Game Thoughts: Athletics at Mariners 8/2/11

I used to run a blog dedicated solely to Felix. I won’t mention it, because it might be a porno site or something now. Anyway, I am used to blogging during Felix starts, so here I am. Let me know if you find these sorts of posts interesting.

Rich Harden started a baseball game tonight against the Mariners and it wasn’t as a member of the Red Sox. This turned out to be doubly awesome, because not only did his trade to Boston getting nixed net us a couple prospects when they came knocking for Erik Bedard, but he then allowed the Mariners offense a window large enough to beat him.

When you see someone like Casper Wells come over to a new team, it helps remind you that we’re watching humans and not just stat lines. In the first inning, Franklin Gutierrez chased down a ball and ended it with a hug of Wells who got a little too far into Guti’s bubble. Casper will soon learn that such effort is not required when flanked by Death to Flying Things.

I’ll tell you what. There are reasons to continue watching baseball games even when your team has been bad and found themselves out of the race. An infield single that ends with the runner on third base is enough to leave someone trying to keep up via box scores scratching their head. Brendan Ryan pays attention, folks.

The King’s Court is awesome. I’ve been on a couple occasions (I assure you that you’ve seen me on TV, I dressed up like a buffoon and ate the turkey leg). If you haven’t been before, just go. It would appear that it’s popularity has faded a little along with the team’s winning ways, only taking up one section as opposed to three. However, it is one of the best ways to catch a game, especially if you like to have fun with other fanatics.

Eric Sogard. Too easy.

Fake Ichiro learned a valuable lesson tonight. The universe, while vast, only has enough room for so many Ichiro beings and it turns out the max occupancy is one. We’ll be showing you the door now, sir.

This started out looking like it might be one of those special Felix starts where he just dominates. He looked pretty good until needing to use a few more pitches than he’d like from the fourth inning on. He ended up crossing the 100 pitch threshold in the sixth but still pitched the seventh even after a barehanded come backer made me squirm. Forget the two run homer in the seventh, I blame Wedge for leaving an over-worked Felix out there.

You know what I find the most awesome about all of this, though? Even when Felix isn’t his best and has been severely overworked, he’s really damn good.

Casper Wells hit a ball really hard and when it landed, it was on the other side of a fence. The swing looked funny but I don’t care. Go ahead and do more of this, Casper.

Brendan Ryan and Adam Kennedy would make one heck of a synchronized pop fly catching team.

Ichiro continues to have some bad luck haunt him. There are other issues, too, but his low BABIP isn’t all due to weaker contact.

Kurt Suzuki wouldn’t let the weirdness of this game end. With the bases loaded and one out in the eighth, he swung through a ball that ended up hitting him on the shoulder. Jeff Gray will take it and so will I.

Kyle Seager pinch-hit for Justin Smoak in the eighth inning. There can be no good reason for this. Color me worried.

On one hand, I’m glad that Dave Sims hasn’t been using this “BLT” catchphrase for Brandon League all season, but on the other I’m just glad to see League pitching in save situations again.

All in all, this was one of the more comical and weird games in recent memory. What’s cool is that it wasn’t for the usual reason of our offense being offensive. Most importantly, it was a win.

A win! That’s two wins. In a row. Join me in belting out a “Huzzah!” from the depths of our starved stomachs.