Series Recap: Mariners @ Angels

I’m still a bit behind everything so just work with me here.

Even with the Royals game tonight, I still wanted to do a short recap of what happened in the Angels series. While it was only 3 games there was some interesting things that just went on and being that I haven’t been able to be on twitter I had some thoughts on it all.

Coming into this series I thought the Mariners would take 1 out of 3. With the best chance coming when Felix pitched. Sure, enough that’s how it went down. But, the Mariners really should have pulled out more than just the one.

Watching them choke in the 8th was painful. But, in a way I kind of expected it. I listened and watched from the ESPN perspective and while they were all surprised to see Wilhelmsen throwing in the 8th, I wasn’t. Infact I was a little perplexed on why he was still out there.

I get that he had thrown a good game and that Wedge wanted to give him a chance to get the CG/shut out. I was still a little worried. And after the single by Aybar, I felt things falling apart sitting well over 7,000 miles away.

Furbush didn’t ever make me feel like he dominated the game. He didn’t pitch poorly but he just got a lot of ground balls and his share of fly balls that stayed in the park.

Don’t get me wrong I like Furbush, and despite what Fister has done, I like the trade in general. I get that Furbush is a little rough around the edges and he is most likely headed for the bullpen with those mechanics.  But he is useful piece going forward and I’m all about having useful pieces.

Justin Smoak continues to remain interesting despite his two strike outs in the third game of the series. Though, Mike Carp really struggled. But, if there was one position player who had a good series it was Trayvon Robinson (4-10).

A couple of the other highlight performances of the series:

Shawn Kelley pitched well against the 5 hitters he faced. I, for one, am really excited about having him back.

Tom Wilhelmsen had another solid appearance, despite giving up a run and throwing that bad pickup off attempt. I’ll have more on him later.

Finally, Alex Liddi made his big league debut and Eric Wedge gave him a suitable match-up against Jerome William and unsurprisingly he struck out in one of his two at bats. What was impressive was his grab over the bag in the seventh.

I’ve often said that people exaggerated his poor defense. His arm is good enough and I think the glove is too. If he’s going to be a major league third basemen he’s going to have to figure out how to hit advanced pitching.

He’s only 22 and I believe he’s capable of making adjustments, though I won’t lie I still have my doubts.

I think what I take away most from this series is that the Mariners can hang with the Angels. Yes, it wasn’t a pretty series offensively, but despite all the question marks with this starting rotation it’s still going to be good enough to keep us in games and give us a chance to win.