Thursday, May 20, 2004
NUMBER THREE!
The Mariners used solid pitching from Jamie Moyer and a rare visit from the big inning in their favor to once again avoid dropping below the .333 mark.
It started off bleak as usual, this time against Rodrigo Lopez. This time, the swing-at-all-first-pitches game plan didn't grossly backfire. With Lopez on the mound, the Mariners swung at 11 first pitches out of the 21 batters they sent to the plate. Lopez finished with 66 pitches in his 4 2/3 innings, sure (he supposedly was on an 85-pitch count), but he threw 28 pitches in the 5th. Yes, the Mariners won and everything, but Rodrigo Lopez had thrown 38 pitches in the first four innings. I'm telling you, if the Mariners fell in line and didn't have the big inning, this hack-o-riffic game plan would get diced like crazy. It hasn't been that hack-o-riffic since the one Hudson game earlier this year.
Anatomy of a big inning --
Edgar singled on the first pitch. John Olerud singled. Dave Niehaus suggested not having Dan Wilson bunt and hoping for the big inning instead, except incorrectly saying that Dan Wilson is the best bunter on the ballclub (comical). Wilson singled and the bases were loaded with the three slowest baserunners on the team with nobody out. I was waiting for the Mariners to get through it without a run. Rich Aurilia probably had the at-bat that turned the game, not necessarily for the result, but for wearing down Lopez; he fell behind 1-2 and fell off a few pitches before walking to put the go-ahead (and first) run across. After Quinton McCracken tallied his obligatory flyout, the roof fell in on the joint. Ichiro singled, Scott Spiezio hit into a 3-2 fielders' choice, Bret Boone hit a 2-run single (probably the nail in the Baltimore coffin tonight), and Lopez was pulled. Raul Ibanez joined the parade with a bloop single, then Edgar got up for the second time in the inning to punch a single. For good measure, Olerud grounded out to end it. Six runs. Savor this, folks.
Jamie Moyer pitch a solid seven, finding himself an umpire that he liked tonight. He scattered seven hits, walked one, and struck out two on 122 pitches. Ron Villone mopped up the final two innings.
The Mariners scored first and held the lead to the end for only the third time this year.
Does this win mean anything? It might register a blip on the radar screen if they reel off seven of eight in their favor or something close to that. If not, then it'll be the same result that we've seen after other maybe-they-can-use-this-to-turn-it-around wins.
Gameball: Rich Aurilia. 1-for-2 with the RBI walk. I'm giving the gameball to him not necessarily because of the result, but because I just wanted the opportunity to say something good about Rich Aurilia.
Goat: Quinton McCracken. 1-for-4, stranding four. It has to be somebody.
For my tiny mention of other sports tonight...I didn't want the Flyers to win, but Games 7 are nice; JASON KIDD IS CLUTCH AND CLUTCH IS EVERYTHING IN LIFE!! Can they please pull those stupid Jumpman 23 "greatness" commercials now if they haven't already? Jason Kidd's fate in Game 7 against Detroit is nothing short of unbridled hilarity.
Here comes a weekend series against the Detroit Tigers, notoriously known as one of the better road draws in the AL. Not.
Robertson. Meche. Tomorrow.
(Lastly, for the record, I finally found out how to make it so that if you click on one of our sidebar links, the new page will pop up in a new window, so you'll have the Sports and B's page in one browser and the clicked-on page in a new window. That is, unless Google toolbar kills it for you or something. If that does happen, right click and copy the shortcut and paste the URL. That'll do it.)
[Edit ~11:45p -- To whom it may concern, Ben Petrick has retired.]
[Edit ~11:50p -- Holy hell!! The Optimist is mad, and he's not gonna take it anymore!! One lofty condition is attached, but we'll all miss Corey. Couldn't he at least keep picking ballgames and keep losing fun money?]
It started off bleak as usual, this time against Rodrigo Lopez. This time, the swing-at-all-first-pitches game plan didn't grossly backfire. With Lopez on the mound, the Mariners swung at 11 first pitches out of the 21 batters they sent to the plate. Lopez finished with 66 pitches in his 4 2/3 innings, sure (he supposedly was on an 85-pitch count), but he threw 28 pitches in the 5th. Yes, the Mariners won and everything, but Rodrigo Lopez had thrown 38 pitches in the first four innings. I'm telling you, if the Mariners fell in line and didn't have the big inning, this hack-o-riffic game plan would get diced like crazy. It hasn't been that hack-o-riffic since the one Hudson game earlier this year.
Anatomy of a big inning --
Edgar singled on the first pitch. John Olerud singled. Dave Niehaus suggested not having Dan Wilson bunt and hoping for the big inning instead, except incorrectly saying that Dan Wilson is the best bunter on the ballclub (comical). Wilson singled and the bases were loaded with the three slowest baserunners on the team with nobody out. I was waiting for the Mariners to get through it without a run. Rich Aurilia probably had the at-bat that turned the game, not necessarily for the result, but for wearing down Lopez; he fell behind 1-2 and fell off a few pitches before walking to put the go-ahead (and first) run across. After Quinton McCracken tallied his obligatory flyout, the roof fell in on the joint. Ichiro singled, Scott Spiezio hit into a 3-2 fielders' choice, Bret Boone hit a 2-run single (probably the nail in the Baltimore coffin tonight), and Lopez was pulled. Raul Ibanez joined the parade with a bloop single, then Edgar got up for the second time in the inning to punch a single. For good measure, Olerud grounded out to end it. Six runs. Savor this, folks.
Jamie Moyer pitch a solid seven, finding himself an umpire that he liked tonight. He scattered seven hits, walked one, and struck out two on 122 pitches. Ron Villone mopped up the final two innings.
The Mariners scored first and held the lead to the end for only the third time this year.
Does this win mean anything? It might register a blip on the radar screen if they reel off seven of eight in their favor or something close to that. If not, then it'll be the same result that we've seen after other maybe-they-can-use-this-to-turn-it-around wins.
Gameball: Rich Aurilia. 1-for-2 with the RBI walk. I'm giving the gameball to him not necessarily because of the result, but because I just wanted the opportunity to say something good about Rich Aurilia.
Goat: Quinton McCracken. 1-for-4, stranding four. It has to be somebody.
For my tiny mention of other sports tonight...I didn't want the Flyers to win, but Games 7 are nice; JASON KIDD IS CLUTCH AND CLUTCH IS EVERYTHING IN LIFE!! Can they please pull those stupid Jumpman 23 "greatness" commercials now if they haven't already? Jason Kidd's fate in Game 7 against Detroit is nothing short of unbridled hilarity.
Here comes a weekend series against the Detroit Tigers, notoriously known as one of the better road draws in the AL. Not.
Robertson. Meche. Tomorrow.
(Lastly, for the record, I finally found out how to make it so that if you click on one of our sidebar links, the new page will pop up in a new window, so you'll have the Sports and B's page in one browser and the clicked-on page in a new window. That is, unless Google toolbar kills it for you or something. If that does happen, right click and copy the shortcut and paste the URL. That'll do it.)
[Edit ~11:45p -- To whom it may concern, Ben Petrick has retired.]
[Edit ~11:50p -- Holy hell!! The Optimist is mad, and he's not gonna take it anymore!! One lofty condition is attached, but we'll all miss Corey. Couldn't he at least keep picking ballgames and keep losing fun money?]
/ Click for main page
