I know it sounds selfish, but I'm not talking about myself. That honor would go to King Felix, getting a hit for himself and giving hardly any to the Marlins. Last night at Safeco Field and for the weekend, the Florida Marlins are the "home team." That means NL rules. In the history of Safeco Field, only once has a pitcher stepped into the batter's box. On July 31, 2000 Hipilito Pichardo of the Boston Red Sox had to step in because of a double switch. He would see five pitches and be struck out by Jose Paniagua of the Mariners. Last night, the Mariners were able to get Felix Hernandez to the plate before the Marlins' Ricky Nolasco. On an 0-1 count, Felix would reach out and hit a ball through the hole and get a single to right field.
Felix was a little shaky in the beginning, but he settled down and shut down the home team. His line for the night would end up looking like this: 8 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 10 K, 115 pitches. Yes he gave up TWO hits, and collected a base hit for himself. Felix did have a bigger hit on June 23, 2008 in Shea Stadium against Johan Santana, hitting a grand slam off him.
I kind of like the idea of maybe changing things up with interleague play. How about NL rules in AL parks, and DH's and AL rules in the NL parks. Something to think about. It looks like my son and I might have a boy's night tonight and head to the Safe to watch some history. If so, I will have the camera with me for some history catching.
It was 30 years ago yesterday that was the play of the night in Seattle:
Also in the Northwest this happened 20 years ago yesterday:
Things are starting to get back to normal for the Mariners. Big Mike didn't have has best stuff last night, but he got through 5 innings. The best part of the night was to see A-Rod go down swinging on an ugly strikeout.
The bullpen came in for the last 4 and slammed the door. With the win last night, the Mariners have achieved .500 and now sit only 1/2 game out of first place!!
While I know it is only the end of May, the way this team has been for awhile it's reason enough to be excited. I think that this team is starting to put together a nucleus of a team that we can build around, and start making a future. There are some guys that won't be a part of the longer future, but are surely contributing. If you would have told me that Adam Kennedy, Brendan Ryan, Miguel Olivo, and Luis Rodriguez would be the older guys that are helping this team I wouldn't have believed it. Now if we could just get Chone Figgins and his 9 million dollar head to be a team player, we could continue.
I will be at the Safe tonight to be part of King Felix's court. Let's hope the M's can shoot down the Bombers again, and maybe tomorrow I'll wake up with the Mariners in FIRST PLACE!!
