Daily Archives: July 17, 2006

The Mariners are a hard team to figure. They started the season on the expected course, going 22-32 over the first third of the season. They then won 20 of their next 28, briefly poking their heads above .500, only to have lost eight of their last ten. And so they sit two games under .500, but just four games out of first place in the AL West and with a winning Pythagorean record, but also in last place in an ugly division lead by the A’s, who have the inverse record of the M’s and are the only team in the West with a losing Pythagorean record. Got all that?

What it all adds up to is that the M’s are a nearly perfect .500 ball club. They’re in the middle of the pack in terms of hitting and pitching. Their lineup is well-balanced with a full supply of average players lead by the pesky, but not overwhelming offensive tallents of Ichiro Suzuki. After Ichiro, Raul Ibañez is their biggest threat. On the mound, 20-year-old uberprospect Felix Hernandez has struggled in his first full season, making the 43-year-old junkballer Jamie Moyer the team’s ERA leader once again. In fact, the only dominant performances the team has received this season have come from the bullpen, with 29-year-old J.J. Putz and former prospect Rafael Soriano making Eddie Guardado expendable.

Really the Mariners are just dull. Ho hum. Here’s hoping the Yanks don’t suffer a let-down after this weekend’s unexpected sweep of the World Champs.

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Sweep. Or how about, Hot. Yesterday was the first of what is supposed to be three near-100 degree days here in the Big Apple. It wasn’t humid, man, it was just flat-out hot. Clear blue sky, even a gentle breeze. I was out in the late afternoon and it felt like high noon–I can’t remember the last time I felt the sun like that. Cliff was out in the bleachers for the game, and whether or not he had the Ban De Soleil for the San Tropez tan, I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that he left a lighter shade of George Hamilton.

What he saw was an exciting game. The Yankee bullpen worked out of jams in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings as the Bombers beat the White Sox, 6-4 to complete a three-game sweep of the defending World Champs in the Bronx. New York is just a half-a-game behind Boston in the AL East. Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, and Aaron Guiel contributed fine defensive plays; Rodriguez and Derek Jeter also homered. But it was Mariano Rivera’s two innings of scoreless–if tension-filled–work that will be most remembered. The save was the 400th of Rivera’s great career.

According to Jack Curry in the New York Times:

When Guillén was asked to define the significance of Rivera’s 400 saves, he responded in Ozzie-esque fashion by saying, “One word: Hall of Fame.”

Right. What he said.