Mariners Notes:
On a chilly night at Willard, the Marlins chose not to be bait for the Mariners, and instead gave us the hook with a 16 to 3 shellacking. It was a pitcher’s battle for the first couple of innings as Christian did his part in shutting them out. Unfortunately, walks became an epidemic as the Marlins scored 4 runs on one hit in the 3rd. Will played his first game as a Mariner, and made his pitching debut striking out 2 of the 3 batters he faced to limit the damage, but was kept on a short leash to ease him back into things. Luke then came into to try to turn the tide, but some pick-off miscues just opened the door for them to pick us apart as they hit us hard, and the defense was not the same Mariner defense that had been turning multiple double plays per game. As the runs kept coming, Jesse took the opportunity to try his hand in the IF and on the mound, and showed no ill-effects from the facial injury. On the offensive end, the Mariners had flashes of brilliance that simply got smothered by a clutch-hitting eating demon. Alex went 3 for 3, but got thrown out trying to score on a FC. Greg had a deep triple, but was stranded with the bases loaded. Sam had a lead-off single in the next inning, but was left stranded. Thomas had a shot that almost knocked in a run, if only there was just a little more oomph in the last steps to first. In fact, almost every Mariner got on base, but the Marlins simply did a good job scattering all of our hits. Indeed, it wasn’t until the 6th inning when it took 3 hits by Aaron, Jesse, and Luke to get our first run across… whew! If there was a bright side, it was that this was the first time, game or practice, that all 12 players were present. As a result, after playing with 8 twice, there was plenty of spirit in the dugout, even as the Marlins lead grew. Perhaps that was the reason that even though we were down by double digits, the Mariners started an enthusiastic rally in the top of the 7th, spurred by a clutch hit by Xhjyl, and an even bigger hit by Trey, who also stole 2nd on the next play, which allowed another run to score. Truly, this was not the Mariners’ best night. But maybe, just maybe, if these finally healthy Mariners can string those flashes of brilliance together into one long ray of sunshine, I have a good feeling their day will come... a real good feeling.