Tag Archives: Johnny Damon

This afternoon I was all set to write a post about hitting with runners in scoring position.  I was going to say that, while hitting with runners in scoring position does take some skill, it’s mostly luck.  A good hitter will hit no matter if there are runners on or not.  I was going to break it down scientifically and with stats.  All this to prove that the Mariners were going to break out at some point with a barrage of runs.  I would have looked like a genius.  Instead, I decided to play Mario Kart…Oh well.

So, in case you missed it the Mariners dominated tonight, winning 11-3.  The bats came alive and the hits came in bunches.  There was the 3 run 4th, the 2 run 5th, and the 6 run 6th and all of a sudden the Mariners had 11 runs.  Think back a few days to the dismal home opener and 11 runs counts as a minor miracle.  What’s more impressive is the Mariners did it without home runs; they had 11 singles, one triple, and took advantage of a terrible Detroit defense.  (Seriously, if you don’t appreciate the Mariners defense watch the Tigers corner outfielders.  Ordonez takes the worst routes to fly balls possible and Johnny Damon’s arm is worse than mine.  One time tonight he tried to throw a foul ball into the stands except he didn’t make it there.  It was hilarious.)  Jeremy Bonderman, Detroit’s starter, wasn’t very good and gave up line drive after line drive.  His defense threw in three errors that all led to unearned runs. 

Felix was good as usual tonight.  He had a little trouble spotting his secondary pitches but his fastball was more than enough to get by tonight.  I couldn’t tell from my seat high up on the third baseline if he was getting squeezed by the umpire but it sure seemed like it.   He had one bad inning in which he gave up his two earned runs.  If it weren’t for that inning he would have had a shut out easy because the Tigers didn’t touch him after that. 

The atmosphere tonight was great.  It was close to a sell out and the crowd made a good deal of noise.  Johnny Damon was heckled to no end, which is just fine by me.  People are catching on to how great Felix is.  He got the loudest cheer during introductions and then was given a loud standing ovation after leaving the game.  The one bad thing about the Mariners blowing Detroit out was that the crowd lost a little bit of interest after the 9 run lead came.  But that’s just fine.  This city is ready to erupt with Mariner fever, the team just has to be in the pennant race for that to happen.  I might add that I don’t usually like the wave but I saw the most successful Mariner game wave tonight.  I was really impressed.  There was a ton of energy in the stadium. 

So for now, enjoy this victory.  Enjoy this 3 game winning streak.  Unfortunately, Justin Verlander pitches for the Tigers tomorrow but who knows, we could make it 4 in a row.  Baseball is a funny sport and it’s been a funny start to this season but it seems like things are getting on the right track.  So, maybe someday I’ll get to that post about hitting with runners in scoring position but as for now I’m just going to enjoy what the Mariners did tonight.

My goat/hero and a few other notes after the jump.  Continue reading →