Before this game even started, I knew it would be next to impossible for me to be too disappointed with any outcome. Why was I so sure? Because it was a beautiful, deliciously warm, sunny day in Seattle. We hadn't seen the mercury climb to 70 degrees in nearly 200 days but, TODAY was going to be perfect - I had the day off for day baseball!
Little did I know, as much as I was thoroughly relishing each and every ray of sunshine while watching the game, that my appreciation of that glowing orb would double (maybe treble) by the last play of the game.
Turns out, much to my delight, the game was an extreme pitchers' duel. Both Dan Haren and Doug Fister were super stellar. Each went EIGHT innings and gave up only ONE run - Howie Kendrick hit a solo shot off Doug in the 4th and the M's tied it up in the 5th when Gimenez hit a sac-fly that scored Luis who had led off the inning with a double. That was it for offense though - Halos were 0-3 w/RISP and M's were 1-8 - until the bottom of the 9th.
 |
| ELAINE THOMPSON / AP |
The following sequence of improbable events did actually occur and no names have been changed to protect egos or reputations. First, Jack Cust led off the inning with an infield single (okay, it was more like a check swing that s l o w l y dribbled toward 3B and JC was able to make it to 1B safely). Adam bunted him over to 2B (there was rumbling in the crowd as to why he wasn't pinch run for, I'll admit to wondering the same thing myself). Next, Luis grounded out, moving Jack to 3B with 2 outs. Carlos came up to plate as the last chance to avoid extries (which, considering the weather, most of the fans probably wouldn't have minded too much). He took the first pitch for a ball. He swung at the next pitch and, by all accounts, it was a can o' corn ... but wait ...
GG Torii lost the ball in the sun!
 |
| ELAINE THOMPSON / AP |
Cust scores!!
Mariners WIN!!!
 |
| KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES |
So, not only was the sun a most welcome visitor to The Safe today, it played a large part in the M's victory. To be fair, it was a really tough sky - for everyone. Earlier in the game, Howie Kendrick dropped a foul ball because of the sun and in the top of the 9th Michael Saunders looked like he was trying to avoid the rays by doing the two-step before successfully, luckily, finding the ball in his glove. For half-a-second I felt bad for Torii, but I quickly recovered when I remembered Ichiro in Fenway.
't was fitting that Piggy be the won to record the "sun-single" and game-winning RBI as his previous time up, Torii ROBBED him of a possible homer, but a fer sure XBH.
Anyhoo, quite an unbelievable win - but we'll take it!
As a bonus, I have Kendrick and Haren on my fantasy team...
Best of both worlds - lots of points for fantasy, but the all important victory for real.
Off they go to San Diego for the start of interleague play.
Cannot WAIT to see Michael Pineda hit :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment