze off, but maybe not.
Baseball at 11am. Nice.
This game will be over quick enough for me to work in a nap before work, at this rate.
I’m skipping my morning workout to “watch” this on ESPN Gamecast…
I have the season ticket with Direct TV, but Root isn’t part of it…
Glad as a loyal customer thats given the evil Direct TV thousands of dollars over the years that I get rewarded by looking at dots and player pics instead of watching the game live…
Game of Thrones commercials on Gameday between Mariners innings. I’m in heaven.
I have DirecTV and it includes Root.
Think back to the final game last season…. who would have guessed Figgins and Saunders would be starting the opening game this year?
Condor!
I’m watching on my Xbox and it is super sexy. I live in NYC and I can’t remember the last time I got to watch Felix’s curveball.
Saunders with a hit!
Is this swing at the first pitch thing just because McCarthy is pitching? Or is this the Wedge influence?
Condor knock! Condor bag! I’m happy. I’m really pulling for this guy.
CONDOR!
There’s some horrible base running.
Oh man. First out at third.
Michael… Michael… Michael… 1 step forward, two steps back…
AND… Brendan Ryan? Wha?
Nice inning, boys. *sigh*
What a disappointing inning.
Figgins pulling the bat back on a bunt attempt.
Damn it, Figlet. PART of the bunt is to PROTECT YOUR EFFING RUNNER.
Nimrod.
Bummer ’cause Saunders out at 3rd was most likely a hit for Ryan, otherwise… Then we have Figgins sacrificing, and Ackley and Ichiro with RBI opportunities.
Could be 2-0 without much effort right there.
Dammit.
Oakland A’s. The San Diego Padres of the American League.
Seattle Mariners. The Houston Astros of the American League.
(until the Houston Astros become the Houston Astros of the American League next year)
Houston doesn’t have a Felix. Or an Ichiro.
Can anybody get any Pitch F/X info on how hard Felix is throwing? Can’t tell, and apparently the Tokyo Dome doesn’t have a stadium gun.
Nice thing about the XBOX coverage (probably all mlb.tv) is the lack of commercials. Can leave the room during the commercials and immediately be alerted when the game is back on by the addition of audio.
ACKLEY!!!!
Paul-
OR, an Ackley!
Ack Attack!
I don’t think Houston has an Ackley, either.
Ichiro’s back! 2-for-2, all infield hits…
ACKLEY!
Memo to Mr. Saunders and Mr. Ryan:
When Ackley and Ichiro are coming up behind you, kindly refrain from RUNNING OUT OF AN INNING!
Thx,
The fans
Would love to see Montero get his first hit here.
That was pretty well hit, just didn’t fall fast enough.
Damn. Well, one run should still be enough with Felix pitching.
re: Montero-
Just nice to see someone hit something to opposite field from the right side of the plate– I’ll give him an A- for effort there.
Yeah, Montero’s the real-deal. Ackley is as well. I still believe he’ll (Ackley) break the record for most cycles hit.
Yeah, weird season already…. Olivo with an infield single.
BLISTERINGLY fast Olivo! (Actually was a little surprised how quickly he got down the line)
Not so sure Saunders didn’t beat-out that double play.
Note: Figgins is hitting over .300!!! When’s the last time you could say that?
Weird year so far. (Trade him!)
(UPDATE)
Note: Figgins is hitting over .200!!! When’s the last time you could say that?
Weird year so far. (Trade him!)
Nice to have a ball game to listen to with my morning coffee. Now, what for breakfast?
Not sure where Root Sports got their figures on the worlds largest cities, but I can tell you they are a bit inflated (Sao Paulo for example, has about 12 million, not 20). Maybe they can do that with Mariner batting averages though? We might find a suitor for Figgins if he’s hitting .858
Are Felix (and McCarthy) getting squeezed as much as gamecast seems to be suggesting?
djw – there haven’t been any calls that I’ve been outraged about, but there are many that look like strikes that could have gone the other way.
The King rides high!!!
What the hell was that?! Ichiro driving the ball deep to the opposite field?!
I hope they can manage a run here. Really don’t wanna see extra innings.
This is all-too familiar.
It was so weird having a game on the radio on my early morning drive into work. Now I’m parked in our cafeteria in front of the tv with my laptop…
The things I do to watch a bad team…
It felt like Fuentes got a lot of help from the Ump that inning. Gamecasters?
No base runners since sixth inning. Offense remains pathetic.
Ackley!
C’mon boys!!!!
How fitting would it be, for Ichiro to drive in the winning run?
Well, go-ahead run.
Ichiro again!
That could be the weirdest RBI we’ll see all season. That should count as a base hit and a sacrifice!
I snoozed from the 4th to the 11th, but it was OK because all the hitters seemed to have done the same.
Gotta ask, though, about the Mariner baserunning.
I had fallen asleep and misread the score. I can use the 5-6am excuse this time, but I’m almost certain there will be a few more games at regular time, where I do the same.
You guys fell asleep– oh man, you missed the Dragon dancing in the infield to YMCA after the 6th inning, and the ghost of Ted Williams acting out scenes from the Bill Murray movie “Lost in Translation”…
(I kid)
1-0, boys. Go M’s!
Could some kind soul tell me how Ackley scored from second on an infield hit? I’m just looking at the play-by-play…
Alright guys, 161 to go.
Dennisss: It was actually a single up the middle to the CF. The throw home was cut off by the pitcher and Ichiro was caught in a rundown trying to advance to second.
Kawasaki is the new Mike Sweeney. I don’t care if he hits .150 (in limited playing time) as long as he keeps everyone else happy and upbeat.
There were zero walks in this game.
I guess that answers the question someone had about whether the pitchers were getting squeezed.
Thanks Milindriel. Ackley’s the hero, but the Japanese fans must have been in seventh heaven watching Ichiro put up 4 hits.