Three in a row!
In the first inning, home plate umpire Brian Knight decided to squeeze Lee. Cliff walked only his second batter of the year, and he was visually annoyed on the mound, and I was visually annoyed from my couch. Lee was clearly throwing strikes. The small strike zone forced Lee to throw more down the middle, therefore allowing Angles hitters to get decent wood on the ball. Lee then committed an odd throwing error. Before we knew it, 2-0 Angels. That, though, is the end of the Angels success.
Over the next 7 innings, Lee proceeded to strike out 10 batters. Mixing his fastball with a devastating change, the Angels were so off balance it was embarrassing. Lee made legit big-league hitters like Abreu, Matsui and Hunter look like fools. One thing the Angels have is a solid lineup, there really are no slouches in there, and Lee worked with a break-neck pace mowing down one after another. There were a lot of heroes, Lee is one of them. Lee’s 14:1 K/BB still leads MLB. 42 K’s, 3 BB’s. Amazing.
At the plate, I was impressed with the Mariners hitters yet again. They stayed aggressive against Kazmir, who had control problems from the get go. They were selective, sitting on his very average fastball. Gutierrez, Bradley, and Lopez (yes, JOSE LOPEZ) all looked great at the plate. Sweeney was the only goat of the night, going 0-5 with 3LOB. Other than that, the Mariners kept the pressure on the Angels pitchers. Even Figgins and Robo Rob had good AB’s, staying patient and drawing walks or getting their pitches for RBI doubles.
Hero(s): Cliff Lee, Franklin Gutierrez
Goat: Mike Sweeney
Overall, impressive victory by the Mariners! Felix on the mound today!!
-Joe
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