What a game. That’s all I really need to say about the O’s win over the Seattle Mariners on Thursday the 13th. Before the game started, we had the opportunity to talk with General Manager Andy MacPhail, who noted that the season hasn’t gone as planned, but they are trying to make moves to turn things around. One of which was the demotion of Nolan Reimold, even though he was hitting .300 over his last six games. According to MacPhail, the move was not to light a fire under the team, but rather afford Reimold the opportunity to get his swing back. While Reimold was on his way down, Corey Patterson was on his way up. Patterson will help fill a void at the leadoff spot and will give a slight boost in left field, which was very evident on the very last play of the game.
MacPhail also said that Michael Gonzalez, the Wild Child closer on Opening Day, would be back with the team soon. (Photo by Shawn Levin)
The game started off well for the O’s, as they took a 1-0 lead thanks to a Ty Wigginton single in the fourth inning. Unfortunately for Baltimore, that would be all they would get off Felix Hernandez. Seattle struck back immediately in the top of the fifth, scoring three runs, thanks to an Ichiro Suzuki two run HR (I swear that guy is a machine). Seattle would tack on two more runs on solo home runs by Mike Sweeney and Michael Saunders. At this point, the crab cakes started to lose their luster, and everyone had the same ‘here we go again’ feeling. Not so fast.
Finally, thanks to a high pitch count, the Mariners pull Hernandez in favor of Brandon League. Patterson rudely welcomes League with a leadoff home run to close the gap. Next up, Adam Jones, who promptly strikes out, but thanks to a wild pitch, gets to first base. A single by Nick Markakis and a walk to Ty Wigginton loads the bases with one out for Luke Scott.
Normally, this isn’t a bad thing, but with the way Scott has been hitting, it wasn’t looking so good. My, how things can change with one swing of the bat! Scott, with his amazing sunglasses (circa 1993) took League’s first offering to left field for a grand slam, putting Baltimore ahead 6-5. As Scott crossed the plate, I found myself with an appetite again as I tried to track down some more crab cakes, or at least another hot dog.
With Baltimore now ahead, they summon upon new closer Alfredo Simon, who according to MacPhail, was excited about his new role as the Orioles closer. Simon induced Ryan Langerhans to ground out to second, but he then hit Josh Wilson to put the tying run on base.
Luckily for Seattle, Ken Griffey Jr. was awake this time and was able to pinch hit (Seriously though, don’t you just hate it when they try to wake you up in the seventh inning or later to pinch hit? How would anyone get some good shut eye under those conditions?). Griffey then walked before Simon was able to strike out Saunders setting the stage for the grand finale.
Simon worked ahead of Ichiro, earning an 0-2 count before Suzuki hit a soft single to the newly promoted Patterson. Patterson seemed a little slow charging the ball, but made a strong throw to home in an effort to preserve the win. The throw was a little up the first base line, but catcher Matt Wieters did a phenomenal job keeping his left leg to block the plate, reaching across his body to catch the ball, and then come back to apply the tag on Langerhans to end the game. With the crowd going ballistic, you would think there were 48,000 fans in attendance, not the listed 20,938 on hand. A pie in the face of Patterson from reliever Will Ohman made the game official. We need more games like this one, O’s!
—Andy Mindzak
