The Rookie and his bats

Brandon Maurer had one hell of a challenge tonight, the Los Angeles Angels. A team that has Mike Trout, Josh Hamilton, Albert Pujols, and Mark Trumbo. Basically, a team with a crap-ton of power hitters but hey not only do the Angels have power in their lineup they are also the #1 hitting team in the American League, so how bout that for the rookie pitcher. Well Maurer decided to shutdown that #1 hitting team tonight. His night began by striking out the first two batters including Trout and got Pujols to ground out, not bad huh? 1-2-3 inning for the rookie and so now it was time for the bats to go work. The first inning didn't see any work except for Endy Chavez leading off the inning with a single. So Maurer went back out for his 2nd inning of work and faced Josh Hamilton for the first time in his young career and was able to get Hamilton out with a ground ball right back to him, Maurer gave a single to Trumbo but on the replay on TV um lets just say Trumbo was OUT! Maurer was able to finish the inning off with a fielder's choice and his 3rd strikeout of the night. Both teams went down quietly, the M's in the bottom half of the 2nd and the Angels in the top of the 3rd.

Now I didn't notice this until the bottom of the 1st but Carlos Peguero started tonight's game and I was thinking "oh crap there's 3 or 4 extra strikeouts for this starting pitcher", but Peguero decided to shut me up by literally golfing a lead off homerun in the bottom of the 3rd inning. Now that wasn't the most impressive thing about the homerun, not only did he hit a ball that was in the dirt but he hit that ball 451 ft WOW!!! The Mariners were not done in the bottom of the 3rd inning, Jason Bay singled after Carlos's long HR and not long after that Chavez singled for the second time in the game. Kyle Seager then came up and hit a nice liner to centerfield that scored Bay and the M's took a 2-0 and extended Seager's hitting streak to a career long 14 games. Maurer continued his dominance in the 4th but got into a jam in the top of the 5th and with only 1 out and 2 on Maurer was able to get Peter Bourjos to ground into a big double play and keep the shutout going. In the top of the 6th inning Mike Trout lead off with a single but was retired not long afterwards as he tried to steal a base but Kelly Shoppach fired one to Dustin Ackley to cut down the speedy Trout. Pujols then singled up the middle but Maurer got the 3rd member of the Angels Big 3 to ground into a double play and get out of that inning.

In the top of the 7th Maurer night was finished after giving up a single to Howie Kendrick and hitting Brendan Harris so Eric Wedge brought in Carter Capps; who has been the most reliable reliever in the bullpen for the M's. Maurer walked off the field to and even 13,000 fans cheering for his most brilliant performance of the year and Capps helped his starter out by getting Chris Iannetta to ground into the biggest double play of the game. The bottom of the 7th inning began well as Justin Smoak walked and Ackley singled to right field, Kelly Shoppach got Smoak and Ackley over with a sacrifice bunt. After Peguero's golf HR the Angels decided to load the bases by intentionally walking him, Bay then came up and knocked in both Smoak and Ackley with a line drive to left field and the M's took a 4-0 lead. The bottom of the 8th saw Chavez leading off with a single for his 3rd hit of the night, Seager then unloaded and put one in the right field seats for his 3rd HR of the year and the lead was now 6-0. Tom Wilhelmsen was then brought in not in a save opportunity but merely just to get some work in and did the job by getting Pujols and Hamilton to ground out and striking out Trumbo. 

NOTES: This win tonight but the Mariners record to 9-15 for the season and putting them to 7 games back of the Texas Rangers for first place. On another note Taijuan Walker pitched tonight and went 7 strong innings and striking out 7. Maurer has posted a 1.89 ERA over his last 3 starts. Wilhelmsen after tonight put his ERA to 0.90 with his 1-2-3 inning tonight.