Marinerds, etc.

Tonight was the second annual "Stitch'n'Pitch" night at Safeco Field. I attended it yet again as the Mariners blogosphere's Designated Knitter, or something.


Ladies trying to knit one out of the park.

For those not in the know, "Stitch'n'Bitch" is a crafts movement or series of books, depending on how you look at it. People (mostly women) also have SNB groups where they get together and knit and whine about their spouses and kids and crap. Personally, being somewhat devoid of spouses and kids and crap, I don't tend to get invited to that sort of thing. "Stitch'n'Pitch" is a clever play on that, and a gimmick to get said women to come to Safeco Field to watch a game, spend money on stuff at the stadium, and knit and whine about how much the Mariners suck.

Actually, all in all, it was a pretty good deal as far as events go -- tickets were $12 each for View Reserved, which are usually $18 -- and we got these free Stitch'n'Pitch tote bags which were filled with a whole bunch of knitting supplies. There was also a "Tote Bag Challenge" where, if you got your tote bag in advance and actually managed to make something using everything in the bag, you could bring it to the Pacific Fabrics booth at the game to show them, and get another surprise gift. (I do have a friend who managed to do that, but I haven't caught up with her yet to find out what it was, so I'll edit this in when I do.)

The bag contained the following goodies, which I'm pretty sure are worth more than $12, actually:

- 6 oz skein of steel blue yarn
- Small skein of turquoise "Fun Fur"
- Two skeins of "Boa" fuzzy yarn, in white and in various blues
- Small ball of thin split yarn, brown & white
- Set of plastic knitting needles, 10", size 13
- Set of wooden knitting needles, 16", size 17
- Circular knitting needle, 16", size 5
- About 5 pattern books for making various vests/sweaters/scarves/etc
- Coupons to a few yarn stores

Unfortunately, I didn't get my tote bag until about 5 minutes before the game started, because my friends who had my ticket and tote bag were late. I also missed Roy Halladay warming up, and I almost missed Kazuhiro Sasaki throwing out the ceremonial first pitch. For the most part, I actually missed the SNP festivities, too -- I ran around looking at the various booths and taking a few pictures of everything, but then I ran up to our seats, getting there in the middle of Reed Johnson's first at-bat.

I don't have that much to say about the game, except that it almost sucked enough to make me want to abandon ship and check out the stitchy-pitchy booths. Almost.

"Short" version: Roy Halladay is a very, very good pitcher. For the first four innings, the only Mariner who got a hit off him was Johjima. By the time the Mariners hit a little bit of a stride in the bottom of the 5th, the score was already 7-0, including a 10-batter rally in the top of the 5th. Reed Johnson and Frank Catalanotto hit back-to-back doubles for one run in the 3rd, and Aaron Hill hit a double in the 4th which scored Troy Glaus and Eric Hinske, who had previously walked and hit a single, respectively. The top of the 5th started with Reed Johnson running out a bunt for a single, Ichiro-style, and it all went downhill from there. Catalanotto sac bunted Johnson to second, Overbay walked, Glaus hit the ball just over Jose Lopez to single home Johnson, Zaun walked, Hinske hit an obnoxious double to right which scored Overbay and Glaus, and that was curtains for Meche.

Jake Woods came in to stem the bleeding, and while Bengie Molina tried a sac fly to right, Ichiro caught it and fired the ball in so Zaun couldn't score from third. However, they intentionally walked Aaron Hill to get to John "Toront0wn3d" McDonald... who walked, scoring Zaun. Fortunately, Reed Johnson grounded out after that to put an end to the embarrassment.

John McDonald was so astounded at being productive at the plate yet again that the first thing he did the next inning was pick up a Carl Everett grounder and throw it into the wall separating the first-base stands from the field. The ball bounced back so hard that it kept Everett to one base, much to Lyle Overbay's surprise. Johjima, the Halladay-killer, singled, and then Yuniesky Betancourt hit a ball deep into the left field corner, which scored Johjima and Everett, and since he wanted to get a triple for the second Stitch'n'Pitch in a row, he ran and ran and ran and got himself tagged out at third after Catalanotto recovered the ball and threw to Troy Glaus. A shame, because despite Adam Jones striking out -- and he would, infact, strike out in all four plate appearances -- Ichiro hit a single and stole a base after that, which would have scored Betancourt as well.

Frank Catalanotto led off the 6th inning with a solo home run, and the Mariners strung together a few singles into a home run in the 7th, and Jake Woods pitched fairly solidly otherwise for a while, so it was 8-3 coming into the ninth inning. Glaus walked, Zaun and Hinske popped out, and then the slaughter started. Molina singled. Woods came out of the game and Emiliano Fruto came in. Aaron Hill walked again -- this time, unintentionally -- and of course, John McDonald, who had hit five home runs in his entire career, and only one other this season, hit the ball out towards the left field bullpens. Ibanez went back, and back, and back, and jumped up to the wall, and at first we thought he might have actually come up with the catch, but no. Instead, we got to see John McDonald's sixth career home run, first career grand slam, and second home run this season. Of course, the only other home run he hit this season was also against the Mariners. Go figure.

After that sort of crap, does it even matter that B.J. Ryan came out and pitched the bottom of the 9th out of boredom? I didn't think so. Jays win it, 12-3.

Honestly, what else can I say about the game?

Adam Jones turns 21 next week, and while he may have been rushed to the majors, I've been reasonably impressed with the way he's been stepping up so far. He's been decent hitting against run-of-the-mill pitchers, though, and in all honesty, him getting killed by superb hurlers like Halladay and Ryan just simply doesn't worry me. Plus, he made an awesome play in the second inning. Troy Glaus had doubled to left, and then Gregg Zaun hit a loopy single out to center. Adam Jones got the ball, and I said, "Watch this," and he FIRED it 370-odd feet to home plate, the ball reaching Johjima without even bouncing first. Glaus stopped dead in his tracks at third base, but Zaun had no such luck, and Johjima threw the ball to Betancourt, and a rundown ensued, Lopez eventually making the tag on Zaun.

Troy Glaus, by the way, has a lifetime OPS of .570 in 41 games in Safeco Field before this week, but yesterday he was 2-for-4 with an RBI, and today he was an amazing 3-for-3 with two walks, a double, an RBI, and three runs scored. With Moyer pitching tomorrow, something tells me he's going to have another good day.

Tonight's game was really sort of weird for me. I kept spacing out and forgetting who was actually winning, for some reason. Lots of runs were being scored, and lots of really nice plays were made, and as the sun went down and the temperature started to drop in Seattle, it was even pretty pleasant to be sitting in the upper decks at Safeco with the winds blowing around.

"Short" version: If Reed Johnson hadn't gotten himself thrown out on the first play of the day stretching a single into a double, it might not have been scoreless when the Mariners started a rally of sorts in the second inning. Casey Janssen threw a ton of pitches and ended up walking Ibanez and Sexson; Carl Everett hit a single to right and the bases were loaded. Johjima hit a liner to right, and Ibanez almost hesitated long enough for Sexson to pass him on the base path near third, but they both scored, Everett making it to third from first as well. A wild pitch scored Everett and Johjima, and then Adam Jones (!) singled to left, scoring Johjima. With the score at 4-0, one out, and a runner on first, Ichiro hit a fly ball to the gap in right center, and Reed Johnson managed to snag it on an awesome diving catch, and get up and throw to first in time to double up Adam Jones.

The Jays strung together a few singles to put a run on the board in the 3rd, and then Eric Hinske hit a huuuuuge solo home run in the 4th -- I mean, the kind of home run where Ichiro takes about three steps and says, "Oh geez, screw THAT." and stops. Johjima answered it with a home run of his own in the bottom of the 4th, following a Richie Sexson ground rule double over the CF wall. 6-2, and that was it for Janssen, and indeed, that was just about it for the scoring for the game, as well. Eric Hinske hit a second home run in the 6th inning -- a lovely shot right over the wall in straight center field -- and the Mariners tacked on a run in their half of the 6th as well, when Carl Everett was both responsible for batting in Ibanez and for ending the inning practically all on his own. More on that in a second.

Sherrill and Fruto pitched three scoreless innings and the Mariners won the game 7-3.


Casey Janssen rocks the high socks.

Vernon Wells was in the lineup originally but was scratched at the last minute for Eric Hinske, which seems to have worked out well for the Jays.

Carl Everett was featured in one of those "Beyond the Baselines with Shannon Drayer" movies, twirling a baseball bat sort of like a baton, drum major style. Now we understand where he learned the fine art of tossing bats.

But beyond that, the 6th inning was really stupid on the Mariners' side of things. Ibanez led off with a single, and Sexson walked. Then Carl Everett singled to left, and Frank Catalanotto fielded it cleanly and fired it back to the infield. Ibanez scored easily, and Richie Sexson was trying to get to third from first on the play. Troy Glaus, the cutoff man, got the ball, and rather than throwing it anywhere, saw Richie Sexson running to third, so he just ran into the baseline himself and tagged out Sexson, who couldn't really stop himself anyway. It was funny, though, because Glaus practically ended up hugging Sexson, and it almost seemed like Sexson's reaction was "Who is this guy, and why is he standing in my path with a baseball?" They changed pitchers to Jeremy "Oh crap, I'm in the American League now" Accardo, and after a few pitches, Carl Everett tried to steal second base and failed miserably. Worse, he failed miserably as Kenji Johjima struck out, effectively getting Accardo two outs for the price of one. Oddly, we didn't actually see Johjima strike out, so we couldn't figure out why Everett's CS ended the inning, at first. "Aren't there only two outs? Why is everyone leaving the field?" "The Japanese dude struck out while you were watching Everett pretend to be fast." "Oh."

Reed Johnson rocks the high socks, and he also just plain rocks. Not only was he 3-for-5 at the plate with a run scored, but he really did make an amazing diving catch on that hit in the 2nd inning, and the fact that he doubled off Jones is even cooler. It was just a nice play.

And Eric Hinske, man. I mean, both of his home runs were CRUSHED. That first one -- I could tell the minute it came off the bat that it was heading for the back rows of section 107. Johjima's home run was not so sure -- he apparently was really just trying for a sac fly anyway because Sexson was on third with one out -- so we were like "Is it foul? Is it foul? I don't think it's foul, do you? Hey, look at that. Cool."

Is it bad that I'm so used to excellence from Ichiro that I just take it for granted at this point?

You know, it feels like I haven't actually seen George Sherrill pitch in person in a really long time. He was tossing slow crap for his first few pitches, too, and they were swinging at it. I was thinking that he was doing a pretty good Jamie Moyer imitation for a bit there, and then he started actually having to attack the righties. Either way, good on Hargrove for leaving him in there for several batters, and good on him for getting them out.

Ibanez honored the Canadian team by switching back to Rush's "Tom Sawyer" as his at-bat music today. Adam Jones seemed to actually have a song CALLED "Adam Jones" as his at-bat music, but I can't seem to figure out what song it actually was.

The Star 101.5 music trivia song was "Hey Jealousy", by the Gin Blossoms, and I was pretty sure it was from 1993, which it was. But, I expected the baseball trivia question to actually deal with the fact that the Blue Jays won the World Series in 1993 (grrr Joe Carter grrr), and it didn't (it was "who was the AL ROY in 1993?"). Sheesh. However, I did see a woman wearing an oldschool Pat Borders #10 Blue Jays jersey. THAT was cool.

You know, I don't ever remember Troy Glaus being the best-fielding third baseman or anything, but he was impeccable tonight, snagging liners, stopping the ball in the dirt, with his quick thinking as cutoff man, and everything else.

The "Ask the Mariners" question of the day was "What is your soap opera name?" being one of those things where you take your first pet's name and the street you grew up on. Some of the answers were pretty funny -- Raul, for example, was "Skipper Forty-Nine", and George Sherrill was like "Goldie Lee. [pause] Hey... that's not bad...", and Joel was like "Sparky Arpegio!" It seemed like an inordinate number of guys had first pets named Max, too.

I think I'd feel great about Pineiro's outing -- the 6 IP with the 0 BB and 5 K -- if not for the 10 hits and the two HUGE home runs. After Hinske's second home run, the one that went over the wall in straight center, the next two batters -- Aaron Hill and John McDonald -- pretty much hit long fly balls to the exact same spot, only theirs fell a few feet short of the wall. I almost wondered if it was going to hurt Hargrove to leave Pineiro in for that whole inning, but I guess they lucked out.

Anyway, tomorrow is Stitch'n'Pitch night, and it's also Roy Halladay vs. Gil Meche. I'm quietly one of Gil's biggest supporters in the blogosphere, I think (heck, I sponsor his baseball-reference page), and I'll be stitching and hopefully not bitching about Meche's pitching. Ironically, Meche also got the start at last year's Stitch'n'Pitch, against Cliff Lee, who was having a stellar season. It was also Yuniesky Betancourt's major league debut, and in his first at-bat, he tripled. He also introduced us to the "Yu District" concept of fielding everything within a hundred feet of shortstop. So tune back in tomorrow, and serving as the blogosphere's Designated Knitter, I'll be sure to spin some yarns about the game.