The most notable feature of tonight's game was Kevin Rivers - he hit a 2 run homer in the first and a 3 run homer in the 3rd. Both of them no-doubt line-drives over the scoreboard in right center. He was the Northwest League's player of the week last week and is still very hot. Interestingly, he was an undrafted free agent that the Mariners signed in 2009. We'll see if he can continue to hit.
We ran into Steve Smith at the game - always nice to see Steve - and he has the same ticket package as we do, so hopefully we'll see him more often. Also ran into Denny and Dick from the WWDXC ham radio club. And this on a night when there were only 1,678 fans in attendance!
But back to the game...
The starting pitcher for the Aquasox was Chris Sorce who we saw in the pre-season game against the Everett Merchants. He was the starter there and went two innings giving up a run on two hits and a walk while striking out three (two of them in the first inning).
In tonight's game against Salem Keizer he also started the game off with 2 strike outs and ended up pitching 6 innings with a fastball at 90mph.
The problem inning for Sorce came in the second. The Aquasox scored two runs in the first (Kevin Rivers' home run, remember?) and when Sorce came out for the top of the second with this nice 2-0 lead he promptly walked the leadoff hitter on 4 pitches. Then he walked the next batter. And then the next to load the bases. ARGH! A fly ball to shallow left field then led to a run when the throw from Robbie Anston bounced several times on it's slow path to the plate. I wrote "Anson - no arm" on my scorecard... (Jay Yencich from ussmariner.com described Anson as "a poor man's Johnny Damon" and remembering how poor Damon's arm is, I guess he was more right than he might have imagined).
A fly out to right followed by a sharply hit single up the middle by Julio Izturis of the Volcanoes meant we had a tied game. Sorce's control came back and as it turned out those three walks were the only ones he gave up during his six innings. Strange.
Sorce was followed by Jonathan Arias who pitched 2 innings and gave up 2 runs on 5 hits. Fastball at 89mph.
Arias was victimized by some poor defensive play by the Aquasox. After giving up a single in the 7th a passed ball moved the runner up to second and a single to right scored him. Unfortunately, the throw from Kevin Rivers in right field was a strong one, but our catcher Jimmy Jacquot played it poorly and was out of position to make the tag. We also noted that Jacquot has a tough time catching throws to him.
In the 8th inning a one out single was followed by a double over the head of left fielder Robbie Anson. Anson's throw to second was a very weak arc in the general direction of second (another note about Anson's poor arm went onto my scorecard). The throw got away from the infielders and the runner who had stopped at third ended up scoring.
Speaking of defense... After the Aquasox appearing to know their way around the cutoff man and generally playing competently in the previous game we attended, this game was a lot sloppier. There was a play where the center fielder threw to second with everyone lined up for a throw to third (the ball went through the infield and caused no harm). There was also a play to end the eighth inning on a ball between the pitcher and first baseman where no one was covering first. Fortunately for the Aquasox, the batter had tied himself up some much in the swing that he didn't get out of the batter's box well and Arias was able to take the ball to first to get the putout unassisted. Overall, the defensive look of this team isn't impressive right now. I suppose this is probably also a good point to mention Anthony Phillips rounding first base too far on a single to right and getting easily picked off in the 4th inning for the third out. Not sure what he was thinking (there was a man on first and maybe he thought they would throw through to third is the only thing I could guess). Work needs to be done both defensively and on the basepaths.
The third, and final, pitcher for the Aquasox was Willy Kesler the blond fireplug. He pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for the save. His fastball was 91mph.
On the hitting side (other than the aforementioned Kevin Rivers) Kevin Mailloux has cooled off a bit but was 1-3 tonight with a walk.
Noodle armed Robbie Anston walked and had a nice double the other way down the third base line. He also stole two bases (once on the front of a double steal).
First round pick in 2010 (#33 overall) Steve Baron was the DH for this game (he was catching the other night and showed some excellent skills). He's ended the game batting .178 after going 0-4 with 4 swinging strikeouts. He doesn't look very good at the plate at all.
Nothing else remarkable to report.
The Herald article is here
The Boxscore is here
