9-15, Game Notes

It wasn’t always pretty, and at certain points it was just plain odd, but the Mariners came away with the win and managed to make it a happy Felix Day after all. As they showed early in the game today, this is a lineup that doesn’t look nearly as incompetent when it’s not missing too many key pieces – specifically, the difference that Justin Smoak makes just by being present is a big one. It still isn’t a good lineup, and even Guti eventually coming back might not push it too far past mediocre, but the lineup we saw today sure felt a whole lot less hopeless than the ones we watched over the weekend. Anyway, onto the things that happened:

• Felix Hernandez had his usual good stuff, and overall he did well enough to get the job done, but he still wasn’t quite at his best. Really, everything was there except for the excellent command we’ve become so used to – fortunately, all this lead to were a couple of walks, and one big Brandon Inge double in fourth. Other than that, the mostly-right-handed Detroit lineup couldn’t do much with him. Though he only ended up striking out four through six innings, the ten groundball outs are extremely nice to see. What else is there to say anymore about King Felix? We’ve seen so many exceptional outings from him, virtually any compliment I would throw out sounds repetitive at this point. He was good. He’s Felix Hernandez.
• In case any of you missed it, leading off the top of the second inning, Miguel Olivo hit a deep line drive to left field that bounced off of Ryan Raburn’s glove, up about 5 feet in the air, and then over the left field fence for a home run. There are any number of directions I could go with this particular game note, but I’ll take the route of insulting Miguel Olivo: Even though Miguel Olivo’s stats finally state that he has hit a home run, he is still yet to actually hit a home run. Step it up Miguel Olivo.
• David Pauley checked in with two more scoreless innings of relief, bringing his ERA on the season to 1.26. His xFIP is closer to 5 and his BABIP is near .100, but hey, his self esteem must be skyrocketing!
• Chone Figgins, Miguel Olivo, and Jack Wilson combined to go 5-for-12 with four extra base hits.
• Though Phil Coke came into today’s game with a K:BB ratio under 1.00, and the Mariners have been one of baseball’s best teams at drawing walks, Coke finished with 4 strikeouts and 0 walks. Baseball is weird!