Wednesday, May 10, 2006

8-1 the King has his best outting of the year



Going into the game I was worried. Worried that we would see Felix struggle as he has in the early part of the year to escape the first few innings unscathed. Worried that if he did struggle and give up a few the offense wouldn’t support him. This is pressure that many mariner starters have had over the past few years. Ask Ryan Franklin, ask Jarrod Washburn. My worry almost came to realities as Felix took the mound only to walk the first batter. Luckily he settled down and was able to get out of that first inning.

Moving into the game the mariners put up a nice 3 spot to give Felix some breathing room. Highlighted by a flurry and I mean flurry of singles. Felix seemed relaxed at this point. He was starting to put it on cruise control. Grounders, strike outs and fly outs. And from the looks of it nothing was hit hard. He was dazzling hitters with 97 MPH heat and filthy 84 mph of speed pitches. Towards the 7th and 8th he just made hitters look ridiculous.

Middle of the Game Jurrasic carl had another towering Jurrasic Blast to give felix a 3 run lead. The offense then erupted in the 8th with another Flurry of singles. Tampa didn’t know what hit them with so many single bagers dropping in and guys moving up 90 feet. All in all a 4 spot was put up in the 8th to essentially seal the deal as soriano shut the door. The 9th went smooth which was highlighted by an absolute tori hunter esc play from Jeremy reed diving to take a sure fire hit away.

The Game was Fun, Neddy Ball game and I sat and discussed many of the finer points of the game, along with our dislike of Dave "You know I played in the MLB" Henderson. One thing came clear from our conversations. Beltre was starting to hit the ball hard in every At bat over the past few games. We both felt he was getting a bit unlucky but it was a good sign to see him hit the ball so well. Everything off his bat was a rocket. Secondly we both agreed that if there was going to be a manager swap it was going to be more dependent on what the AL West did rather than how the mariners are doing. If we keep this pace and are still 4 games out......I doubt there will be a change but if/when someone gets hot Grover could see the door and Mr. Rohn will roll in from his fake position.

And Lastly, and I feel really strongly about this one. They handed out all-star ballots at the game. Early yes but this is a good thing. I started to review my options. Standard guys were coming to mind for each position. However My eyes were drawn to the options at second base. I looked and noticed something...........Was Jose Lopez the most productive second basemen in the AL??? No way that cant be true can it? So I dug deeper. Who are the top Second basemen in the league? Well offensively Soriano is probably the most potent but he is in Washington and technically is not a 2nd basemen. Chase utley then? Probably. You have to go down the list of productive players at second to find an AL guy. The top two in the AL are Ty Wigginton, is not as good as he ahs been in my opinion, and your own Jose Lopez. Lopez is not only right there offensively he is superior Defensively. And as far as important to his team.....Come on Lopez leads the team in Homers and Rbi's.

Its official I Travis "Big Daddy" Goodfellow am starting the Jose Lopez for starting second basemen at the 2006 ALL-STAR GAME. Whose with Me!!!

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:03 AM

    I am ON the LOpez All Star bandwagon !!!

    Interesting game last night--the only Mariner not to get a hit is our leading hitter, Raoul.

    We are out of the basement as well--1/2 game ABOVE teh Angels...whoopdie freakin' dooo..break up this bunch of single hitters !

    Help me out on this one...Soriano pitches 1 1/3 innings ,with a 7 run lead, and he gets credited with a Save?..has the save and closer role become bogus ??..discuss among yourselves

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  2. Oh, I'm all over that bandwagon. In fact, I think he needs to be our new "boy" at MMagic.

    Neddy I saw that too. But the lead was only 3 when he came in, then the M's put up 4.

    14 hits, 1 XBH. 1 HR in a week? Let's see some power M;s/

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  3. Anonymous2:09 PM

    I know....he thew ONE pitch in the 8th to record the out---we score 4 more runs --if Putz comes in its not a save since Rafael stays in it is a save--huh????

    The top and bottom of order are doing it all--the heart of order still is in a funk despite Everett's HR last night- which is actually a good sign since we're hanging in wiht pitching ,defense,and slap hitting--think where we' dbe if Eddie hadn't blown saves and Beltre et al were hittting with power

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  4. My favorite part of this post was "Flurry and I mean Flurry of singles." It created a funny mental picture of baseballs flying all over the field and Mariners running around the bases.

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  5. Things are looking up a bit! When we get to play the teams that aren't as good, we will surely do better, as this series demonstrates. Our starters have the 3rd-lowest ERA in the AL, and I understand Chris Snelling is back, playing in Tacoma... so let's bring him up and play in CF already! Heh...

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  6. Jose for All-Star 2B? I say "YES" considering how he has been sort-of carrying the ballclub at times! I would give him the Mariners' team MVP award so far this season.

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