Week of Mariner Baseball, May 16-21

The Mariners got off to a terrible start this week, dropping three straight, 6-12, 2-7, 3-6, to the Oakland A's in Oakland. But they returned to the friendly confines of Safeco field for an interleague matchup with the San Diego Padres of the National League's Western division. They routed the Padres 7-4, 6-3, 10-8. Good news for the M's they defeated a team doing so much better than themselves.

Thsi week they're playing the Baltimore Orioles in a four game set and Minnesota Twins in three game set in the Twin Cities.


Pitching winners
R. Soriano
G. Meche
F. Hernandez


Pitching losers
F. Hernandez
J. Moyer
J. Pineiro

Batting stats (through the 22nd)
BA: 0.264
K's: 254
BB: 108
RBI: 198
HR's: 40
OBP: .319
SLG.: .405
OPS.: .724 (11th in the AL)

The M's pitchers are now pitching 4.59, which is 7th among AL pitching staffs, their lowest position since I've been keeping track of it.
The Mariners are now 3rd in the AL West and three games behind the division l,eading Rangers.

Here's a link to Sports Illustrated's John Donovan's MLB power rankings. Another link to the Oregonian's Brian Meehan and a column he wrote on how the M 's miss Mike Cameron. I was at Safeco field last summer when Cameron (who at the time was with the NY Mets) and he recieved a very warm greeting from the Mariner faithful.

Week of Mariners

Mariners started their week at home against cellar owners Tampa Bay Devil Rays. They won the first two, 6-3, 8-1 but dropped the third 0-1, after Old man Moyer balked with a man on third. Ridiculous.

Then they traveled to the City of Angels (of Anaheim) to play the Angels, which is a mediocre club that should be better than it plays. After the M's threw the first game 7-12, they proved the Angels's mediocrity with wins of 5-4, 9-4. The first victory coming in the thirteenth inning.

Pitching winners
G. Meche (2 wins)
F Hernandez
G Sherrill

Pitching losers
J. Moyer
J. Pineiro

Batting stats.
BA: 0.257
K's: 227
BB: 92
RBI: 158
HR's: 31
OBP: .313
SLG.: .391
OPS.: .704 (11th in the AL)

Mariner pitchers are throwing a collective 4.41 ERA, which is 4th in the AL.

Currently the M's are 3rd in the AL West, and 4 games behind the division leading Rangers.

Another Week of Mariner Baseball

When we last lef t the M's, they were a 2 1/2 gmes out of first in the AL West, and had come off a winning series against the O's. They were heading into a two game series with the woeful Twins.

They split that series: 8-2, 1-5, and then visited the champion ChiSox, and lost both games, 5-6, 1-4. Returning to Seattle they faced the Cleveland Indians, losing the opening and closing games, 4-9, 0-2, and winning the middle game 4-1.

Pitching Winners
J. Pineiro (2 games)

Pitching Losers
J. Washburn (2 games)
J. Woods
F. Hernandez
R. Soriano

Batting Stats through Sunday
BA: 0.254
K's: 194
BB: 84
RBI: 133
HR's: 21
OBP: .314
SLG.: .381
OPS.: .694, 11th in the AL

Mariner's ERA is 6th in the AL at 4.45

M's are 4.5 games out of first place in the AL West.
Ichiro is hitting .277, I think this is an improvement. I don't know.

Week in Mariner Baseball

Their first series of the week came against the World Series champion Chicago White Sox, so the worst could be feared. But good things happened. They won the first game 4-3, and won the third game 5-1, however, they did lose the middle game 3-13.

After this the M's journeyed to Baltimore to face the mediocre Orioles. They dropped the first game 2-5, but took games 2 and 3 by the scores of 8-6, 4-3, respectively. These last two games were the first wins of the season for Felix "Really Young" Hernandez and Jamie "Really Old" Moyer.

Pitching winners:
J. Mateo
J Washburn
F. Hernandez
J. Moyer

Pitching losers:
J. Vazquez
D. Cabrera

Team Batting Stats through Sunday:
BA: 0.219
K's: 159
BB: 72
RBI's:106
HR's: 19
OBP: .315
SLG: .365
OPS: .675

OPS (On Base Per. Plus Slugging per.) is the best stat to measure overall offensive performance, and the M's are 12th in the AL.

Meanwhile the Mariner's pitching staff is 5th in the AL with an ERA of 4.58. Obviously the pitching is playoff caliber, but the batters are still only swingers.

But the good news is they're only 2.5 games behind the AL West leading Rangers. So maybe there is some hope for us.

Mariner Games #18, 19 & 20 (Yeah A Triple-Header of Awfulness!)

Game 18

Mariners lost 2-1 one to once tepid Detroit Tigers. This season sucks.

Game 19

2-0 loss once again to the Tigers.

Game 20

Tonight they lost 6-4.
You must remember this: A kiss is still kiss, I meant to say that the Tigers have been in the AL cellar longer than a French wino. The M's are now there in their place, but they must be drinking kvass, 'cause they can't hit none of that hard stuff. Maybe they can't see 'em.

I use an awful lot of baseballese, do you faithful one readers want a crash course in this wonderful tongue? Da! Alrighty then, I'll it some other day. Oh yeah, from now on I will only be giving yall your M fix once a week, at least until they're fixed.

And in hockey info, it's playoff season, Av's up 1-0 over the wicked Dallas Stars.

And today is Easter Sunday (it's Monday now, actually) so...

ХРИТОС ВОСКРЕС!

All my Barry Bond's cards to person who can give the correct response!

Mariner Game #17

M's lost to Texas on Friday night 4-3. Lost the series to them 1-2.

Season series thus far:

Angels 2-1
A's 1-3
Indians 2-1
Red Sox 1-3
Rangers 1-2

Slipping into the celler having won only one series in the AL West. Sad.

Mariner Games #15 & #16

Game 15
On Tuesday Felix, the Phenom, Hernandez was toasted as division rival Rangers went yard all over on him.


Game 16

Wednesday's game
M's beat Rangers 9-6, and I'll try to quote my grandpa's account of the game.

"It was 6-1 in the 6th and the Mariners were losing, so I thought I would change the channel. An inning later I checked on them and the score was 6-2. They scored two runs in the 8th, so it was 6-4. The final score was 9-6; they had 28 hits."

Winning hit was a three run walk-off home-run courtesy of Carl "Twitchy-rear" Everett. (Ever seen him in the box? It looks ...ewww...).

Mariner Game #14

Marieners lose 7-6 to the Sox, and drop to 6-8. Ichiro is hitting .190 despite not appearing to be slumping anymore. The excellence of the pitching over the weekend is encouraging, but offense isn't backing it up. mariners are 7th in pitching in the AL, putting them just outside of the playoffs, but the offense is dead last in the league. While other batters have caught fire for other teams, the M's bats range from mediocre to bad. An exception is Kenji Johjima, who possess good average and power.

I would like to return to Ichiro, what's happened to him?

Mariner's Game #12 and #13

Lazy me treating M's 3-0 win over the the BoSox on Saturday, and their 3-2 loss to Boston as if they were a double-header. I'm sorry. Good pitching by both teams all weekend.

Mariner Game #11

Jamie Moyer lost to the valiant Curt Schilling 2-1. This puts the M's back in the red, but I don't mind them losing like this to a good opponent.

Good Friday: The Day After

I know I could not begin to fathom the suffering of Christ on the cross, and I know the North American church does not understand pain. Pain is often explained away in terms of trial and temptation. Pain, or rather suffering as pain is simply part of life in some way, but suffering, hyperbolic psychological, or physical hurt (torment is nearby) is an exploitation of the sensitivity pain and touch provides.

Suffering is a trial, but is that the reason for its presence? To me it seems meaningless, here it might have meaning, as a negative reflection of the ultimately meaningful.

What do you think?


Related is something I was thinking last night in church. I think Christ refused the devil's temptation of jumping from the temple, and let the angels save him before he crashed, because he was to descend from heaven and let himself be shattered on the rocks, not to rely on the 12 legions of Angels to save him. I think suffering is uncovering the core of the World. Not the Earth, but the world which we live in; the Tower of Babel reaching towards Heaven. I think this is the reason why he befriended prostitutes and drunks. They live in the lowest level of the Tower, and can't think of trying to reach the sky from where they are.

Oh well... I need to expound and expand on some of these things.

On something completely unrelated note. Today is Saturday and tomorrow is Easter, all of the Seven Day Adventists are at church now (I can see a few of them across the street), are they going to go back to church tomorrow? I'll keep an eye on them.

Mariner Game #10

They Won! 9-5 over Wahoo's Indians. Ichiro hit his first home run of the season; a two run shot, that brought the M's within a run in the 5th. Later other Mariners also contributed, thereby lifting them out of lousiness into the realm of the mediocre. What do I care? I t was a great game. However, I must strike a more melancholy note, the kid, Felix Hernandez is still throwing a hundred pitches over only 4 or so innings. He is apparently having trouble locating some of his fastballs, leaving them over the plate for the power-hungry Tribe.

You may've wondered who is Chief Yahoo, well here he is.



Obviously he's a "PC" Indian (don't offend him with "Native American"), and a mascot to show what a kind, sensitive city Cleveland is.

Tomorrow the Mariners are in Boston, and the superb Jamie Moyer will duel with the great Curt Schilling of the Red Sox, these two pitchers should make it a classic.

Mariner Game #9

Wahoo-red hot Indians lose to the M's 11-9. Hallelujah!

It's Easter week (at least in the west), I should really post something about churches.

This blog is suppossedly about me and my life, and my life is a lousy baseball team?

(Now it's time for Eucharisto to rightly comment I'm too hard on the M's)

Am I easy on anything. Tonight I thought I had finally lost it. If I ever try to run away from home I'll do it Tolstoi style, just when I'm feeling like this is going nowhere.

Dostoevskii was always running away from home with his travels. Generally he wrote his masterpieces abroad. I might have to post more about this.

Mariner Game#8

M's lost to Chief Wahoo, and the rest of the Cleveland Indians 9-5. Somebody shoot me. Ichiro is hitting .176. This sucks.

Mariner Game #7

On Sunday the Mariner's closed out their first homestand of the season by losing to the A's 6-4. This is almost encouraging. In a thank-you for not being shutout again(!) sort of way.

But still it's discouraging. Ichiro is slumping, no power, and few hits, Everett doesn't look good, and Beltre has earned for himself a B-U-S-T, and should be considering whether to try again, or make everyone else prove it.

The pitchers don't have pretty win totals, but as a staff they have a 4.57 ERA which 6th in the AL. Still the numbers will have to climb down, as the M's bats are playing limbo with their batting average.

...sigh...

Mariner Game #6

First game of the season I got to see this season, and they fell to the A's three-nil. Early in the game Richie Sexson got on third courtesy of a deep center field double and a wild pitch, but three consecutive Mariners whiffed; incapable of moving a runner from 3rd to home. What nonsense.
Mariner pitching is second in the leauge in ERA, but the high-price batters are sucking right now. Maybe they'll win tomorrow.

Mariner Game #5

M's dropped the first game of four to Oakland 5-0. Ouch.
This was to be night of twenty-year old ace Felix Hernandez, but not tonight. He was pulled in the 6th and gave up one run. One of his relievers earned the next four runs. This is a disappointment, not with Felix, but with the team, and how their inability to win this game. However the Oakland pitcher was excellent. Perhaps he's a continuation of their ability to develop a first rate pitching staff. Joe Blanton is the pitcher's name.

Mariner's Game #4

Tonight the quick start M's defeated the Oakland A's 6-2, with DH Carl Everett hitting a homer.
I have been counting the home runs, but the pitchers are probably the real reason for their success thus far. None of the starting pitchers have let the games get out of control, and three out of starters have thus far recorded wins. Moyer, the only exception to this trend did not lose the game he started, that game was lost by George Sherrill, a reliever.

Mariners Game #2 & #3

Mariners Win! (Twice! I dropped a game. Error charged to me)

Maybe now I can be easy on them.

Game Two of three in their homestead against the Angels, they won 10-8. In game three, they won 6-4.

In Game Two Richie Sexson and Johjima both homered, so Joh now has 2 for the year.

In Game 3 no M homered but the team has continued to bat quite well (except for Betancourt and Beltre. Beltre is another matter). The team's play has them in a first place tie in AL West for the time being.

So of right now

M's 2-1

Eriol E-1

Mariners Game #1

I'll to keep the royal y'all informed on the M's regress this season, game by freakin' game.

The Mariners opened their season against the LA Angels, and true to last season's form the lost the game 5--4. At least it was close. Ichiro only got a single but Johjima got a homer. Yea!

Meanwhile the Cardinals also stayed true to form by trouncing the Phillies 13-5. So this day ends evenly.