A roaring win for the Mariners

Last night 36,395 came to Comerica Park, hoping that the Tigers would come away with the series win and put their magic number down to 4. The Tigers sent out Justin Verlander to try and lower their magic number but the M's had their own ace sent out to the mound in Hisashi Iwakuma; Kuma was looking for his first win or descision in four starts. Well, the Mariners decided that Kuma has waiting long enough for a win, in the second inning Michael "The Condor" Saunders hit a sharp line drive to left center field, and Justin Smoak surprised me by flying around the bases and scoring all the way from first to give the Mariners the early 1-0 lead. Nick Franklin added to the inning with an RBI single driving in Saunders from second and the M's now had a two run advantage against the former Cy Young and MVP. 

Kuma helped out his team by pitching at his best against probably the best team in the American League. In the first inning Kuma got into a big jam, with the bases loaded and two outs he struck out former Mariner Matt Tuiasosopo to get out of the jam. Then in the bottom of the fourth things didn't start out the way Hisashi wanted it to, after getting Prince Fielder to ground out Victor Martinez singled then on a wild pitch moved up to second, next Kuma walked Tui and finally Kyle Seager booted the ball that allowed Alex Avila to reach first.......so were back to a bases loaded jam against the best ball club in the American League with only one out. After Carl Willis came out to calm down Kuma that for some reason seem to do the trick because Kuma got a huge double play as he got Hernan Perez to ground into the double play and the Mariners were safe for another inning.

With two outs in the top of the sixth Justin Smoak decided to an extra cushion for Kuma, as he drove a SmoakBomb over the left field fence for his seventeenth homerun of the year and the M's now had a 3-0 lead. 

The top of the eighth was the big inning for this struggling Mariners ball club. With two outs (yes that's right two outs), the Mariners got four runs on the strength of an RBI single by Smoak, another RBI double by Saunders, and finally a wild pitch that scored two. In the top of the ninth Franklin Gutierrez added to his already impressive night by hitting a solo shot for his eighth homer of the year and the M's pushed their lead to 8-0. 

Danny Farquhar came into the bottom of the ninth to get some work in and he made the most of it. Farquhar struck out Prince Fielder to start things off and then got Brayan Pena to fly out to Dustin Ackley in center and finally struck out Alex Avila to end the game. 

The Mariners put their record to 67-85 with this win, last year at this time the Mariners were 70-80.....so its a somewhat different record compared to last year. Earlier this morning the Mariners lost a dear family member, their co-owner Hiroshi Yamauchi died at the age of 85. 

NOTES: Kyle Seager continues to struggle, since September 7th he is batting 6 for his last 58 at bats (counting today's earlier game). Henry Blanco is now 0 for his last 29.