Say what you want about the 2005 Mariners. Phrases often uttered during this season range from "Dammit Gil!" to "These kids are fun!" to "Why is Spiezio alive?" to "When is Eddie's shoulder gonna fall off?". But, you can't honestly say, "These guys are as bad as last year." They're just not. Granted, they can't put a consistent string of wins together, and they get swept every time Mike L attends a series, but they still aren't the pathetic black-hole of a team that was the 2004 Mariners.
Last night the M's had 4 hits and won. When's the last time that happened? OK I'll bite.
(Pause for 10 minutes while Mike L browses through the box scores of low-scoring wins over the past couple of years)
OK forget it. I wanted to be able to put a link up, but honestly, who would click on it?
Back to the game. The biggest of those 4 hits was Ichiro's 2-run homer in the 8th to give the Mariners the win. Every time Ichiro hits a home run, someone is bound to say, "You know he could probably hit 30 a year if he wanted to. He keeps that power in his back pocket." That's a load of crap. Does Ichiro see a pitch and think to himself, "I could definitely hit this out of the park, but I think I'll slap it on a high bounce to the shortstop and see if I can beat the throw."
The pitching was pretty solid. Jamie Moyer continues to be the M's best starter. Trading him would make quite a bit of sense to me. There are certainly contenders that could use a starter (Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles), Moyer isn't going to be around next year anyway, and it'd be nice to see him get another shot at the postseason.
I didn't see this play, but in the Seattle Times write up today, there was mention of the "wheel play" that the M's pulled off. From the article:
"Called only with runners on first and second, the wheel requires the third and first basemen to charge hard and make a play to third, where the shortstop has headed to cover the bag."
Whatever. Sweet. Meche on the hill tonight against Cliff Lee. Despite his inconsistency, Gil could end up with 15 or 16 wins on the year.
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"Say what you want about the 2005 M's"??? Now there's an invitation and a half! You're probably right that they are not as dark a team as 2004, but somehow suffering thru that season made it seem like we deserved better. It's the 'compounding effect' that has me so blue. I'ts sort of exciting to never know what to expect, I guess. Like Eddie last night...give him another oscar for performance in a drama. 2 quick outs...how many 0-2 counts...how many men on base...how many heart palpitations later, we finally win. Faith being 'the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen' (check your Bibles, boys)....i guess that's what one needs to be a baseball fan. It finally worked for all those pathetic Red Sox fans. But,man,it takes a lot of perseverance to follow these boys.
ReplyDelete..4 hits ,wheel play --even Mikey did his part at third ojn the play---Beltre comes close to earning his paycheck wiht his glove---comes CLOSE... but you don;t need a slick fielding 3rd baseman unless his name is Brooks--its a POWER spot for God's sake....well its one in a row ..you know th expression.."you win some,you lose some,and some are rained out ..but you suit up for them all"--surely applies to M's and to life ihn general--isn't bhseball great!!
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