Opening Day Game Thread
It’s Opening Day and Felix Day #1.
The weather forecasts for Oakland looked fairly dicey, but things look good for now, and the chance of precipitation actually declines later in the evening.
Your first 2010 M’s starting line-up:
1: Ichiro!
2: Chone Figgins, 2B
3: Casey Kotchman, 1B
4: Milton Bradley, LF
5: Ken Griffey, DH
6: Jose Lopez, 3B
7: Franklin Gutierrez, CF
8: Rob Johnson, C
9: Jack Wilson, SS
On the hill for the Athletics is Ben Sheets who 1) hasn’t thrown a pitch since 2008 and 2) makes more than the rest of the Oakland pitching staff combined.
The A’s DFA’d Jack Cust the other day, which means their clean-up hitter is Kevin Kouzmanoff. Yep.
Let’s go M’s.
DA with the backwards K… verry niceeee
Beauty
Thats a ball too! WOW!
ARGH! That first pitch by Aardsma was a strike and the ump called it a ball! I’ll bet the 3rd pitch was a strike too! That ump stinks!
Alright lets seal the deal
Ump must have a sore right thumb – doesn’t like sticking it up in the air to call a strike.
Aardsma’s gonna give him Mr. Nasty right here. I can feel it.
Did anyone else see Bradley catch that first out of the inning, look to the left field stands like he was going to toss it to them, then shake his head and toss it back to the infield?
Awesome.
I like this guy.
I DA’s pace. Hardly gives the hitters time to regroup.
Beltre would’ve had that…
Love* DA’s pace, that is!
1 down, 94 left to go!
M’s are 1 and 0!!! Yeah good show boys!
This ump is horrible. I’ve never seen such bad calling of the strike zone. Ridiculous
kotchman is the man (and felix too of course)
I can’t see the real thing. Is this umpire nuts?
Good Game. Catch everyone tomorrow. Great start to the season.
Woot, 1-0! It wouldn’t be the Mariners if we didn’t have to feel the complete range of emotions in each game.
YESSSS!!!!!! DA by the way is what I was meaning to type , got to excited! Hey and it was not a 1 run game win!
HAPPY FELIX DAY!
Way to go DA! Nice win, great start to the season!
More of this, please!
Not perfect, but so many good things to get excited about. Fabulous.
Oh, never mind.
LOVE IT! Exactly what we wanted to see. Except White.
With this new On Base Percentage thing, we’ll be okay if we can keep up a 5 runs for every 6 hits pace. (And Figgins caused 3 of the A’s 4 errors– was 0 for 1 with 2 walks, 3 errors caused, and 2 runs scored– Player of the Game.)
Now, Mr. Ian Snell… please, drink some of the Kool-Aid that Felix drinks so that you may pitch well tomorrow.
I’m really likin this team. 117 wins this year. And off to MLBtheshow 10 I go.
kotchman is looking around for the pie!! he’s a smart guy.
Bedtime now… I’ve got an 8 am class and its 1:01 AM here. Talk to ya’ll tomorrow.
Ladies and gentlemen: Casey “The interview” Kotchman.
I think Kotchman gets player of the day. But Figgy played supremely as well.
Wak looks like a friggen genius for putting kotchman back at 3rd in the order.
Wow. Some of those balls that Aardsma threw in the 9ths were… not very ball-like….
Kotchman needs to get Sweeney as his interpreter for his interviews lol
Great way to kick off 2010. Go M’s!
Over at Fangraphs, they’ve got a new feature where you can vote for the Stars of the Game.
MarinersMan–
I agree with Kotchman as the real player of the game– just impressed with Figgy’s offensive effect on the game with an official line of: 0-for-3.
Felix/Kotchman/Figgins
I know, the off-season was so long, but boy was the wait worth it. After one game I’m even more in love with Figgins. It’s going to be interesting to see who wins the stolen base competition between Ichiro and Chone.
I think Sweeney was the player of the game. His cheering effect and ability to get rallies going is unprecedented.
Felix pitched sooo much better than it appeared in the box score. It sucks too because he was visibly displeased at times. That start amounting to three runs given up and six walks! That’s got to be some of the worst behind the plate calls I’ve seen in a while (not to mention Casey’s hit). I’m sure Felix feels better after we won, but man if he looks like that at the beginning of the year! I’m so excited for baseball.
FYI-
You can look at some of the graphs of Tim Tschida’s games behind the plate last year and see numerous pitches in the same games right down the middle of the plate that get called balls. Does he blink a lot or something? It’s weird.
He had the 3rd most BB’s called last year, and 3rd most runs scored (there’s a nice coincidence?!).
He must just like offense. He’s like the guys in the basketball commercial that ask the bartender to send the game into overtime, and some magic buttons pop out from behind the bar– hey look “fiddle fiddle” extra innings!
Until Might Casey came to bat to foil his grand scheme!