Miller Time does the trick in Tampa Bay

Well, today I was able to get home in time to finish watching the Mariners win 5-4......but the thing I was upset at was that I missed an exciting game. After Felix pitched 8 amazing innings on Sunday and helped the M's win 2-0, it only took three pitches for the Mariners to get things started against the Rays as Brad Miller drove his third home run of the year into the right field seats. So the Mariners took the 1-0 lead on just three pitches.

 Erasmo Ramirez took the mound for the M's and just like Brad "Crazy Legs" Miller it only took three pitches for the Rays to get on the board as Ben Zobrist took Ramirez deep into the right field seats. The Rays weren't finished there; Matt Joyce singled after Zobrist's homer and then James Loney drove him in with an RBI single. 

So, after just one inning the Mariners went from having the lead to trailing 2-1, typical Mariners huh? WRONG! In the top of the fourth inning thanks to an Raul Ibanez single, a Mike Morse ground-rule double, and finally a two run single by Justin Smoak the M's retook the lead 3-2. In the top of the fifth Brad Miller needed five pitches this time to drive his second home run of the game and give his team the 4-2 lead. 

The Rays bounced back in the bottom half of the fifth, Zobrist hit his second home run of the game this time with one on to tie the game at 4-4. Dustin Ackley helped out Ramirez big time in the top of the sixth inning, after Smoak lead off the inning with a single Ackley drove one to deep center and Will Meyers couldn't get to it in time so thanks to the great bounce off the wall Smoak scored all the way from first on the RBI triple by Ackley. With that triple Ackley officially was hitting .300 since the All Star break. 

In the bottom of the sixth Ramirez was able to get the first out and then Robby Thompson brought in Oliver Perez and you know what? He got the job done! After giving up a single to Luke Scott he struck out both Jose Lobaton and Kelly Johnson to end the inning. Perez was taken out in the top of the seventh after walking Joyce and then Yoervis Medina came in a struck out Meyers and got James Loney to ground into the force out to end that inning. After Medina had a great eighth inning Danny Farquhar was brought into the ninth and had a 1-2-3 inning to record his fifth save in a row. 

NOTES: Tonight history was made as Brad Miller and Ben Zobrist became just the thrid lead off hitters in Major League history to hit two home runs in the same game.