Game 85, Mariners at A’s
Dave · July 8, 2007 at 12:30 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Feierabend vs Blanton, 1:05 pm.
No matter what happens today, it won’t be as cool as yesterday. But I’d still like to head into the all-star break with a win. Putting more distance between the M’s and A’s is a nice bonus as well.
If we win the first three games of the four game series against the Tigers, we’ll be on top of the Wild Card at the least.
Just looked at the schedule after the ASB. Ugh, M’s play the Tigers, Angels play the Rangers, then the Rays.
351- i’ll be happy with a split with the tigers…they are on a roll right now…
remember the game Hargrove saved in Cleveland in the snow?
Not to look too far ahead, but I’ve got to wonder if it’ll come down to the last weekend.
M’s get Texas, while Angels get the A’s, who will be out of it unless there’s a miracle, but love to play spoilers.
I have a question about the “no comments” post above by Dave – he scales those 15 runs saved by a superior defensive left fielder over 90 innings. Where does that number come from? The team has 73 games left, and approximately 657 Innings left to pitch. Those 15 runs equal just a .21 reduction in ERA per pitcher not the 1.67 runs/9 Dave gets. I’m sure that 90 innings number comes from somewhere, so that info would be appreciated.
Yes. Don’t carry luggage. Don’t BBQ. Don’t bring in the groceries. Don’t ‘wash the truck bed out’. Don’t get all sloshed and break your booze glass. Any more?
Don’t fall off your bar stool. Don’t fall asleep in a tanning bed. Don’t carry deer meat up stairs (or, more truthfully, do idiotic things on your ATV). Don’t sneeze while, uh, enhanced. Don’t try to tear up phone books. Don’t open DVDs with knives. Don’t stick your hand in a working air conditioner to see why it isn’t working. Don’t iron your shirt while wearing it. Don’t dream about spiders.
Guillen grabbing and donning Reitsma’s sunglasses was hilarious. To me that shows good camaraderie between teammates, though with Guillen’s history it’s hard to tell for sure. Funny nonetheless.
#274 They always boo Ichiro in Oakland. The only time they cheer him is when he gets beaned. I actually hate the damn A’s more than the Yankees.
Just watched the replay of the scuffle on MLB.com and I’m wondering how anyone including the announcers can defend Blanton’s actions. If he would have made an attempt to retrieve the ball after pushing Ichiro then maybe it would be justified. It’s obvious he pushed him out of frustration and Ellison had every right to defend his teammate. I know much of what Ichiro’s says gets lost in translation, but IMO Ichiro should have defended Ellison actions instead of trying to play Mr. Neutral. Blanton was wrong, plain and simple.
Well I just got back from the game and what an exciting day it was. I got to the stadium early enough today to see Ichiro in batting practice. The rumors were true, he really hits a lot of homers during batting practice.
Realizing that baseball is a game of superstitions, I decided to go down to the bullpen again. I was down in the bullpen before the games Friday, and Saturday and the M’s won, and I didn’t make it on Thursday and they lost that game. I didn’t want anyone blaming me for a bad game today. :-).
Bautista was the only one working in the bullpen. It looked like he was using a 1st baseman’s mitt for some reason (what’s up with that, some secret training device??)
Raphael Chaves may not know who I am, he still remembers who gave him that letter. I waved at him and he smiled and waved back and asked me if I saw the news with a big smile on his face. Later he tossed me a baseball. Wow. I’ve been going to games for quite a while an haven’t gotten close to getting a baseball until now. Mr. Chaves you made my day twice in one week!!
Here’s what I saw during the 7th. Based loaded on 3 consecutive singles (Ellison on 3rd, Ichiro on 2nd, and Lopez on 1st). Rauuuul at the plate, he hits a double to the left center gap; Ellison scores, Ichiro scores and runs past Ellison, the relay goes to Crosby who throws it to Kendall for a play on Lopez at the plate. From my vantage point it looked like the ball may have hit Lopez and bounces away toward the Mariners dugout (in any case Kendall didn’t get the handle on the ball). Rauuuul advances toward 3rd as the ball bounces away. The ball ends up about 2 feet past Ichiro, and Ichiro appears oblivious to what is about to happen. Blanton backing up the play charges in and pushes Ichiro who takes a couple of steps and doesn’t make any aggressive moves. Ellison then charges Blanton. Immediately, someone from the Mariner’s bench comes charging out of the dugout, right where the batter “in the hole” should be standing, and the dance is on. Both benches clear and I could clearly see Mariners racing down the clubhouse tunnel to get to the field. The whole scrum was broken up after a lot of posturing. It took a while to sort everything out as the umpires huddled for quite some time. Blanton gets tossed and so does Bautista. Nobody appears injured and Ichiro can be seen laughing quite a bit in the dugout as the umpires huddle.
Some people thought that Blanton was within his rights to move Ichiro, but from my vantage point it didn’t look like he was playing the ball and just took the opportunity to take a shot at Ichiro.
The Bautista ejection was puzzling, I thought for sure that Ellison would be ejected. I think that the umpires were trying to finger one of the M’s charging into the fray from the dugout or clubhouse but were confused who it might have been. I could speculate who that person was but with the recent impact of blogs lately, I wouldn’t want to be irresponsible and get one of the ball boys in trouble :-).
I thought that the whole incident was very telling. I was looking at a team coming together. Kudos to you Mr. Ellison, it was a gold star day for you with a 4 for 4 and having your teammate’s back. And all those players running down the tunnel from the clubhouse. That’s a lot of support for Ichiro on this team. Maybe, its something that will make him want to stay for a few more seasons.
All in all, a very exciting day at the ball park.
Joe Blanton looks a little like a bleached blonde version of “Big Boy” from Bob’s Big Boy restaurant chain.
I just read Blanton’s comments after the game, with my commentary:
“I was just going after the ball.”
I thought that guy standing there with the name ‘Ichiro’ on the back was the ball…my bad.
“They had a lot of guys standing around who had scored and were on deck.”
And I was peeved because I’m a tubby, mediocre pitcher who just got lit up for a three run double, and these guys are way, way faster than me!
“I hit somebody and I’m not even sure what happened after that.”
From my many years of martial arts training, I go into a trance like state when threatened…and by threatened I mean by having the bases loaded, then unloaded by a bases-clearing triple. I went for the smallest guy and gave him a shove because, in the end, I’m a sissy.
“I didn’t think I did anything wrong.”
Really, I don’t. Pushing a guy who’s just standing there is what we call ‘Oakland Justice’.
“[Ellison] was trying to get his teammate’s back and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Not that any of these scrubs in Oakland would have mine…I’m a self-absorbed SOB who hates everyone. I’d be a perfect fit in NY. Giambi got a big deal from them, why can’t I be a yankee too?
“There’s other stuff he did that bothers me, but I’m not going to say.”
Namely, lighting me up for 3 hits and effectively doubling his hit total for the YEAR in one day against me. Many I *hate* that guy.
I haven’t seen this Ichiro quote yet on here, so I thought I would provide:
“The fact that the person who got pushed was not as excited as everybody else was funny to me,” he said through an interpreter. “I didn’t feel like I was pushed; it was more like getting out of the way. I understood why he did what he did and at the same time I was happy to see Ellison do what he did. The way we’re playing it feels like this team is bonding.”
Yay, maybe he is starting to like the Mariners!
ah, the explanation for Batista, from Baker’s blog:
“Miguel Batista was so irate because he didn’t know why he got thrown out. He was trying to go after the umpires, not Blanton, when restrained. It turns out the umpires had seen somebody jump a barrier between the visiting clubhouse tunnel and the field to enter the fray. They didn’t know who it was and told manager John McLaren they were going to throw Ichiro out of the game unless he gave them a name of another player.
McLaren gave them Batista’s name, knowing he wasn’t going to be used in any event during the game. Didn’t have time to fill Batista in on his little plan. “
I really enjoyed Rotoworld’s spin on the whole Blanton incident… especially the “shoved Ichiro rather harmlessly to get to the ball” part. Obviously the writer was watching a different camera angle than everyone else.
“Joe Blanton was ejected from Sunday’s game in the seventh inning for his role in a bench-clearing incident against the Mariners.
He was going to be taken out anyway. Raul Ibanez had a three-run double in the seventh to give the Mariners a 5-3 lead. On the play, the ball got past the catcher, and Ichiro Suzuki, who had scored, happened to be standing near where it landed. Blanton, backing up the play, shoved Ichiro rather harmlessly to get to the ball, and that’s where it should have ended. However, Jason Ellison, who had also scored, decided to push Blanton, setting off the incident that led to both benches clearing. We understand Ellison getting feisty when he’s only in the lineup once a month, but he should have minded his own business this time.” Jul. 8 – 6:07 pm et
as Ichiro was moved about 6 feet by that “rather harmless” shove ….
366-
haha that’s funny stuff. Perhaps they should have seen the video where Blanton wasn’t even looking at the ball, as it was a couple feet away from Ichiro at that point.
As far as Ellison goes, he set off the incident? A guy defending his teammate? Yeah, that’s right.
Morons.
Rotoworld = fantasy baseball. That’s all you need to know about their opinions about “brawls” or who’s “decided” to push who.
That same video Axtell refers to shows the guy on deck, Richie Sexson, being — as Geoff Baker refers to in his blog — stunned at the goings-on and not reacting as instantly or as vociferously as Ellison.
Baker asks “can we just please get off Richie Sexson’s back” about all that. I suppose there’s been some blather on KJR criticizing Sexson.
For those who might still complain, hey, the video shows Richie with the bat still in his hand. I think it was probably a wise thing for him to stay out of the Ellison/Blanton mix-it-up the way he did. It wouldn’t have been good if someone perceived him as a greater threat.
testing on an old game thread
:)🙂
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