Felix sinks the Pirates ship

Well Felix Hernandez took the mound for the Mariners today. Now when Felix takes the mound in interleague play I am always reminded of 5 years ago when Felix took Johan Santana deep for his first homerun and grand slam of his career. Felix went against the A.J. Burnett and both pitchers were ready to go. Here on the west coast I had to wake up early that way I could watch the 9 AM start time. A.J. Burnett came out dealing as he struck out the 2 out of the first 3 batters, Felix didn't have an easy first inning as Burnett did. Starling Marte lead off the bottom of the first by doubling to left field then after that Andrew McCutchen burned Mariners pitching staff again with his 5th straight hit to drive in Marte and give the Pirates the early 1-0 lead. Burnett went 1-2-3 in both the second and third inning while striking out five batters. After the first inning Felix was the same way having easy innings.

The top of the fourth inning the Mariners finally got to Burnett. Michael Saunders got the inning started by becoming the first base runner of the game for the M's by walking, he then advanced to second base on a wild pitch by Burnett. Jason Bay then walked bringing up Kyle Seager, who is always great in a clutch situation, but not this time, Burnett got Seager looking for the first out of the inning. Kendrys Morales grounded out to move Bay and Saunders over and on another wild pitch Saunders was able to score easily and the Mariners tied the game at 1-1 without even getting a hit in the fourth. Felix continued to dominate the Pirates by pitching extremely well. Felix got into a jam in the fifth, Jordy Mercer got the inning started by doubling to left and following that Clint Barmes was able to fly out and advance Mercer to third, but thankfully Felix was able to get out of the jam by striking out A.J. Burnett and Starling Marte.

In the top half of the seventh Jesus Montero helped out Felix by hitting a big fly to center field and giving the Mariners the 2-1 lead. Felix was able to finish 8 strong innings and got one more at bat and then in the bottom of the ninth inning Tom "The Bartender" Wilhelmsen came in to shut the door and close the game for Felix and the Mariners. Wilhelmsen had an easy inning and earned his ninth save of the year and securing Felix's fifth win of the season as well. The Mariners improve back to 3 games under .500 at 16-19 and will take tomorrow off and come home and play the Oakland A's for a three game series.......im sure @Shakabrodie is going to watch that series with interest. With this win Felix moves into second place in the MLB in wins with 5, 2nd in ERA with a 1.53, fourth in the MLB in strikeouts with 56, and finally 5th in WHIP with a 0.90.

NOTES: The only note I have is that the M's need to work on their hitting as they went 3-30 today.

The good, the bad, and the really ugly!

Well Aaron Harang took the mound tonight against the Pittsburgh Pirates and they got to him early in the game. The Pirates lead off the game with 3 straight hits. Starling Marte lead off with a check swing infield single after beating Harang to first base. After that both Travis Snider and Andrew McCutchen doubled home a run and the Pirates took the 2-0 lead. Harang was able to get out of the inning by getting the next three batters out. The Mariners couldn't figure out Jeanmar Gomez or the rest of the Pittsburgh pitching staff. Mike Morse once again couldn't get ahold of anything as he struck out three times in four at bats and Brendan Ryan continued his hitless streak and went 0-2. The Mariners did however get a run in the top half of the seventh inning when Raul Ibanez hit a pinch hit double that scored Dustin Ackley. The Pirates got two extra runs in the bottom of the eighth and then Jason Grilli came in and got his major league leading 13th save of the year.

Now that's not the blog, as the title does say I'm going to be talking about the good, the bad, and the ugly. First off I'm going to save the good for the last so I'll start with the bad. The bad is both Mike Morse and Brendan Ryan. Mike Morse continues to struggles and reminds us all of Richie Sexson. In his last 3 games he is 0-10 with 3 strikeouts. Morse has struck out now 34 times this season which means he strikes out at least once every game and has lowered his batting average to .226. When he started out he was hitting over .300 and hitting like crazy, now he is the new Richie Sexson for the Mariners. Before the beginning of the season Morse said he was the savior for the Mariners........yeah I'm not seeing that, what I'm seeing is Richie Sexson but with more head and facial hair. Now the ugly. The ugly is Brendan Ryan, in his last 10 games he is 3-30, which means he's been batting .100! Ok I don't know why Eric Wedge keeps putting up with him? Yes he has a great glove but come on a .137 batting average?! I mean Chone Figgins could hit better then that!

Now before I get to the good lets go through some options Eric Wedge has. Now for the pitching staff I think Wedge really needs to look at calling up Jeremy Bonderman. I say that because the Mariners 3-4-5 guys are just not cutting it. Their combined average ERA is 6.96. To tell you the truth Bonderman, Danny Hultzen, and Andrew Carraway are great examples of good call ups. Now for the shortstop position only two stick out, Carlos Triunfel and Nick Franklin. Well, now that that's done I'll get to the good in this blog. If you didn't watch today's game then you missed one of the Mariners and Seahawks best fans at the game, CBS News Pittsburgh journalist Tim Williams (@12thmanTim). The last good of this blog was that @FanzoFans ranked yours truly the 47th best Mariners fan out of thousand's of other fans!

Tomorrow's starters for the Mariners will be the great King Felix and will go against the NL strikeout leader A.J. Burnett.