Nonevent
| Game 64: June 6, 2008 | |||
 Mariners |
8 | W: Felix Hernandez (4-5) | 22-39, 1 game winning streak |
| Red Sox | 0 | L: Bartolo Colon (3-1) | 38-26, 1 game losing streak |
| Highlights: When Don Orsillo utters the phrase, “I think I’m going to put Rogaine on my chest” you know it’s been a terrible game. In Mariners-related trivia, Ryan Rowland-Smith is the first player in the major leagues with a hyphenated surname. | |||
So much for a brawl firing up the team. The Red Sox batters came up flat against Felix Hernandez, but that is to be expected because, well, he’s Felix Hernandez. The pre-game show stated that Hernandez is third behind Dwight Gooden (892) and Fernando Valenzuela (584) in strikeouts before reaching the age of 23 since 1980. The 22-year old added five whiffs to bring his career total to 492.
Eight Mariner runs, eight suspensions doled out for Thursday’s fracas: an odd and sobering symmetry.
- Coco Crisp: 7 games (appealed)
- Jon Lester: 5 games (accepted)
- Sean Casey: 3 games (pending)
- James Shields: 6 games
- Jonny Gomes: 5 games
- Edwin Jackson: 5 games
- Carl Crawford: 4 games
- Akinori Iwamura: 3 games
Don’t ask me why Lester’s name is there, ask Bob Watson.
Bartolo Colon didn’t pitch as terribly as the final score seems to indicate. Instead he was the victim to and perpetrator of a pair of mistimed throws to second that dribbled into center field.
Most of the entertaining moments were peripheral to the game. Don and Jerry replayed their broadcasting booth brawl and carried on their tradition of ribbing of “Sox Appeal” contestants. The prime target was a bejeweled aspirant whose earrings rivaled those of Kevin Garnett’s or David Ortiz’s.
Lou Merloni and Dave McCarty debated the third-inning error that allowed Ichiro Suzuki to reach first. Mike Lowell’s throw reached Kevin Youkilis in the air but the ball slipped out of the first baseman’s glove. After the misplay Youkilis pounded the ball on the infield dirt and gestured towards pointed to himself, taking responsibility for the flub. However, the official scorer assigned blame to Lowell, much to Remy’s surprise.
In the NESN post-game point/counterpoint segment Merloni took the hot corner’s side while McCarty took the first bagman’s side, naturally. Merloni said it was clearly Youkilis’s error because the throw reached him on a line and he did not have to reach unnaturally for the ball. McCarty said the throw was up the line and to Youkilis’s backhand, and the less than optimal end of the trajectory caused the mistake, not the dropping of the ball.
The on-screen chemistry between the pair was outstanding, and they sprinkled their insightful analysis for humor. “Will we get suspended if we brawl here?” quipped McCarty.
The conversation turned towards the subjective nature of assigning blame. Reputation and circumstance plays into a scorer’s judgment, contended Merloni: “If Omar Vizquel had something get by him, it was a hit. If the same thing happened to me, it was an error.”
McCarty retorted, “If you were playing out there that would be an error.”
How much was Ortiz missed? Tremendously, especially given his splits against Hernandez: .364 BA, .462 OBP, and .636 slugging. J.D. Drew was no slouch against the young southpaw, going 2-for-3 with a walk. Casey also came up big with a 3-for-4 night, but the local nine just didn’t string hits together.
Or perhaps John McLaren's public outburst actually did light a fire under his team.
