Game 29: Mariners at Red Sox
10:35am, Felix vs. Wakefield
Any hope I had for the 2011 Mariners at the onset of the season season was burned up a week ago … or so I thought. But here we sit following a five game winning streak and suddenly the Mariners are just 3.5 games back of the AL West-leading Texas Rangers and have a better win-loss record than four American League squads with playoff aspirations in the Red Sox, Twins, White Sox and Tigers. Hope is restored.
That’s not to say my expectations have changed because they haven’t, but as long as the Mariners are within shouting distance there is that hope that players will remain hot and the bounces will continue to go our way. The longer it lasts the better; I can only make it so far drawing positives from the play of Justin Smoak and Michael Pineda while dreaming of the next great Mariner team.
Happy Felix Day! The King worried some people with a couple of clunker starts in the middle of April but a fine bounce-back against Oakland has alleviated much of the concern. If he’s going to kick it up yet another level, however, it seems like this game — at Fenway Park with a winning streak on the line — provides a good opportunity. Opposing him will be the ancient knuckleballer Tim Wakefield who gets the spot start while Clay Buchholz deals with a tummy ache. Jack Cust has to be excited as he figures to receive a fastball he can actually catch up with for the first time all season.
RF Ichiro!
3B Chone Figgins
LF Ryan Langerhans
C Miguel Olivo
1B Justin Smoak
DH Jack Cust
SS Luis Rodriguez
CF Michael Saunders
2B Jack Wilson
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Sun-ball triple. Bad break. Good game, though … and a great roadtrip. Hopefully they continue to build on their positive momentum.
Hey, they almost swept the Red Sox at Fenway. The Red Sox … at Fenway!
Mariners announcer…
“The mariners didn’t get the sweep, but they did win the series which is just as good.”
Exactly right.
And at least we can’t look back at a dozen men left in scoring position and know they could have won this thing ten times over. It was a tight, tough game lost on bad luck.
I’ll take that over some crap play games we’ve seen so far.
This road trip was just what the team needed. They’ve been playing great ball to boost the team’s overall morale, and this should also start drawing in larger crowds now that they’re on a hot streak.
Ichiro’s play- I don’t think he had a chance on that, given that it was a low line drive, which for an OF means the ball never “got above” the sun for him to see.
Salk is ripping Ichiro on twitter. What are other people’s opinions of that play?
I don’t think Salk has ever played a sport in his life. We’ve seen Guti lose them in the sun too.
Salk’s job is to run his mouth. That’s what he’s doing right now.
If he saw it, there is no way he is ripping Ichiro. Ichiro stayed in there the whole way, he didn’t even turn his head in case he could pick it up in the end. He could have just as easily taken that one in face as off his leg. That was definitly not a “Burnsie” out there.
I’d like to see Salty stand out in a sun field and take a few fungos.
I don’t think this ever got answered. According to Jeff Sullivan, Cust has five right now. The team record is six.
I think he’ll smash that particular record, if he’s on the team all year anyway.
Jeff also mentioned Cust’s OBP right now is .364. I don’t know what to make of the guy, and I keep going back and forth about him; but it would be silly to dump someone with an OBP of .364.
This may be the year we get to test how well a high-OBP, low-power team can score. You know, what we thought we had last year but didn’t. 😉
My biggest concern about Cust was it seemed like he didn’t hit a ball hard enough for it to leave the infield in the first few weeks of the season.
In the last week, he has hit several balls fairly hard. Harder than before, anyway. He still hasn’t come close to hitting a homer, but if he can get a hit once in awhile maybe pitchers will keep pitching around him.
Sportcenter ragged on Ichiro too. Calling it an error, then saying there was the sun, but then going back to drooling at the sight of ICHIRO MAKING AN ERROR!
grrrr…
Of course, more important things going on. Only watching baseball can you see some news like this announced. And how fitting that it was during a NYC game broadcast.
SportsCenter also said Bradley got thrown out for getting in the ump’s face yesterday. Also false. They don’t seem to research for highlights. Kind of irresponsible in my opinion.
“Jack Cust has to be excited as he figures to receive a fastball he can actually catch up with for the first time all season.”
I lol’d and spit some of my beer out!
Didn’t realize Jon wrote for USSM now too…thats awesome…ProBallNW is my other favorite M’s blog, so its like the best crossover comic book ever LOL