Game 150 Summary: BLUE JAYS 5, MARINERS 3

Well, the Blue Jays came to town and did what they do best: hit homer runs. Surprisingly, Jose Bautista was not among the sluggers, but Travis Snider, Vernon Wells, and Edwin Encarnacion all went yard off Luke French. The Mariners had 10 hits and turning out a big night was Ichiro. Ichi went 4-4 with a walk and 2 runs scored. He sits comfortably at 197hits for the season with 12 games left to get to 200. Too bad it's in the cellar.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Ichiro, a first ballot HOF'er.

9 Reasons for Felix's Deserving of the Cy Young Award

Alright, here we go.

1. Let's start with the Wins Debate. For the longest time, this stat has been used to gauge a pitcher's effectiveness, as a pitcher is the only player that can be awarded with a win in any team sport. As long as he puts in five inning and leaves the game with his team leading, the starting pitcher will walk away with the win, regardless of how many runs his offense put together to give him the lead, how well his defense did to deny the opposition of runs or how well his relievers pitched to maintain the lead for him. Essentially, we're rewarding a pitcher on an individual level for something he can't do alone. Sure, a dominating pitcher should have quite a few wins every season, but it no be the determining stat in deciding an individual award.

2. Now, if the pitcher receiving the win were pitches the entire game, there's more of individual effort. Felix has thrown 5 complete games to his 12 wins, meaning he's had to finish nearly half of his victories. Only Cliff Lee (7 CG to 12 Wins) and Dallas Braden (5 CG to 9 Wins) have better ratios than Felix, while the other Cy hopefuls haven't had to complete very many games at all: CC Sabathia (2 CG to 20 Wins), David Price (2 CG to 17 Wins), or Jered Weaver (0 CG to 13 Wins).

3. Then, consider why pitchers like Hernandez have nearly a 1:2 Complete Game to Win Ratio while Sababthia is 1:10 and Price is 1:8.5. Sabathia has future Hall of Famer, Mariano Rivera, awaiting to take the ball in the 9th. He's still got dominating stuff, (1.58 ERA, 0.84 WHIP, and Opponent's Batting Average of .182). Meanwhile, Price hands the game over to Rafael Soriano, who is equaling as dominating as Rivera (1.82 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, and Opponent's Batting Average of .166), and Soriano has only blown 3 saves in 46 attempts. Meanwhile, David Aardsma has been inconsistent for most of the season and with a 3.44 ERA and 1.17 WHIP and the big off season bullpen addition Brandon League has been a bust, (League has blown more saves (6) than he has completed (4)). So, basically, there has more pressure for Hernandez to finish his games since the guys he would have to turn it over to have hardly been reliable.

4. Speaking of pressure, Sabathia may be on a pennant contending team, but he's also part of an all star caliber pitching staff. Though Javier Vazquez and AJ Burnett haven't pitched spectacularly, Phil Hughes has been dependable and Andy Pettitte has been awesome in his 19 starts. Nonetheless, these are all high profile pitchers and at the least, they've kept the Yankees in contention and had a lot of help from a potent offense. Meanwhile, Hernandez is the only franchise pitcher on the Mariners and ever since they traded Lee, all the pressure has been on him as Vargas and Fister have regressed and the fill-in pitchers have been slightly mediocre to awful. The only games really getting any attention from fans are Hernandez's as most others are considered lost causes, so there is a lot of pressure for Felix to be one of the only non-let downs on this team. Sure, Ichiro is on pace for another 200 hits, but that hardly touched people and got their attention compared to Felix's no hit bid in his last start.

5. Plus, he's flourished under the pressure of being the only high level pitcher on the team. Since Lee was traded, Hernandez has an ERA 1.54 with a WHIP of 0.99 and nearly 5:1 strikeout to walk ratio (100 strikeouts vs. 22 walks). Ironically, Felix grew stronger without the option of 1-2 punch combination of him and Lee in the same rotation.

6. He's also been able to ignore all the clubhouse issues and work with a team that lacks any real unity. This team saw high profile players like Eric Byrnes and Ken Griffey Jr. simply walk away from the team without warning. It dealt with an emotionally unstable Milton Bradley, a scrapping and unrepentant Chone Figgins, and a vocally threatening Mike Sweeney. As it stands, there are no captains and this team will no doubt be retooled in many places in hopes of creating some stability in the clubhouse, but through all the general garbage that polluted relationships, it must be remembered that Felix didn't loaf, didn't fight, and rose above it all to pitch the fantastic season he did.

7. Speaking of stability and relationships, David Price has had the same manager, Joel Madden, and the same pitching coach, Jim Hickey, during his 2 full seasons with the Devil Rays and the cup of coffee he played in 2008. In fact, they've held those positions since Price was drafted in 2007.
CC Sabathia has spent 2009 and 2010 with Joe Girardi at the helm and Dave Eiland as the pitching coach. While Sabathia did spend half of 2008 with the Milwaukee Brewers, where Ned Yost was replaced with 12 games left to play, He spent the 5 years previously under Eric Wedge with Carl Willis as the pitching coach.
Jered Weaver has always played under Mike Scioscia as manager for the Los Angeles Angels and he has pitched with Mike Butcher as his pitching coach since 2007.
Since Felix was brought up to Mariners on 2005, he's played for 5 different managers: Mike Hargrove, John McLaren, Jim Riggleman, Don Wakamatsu and Darren Brown and he's played for 5 different pitching coaches: Bryan Price, Rafael Chaves, Mel Stottlemyre, Rick Adair, Carl Willis, (ironically, Sabathia's pitching coach in Cleveland). It deserves mention, because shows the history of instability that Hernandez has pitched through his entire career and because this is the 3rd season out of the last 4 that Hernandez has dealt with major coaching changes around mid-season.

8. Another point on the pennant race argument and the extra stress that it could cause pitchers like Sabathia and Price: even though the Devil Rays and Yankees are warring with each other for the AL East Crown, they've essentially had a large lead over Boston for months now and it would take a major upset for the Red Sox to fight their way back in from 6.5 behind the Rays in the wild card. No other team in the league is realistically close and hasn't been for months. So, while the AL East title means more than the wild card, these teams have pretty much been in the post season picture for a while now despite which ends up at the top of their division.

9. This year saw a major milestone for Felix as recorded his 1000th strikeout. For any major league pitcher that's around long enough, this is an inevitable conclusion, but Felix did it as the 4th youngest player in baseball history. Comparatively, Sabathia did it exactly 2 months before he turned 27, Price is 25 and only has 286 career strikeouts, Weaver turns 28 and has 766, and Cliff Lee picked up #1000 on July 22nd of this year, about a month before Felix, at the age of 31.

Game 149 Summary: MARINERS 2, RANGERS 1

It's always nice to take 2 out of 3 from Texas at home. Especially, when you have someone on the mound like Doug Fister, whose done well enough this year, even though his 6-12 record doesn't reflect it well. He through 7 innings in this one, only giving up 1 run and not walking a single batter. Brandon League kept it together for hold #13 and Aardsma picked up save #31. Meanwhile, Gutierrez drove in the tying run with a double and later, Jack Wilson put them ahead to bring this one home. If we can win 6 out of the last 13, we avoid an 100 loss season.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Fister? Hardly even knew her?

Game 148 Summary: RANGERS 6, MARINERS 1

Only two months ago, Cliff Lee would be winning this one for us and giving us back to back victories with Felix. Instead, he won it for Texas and Vargas took loss #11. The only bright spot was Franklin's 12th homer of the year...

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Guti, playing dependable enough offense for a player valued primarily for his defense.

Game 147 Summary: MARINERS 2, RANGERS 1

With that Cy Young Award on the line, Felix pitched again as if he already deserved to have his name engraved on it. Through 7 innings, Felix had yet to give up a hit and had only walked one batter. Unfortunately, Nelson Cruz broke up the no-hit bid with a homer in the 8th, followed by 2 more Ranger hits, but nonetheless, it was another extraordinary outing for the King. In the 9th, Felix was pulled in favor of David Aardsma, even though Felix had only thrown 98 pitches. Yes, I know that he's thrown a lot of pitches this year and it would be risky to let him finish it and blah blah blah, but with Felix facing scrutiny in the Cy Young Race over how many wins he has, it seems that a stat like # of Complete Games may help his cause. Also, Aardsma has not been reliable enough for me to entrust him to close out a game if my other option is leaving Felix in the game.

Offensively, the Mariners ran the bases like mad men, with Ichiro and Figgins reaching 40 for the year, Guti getting #22, and Saunders picking up his 6th. Sigh... it's sad that # of stolen bases is the only team stat category that the Mariners are not last in the league.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Felix.

The End of the Line

Well, there are 16 games left in the season. The Mariners are currently 55-91, 36 games under .500, 27.5 games behind the Rangers, worst in the American League, and 2nd worst in all of baseball. Probably the worst if you consider that the Pirates are really trying and haven't been for at least a decade. To avoid losing 100 games, the Mariners need to win at least half of their remaining games.

Right now, the only upside is the #2 pick in next year's draft, but who really cares about that? A giant step backwards and of course, misgivings about turning it around next year. It's been hard to write this blog as this team has just slipped into last place, but maybe it will payoff. Maybe faith and hope and all that believe big stuff will mean something next year. Probably not, but you got to stand by your team even in the worst of times, despite living in a very apathetic and casual sports city.

Game 146 Summary: RED SOX 5, MARINERS 1

And we're swept at home... After being swept in LA... 7 game losing streak... Not the worst game played by a long shot, but just such a downer...

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

...

Game 145 Summary: RED SOX 9, MARINERS 6

3 homers from Boston including a big one from Big Papi and the losing continues. It was great day for M's base stealing with both Figgins and Ichiro getting their 39th of the season. There was a chance to take this one, but League blew the save. Just couldn't tussle offensively.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Figgins for going 4-4.

GAme 144 Summary: RED SOX 5, MARINERS 1

Some more errors, a homer hit by a virtual unknown and no offense equals a loss to open the homestead.

PLAYER OF THE...

Game 143 Summary: ANGELS 3, MARINERS 0

Thus, the sweep is completed with a 4 hit shutout. Vargas goes 7 and only gives up1 earned run, but he was given nothing to work with. Story of the damn year!

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Vargas, again losing but at no fault of his own.

Game 142 Summary: ANGELS 7, MARINERS 4

Well, not every Felix outing is spectacular. Though this outing is the worst in at least 2 months, which I guess he's allowed every now and then. Of course, I'd prefer those 4 runs to be moved over to a 2 or 1 run loss, but oh well. Ichiro hit his 6th homer of the year and drove in all the runs.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Ichiro, the only guy other than Felix playing what he's worth/

Game 141 Summary: ANGELS 4, MARINERS 3

After 14 innings, Abreu smashed one out and the road trip started like most, with a loss. Kotchman turned in 3 hits, but this was truly a test of which club had the slightly better lumber. Turns out, it was the Angels.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Kotchman for the 3 hits. He's almost hitting .230.

Game 140 Summary: ATHLETICS 4, MARINERS 3

Well, this one started off great with a two run homer from Branyan and a solo shot from Tui. After the second inning, there was no more. Then the A's scored 4 unanswered and it fell off.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Branyan, because at least he homers semi occasionally.

Game 139 Summary: MARINERS 7, ATHLETICS 5

A miracle: Doug Fister got win #5 and the M's offense showed up for this one. Adam Moore hit his 4th homer of the year and the runs kept coming. After all 13 hits is wonderful, especially spread through out the lineup.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

David Aardsma, who has quietly picked up 29 saves and lowered his ERA considerably since have a tough start.

Game 138 Summary: ATHLETICS 6, MARINERS 2

Wow, a few homers and extra base hits sent Vargas out of this one before the 5th. The M's managed 5 hits of their own, as Guti went yard for #11, but again, the other team just got too many in this one.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Gutierrez, because he's best defensive asset and he also leads the team in RBIs.

Game 137 Summary: MARINERS 3, INDIANS 0

I wouldn't be surprised if out in Marinertown, the fans that are still watching mark the calendars for when Felix will pitch and otherwise, find themselves with other things to do on the other days. Again, great stuff from the King: 0 Runs, 4 hits, 1 walk and 9 strikeouts. At this point, we probably won't see him finish any of his games, because of the amount of innings he's logged. Damn shame, because he would have managed a complete game shutout in this one for sure. Oh yeah, Branyan homered too.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Do you really have to ask?

Game 136: INDIANS 4, MARINERS 2

Pauley went 6 and gave up 4, and then Chris Seddon took over for 3 scoreless innings. However, the 2 run deficit was to big to answer and this one was lost. Branyan hit homer #22 and Ichiro contributed a few, but that was about it...

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Ichiro, because when all is said and done in the history books, this season will only be remembered for two things: Hernandez's dominating pitching for a futile cause and Ichiro's 10th consecutive 200 hit year.

Game 135 Summary: MARINERS 1, INDIANS 0

Wow, another good outing for Luke French. He 1 hits em for 7, then League and Aardsma do what they were made to do, and we make off with a victory. Fausto Carmona went the distance for the Indians and pitched a fine game, but sometimes the M's get lucky and the other dudes don't score.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

French. Next year's #5?

Game 134 Summary: INDIANS 6, MARINERS 3

Well, Fister couldn't get out of the 5th inning, leave the team trailing by 1. However, aged veteran Jamey Wright gave up 2 more, so 1 run became 3 and by then, its un-winnable. Branyan provided some pop with homer number 21, but again, not enough.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Branyan, for the homer and only real bright spot.

Game 133 Summary: ANGELS 4, MARINERS 2

Again, Vargas to the mound, but unable to get enough runs to get this one. Matsui got a big one off him and the Sean White gave up another homer to Callaspo. The M's top three in the order (Ichiro-Figgins-Guti) all had multiple hits and the bottom four (Kotch-Saunders-Moore-Wilson) all had one. Lopez did nothing and Branyan struck out 4 freaking times.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Vargas, because on any other team, this outing would have kept the team close enough to win.

Game 132 Summary: MARINERS 3, ANGELS 1

Well, the King was duped out of another win as he held the Angels to 3 hits and 3 walks over 7 innings, but didn't get any run support until he was pulled from the game. So Brandon League got win #9, which ties him with Jason Vargas for second most on the team. A good home 8th setup with Saunders, Moore and Wison bringing in the runs, but it was all Felix's dominating that prepared this victory.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Usual Suspect: Felix Hernandez.

Game 131 Summary: ANGELS 5, MARINERS 3

The Angels came to town and knocked 3 homers as housewarming gifts, all in the sixth inning and all off David Pauley. It wasn't the worst offensive game, but when the other team starts homering, the M's aren't usually up to the challenge. Ichiro did steal a coupe of bases and Gutierrez was 3-4, but not enough... just not enough...

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Gutierrez, whose hitting .250 and has the second highest batting average of any Mariners regular.

Game 130 Summary: MARINERS 2, TWINS 1

Sometimes, however, 2 runs is enough. Luke French, a guy sure to be a rotation hopeful for next year, matched Fister with 7 solid innings and 1 run allowed. The only difference is that the M's managed to eke out a couple of runs in this one and then League and Aardsma shut the Twins down.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Luke French, just a stellar outing.

Game 129 Summary: TWINS 1, MARINERS 0

Shutout at home again. Doug Fister had to suffer loss #10 as his teammates were only able to pickup 2 hits for the duration of the game. A real shame as Fister went 7 solid innings and gave up 1 earned run. However, most M's pitchers have learned that a single run scored against them is usually enough to signal their doom.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Doug Fister, whose probably wondering where that run support was.

Game 128 Summary: TWINS 6, MARINERS 3

Well, it was back home where the M's second best chance at winning, Jason Vargas, took the mound. Unfortunately, the Twins banged up for 9 hits and 5 earned runs. The fielding was ugly too, as Josh Wilson had his second consecutive game with an error and Ichiro, of all people, botched one as well. Adam Moore joined the mishaps by watching a ball slide by in the dirt.

Offensively, Ichiro did bang out a triple and Figgins had a few rbis, but as usual, the offense was scattered and ineffective.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

It was ugly, but I give it to Vargas for a lack of defensive backup and weak offense.

Game 127 Summary: MARINERS 4, RED SOX 2

Luckily, Felix Hernandez pitched the second game of the double header and as always, he gave the M's the best chance to win it. Only 4 hits, 1 earned and 2 walks while managing to go 7 1/3 innings and striking out 9. Pitching like that CY award that he deserves, Hernandez picked up win #10.

Tuiasosopo swung a hot bat with 3 hits and even Jose Lopez brought in a few.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Hernandez.

Game 126 Summary: RED SOX 5, MARINERS 3

Well, with this game being rained out from the day before, the M's were forced to play a doubleheader with Boston. A few bright spots through this game came from blasts from Branyan and Kotchman, but unfortunately, the BoSox did not need any homers to take control of this one. The took David Pauley for 4 runs and tagged another of Jamey Wright.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Russell Branyan, probably the only Mariner to hit 20 more homers this season.