.  ................. 

and you get the King tomorrow, feebs.  Chew on dat

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=== Gameflow ===

In the first and second innings, Brandon McCarthy came out throwing sunflower seeds.  

Dr. D watched his iPad in horror as B-Mac flung one 91-MPH dart after another Right. On. The. Black.  In.  Out.  Just at the bottoms of the knees.  Again, B-Mac had lots of help from the ump, who flounced his Pom Poms with gusto at every called strike.

Dr. D felt queasy.  He prepared the postgame writeup in his head:  don't panic, kiddies.  Games 1-3 weren't all the Mariners' fault.  "Yeah, yeah."  :: crowd wanders off ::

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 ....................

Oddly, the Mariners were frowning, curling their upper lips, and getting ticked.  Dustin Ackley dipped his back knee and dug a nasty sinker out of his shins for a whistling liner up the middle.  Kyle Seager glowered and launched an Ichiro liner over the shortstop's head.  The M's didn't score, but they were spitting and snarling.  Dr. D watched, rapt.  It was a whale of a contest.

.........

In the third, Nomar Garciaparra ... er, Brendan Ryan tucked his shoulder and just wasted a B-Mac sinker deeeeep and far, into the power alley.  Chone Figgins, doing his best Joey Cora 1995 impression, bunted and scrambled madly for first base.  

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=== Turning Point ===

Billy Beane has four (4) hitters who have all, at one point or another, been Seattle blog-o-sphere darlings.  Seth Smith, Kila Ka'aihue, Josh Reddick, and Yoenis Cespedes, if you want to count His BlingNess.  Billy B has lots of cheap upside, but it's not conducive to pretty glovework.  SSI's pre-game had called for us to watch the A's team defense.

And the pivot point came on a defensive rock by the A's.  As Chone scrambled up the line in the 3rd, the 220-lb. Josh Donaldson helter-skeltered in, grabbed the ball, and .... fired the ball right into a tangle at first base.  "A major league third baseman has got to make that play," Blowers intoned.

Ryan came home.  Figgins stood on first base, looking at McCarthy's pickoff language like a walrus would look at a seal.  

I never noticed McCarthy throwing as well again, and suddenly it dawned why Brandon McCarthy may not win 18 games a year in Oakland.  The A's fumbled two more balls in the outfield in that very inning.  The M's scored 4 runs when they should have scored 1, and by the time the game was over, they were looking like the superior ballclub.

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=== Vargas ===

After 5-0, Jason Vargas did give up the two-run jack to Cespedes, and in the bottom of the 5th, he gave up a sharp line drive to Taro's man Kila Ka'aihue.  Vargas then ran the count to 3-0 on the SS, Pennington, and the top of the lineup was next.  

It was a nervous moment.  Pennington walks, well, you're up 5-2 but there are two guys on and here comes the top of the lineup, early in the game.

Vargas scuffled back to a full count and then he saw that Pennington was tense, wired, jittery at the plate (or at least Dr. D did).  Vargas tossed a pickoff over to 1B, "icing the shooter" in the batter's box, and then ....

Deadfish change, Pennington fanned on a horrible garbage swing, and the M's were back in control.  My favorite pitch of the ballgame.  The changeup is Vargas' truly plus weapon, and it won him this game.

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NEXT

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