Mariners at Tigers, Game Two Notes

So Snell finally got it done, his first Mariner win – hopefully that takes some of the pressure off of him, and he can string together a few good outings. He didn’t pitch quite as well as his line will tell you, but he kept the walk total down, and used his defense, which is really all you can ask for. I’d still like to see him develop a little bit more command with his fastball, as he only threw it for strikes 59% of the time tonight – although once again, the ump wouldn’t give him the low strike, and it hurt him.

• Ichiro is selfish for not hitting that home run earlier in the game, thus taking some of the pressure off of Snell.

• When you think about it: We lost the Felix vs. Porcello match-up, but we won the Snell vs. Verlander match-up. Baseball is a weird sport, but games like this are exactly what I love about it. With sports like football, and especially basketball, when the match-up is one sided, the upset almost never happens. With baseball, you’ll see teams like the Royals beat the Red Sox 1 out of 3 times – you’re not going to see the Clippers beat the Lakers anywhere near that often.

• Russell Branyan struck out 4 times tonight, while swinging and missing 9 times. I know it’s Verlander, but still.

• Mark Lowe went from being really bad last night, to being outstanding tonight. He threw 12 pitches, 10 of them strikes, got 1 swinging strike, and struck out 2. This is the Mark Lowe that’s fun to watch.

• Listening to the post game show with New York Vinnie right now, and apparently watching Jose Lopez go up and swing at the first pitch makes him wanna “plotz”. I share the sentiment Vinnie, although I don’t think I could put it so eloquently.

• I just don’t understand this Josh Wilson guy. I mean, he definitely isn’t a good hitter, but he had another 2 hit game, and drove in a run. He’s a pretty bad all around player, and he has absolutely no future with this team, but all things considered, he’s doing quite the job of filling in for Jack. Jack, by the way, will “hopefully be back by the Cleveland series on Friday”.

• So tomorrow is the game we’ve all been waiting for. Jarrod Washburn vs. Ryan Rowland-Smith. From what I’ve heard, most of my fellow Mariners fans are hoping for a blowout. That would be nice, but don’t count on it. We’re missing both Adrian Beltre and Jack Wilson, and because of that I would be more than happy with a narrow victory. Then again, we just scored 3 off of Justin Verlander, so anything is possible I guess.

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