4/10/2012 Game ‘Cap

Well… the Mariners managed four hits off Neftali Feliz tonight, breaking a rather long stretch of utter dominance. Unfortunately, none of those knocks blossomed into anything and the Mariners will have to walk away with another loss. Perhaps what is most disappointing about tonight is the pitching performance turned in by Blake Beavan. Not his actual performance, but rather the waste of it. In any other circumstance Beaven wins this game, but as I stated earlier–Baseball isn’t really fair.

The first inning offered the best chance for Seattle to capitalize, as it will against most dominant pitchers. However, a pitcher’s best friend induced by Mr. Justin Smoak himself ended any chance of driving in free base runners Ichiro and Figgins. Absolute smooth sailing from then on for the former closer, whose only other hiccup occurred in the 7th inning.

I suppose if I am digging hard for beams of light I would have to look at Smoak and Montero, who both checked in with two hits a piece against a guy who had yet to allow even one against Seattle. Thats digging pretty deep though, considering both were less-than-spectacular-singles. Ackley almost homered… almost. Some disappointing elements of this game weren’t exactly present at the surface level. Where was John Jaso? Where was Casper Wells? I understand Figgins and Seager have been playing well of late, but Jaso and Wells can easily be wiggled into a lineup featured the aforementioned. Wedge said he wanted to get Figgins a shot at SS didn’t he? To compile the disappointment, Seattle is still waiting for an extra base hit from Montero, who is sporting a ghastly 57% groundball rate coming into today’s match up.

This was a day to be dreaded. Not-so-deep-down I really hoped the Rangers would just leave Mr. Feliz in the ‘pen. As if the Rangers rotation wasn’t already good enough, Neftali displayed exactly what they have been missing out on all this time by stuffing him in the ‘pen. It’s aggravating to watch another organization rise from mediocrity and become a powerhouse in the AL. But then again it resembles a semblance of hope for the Mariners.

The Mariners will get there, whether or not I’ll still be alive when that happens, who knows? Oh and Blake, grow out a beard or something dude, that chin thing is just awful…