With the thermometer cresting 103 at game time, we could be reasonably sure that we were in for a squirrelly experience. And the teams didn’t disappoint.
At least it was a treat to see an actual pitcher take the mound for us. Bruce Chen threw well through five. He struck out all three batters in the first, and other than giving up a couple of long balls and a hit here and there, he continued to perform well for the next four. The bullpen was its usual mixed bag, allowing the Mariners to tie the game and depriving Chen of the win he really should have gotten.
Beyond that, it was a night for strange doings in the field and at the plate. One of the main themes was the Very Close Foul. The stat is a little hard to determine with precision, but basically it measures how many foul balls land in significant proximity to our seats. Given our location, it takes some doing to wing a ball up over the backstop and exactly into our area. Thus we get something that qualifies maybe once every four or five games. Tonight we got three, two of which were during one Dustin Ackley at bat.
Broken bats also played a couple of significant roles. In the bottom of the second Alex Gordon hit one of those singles that probably would have been an out if his bat hadn’t splintered and affected the ball’s trajectory. Then in the fourth poor Mike Moustakas got stuck fielding a grounder with both ball and bat flying directly at him. To his credit, he made the play. Mooooose!
Otherwise, however, we seemed to really struggle on defense. Balls up the middle proved to be particular headaches, with both Alcides Escobar and Chris Getz flubbing grounders they might have fielded cleanly on a cooler evening. And despite his prowess at the plate and speed in post-game interviews, Lorenzo Cain seems to have a real problem picking up balls in center.
Mostly by playing solid station-to-station baseball, we took a good-sized lead into the seventh. But the bullpen faltered, the heat started to take its toll, and three Seattle runs later the game was tied. The Mariners threatened to take the lead in the eighth when Brendan Ryan tripled. But then Ackley grounded a little too hard to Getz, who fired it in for a close out at the plate.
In the bottom of the ninth things were looking seriously like sweaty extras. But then miracle of miracles, Billy Butler squeaked a lead-off, walk-off home run over the fence in center. Watching the jubilation on the field was one of the best moments of the season to date.
Needless to say, that was the Play of the Game. The Player of the Game was Getz. Though his fielding wasn’t the best, he was unusually aggressive on offense. In the second he bunted and ran it out for a single. Then in the sixth he caught the Mariners by surprise again by holding at second until the shortstop committed to first and then making a mad dash for third. The move startled everyone just long enough for him to slide in. Too bad they didn’t score him.
The Person of the Game (as umpires aren’t players) was Jim Joyce. Though the stadium wasn’t exactly at noise-level capacity, it was still somewhat awesome that his strike call was audible way up in TT territory. After an inning or two he lost steam, but then somebody must have slipped him a little extra Joyce Juice because he belted them out sporadically throughout the rest of the game.
The box score: MARINERS (7) AT ROYALS (8) MARINERS AB R H BI ROYALS AB R H BI Dustin Ackley 5 0 0 0 Alex Gordon 5 0 3 2 Ichiro Suzuki 5 2 3 0 Alcides Escobar 5 0 1 0 Casper Wells 5 3 3 2 Eric Hosmer 5 0 0 0 Jesus Montero 5 1 2 2 Billy Butler 3 3 3 1 Justin Smoak 5 0 0 0 Lorenzo Cain 4 2 2 2 Kyle Seager 5 1 2 2 Mike Moustakas 4 1 2 1 Miguel Olivo 3 0 1 1 Jeff Francoeur 4 0 0 0 John Jaso 1 0 0 0 Brayan Pena 4 1 1 1 Michael Saunders 3 0 1 0 Chris Getz 3 1 2 1 Brendan Ryan 4 0 2 0 TOTALS 41 7 14 7 TOTALS 37 8 14 8 MARINERS 010 201 300 -- 7 ROYALS 030 220 001 -- 8 LOB--MARINERS 8, ROYALS 8. 2B--Casper Wells, Kyle Seager, Chris Getz, Alex Gordon (2), Mike Moustakas. 3B--Brendan Ryan. HR--Casper Wells, Kyle Seager, Billy Butler, Lorenzo Cain. MARINERS IP H R ER BB SO HR Kevin Millwood 5 10 7 7 1 2 1 Steve Delabar 1 2-3 0 0 0 2 0 0 Oliver Perez 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 Josh Kinney 0 1-3 2 1 1 0 0 1 ROYALS Bruce Chen 5 1-3 7 4 4 0 6 2 Jose Mijares 1 2 1 1 1 0 0 Aaron Crow 0 2-3 3 2 2 0 1 0 Kelvin Herrera 1 2 0 0 0 2 0 Greg Holland 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 WP--Kevin Millwood, Steve Delabar, Aaron Crow. SO--Ichiro Suzuki, Miguel Olivo, Michael Saunders, Casper Wells (2), Dustin Ackley (2), Justin Smoak (3), Alcides Escobar, Eric Hosmer. BB--Michael Saunders, Billy Butler (2), Chris Getz. LOCATION: Kauffman Stadium CONDITION: Dry WEATHER: Hot, Clear Buck seat: W- Guard: Cops Anthem: Like a Tuva throat singer, somehow managed to hit two notes at once Umpires: H: Joyce 1: DiMuro 2: Reynolds 3: Hoye Time: 7:10 Temp: 103 (yikes!)
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