Q. May 29?
A. The second Anaheim game. The M's had won 5-of-7 and the first Angel game. Felix had a shutout through 7 innings. Win this one and you've already taken the Angel series, game in hand, and you pull to within 5-6 games. In May.
But with Felix laboring through the 0's, the "busted-out" M's offense was very easily locked down by Jered Weaver on three hits.
Inning after inning, Weaver sauntered out to the mound and effortlessly humiliated the M's offense. The M's, up 1-0, realized during that game that they weren't good enough.
The Angels did find a way to tie it on Felix, as champions will do. Bobby Abreu -- a free agent mocked by the blog-o-sphere in Seattle, a guy who stands for everything that cyber-Seattle finds amusing -- hit a star-power "turbo" home run to tie it 1-1.
The M's technically had three more chances to score a run and win the game. Needless to say, they didn't, and Anaheim scored four (4) in a celebration 10th.
It was utterly demoralizing -- no, demoralizing wasn't the right word. It was a revelation. Hey, even if Taijuan spotted you six points and you had Felix at the foul line, you still wouldn't do anything with the ball. Get off the court.
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Q. Since then?
A. The next night, the Angels spotted the M's a 7-2 lead and won. With the score 7-2, the Angels quickly got back to 7-5 in the middle innings and, down 2 runs, the odds were 20:1 in their favor.
The M's won an out-of-division series, but four games later were back in Anaheim for cremation of the body:
After that, the M's went to Texas. Cliff Lee, not the Mariners, won the first game; but the next three games the Mariners had to play, and the scores were
The M's are now mailing it in, so SSI is also.
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Q. Do what with the rest of the season?
A. Enjoy the hardball games.
James, a Royals fans, says "I believe in going through the growing pains, in watching the kids figure things out. It makes the winning more fun."
He'll be waiting until the day he dies, about 20 years from now, maybe. Why can't I wait one or two years?
............
We're in preseason 2011, and we've got an org with a very bright future.
We have a great General Manager, a great field manager, the most valuable commodity in baseball (Felix), a farm system rated #1 in baseball for hitting. We've got Pineda and Ackley and Triunfel and Gutierrez and Ichiro. We've got a half-billion-dollar stadium and the new regime is making all the right moves.
I'm looking forward to watching the ballclub take shape. If the Big Blog wants to devote the year to condemnation, it's America, they have the right. On SSI, we'll watch Zduriencik build a powerhouse.
What do you think he'll do with Lee?
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Cheers,
Dr D