NorthWest Sports Blog brings you daily features on Oregon, Washington State, and BC amateur and pro sports teams.
NWSB Insider and Seattle Mariners’ blogger Jeff Budke talks about the Seattle Mariners nice game 1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night. The good. The breakthrough from Kyle Seager and re-addition of Michael Saunders has invigorated a Mariners offense that was sputtering because of injuries. The Bad. The Mariners one loss this week? Saunders was 0 for 5. Felix Hernandez won his third game in a row and has four wins already this season.
NWSB Insider and Seattle Mariners’ blogger Jeff Budke talks about the Seattle Mariners trends and aberrations of the young season. With Felix Hernandez on the mound, you can expect a low scoring output by the opposing team. But you can normally expect one from the M’s too. That wasn’t the case Monday night. The M’s exploded for 7 runs, including HR’s by Kyle Seager, Kendrys Morales, and Jesus Montero. Maybe the tides are turning for the SS Mariner.
NWSB Insider and Seattle Mariners blogger Clinton Bell tells us to him the best “MY oh MY” play of the third week of the year had to be Felix Hernandez finally getting his 100th career win against the Houston Astros. What a difference. The Mariners scored as many runs in three innings tonight as they did in three games up in Arlington. Felix finally gets to the century mark, and the M’s unleashed the bats for 7 runs.
NWSB Insider and Seattle Mariners blogger Jeff Budke brings us a question for the ages; Shoppach, or Montero? Kelly Shoppach has been the more productive hitter between the two this year, but Montero is supposed to be the go to guy at the plate for the M’s. Shoppach is the better of the two behind the plate as well. Should Wedge make a move? We are still very early in the season, but, wins may be at stake here.
NWSB Insider Brandon Choate brings us his weekly Fantasy Baseball recap of your Seattle Mariners. Felix Hernandez is always your best bet, but there are more MAriners in the mix this year. Hisashi Iwakuma has pitched like Felix this season (so far) and Michael Morse and Kendrys Morales have been doing what they were brougth in to do – produce runs. Last year’s scapegoats, sans Chone Figgins, are already on the hot seat this season – Justin Smoak, Dustin Ackley, Brendan Ryan
NWSB Insider and Seattle Mariners blogger Brandon Choate gives us his weekly M’s pitching breakdown in the arms under the spotlight segment. Felix Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma are pacing the other startes while Tom Wilhelmsen has been perfect in closingh situations. Kameron Loe and Brandon Maurer on the other hand would like to start this season over already. Loe is a Cub, now we get Aaron Harang, we’ll see how he does.
NWSB Insider and Seattle Mariners blogger Clinton Bell tells us to him the best “MY oh MY” play of the second week of the year had to be Felix Hernandez striking out David Murphy for the 1,500th strikeout of his career. We are now on to milestone watch number two for Felix, his 100th win. The strikeout plateau is nice, but this game boils down to wins, and Felix’s next will be number 100. But until then, let us bask in the glory of Felix for a moment, and hope this season bring a lot more wins and strikeouts for the man.
NWSB Insider and Seattle Mariners blogger Jeff Budke reports on the eleventh game of the season versus the Texas Rangers. Jeff points out Franklin Gutierrez continued his good start with another lead-off HR, his fourth of the year and third leading off. Justin Smoak and Jesus Montero each had two hits, unfortunately they were not when the team needed them most with the bases loaded and less than 2-outs, but at least they got hits Thursday. It’s a start right?
NWSB Insider and Seattle Mariners blogger Jeff Budke reports on game number eight this season Monday night’s home opener versus the Houston Astro’s. Kendrys Morales is in need of some props for his performances since the Oakland series. In his last 4 games, Morales is 8-16 and hitting extremely well with RISP, adding a HR and 5 RBI for the M’s. Was Joe Saunders’ performance a sing of things to come? M’s Opening Night is always a GREAT time.
NWSB Insider and Seattle Mariners blogger Jeff Budke reports on game number six this season Saturday versus the Chicago White Sox. Coming off the extra-inning win, the M’s fall to the Chicago White Sox 4-3 on Saturday. Jeff points out he’s not a fan of Jason Bay as a pinch runner. After Kendrys Morales singled, Wedge sent Bay out to run for the DH. This must have been a “lesser of two evils” type situation, but there needs to be better options from the bench in that situation.
NWSB Insider and Seattle Mariners blogger Danny Ferguson reports on the Mariners series matchup between the M’s and the White Sox in Chicago. The first pitching matchup features Mariners Blake Beaven (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs Jose Quintana. Danny points out he’s happy with Brendan Ryan’s plate discipline. So far Ryan has been impressive already tallying a handful of free passes. The White Sox have owned Seattle. This will be a tough series.
NWSB Insider and Seattle Mariners blogger Jeff Budke reports on the first game of the season versus the Oakland Athletics. The Headline: Felix Hernandez shines as the Mariners win their 7th straight opening day game. Jeff points out the bullpen, Charlie Furbush, Pryor, and Tom Wilhelmsen surrendered two walks in only 1.1 IP. That trend cannot continue, because hits will come too. Next game check out Michael Morse and his really strange batting stretch-thing.
