A Memorial Day bashing

The day after their extra inning win the Mariners decided that some changes had to be made, so Nick Franklin put on a Mariners jersey for the first time in his career and came into Safeco Field today as a major leaguer. Dustin Ackley was optioned downed to Triple A Tacoma along with Lucas Luetge and brought up Hector Noesi to replace him. So, with some young guys being brought up that was more then a reason for Mariners fans to both watch and go to the game today. Aaron Harang took to the mound today looking to have a better outing then the disaster he had in Anaheim. Harang had a great first inning after giving up a lead off double to Everth Cabrera he went 1-2-3. 

Jason Bay lead off the bottom half of the first in a big way, sending a long drive over the wall to give the Mariners the early 1-0 lead and on that homerun a fan made one impressive catch, had to put that in there. The Mariners didn't stop there, after Kyle Seager drew a walk and Kendrys Morales doubled Mike Morse sent one more pitch into the center field seats and the Mariners took a nice comfortable 4-0 lead.

Harang continued to pitch brilliantly as he had easy innings and located his pitches in the right spot. The bottom of the fourth saw the M's hit their third homerun of the game as Kelly Shoppach drove one into Edgar's Cantina. The Mariners got were able to have another terrific inning. The bottom of the seventh began with Brendan Ryan singling to left field and putting his batting average to .214 for the year now. Jason Bay and Kyle Seager both drew walks and then Kendrys Morales drove in two more runs with a 2-run single and the Mariners took a 7-0 lead. Anthony Bass threw a wild pitch in the dirt that allowed Seager to score and the lead grew to 8-0. 

Raul Ibanez then was able to line a ball down the right field line scoring Morales and giving the M's and Harang a 9-0 lead to work with. During the bottom of the seventh when Carlos Triunfel came up to bat the crowd started cheering as Nick Franklin wearing the number 20 on his back came onto the on deck circle to take some swings and get ready for his first major league at bat. Triunfel grounded out to end the inning and Franklin went back into the dugout but came out to play second base and get his first major league action.

Harang had another easy inning the in the eighth and Franklin made two plays to start his career out as well. Franklin lead off the bottom of the eighth inning and the fans gave him a terrific ovation as he walked up to take his first MLB at-bat. The first pitch to Franklin went in for a strike but after that he looked at four straight balls to walk in his first at-bat of his career. Harang was over 100 pitches as he entered the ninth inning. Harang finished off the first complete game shutout of the year for a Mariners pitcher. The team treated Harang not to the Super Soaker but a classic Gatorade bath which was well deserved.

Tomorrow the Mariners send out Brandon Maurer against Edison Volquez looking to pitch better then he did in Anaheim as well.