g8 2020 | Welcome Home!

Mariners 5 | Athletics 3

  • first home game of 2020
  • first home win
  • three WINS in-a-row
  • made it to .500

The Mariners Home Opener wouldn’t be the same without the “Make-a-Wish” kid to run around the bases ❤ and, bless her heart, she did it in an empty stadium – just Lily and the Moose . . .

ON the MOUND

Welcome back to Seattle, Taijuan!

He followed up Marcos great start w/one of his own and together they threw back-to-back starts w/zero ER’s. Krueger noted on the postgame that SEVEN of his EIGHT strikeouts were via the slider.

AT the PLATE

  • Evan White: first T-Mobile hit was a wall-ball double
  • Kyle Lewis: EIGHT game hitting streak, SIX games w/multi hit streak
  • the “Kyles” both tied w/EIGHT RBI on the season so far

IN the FIELD and ON the BASES

No errors, no DP’s, no SB’s

g109 | THREE in the 1st? so what!

IMG_6040

Every year, I’m so captivated by the Opening Day ceremony, there’s always a point where I realize. “wow, we still get to watch a baseball game!”. That realization was ten-fold tonight, as Griffey’s Number Retirement Ceremony was the ceremony to end all ceremonies (see post dedicated to that here )

Mariners 8 | Angels 6

trout

OK, how weird was that?!?
Trout w/ a THREE-run home run for the second straight game . . .
but, M’s made it moot 🙂

ON the MOUND
Unlike Felix the previous night, Tai (just off the DL) wasn’t able to get deep . . .
He failed to strike out at least one batter for the first time in his career and FOUR of the SEVEN hits he allowed were for extra-bases.
FOUR innings ~ SEVEN hits ~ SIX earned run ~ TWO walks ~ ZERO walks

But, Yay, for the Bully!

Cody, Drew, Tom and Eddy combined for FIVE scoreless innings . . .

  • Cody especially impressive, going TWO.TWO, allowing only TWO hits, NO walks
  • w/the weird way they score wins, Drew gets it, despite only facing ONE batter
  • Tom looked great, striking out TWO of the THREE batters he faced
  • Eddy earned his FOURTH save (though he’s slackin’ – didn’t K a batter 😉 )

AT the PLATE
TEN total hits including THREE homers and TWO doubles . . .

  • great to see Guti getting going – triple short of the cycle!
  • Guillermo’s FIRST major league homer
  • and, the big blast by, of course, Shawn O’Malley 🙂

(btw ~ I really did say “Do it for Jr!” Right before Shawn hit the homer to take the lead 🙂 )

IN the FIELD

Sparkling DEE tonight! Including THREE double-plays and TWO of the home run heros each turn around and make GREAT plays in the field the next half inning . . .

  • Guillermo w/ a nice running grab in left and a throw to double the runner off 1B
  • Shawn with a great snare and a “I don’t know how he did that” cross-body throw to get the runner at 1B (after which, a spontaneous chant of “Shawn O’Malley!” broke out)

tweets of the game . . . 

https://twitter.com/SteveSandmeyer/status/762140479316078592

 

g83-85 | home sweepers to road sweepees

Mariners 1 | Astros 2
yet another ONE-run loss, Wade M threw a nice quality+ start but, McCullers all but shut down the M’s bat and oh, the wasted chances (lead-off triple in the first that doesn’t score and bases-loaded with no outs = no runs)

Mariners 2 | Astros 5
Tai had to come out of the game due to his previous foot injury, Monty filled in great but, bats were fairly non-existance

Mariners 8 | Astros 9
heart-breaker, down early, tied middle then a roller coaster till the bitter end

tweets of the series . . . 

 

 

 

 

g79 | Tai the terrific!

Mariners 5 | Orioles 3

terrific

ON the MOUND
Atta boy, Tai!
SIX.ONE innings ~ FOUR hits ~ ONE earned run ~ ZERO walks ~ FIVE strikeouts

the bully a mixed bag but, good enough . . . 

  • Edwin did his thing (striking out nearly everyone he faces)
  • Joaquin did his thing (giving up runs to nearly everyone he faces)
  • Steve did his thing (saving nearly every game he pitches)

AT the PLATE
Only NINE hits but nice ratio of runs . . .
Nellie with a double and Seth with a TWO-run shot

IN the FIELD

tweets of the game . . . 

https://twitter.com/SteveSandmeyer/status/748722433767534592

https://twitter.com/SteveSandmeyer/status/748747183743070208

https://twitter.com/EvanonFG/status/749049255319392257

https://twitter.com/ProspectInsider/status/749090777330888704

g69 | oh, those one-run losses . . .

soooo, close . . . 

this close

Mariners 1 | Red Sox 2

ON the MOUND
Good news: Tai’s first ever start in Fenway was great while it lasted
Bad news: lifted after only 88 pitches when the foot strain flared up again
FIVE innings ~ SIX hits ~ ZERO runs ~ ONE walk ~ THREE strikeouts

Bully . . .
} Vidal gave up a couple of singles and the tying run in the 6th
} Edwin gave up the ultimate winning run (solo shot to Betts) in the 7th
} Nick allowed a hit and a walk but, no runs – all too little, too late 😦

AT the PLATE
~ Only EIGHT total hits (and Guti’s solo shot the only one for extra-bases)
~ ZERO walks and TEN strikeouts – typically not a recipe for success
~ tip o’ the cap to Mr. Price

IN the FIELD
* a nice DP to get Ortiz w/TWO on to end the 3rd
* Nice throw by Chris to nail Betts (for the first time this season
* Ketel with a low liner snare with the bases loaded to end the 6th

tweets of the game . . . 

g64-66 | of early leads, late losses, strikeout duels, bases-loaded walk-offs and finally – a win

salvaged!

salvage

g64 | Mariners 7 | Rays 8
w/ a 4-0 and 7-4 leads turning to a 7-8 loss – just not the pitchers’ day (hopefully Tai will be OK (left the game in the 4th) and the fielding didn’t help

g65 | Mariners 2 | Rays 3
Nathan had a nice outing (needed less pitches to go deeper) bp was great . . . till the 13th

g66 | Mariners 6 | Rays 4
great to see James with another solid outing, bats up and down the lineup and bp success

tweets of the series . . . 

 

off to Boston they go . . .

 

 

g57-60 | splittin’ w/the Tribe

Three outta four would have been great but, we’ll take a split . . .

split1

g57 Mariners 1 | Indians 3 Woe is sloppy play, wasting a stellar pitching effort

ON the MOUND
~ James threw WAY too many pitches for SIX innings but, certainly provided a bit of excitement with the TEN strikeouts, several hitting TRIPLE DIGITS . . .
~ Edwin Diaz, making his major league debut, (out of the pen) threw some GAS of his own – a clean inning w/his first ML strikeout
~Then Monty went TWO scoreless w/THREE strikeouts

AT the PLATE
Why is it that when the pitching FINALLY comes around, the hitting goes south?!?

IN the FIELD
And, once again, TWO errors, hurt a stellar start

g58 Mariners 7 | Indians 1 Lookie here! They CAN pitch and hit in the same game!

ON the MOUND
Sans beard becomes you, Wade 🙂
SEVEN innings ~ FOUR hits ~ TWO ~ ZERO runs ~ THREE strikeouts

} Joaquin allowed a solo shot in his inning, Steve posted a clean inning of ‘non-close’ work

AT the PLATE
~ hitters 2-3-4 (Seth, Robbie, Nellie) posted 6/11 w/FOUR runs, THREE RBI and ONE walk
~ hitters 7-8-9 (Adam, Steve, Shawn) posted 5/10 w/TWO runs, FOUR RBI and TWO walks
~ Nellie w/TWO homers, Shawn w/a TRIPLE

IN the FIELD
* Steve w/a passed ball
* Nice ’round the horn DP (Kyle-Cano-Lee)

g59 Mariners 5 | Indians 0  Tai the terrific, Chris the conqueror 🙂

ON the MOUND
Tai not only got back on track, he was steam-rollin’ . . .
EIGHT innings ~ THREE hits ~ ZERO runs ~ ZERO walks ~ ELEVEN strikeouts

} Nick added another scoreless innings and TWO more K’s

AT the PLATE
Have a day, Chris!
TWO homers for THREE RBI and then an RBI double for good measure
~ Kyle with the other RBI on a ground out
~ Ketel picks up where he left-off from the DL w/TWO hits and TWO runs scored

IN the FIELD
catch of the season, so far, for Guti . . .

g60 Mariners 3 | Indians 5  Oh, those base on balls . . . 

ON the MOUND
Nathan’s issue was his pitch count from WAY too many walks (FIVE)

Monty was good again but, Edwin gave up his first run and Joaquin was the real nail in the coffin, allowing a 2-run shot and then an UNearned run on his own error 😦

AT the PLATE
THIRTEEN hits (including TWO doubles and THREE homers) should net a LOT more than THREE runs. As it turns out, the THREE runs were all off solo shots (TWO by Robbie, ONE by Adam)

tweets of the series . . . 

g54-56 | swept outta Arlington

that certainly didn’t go as planned or desired . . .

nobodys perfect

the first TWO games they were just out pitched (Karns and Walker w/season-worst starts) and out hit . . .

g54 Mariners 3 | Rangers 7

g55 Mariners 4 | Rangers 10

but, the third game was clearly a case of “where’s the DEE?” . . .

g56 Mariners 2 | Rangers 3

Kuma allowed a single to the first batter of the game and then proceeded to retire TWELVE straight. Unfortunately, he had to throw many extra pitches in the Rangers 5th where TWO of their THREE runs were UNearned (Sardinas and Romero each recorded key errors as well as UNrecorded faux paux that very likely made the difference between Kuma going NINE and getting a win and only going SEVEN and being tagged with the loss (Luis should have turned a DP to end the inning and later booted a ball, Romero also committed an error AND didn’t come up firing after fielding a fly ball, allowing the runner on 3B to score). Hurry back Ketel and Leonys!

tweets of the series . . . 

 

g47-49 | let’s just move along . . .

ugh. swept aside AGAIN by another lessor team . . .

swept

seems the M’s are playing to their competition of late.

g47 Mariners 2 | Twins 7
another bad night for Felix

g48 Mariners 5 | Twins 6
M’s had the bases loaded TWICE with only ONE run scored (via a DP – the other was THREE pop-ups in-a-row – can you spell F-R-U-S-T-R-A-T-I-O-N?!?) and, a whacky end to the game – after Guti homered in the 8th to bring it within one, he was up again w/runners at the corners and ONE out – both were thrown out after the catcher dropped and recovered a ball 😦

g49 Mariners 5 | Twins 5
another rough day for Tai, Guti did his part again, homering in the bottom of the 9th to bring them within ONE

tweets of the series . . . 

and, all was NOT lost, as I got to attend Saturday evening’s game with these lovely ladies . . . IMG_5532

g44-46 | every which way but loose . . .

Ho-Hum, just another series victory!

winning

g44 Mariners 0 | Athletics 5
Enough hits (nine) but all singles and TWO errors by Taylor (who was brought up when Marte was placed on the DL)

g45 Mariners 6 | Athletics 5
Still need Nate to go longer but, Monty was AWESOME in relief! As for the bats . . .the hot stay hot and the late innings stay blistering! Robbie w/a TWO run shot in the 8th to bring the M’s to within ONE, Leonys with a TWO run shot to WIN it in the 9th

g46 Mariners 13 | Athletics 3
What series win would be complete without a blowout? Of course, then this is the time we get SEVEN strong from the starter (Kuma) but, we’ll take it (good to see Lind’s bat heating up)

tweets of the series . . .