Seattle Mariners Sweep Rockies, Chase Away Darvish

Forget about Sodo Mojo, the Mariners lead the league so far this season with 28 road games. Last week, the Mariners were traveling east-central states, going from New York to Massachusetts to Ohio, ending up in Colorado. After a poor showing against the first 3 ball clubs, the M’s ended their 10-game road trip with a first-ever sweep in Denver; coming back home, they beat the number 1 team in the AL, the Texas Rangers. A quarter of the way through the season, the M’s are now slightly below .500 with a 20-24 record, moving their AL West standing up to 3rd.

Originally a Rockie, M’s manager, Eric Wedge and his youthful ball club faced rain and shine in the Mile High City. The beautiful Coors complex became a friendly hitters’ park as well, as the Mariners produced 20 runs over the 3-game series. Coming off the injured list on Thursday, May 17^th, left-fielder Mike Carp made quick use of his time, homering twice against the Rockies. Having another offensive powerhouse in the line-up might serve to awaken some middle of the line-up sleeping giants such as Justin Smoak. More offensive power in the sweep came from doubles by Saunders, Ichiro, Ackley; Brendan Ryan and Alex Liddi both had triples.

Little things can stoke a fire as well, as seen in game 2 when Ichiro beat out a broken-bat infield single. Starting pitcher Jason Vargas got an RBI off a line drive over the shortstop’s head and collectively, the team hit for the cycle. With 6 of the 9 starting positions being played by guys under 25, the team did a good job of pulling it all together and playing like a mature club.

Along with offense, the pitchers also made an impressive showing. Starting things off, Kevin Millwood, at 37, became the 2^nd oldest pitcher ever to throw a shutout (2^nd only to Jamie Moyer who watched the impressive 4-0 win from the Rockies dugout). Millwood had 7 strikeouts in his 9-inning, no-score stretch.

In game 3, Beavan and his relievers did a good job holding the lead when times were rocky, to put it literally. In the 5^th inning with a 5-2 lead, when a lead-off base hit, stolen base, and hit batter threatened to turn the momentum around, Beavan composed himself and stranded the runners with a big strikeout, getting him out of the inning. Beavan left the game with 7 strikeouts. Reliever Shaun Kelley came into the game after a double by Rockies hitting star Michael Cuddyer, and pitched a big strikeout in the 6^th. In the 7^th, another big strikeout came from left-hander Charlie Furbush against the Rockies best hitter, Carlos Gonzalez. Tom Wilhelmson also had a big strikeout later in the game against Cuddyer, and with a home run and the tying run up to bat, Brandon League nipped a 9^th inning rally with a strikeout. The active relievers proved themselves in important situations in game 3 versus Colorado.

After a successful end to their road trip, the Mariners returned home to face 6’5, Japanese pitching sensation, Yu Darvish. The Mariners offense continued to manufacture runs, chasing Yu away after only 4 innings. They went on to win the game 6-1 and handed Yu his 2^nd loss of the season.

For the turquoise, King Felix had a great outing, pitching 8 innings of 1 run baseball. The Mariners were playing under the stars and Elvis Andrus, who holds the league’s best batting average in games played at night, went 0-4, as did Josh Hamilton, who leads the league in all-around batting average, home runs, and many other categories. In the 9^th, Wilhelmson came in to finish the game, striking out 1 and forcing the other 2 batters to fly and ground out.

Noteworthy facts contributing to the Mariners output is their tripling in 4 games straight, a Brendan Ryan 3-game hitting streak, and Ichiro putting up 2 RBIs in the 6-1 Rangers win.