Thursday, April 08, 2004
THREE FOR THE ROAD
Two pieces of dialogue come to mind, one that has a more apparent link to today's events, and one that doesn't.
"Live in the now, Wayne!! -- Garth Algar
The one that doesn't is another quote from the Aqua Teen Hunger Force, one of my favorite shows on television...
Frylock: "You can NOT cut someone's lawn with matches, Meatwad!!"
Meatwad: "Look, I know that. You gotta have gasoline, or else how's it gonna spread to the street??"
To me, the Meatwad train of thought there seems a little too similar to that of one William Bavasi.
On to the game. Once again, it's inning notes, then my comments and such.
top 1 -- Freddy first pitch strike to Eckstein...2-1 Aurilia backhand lineout; Erstad warning track Winn; Vlad 1-3
bot 1 -- 2-0 then full to Ichiro, great play Glaus 5-3; Winn 1-2, double down RF line, held to 2B by Vlad; Boone LF base hit, Winn nailed by J Guillen at plate (not close, blame Dave Myers)...Boone still at first afterward; Ibanez 2-0 bullet RF ground-rule 2B (no run score); Edgar 2-0...6-3 NO RUNS!! IT JUST CONTINUES, MY OH MY!!!
>> Okay, so Freddy started fairly well. Offensively (more ways than one), two goats in this inning. I'll go with the player first -- Bret Boone not moving to second on Jose Guillen's throw to the plate. That's inexcusable, especially considering if he advanced one more base, he scores on the Ibanez double. End result is Edgar coming up with runners on first and second with two out and grounding out to short. No runs scored. IT JUST CONTINUES!!! MY OH MY!!! The non-player to blame: Dave Myers. DOES THIS GUY NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE ANGELS' OUTFIELD ARMS?!??!!! Was he sleeping during the film session? What the hell's going on here??
top 2 -- Garret base hit LF; Glaus fair down LF line past Bloomquist 2B; Guillen 1-2...swing K, drop 3rd strike...bounces to Olerud who stops it; Salmon 2-0...fly Olerud; Kennedy 3-0 IBB; Paul 0-2 swing K
bot 2 -- Olerud 0-2...Garret fly; Aurilia fly Kennedy; Davis 3-1...full, swing K
>> Garcia puts out the fire here, though Ben Davis nearly let a couple runs score with the throw to first on the dropped third strike. The fire Garcia had to put out was sort of made worse by the fact he fell behind Salmon (luckily he got him out) 2-0 and going to 3-0 on Kennedy before the intentional walk. Oh yeah, the Mariner offense did nothing.
top 3 -- Eckstein (Freddy throwing a lot of strikes? went 2-0 and 3-0 on 2 hitters) Winn running catch; Erstad 3-0...3-1 fly Ichiro; Vlad 1-2 swing K
bot 3 -- Bloomquist 1-2...LF single; Ichiro 4-6-3; Winn 2-0...full 5-3
>> Rizzs commented when Eckstein was up that Freddy was throwing a lot of strikes, which was probably true at that point, but I was more worried about the sequence where Freddy went to 2-0 on Salmon and went to 3-0 on Kennedy, and as we know, falling behind hitters is not a good thing. However, Freddy whiffed Vlad Guerrero, and that's a hell of a way to get out of the jam. As we can see, Ichiro did a great job moving the runner, and Randy Winn took full advantage of his 2-0 count.
top 4 -- Garret 1-2...swing K (how did J-Lo's mom come up in Niehaus' dialogue?); Glaus 1-2 swing K; Guillen track Winn
bot 4 -- Boone jammed badly 6-3; Ibanez 3-1 BB; Edgar 2-0...3-1...up middle Kennedy bobbles; Olerud base hit CF (Garret knocks it down) load bases; Aurilia hard off Escobar glove, run scores 1-4-3 (5 RBI Aurilia) first lead of 2004; Davis 2-0...3-1...full swing K
MARINERS 1-0
>> During Garret Anderson's at-bat, Dave Niehaus referenced J-Lo's mom winning the lottery...I have no idea how this came up in the dialogue, but I think it might have had something to do with EQC Cap night (that's means Emerald Queen Casino, by the way. Is the brass trying to keep the kids from knowing about CASINOS??). Freddy did a great job in the inning, as he did many times today. With one out and the bases juiced, Rich Aurilia hit the ball hard off Kelvim Escobar's glove to drive in a run, grounding out in the process. Five RBI for Aurilia on the season, on yet another non-authoritative run-scoring play for the Mariners. Can we have a few more clean RBI singles or something, since I know homers are mostly out of the question? Who likes piddly baseball? The Mariners do!!
top 5 -- Salmon 2-0...2-2...full...BB (2 total); Kennedy (Guardado flat-ground news, bullpen tomorrow, will not be used as closer right away) line to Ichiro; Paul 1-2 fly Ibanez; Eckstein CF base hit; Erstad F5
bot 5 -- Bloomquist 2-2 swing K fork; Ichiro 1-2...swing K; Winn 2-0 Eckstein drops but still 6-3
>> During Adam Kennedy's at-bat, we were told that Ed Guardado can throw off flat ground now and will have a bullpen session tomorrow. When rehabbing in game action, he will be eased into the closer role. Freddy stranded the leadoff walk in another good inning. He was at 73 pitches through 5, which is not the April Freddy I'm used to. Other than one year (I think it was last year), I'm used to Freddy in April tossing up a line of 5 2/3 innings and 5 runs on about 114 pitches. As for the "offense," Bloomquist fished for a forkball, Ichiro had a 1-2 count, so that is probably "patient" on his part, and Winn again took full advantage of a 2-0 count.
top 6 -- (Rizzs, dammit) Vlad 0-2...swing K; Garret 2-0 4-3; Glaus 2-2 swing K
bot 6 -- Boone 0-2...base hit CF; Ibanez RCF Garret fly; Edgar 3-1 BB; Olerud 4-6-3
>> Garcia cut through the teeth of the Angel lineup. He whiffed Vlad, fell behind Garret and forced a groundout, then whiffed Glaus. Great job by Freddy. Boone had a good at-bat, getting a base hit after being down 0-2. Raul Ibanez did a great job moving the runner over, then Edgar walked. Two on, two out, so what? That's the question John Olerud answered as he bounced into the ol' 4-6-3 DP.
top 7 -- Guillen infield single off plate (Aurilia no play); (Myers, Mateo warming) Salmon near-DP, Boone throw pulls Olerud off; Kennedy fly Winn; Paul 2-0 Winn track fly
bot 7 -- Aurilia fly Garret; Davis 1-2...checkswing K; Bloomquist 3-0...full swing K!!!
>> Garcia bounced back from a couple of bad bounces in the 7th, with a single off the plate and a throw pulling Olerud off the bag at first. Garcia got the Kennedy flyout and got a Josh Paul flyout after being down in the count 2-0. The bats...Ben Davis really didn't help out his cause today. Willie Bloomquist...well, he had a 3-0 count and ended up whiffing. WOLF PRIDE!!!
top 8 -- MATEO IN; Eckstein 0-2 fly Ichiro; Erstad 2-0...fly CF Winn (nearly lost in sky); Vlad 5-3
bot 8 -- Ichiro 2-0 fly Guillen; Winn to Erstad U3; Boone 1-2...swing K in dirt
>> Dave Niehaus said about the Angel hitters due up: "top of the list for the Anaheims." Freddy had thrown 96 pitches through seven. I might have left him out there for one more hitter or two, but it's early in the year, so pulling him here (for Mateo) is defensible. What a great job by Freddy, turning in an outing that Mariner fans have grown accustomed to seeing from their starting rotation, an outing that flew in the face of the efforts of the past two nights from Jamie Moyer and Joel Pineiro. I could probably say more about it, but the game wasn't on TV, so no visual proof of anything or any pitches that were working and stuff like that. Though he sucked on more than one occasion today, Ben Davis was behind the plate. He probably wasn't calling the game, but he was back there, whatever that might be worth. Here's a generic sports thing to say: Freddy had a game plan today and he executed it well. Damn, that's generic. Mateo took care of the 1-2-3 hitters as Raf Soriano and Mike Myers warmed up. On offense, Ichiro did great with a 2-0 count, Winn bounced out, and Boone whiffed. After a Boone foul ball (Soriano warming up at this point), someone on the field tossed the foul ball toward a child, who dropped it. The ball was tossed again toward said child, but a grownup intercepted it. COME ON, FANS!! The kids are a very important part of this game. This child is probably scarred for life thanks to this numbskull greedy bastard. To other fans' credit, I did hear some boos hail down after this happened.
top 9 -- MYERS IN?!!!??!! Garret 1-2...base hit LF...NICE JOB, BOB!!!; SHIG IN; Glaus basehit LF; Guillen basehit!!; Salmon 3-1...full swing K; Kennedy BASEHIT RCF! ANGELS 2-1!!!; DaVanon BALK (ANA 3-1) 2-0...3-1 BB; Eckstein 2-2 (VILLONE WARMING)...full 6-3; Erstad 0-2...full FAIR DOWN LF LINE!!! (ANA 5-1); Vlad 1-2 fly Ichiro
bot 9 -- GREGG IN; Ibanez 4-3; Edgar 4-3 great play Kennedy; Olerud 2-0...2-2 swing K
>> Okay, here's where it hits the fan. Once the 8th was over, the only thought I had in my mind was this (and this is NOT hindsight): THERE'S NO WAY MIKE MYERS SHOULD HAVE SNIFFED THE 9TH. It's 1-0, bring out your (interim) closer, let him get the three outs, lefty-lefty matchup be damned. I had even told Jeremy that I didn't care if Myers got three outs on three pitches, I thought this move was idiotic. By the way, isn't Hasegawa supposed to be tough on lefties? What happened to that line of thinking? I don't think Mike Myers is enough for me to not think along those lines. The result was Garret Anderson getting the base hit to LF. To me, THIS REEKED OF YANKING FRANKLIN FOR RHODES TO FACE HANK BLALOCK LAST YEAR (wrong pitcher, wrong time), and we all know how that game turned out. If you forgot, Raf Palmeiro sat on dead red from Armando Benitez later in that inning. And another thing...with the bases loaded and nobody out (no runs across), I just had a problem with Melvin making the infield play back to concede the tying run. If I ever wanted to concede the tying run, it's going to be early in the game, NOT in the 9th. Shig battled back from 3-1 to strike out Tim Salmon, but from there, it was all downhill. With the bases loaded and one out (Kennedy up), either Rick or Dave was giddy about the possibility of a double play ending it. My thought at this point: will the ball find Ibanez or Aurilia? Kennedy got the base knock to give the Angels the lead. Shig balked to make it 3-1. Niehaus after the balk: "you can't argue a balk, but out comes Bob Melvin to ask why..." I wish I could have seen what was probably a halfhearted argument. DaVanon walked, Eckstein grounded to short (Villone was warming up, which just makes me even more "confident" in the Mariner pen if he's an option at this point). With Erstad up, Niehaus had convinced himself that Melvin wouldn't walk Erstad to get to Vlad, but I wouldn't put it past Melvin...and I wish Dave would quit using "Erstie" as a nickname for Erstad. Erstad was down 0-2, worked the count full, then roped one down the LF line to give the Angels their final 5-1 margin. As Vlad was up, Niehaus said the crowd was starting to head out. Vlad flew out to Ichiro to end the carnage. At this point, I thought: "Hey, Bob, do you think you got the Angels to 'think about' sending Troy Percival out for the 9th??" They probably didn't, because no-name Mariner 2003 nemesis Kevin Gregg came out once again in this series and sliced through the potent 3-4-5 hitters in the Mariner lineup in a quick, painless 1-2-3 fashion. John Olerud added a whiffing coup de grace to end it.
There was no doubt in my mind Shig should have been the first one to come out in the 9th (some KJR callers afterward wanted Soriano, who had been warming up but threw 26 or so pitches yesterday). I think the whole thing would have come out differently, and I don't care what ended up actually happening to Shig. This one's on you, Bob. As soon as I heard Myers was in, all I could think was "you know what, Bob? You deserve to lose this game." The way things were going, I didn't think it was actually going to happen, but man...I can't say I'm not satisfied with this in an evil way.
Goats of the game:
1) Bob Melvin -- You read the 9th inning paragraph, right? This is Fireworthy Offense #2, because FO#1 (Wilson sent from first) was revealed to be a missed sign by Dan Wilson.
2) Dave Myers -- Sending Randy Winn on a single to Jose Guillen (arm!) in LF. Stupid stupid stupid. I suppose I could harp on Myers for not throwing up the stop sign, but Myers probably would have thrown it up too late, and Winn would have ended up as Snelling #2.
3) Bret Boone -- Not advancing to second on the Jose Guilen throw to the plate. He would have scored on the Raul Ibanez double, changing the complexion of the game and giving Freddy a little more wiggle room.
4) Mike Myers -- his job: get one hitter (Garret Anderson) out. Result: base knock, tying run aboard immediately. Donald Trump and I agree...YOU'RE FIRED.
5) Shigetoshi Hasegawa -- He still had a job to do, too, though in an evil way I was rooting for him to make Melvin look like an idiot. He did, and then some.
Today's Gameball:
Freddy Garcia -- seven shutout innings, four hits, two walks, and seven strikeouts on 96 pitches. Freddy shows up, stands on his head, and it all goes to hell. My soon-to-come raid of the Cookies and Creme ice cream in the freezer is for you, Freddy.
Sure, it can't get much worse than this. Sure, it's only three games.
How will you feel if the Mariners are sitting there at the end of the year and finish three games short of the Angels for the division title? To hell with Rondell White in June of last year, this year we could be looking all the way back to the very first series of the year.
As the Mariners and Garcia cruised along with the 1-0 lead, I thought to myself, "it looks like this is the type of game the Mariners have to win this year." Even still, they didn't.
[Edit ~11:30p -- the Franklin-yanked-for-Rhodes game was actually September 9th of last year, as opposed to the boxscore of the 15th that I couldn't get that I thought was the game I wanted. The appropriate game is now linked.]
"Live in the now, Wayne!! -- Garth Algar
The one that doesn't is another quote from the Aqua Teen Hunger Force, one of my favorite shows on television...
Frylock: "You can NOT cut someone's lawn with matches, Meatwad!!"
Meatwad: "Look, I know that. You gotta have gasoline, or else how's it gonna spread to the street??"
To me, the Meatwad train of thought there seems a little too similar to that of one William Bavasi.
On to the game. Once again, it's inning notes, then my comments and such.
top 1 -- Freddy first pitch strike to Eckstein...2-1 Aurilia backhand lineout; Erstad warning track Winn; Vlad 1-3
bot 1 -- 2-0 then full to Ichiro, great play Glaus 5-3; Winn 1-2, double down RF line, held to 2B by Vlad; Boone LF base hit, Winn nailed by J Guillen at plate (not close, blame Dave Myers)...Boone still at first afterward; Ibanez 2-0 bullet RF ground-rule 2B (no run score); Edgar 2-0...6-3 NO RUNS!! IT JUST CONTINUES, MY OH MY!!!
>> Okay, so Freddy started fairly well. Offensively (more ways than one), two goats in this inning. I'll go with the player first -- Bret Boone not moving to second on Jose Guillen's throw to the plate. That's inexcusable, especially considering if he advanced one more base, he scores on the Ibanez double. End result is Edgar coming up with runners on first and second with two out and grounding out to short. No runs scored. IT JUST CONTINUES!!! MY OH MY!!! The non-player to blame: Dave Myers. DOES THIS GUY NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE ANGELS' OUTFIELD ARMS?!??!!! Was he sleeping during the film session? What the hell's going on here??
top 2 -- Garret base hit LF; Glaus fair down LF line past Bloomquist 2B; Guillen 1-2...swing K, drop 3rd strike...bounces to Olerud who stops it; Salmon 2-0...fly Olerud; Kennedy 3-0 IBB; Paul 0-2 swing K
bot 2 -- Olerud 0-2...Garret fly; Aurilia fly Kennedy; Davis 3-1...full, swing K
>> Garcia puts out the fire here, though Ben Davis nearly let a couple runs score with the throw to first on the dropped third strike. The fire Garcia had to put out was sort of made worse by the fact he fell behind Salmon (luckily he got him out) 2-0 and going to 3-0 on Kennedy before the intentional walk. Oh yeah, the Mariner offense did nothing.
top 3 -- Eckstein (Freddy throwing a lot of strikes? went 2-0 and 3-0 on 2 hitters) Winn running catch; Erstad 3-0...3-1 fly Ichiro; Vlad 1-2 swing K
bot 3 -- Bloomquist 1-2...LF single; Ichiro 4-6-3; Winn 2-0...full 5-3
>> Rizzs commented when Eckstein was up that Freddy was throwing a lot of strikes, which was probably true at that point, but I was more worried about the sequence where Freddy went to 2-0 on Salmon and went to 3-0 on Kennedy, and as we know, falling behind hitters is not a good thing. However, Freddy whiffed Vlad Guerrero, and that's a hell of a way to get out of the jam. As we can see, Ichiro did a great job moving the runner, and Randy Winn took full advantage of his 2-0 count.
top 4 -- Garret 1-2...swing K (how did J-Lo's mom come up in Niehaus' dialogue?); Glaus 1-2 swing K; Guillen track Winn
bot 4 -- Boone jammed badly 6-3; Ibanez 3-1 BB; Edgar 2-0...3-1...up middle Kennedy bobbles; Olerud base hit CF (Garret knocks it down) load bases; Aurilia hard off Escobar glove, run scores 1-4-3 (5 RBI Aurilia) first lead of 2004; Davis 2-0...3-1...full swing K
MARINERS 1-0
>> During Garret Anderson's at-bat, Dave Niehaus referenced J-Lo's mom winning the lottery...I have no idea how this came up in the dialogue, but I think it might have had something to do with EQC Cap night (that's means Emerald Queen Casino, by the way. Is the brass trying to keep the kids from knowing about CASINOS??). Freddy did a great job in the inning, as he did many times today. With one out and the bases juiced, Rich Aurilia hit the ball hard off Kelvim Escobar's glove to drive in a run, grounding out in the process. Five RBI for Aurilia on the season, on yet another non-authoritative run-scoring play for the Mariners. Can we have a few more clean RBI singles or something, since I know homers are mostly out of the question? Who likes piddly baseball? The Mariners do!!
top 5 -- Salmon 2-0...2-2...full...BB (2 total); Kennedy (Guardado flat-ground news, bullpen tomorrow, will not be used as closer right away) line to Ichiro; Paul 1-2 fly Ibanez; Eckstein CF base hit; Erstad F5
bot 5 -- Bloomquist 2-2 swing K fork; Ichiro 1-2...swing K; Winn 2-0 Eckstein drops but still 6-3
>> During Adam Kennedy's at-bat, we were told that Ed Guardado can throw off flat ground now and will have a bullpen session tomorrow. When rehabbing in game action, he will be eased into the closer role. Freddy stranded the leadoff walk in another good inning. He was at 73 pitches through 5, which is not the April Freddy I'm used to. Other than one year (I think it was last year), I'm used to Freddy in April tossing up a line of 5 2/3 innings and 5 runs on about 114 pitches. As for the "offense," Bloomquist fished for a forkball, Ichiro had a 1-2 count, so that is probably "patient" on his part, and Winn again took full advantage of a 2-0 count.
top 6 -- (Rizzs, dammit) Vlad 0-2...swing K; Garret 2-0 4-3; Glaus 2-2 swing K
bot 6 -- Boone 0-2...base hit CF; Ibanez RCF Garret fly; Edgar 3-1 BB; Olerud 4-6-3
>> Garcia cut through the teeth of the Angel lineup. He whiffed Vlad, fell behind Garret and forced a groundout, then whiffed Glaus. Great job by Freddy. Boone had a good at-bat, getting a base hit after being down 0-2. Raul Ibanez did a great job moving the runner over, then Edgar walked. Two on, two out, so what? That's the question John Olerud answered as he bounced into the ol' 4-6-3 DP.
top 7 -- Guillen infield single off plate (Aurilia no play); (Myers, Mateo warming) Salmon near-DP, Boone throw pulls Olerud off; Kennedy fly Winn; Paul 2-0 Winn track fly
bot 7 -- Aurilia fly Garret; Davis 1-2...checkswing K; Bloomquist 3-0...full swing K!!!
>> Garcia bounced back from a couple of bad bounces in the 7th, with a single off the plate and a throw pulling Olerud off the bag at first. Garcia got the Kennedy flyout and got a Josh Paul flyout after being down in the count 2-0. The bats...Ben Davis really didn't help out his cause today. Willie Bloomquist...well, he had a 3-0 count and ended up whiffing. WOLF PRIDE!!!
top 8 -- MATEO IN; Eckstein 0-2 fly Ichiro; Erstad 2-0...fly CF Winn (nearly lost in sky); Vlad 5-3
bot 8 -- Ichiro 2-0 fly Guillen; Winn to Erstad U3; Boone 1-2...swing K in dirt
>> Dave Niehaus said about the Angel hitters due up: "top of the list for the Anaheims." Freddy had thrown 96 pitches through seven. I might have left him out there for one more hitter or two, but it's early in the year, so pulling him here (for Mateo) is defensible. What a great job by Freddy, turning in an outing that Mariner fans have grown accustomed to seeing from their starting rotation, an outing that flew in the face of the efforts of the past two nights from Jamie Moyer and Joel Pineiro. I could probably say more about it, but the game wasn't on TV, so no visual proof of anything or any pitches that were working and stuff like that. Though he sucked on more than one occasion today, Ben Davis was behind the plate. He probably wasn't calling the game, but he was back there, whatever that might be worth. Here's a generic sports thing to say: Freddy had a game plan today and he executed it well. Damn, that's generic. Mateo took care of the 1-2-3 hitters as Raf Soriano and Mike Myers warmed up. On offense, Ichiro did great with a 2-0 count, Winn bounced out, and Boone whiffed. After a Boone foul ball (Soriano warming up at this point), someone on the field tossed the foul ball toward a child, who dropped it. The ball was tossed again toward said child, but a grownup intercepted it. COME ON, FANS!! The kids are a very important part of this game. This child is probably scarred for life thanks to this numbskull greedy bastard. To other fans' credit, I did hear some boos hail down after this happened.
top 9 -- MYERS IN?!!!??!! Garret 1-2...base hit LF...NICE JOB, BOB!!!; SHIG IN; Glaus basehit LF; Guillen basehit!!; Salmon 3-1...full swing K; Kennedy BASEHIT RCF! ANGELS 2-1!!!; DaVanon BALK (ANA 3-1) 2-0...3-1 BB; Eckstein 2-2 (VILLONE WARMING)...full 6-3; Erstad 0-2...full FAIR DOWN LF LINE!!! (ANA 5-1); Vlad 1-2 fly Ichiro
bot 9 -- GREGG IN; Ibanez 4-3; Edgar 4-3 great play Kennedy; Olerud 2-0...2-2 swing K
>> Okay, here's where it hits the fan. Once the 8th was over, the only thought I had in my mind was this (and this is NOT hindsight): THERE'S NO WAY MIKE MYERS SHOULD HAVE SNIFFED THE 9TH. It's 1-0, bring out your (interim) closer, let him get the three outs, lefty-lefty matchup be damned. I had even told Jeremy that I didn't care if Myers got three outs on three pitches, I thought this move was idiotic. By the way, isn't Hasegawa supposed to be tough on lefties? What happened to that line of thinking? I don't think Mike Myers is enough for me to not think along those lines. The result was Garret Anderson getting the base hit to LF. To me, THIS REEKED OF YANKING FRANKLIN FOR RHODES TO FACE HANK BLALOCK LAST YEAR (wrong pitcher, wrong time), and we all know how that game turned out. If you forgot, Raf Palmeiro sat on dead red from Armando Benitez later in that inning. And another thing...with the bases loaded and nobody out (no runs across), I just had a problem with Melvin making the infield play back to concede the tying run. If I ever wanted to concede the tying run, it's going to be early in the game, NOT in the 9th. Shig battled back from 3-1 to strike out Tim Salmon, but from there, it was all downhill. With the bases loaded and one out (Kennedy up), either Rick or Dave was giddy about the possibility of a double play ending it. My thought at this point: will the ball find Ibanez or Aurilia? Kennedy got the base knock to give the Angels the lead. Shig balked to make it 3-1. Niehaus after the balk: "you can't argue a balk, but out comes Bob Melvin to ask why..." I wish I could have seen what was probably a halfhearted argument. DaVanon walked, Eckstein grounded to short (Villone was warming up, which just makes me even more "confident" in the Mariner pen if he's an option at this point). With Erstad up, Niehaus had convinced himself that Melvin wouldn't walk Erstad to get to Vlad, but I wouldn't put it past Melvin...and I wish Dave would quit using "Erstie" as a nickname for Erstad. Erstad was down 0-2, worked the count full, then roped one down the LF line to give the Angels their final 5-1 margin. As Vlad was up, Niehaus said the crowd was starting to head out. Vlad flew out to Ichiro to end the carnage. At this point, I thought: "Hey, Bob, do you think you got the Angels to 'think about' sending Troy Percival out for the 9th??" They probably didn't, because no-name Mariner 2003 nemesis Kevin Gregg came out once again in this series and sliced through the potent 3-4-5 hitters in the Mariner lineup in a quick, painless 1-2-3 fashion. John Olerud added a whiffing coup de grace to end it.
There was no doubt in my mind Shig should have been the first one to come out in the 9th (some KJR callers afterward wanted Soriano, who had been warming up but threw 26 or so pitches yesterday). I think the whole thing would have come out differently, and I don't care what ended up actually happening to Shig. This one's on you, Bob. As soon as I heard Myers was in, all I could think was "you know what, Bob? You deserve to lose this game." The way things were going, I didn't think it was actually going to happen, but man...I can't say I'm not satisfied with this in an evil way.
Goats of the game:
1) Bob Melvin -- You read the 9th inning paragraph, right? This is Fireworthy Offense #2, because FO#1 (Wilson sent from first) was revealed to be a missed sign by Dan Wilson.
2) Dave Myers -- Sending Randy Winn on a single to Jose Guillen (arm!) in LF. Stupid stupid stupid. I suppose I could harp on Myers for not throwing up the stop sign, but Myers probably would have thrown it up too late, and Winn would have ended up as Snelling #2.
3) Bret Boone -- Not advancing to second on the Jose Guilen throw to the plate. He would have scored on the Raul Ibanez double, changing the complexion of the game and giving Freddy a little more wiggle room.
4) Mike Myers -- his job: get one hitter (Garret Anderson) out. Result: base knock, tying run aboard immediately. Donald Trump and I agree...YOU'RE FIRED.
5) Shigetoshi Hasegawa -- He still had a job to do, too, though in an evil way I was rooting for him to make Melvin look like an idiot. He did, and then some.
Today's Gameball:
Freddy Garcia -- seven shutout innings, four hits, two walks, and seven strikeouts on 96 pitches. Freddy shows up, stands on his head, and it all goes to hell. My soon-to-come raid of the Cookies and Creme ice cream in the freezer is for you, Freddy.
Sure, it can't get much worse than this. Sure, it's only three games.
How will you feel if the Mariners are sitting there at the end of the year and finish three games short of the Angels for the division title? To hell with Rondell White in June of last year, this year we could be looking all the way back to the very first series of the year.
As the Mariners and Garcia cruised along with the 1-0 lead, I thought to myself, "it looks like this is the type of game the Mariners have to win this year." Even still, they didn't.
[Edit ~11:30p -- the Franklin-yanked-for-Rhodes game was actually September 9th of last year, as opposed to the boxscore of the 15th that I couldn't get that I thought was the game I wanted. The appropriate game is now linked.]
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