Well, opening day has come and gone, and the Mariners stand alone at the top of the AL West (lol one game domination!!!).
Anyway, I just thought I would drop some of my observations about the 1st game.
1- Felix Hernandez is a great kid!! Did you see him give that little guy a big hug as he came home from running the bases. I just really feel all warm and fuzzy when I see that from a player.
2-I don't think that was our best lineup. I think the right guys were in it. (I can still pretty much go either way on the Wilkerson vs Morse thing). I just don't think they were hitting in the right spots. Wilkerson need to be hitting in the 8 hole. And we should have Beltre hitting 3 and Ibanez 4 and drop Sexson down to 6. Lopez looked really good in the 2 hole. But I am sure the line up will work itself out.
3- Bedard had a good line, but didn't pitch that well. I will give him a lot of credit though, he battled for 5 innings. But he really needs to get some one and two pitch outs. He was deep in counts the whole game. Never get to 200 innings that way. But like I said, he did battle. He struck out 5, and left the game having given up only 1 run. Could have picked up a win if our offense would have produced a littler earlier.
4-Jim Joyce is nuts. What was up this guys butt? First off, his strike zone was all over the board. Infact one of the anouncers even said "Joyce continues to have an Interesting strike zone". Then he misses the HBP on Bradley, feels like he is getting shown up by him, then after Bradley does draw the walk, he is ready to throw hands with Brousassard? That was kinda nutty. I really think if the Rangers manager doesn't step in, he may have charged Ben. Note to all umpires on every level. Nobody shows up to the game to see you. If nobody notices you are there, then you did a good job.
5- Our bullpen is in mid season form. Those guys looked good. O'Flaherty gave up the one run and Putz gave up a hit before striking out Hamilton to end it. But we still looked like the bullpen that carried us so much last season.
Funniest thing I heard all night. Well actually it was more ironic. Putz was facing Hamilton and the announcer said, "this should be good. You have the power pitching of J.J. Putz versus the Power hitting of Josh Hamilton, who has an infield single tonight".
Well, I thought it was funny.
XIX = 19
