On Friday night, the Seattle Mariners finally unloaded on someone, and the Padres were the unfortunate recipient of a 15-8 drubbing. DH Mike Sweeney put together a 4-5 night, including 2 home runs and six RBIs, and all but one starter (3B Jose Lopez) had at least one hit against the Padres, giving Cliff Lee his second win of the season (2-2) – even after he gave up all eight runs (seven earned).
A month and a half into a season filled with less-than-stellar pitching, a trip to the restricted list for OF Milton Bradley, a rough start to the season for Ken Griffey, Jr. and a few trips to the DL for some players, the Mariners seemingly deserved the last two days. Thursday’s afternoon tilt against the Jays ended with a walk-off single by Griffey, putting a halt to a five-game losing streak, a hit that MLB.com’s Jim Street noted as being well needed.
It was the 10th walk-off hit of Griffey’s Hall of Fame career. He left the building without commenting on the hit, but several of his teammates said the hit was something he and the entire team needed.
After having spent the better part of the last few spring weekends at this park, I could definitely see a little bit of deflation start to enter into the crowds’ attitude recently. But on a night when Cliff Lee appeared to be hitting the mark with his pitches only to be swatted around by some free-swinging Padres, however, “the wave” was still in full force, beach towel promo night items were being swirled about all over the stadium, and 3-2 counts got fans off their backsides, in the hope that the bottom frames of each innings would result in more offense – and the rewards kept on coming, for most of the game.
For the moment, all that matters is that fans walked out of Safeco in high spirits, transitioning their beach towels from over-the-head swinging position to over-the-shoulders to stay warm on a chilly May evening. Will Sweeney keep his recent power surge going? Will that single by Griffey open up his season a bit more? Who knows. What’s definitely apparent is that if a little bit of consistent pitching were to come about, the M’s certainly have enough bats still around to make the scoreboard light up.
The Seattle Times‘ Geoff Baker nailed it in his game story when talking about whether or not this would stick around, however.
One could forgive the 24,139 shivering fans at Safeco Field for being a little skeptical that what they witnessed was anything permanent. For thinking that this 15-hit blitzkrieg was more in the spirit of every dog having its day, or even the blindest of squirrels happening upon a jar full of Planters premium.
But for the optimists among them, there were other signs of hope besides Sweeney falling just one RBI shy of his career best.
For now, let’s see if the Mariners can take at least one more game this weekend and put a series win behind them.
5/22/10 Game Notes: Ian Snell (0-2) v. Clayton Richard (3-2)
