g92 | shutout on the wrong side of the ledger

Mariners 0 | Rangers 5

Hey, at least the shutout differential is still positive (9-7)

Since today and tomorrow are vacation days for me (prior to starting a new job on Monday!) and by Saturday night (Sounders game in the afternoon, Mariners game in the evening) I'll be all "sports-out" I decided to trade my Sunday ticket for tonight's game.  Lucky me ;-(

Derek Hollad was absolutely on his game.  Turns out this was his second straight shutout (he shutout the A's 6-0 prior to the break).  He had a perfect game through five innings before giving up a walk to Guti and the first hit to, of all people, Figgy.  Seems like he got to 3-2 on a ton of batters but, only walked one and struck out eight.

As for Jason, just a wee bit off.  When he gave up the two-out solo shot to Hamilton in the 1st and then got Beltre to ground out, it seemed OK - solo shot, no biggie.  But then, he gave up a one-out solo shot to Cruz in the 2nd and then a couple of hits, including an RBI single in the 3rd.  Though he didn't give up any runs in either of the 4th or 5th, he had multiple runners in scoring position as the hits and his pitch count were beginning to mount to seemingly insurmountable levels.  The third solo shot, this of the lead-off variety by Napoli, came in the sixth, followed by a couple of singles and a steal.  The and the Rangers were up 5-0 and Jason was hitting the showers.

It seemed like any ball that was well struck by the M's was basically right at someone in the outfield and I had the odd thought that they should just hit it a little softer.  I don't know why, usually you would want them to hit it harder.  Maybe it's because it seemed that the Ranger hits (that weren't home runs) were bloops just past an infielder, just in front of an outfielder and it just looked to darned easy.  Anyhoo, funny that Figgy was the one to break up the no-no, good to see Miggy with two hits and Justin break an 0 fer 'too many'.

The game was not without it bright spots...

• Defensively, an awesome play by Brendan where he back-handed a hard hit grounder at the cut of the grass and made a twisting-turning throw to Adam who handled it for the out.  And, a nice 4-6-3 in the top of the 9th.  
• Nice to see "Gray and Ray" get some work in - and more than decent work it was, as Jeff and Chris combined for three hitless, scoreless innings with three strikeouts. 

Still got three games, with Doug and Felix and Blake taking the hill - let's take 'em all to head out east on a high note.