Thursday, May 05, 2005

Game Report: Mariners vs. Angels - Sweepwess in Seattle?

Honestly, I went to Wednesday afternoon's game and just didn't feel like writing about it. It was just not that exciting, and the Mariners got swept by the Angels, too.

The most exciting part for me was before the game. I showed up an hour early, hoping to catch more of the Angels during batting practice and get them to sign my Angels poster. Unfortunately, the Angels never actually TOOK batting practice. But they did take field practice, and a whole bunch of Angels fans stood around yelling at the players to please come over and sign stuff. Unlike Monday, this time the players actually did! When I showed up, Kevin Gregg was signing stuff, and a bit later we managed to get Robb Quinlan and Jeff DaVanon to come over too. The Mariner Moose also came by and harrassed all the people in Angels clothes, culminating in him stealing one fan's Angels hat and running onto the field and stomping on the hat and sticking it in an umpire's armpit and stuff. It was pretty funny. I was standing with this couple who were wearing an Erstad shirt and a Kennedy shirt, and the girl had an "I Love You Adam Kennedy!" sign. Sure enough, Kennedy seemed to notice the sign, but he decided wisely to go sign stuff over at a different part of the stands. Damn. Bengie Molina had been talking to some people in the stands (his family, I think) and he came by and signed stuff for people too. That was nice of him.

Anyway, the game itself was not so exciting. Ichiro, to go with The Catch on Monday, had The Throw on Wednesday. There's a clip of it, as usual, on the game wrapup page on the Mariners' site. Basically, with one out and Vladimir Guerrero on third base, Orlando Cabrera hit a long fly ball to right field, which Ichiro caught and then FIRED back into the infield, beating Vlad to the plate by a few feet, and Dan Wilson actually planted the tag perfectly, and the inning was over. BLAM!

Unfortunately for Dan Wilson, who beyond that tag also had a pretty good day at bat, going 2-for-3... in the 7th inning, he got a single, and when Ichiro hit a long fly ball to left field that looked good for a hit, but got caught, Dan the Man legged his way back to first base. From my viewpoint it looked like he slid into the bag and was then lying on the ground holding onto the bag for a while. Turns out he tore a muscle in his right knee and will be on the 60-day DL :( Poor Dan! They put in Olivo to run for him, and he didn't seem to be having a great day of it.

I guess the only other major weirdness on my scoresheet is in the 7th, where later on I noticed Gameday just said "Chone Figgins picked off 2nd base by Jeff Nelson", but I had it marked down as "CS 1-4-5-6", because basically, it looked like Figgins took off, and Nelson threw to second, and second threw to third, and third to to the shortstop, who eventually tagged him out. Silly rundowns. I'm not sure, maybe he didn't actually start running until the pickoff, but still.

There was no charter bus back to Northgate after the game. I wonder if this was an oversight or they just don't do them for weekday afternoon games?

Jamie Moyer is back on the mound tomorrow against the Red Sox. I feel kinda bad for him. Hopefully the Mariners can at least beat the Yankees, who are suuuuuucking.

I think this might be the year I become a closet White Sox fan. I became a closet Red Sox fan last May, and said they were going to win the World Series, and nobody believed me. So if I said that I think the White Sox will win the World Series this year, maybe they will. After all, the Red Sox hadn't won since 1918... and the White Sox haven't won since 1917. Hmmm...

Hopefully I'll be getting to see King Felix pitch in Tacoma tomorrow. I'm excited!
 

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