Nice outing, Kuma! | Ted S. Warren, AP
ON THE MOUND
Kuma was fabulous tonight ~ getting his 2nd victory on his 32nd birthday!
I’ll admit I panicked a bit when Wedge took him out with TWO outs in the 7th after only 90 pitches and the fact that the both the batters that Charlie faced reached base (ONE hit, ONE walk) did not provide me with any warm fuzzies. It wasn’t till the post game show that I was reminded about his “finger issue” – apparently, he’s still dealing with it but, luckily it wasn’t a factor tonight. Kuma did give up his first walk of the season – after 18 full innings without one (second longest in M’s history, behind Cliff Lee).
Anyhoo, Stephen came in and promptly recorded the 3rd out via a strikeout of the 7th and, despite allowing a couple of singles in the 8th, he escaped unscathed turning the ball over to The Bartender who recorded his FOURTH save.
Mariners Win!!! Mariners Win!!! | Ted S. Warren
AT THE PLATE
Apparently, playing RF at The Safe is a dangerous proposition lately . . .
Michael Saunders made that awesome catch and then injured his shoulder slamming into the wall on Wednesday. Then Michael Morse gets hit by a pitch that breaks his pinkie finger last night. Then Jason Bay gets hit by a pitch TWICE (thankfully, no injury and he ended up score once)
* No homers tonight, only ONE double (Kendrys) and the hits were scattered throughout the lineup
* Good news is that the M’s scored early and fairly often (THREE runs in the 1st) and were FOUR fer TEN w/RISP (Kendrys is SIX fer TEN!)
* Bad news is they didn’t score after the 1st
* Good news is, the pitching was so stellar, they didn’t need to
IN THE FIELD
* Ackley took a throw from Shoppach and tagged Kinsler out trying to steal 2B ~ unfortunately he was called safe and advanced to 3B on the next batter’s ground out ~ fortunately, he didn’t score
* Murphy made a nice over the shoulder catch in the LF corner on one of Dustin’s hardest hit balls this season
* the Rangers turned TWO double-plays, the M’s turned none
None of that, however, stopped the M’s from handing Yu Darvish his 3rd career loss in as many tries at The Safe
Sorry, Yu (not!) | Ted S. Warren, AP
Tweet of the game . . .
Compass Rosy 