There's cause for celebration

Plenty of good things happened today in the land of The Bush Leagues.

First of all...the M's win! Bringing their record to 25-28.

Erik Bedard pitched a hell of a game against the Orioles battling through 6 1/3 innings giving up a run and recording 7 strikeouts. He reminded me a lot of the way Rich Hill looked last night (or should I say, Rich Hill reminded me a lot of Erik Bedard). But the most significant accomplishment; he pitched well and stayed healthy.

The offense showed up! We finally start to see some production from the top of our lineup. Granted Ichiro has been producing all month but Don Wakamatsu shook things up a bit by throwing Russel Branyan in the 2-hole. Followed by Adrian Beltre, Ken Griffey Jr. and Jose Lopez. And the lineup produced. Branyan hits a home run, Griffey goes 3-for-5 with 2 doubles and a homer, Beltre goes 3-for-5 and Jose Lopez goes 3-for-5 with 3 doubles. Granted much of this offense came when the M's were already up by 3+ runs, it's still encouraging to see.

But the real cause for celebration, our own Nick Garbareno proposed to his girlfriend on Tuesday and amazingly she said yes! Everyone join me in giving Nick and truly his better half a Bush Leagues congratulations!

I'm already thinking of ideas of how I'm going to bring The Bush Leagues into this wedding. Let's open up the comment board for ideas. A baseball wedding with the officiant dressed as an umpire? Athletic supporters with cup for groomsmen gifts? Let's hear it everyone!

Griffey should hit with the pink bat every day

Sorry I'm a little late on this one, had to catch up on some sleep yesterday. But, after a double, a two-run home run and a Mariners win, Griffey should swing the pink stick every game.

5 hours later...

The Mariners just won another series today, but it took 5 hrs and 5 mins to wrap up the rubber match with the A's. Today was an amazing game, with the A's taking the lead, the Mariners tieing it up, and so on for 15 innings! A couple of things I want to address about today's win.

Testicular Fortitude.

This team continues to show the ability to come from behind, something we haven't seen in Seattle for a while. They were down by two in the bottom of the nineth today, and Kenji Johjima stepped up and hit his 1st HR of the year, tieing it up and sending the game into extra innings. In the top of the 13th, the A's took a 3 run lead after Batista faltered. But in the next half inning, the M's battled back to tie game, and eventually, won it in the bottom of the 15th.

Jose "Mr. Clutch" Lopez.

For the second time in three days, Jose Lopez ends up winning the game with a basehit. On Friday, it was a 15 pitch at bat that was one of the craziest things I have ever seen. Battling off questionable pitch after pitch, he literally just outlasted Oakland's Russ Springer, sending a liner into right field, and the M's to victory. Today, with the bases loaded, he parachuted one in front of the left fielder to lock up the win. Lopez is having a great season, leading the team in RBI's with 17, and proving he is a guy you want up in a clutch situation.

Bullpen comes through, one more time.

The bullpen really came through today, keeping the A's in check after Jak left after 4.1 innings, holding Oakland scoreless from the 6th on in to the 13th inning, before Batista gave up 3. Justin Vargas, who we got in the trade for JJ Putz during the winter, then came in and shut the A's down and ended up getting his first win as a Mariner. He looked extremely impressive with a low 90's fastball and a decent breaking ball. Just another example as to why I think this team is going to be dangerous if they get a shot at post season play down the road.

Wins like today and Friday are what we as M's fans have been waiting for. These are the games that we are talking about when we say, win or lose, this team will be exciting to watch. They have the talent and moxy to come from behind, and the more times they do it, the more confidence they will gain. Great to see us put some distance between us and AL West.

Go M's

Nick

Whoa...I can tell you the future!

Here is a direct quote from an earlier post about the M's - Rays series:

"My guess? Seattle wins Game 1 with Washburn on the mound. Tampa wins Game 2 and Felix dominates the Rays in a pitching duel with James Shields for the Game 3 W and the series win! "

I'm not saying I can predict the future...but that's kind of creepy. Twilight Zone style shit.

For those of you who missed it...

Sure, people laughed at me when I said it. Hell, when asked after the podcast if I really thought it was true I recanted on my decision and said I didn't think it was possible. But let it be known that I did say Jarrod Washburn would have 10 wins by the All-Star break! If you don't believe me, have a listen here:

http://media.libsyn.com/media/bushleagues/blogcast4-18Final.mp3

Now this could completely blow up in my face but, after 3 starts, Washburn has 3 wins (2 of which came while he was experiencing the flu and cramps) and has looked impressive thus far. Come on, Jarrod! Seven more!

Washburn looks Sharp as M's split with the Twinks

The Mariners take the fourth and final game of the series against the Twins today.

Sounded like Washburn was fairly lights out, going 8 and giving up 5 hits and no runs. He also retired the first 8 batters he faced. All I see when I read into his line is his trade value going up. He does pitch pretty well in the Metrodome, so we'll see how he does when gets back into the friendly confines of Safeco Field. Its good to see them go into Minnesota and split a four game series.

We also had Morrow step right back up and get his first save after a tough game two days ago. I think he's going to be a bit of a roller coaster this year, but its going to be a great ride.

Beltre went 2 for 2 with two walks. Both Noah and I are thinking he's going to have a great season. Its his contract year, so expect him to turn out a pretty productive season. He won the NL MVP during his last contract year, so who knows (just to be clear, I don't think he'll get the MVP this year, but I would bet he puts up some decent numbers, just the same).

I gotta say though, looking ahead at the schedule, looks like Silva is going to be pitching the home opener, if it all lines up correctly, which sucks for me and anyone else going to the game. Not sure who I would rather not watch, Silva or Washburn. Silva may have lost some weight, but the guy's still chubby. Not CC Sabathia chubby (holy cow by the way, that guy is a tank) but still chubby. And Washburn, by all accounts, is just a jerk. He might become my new Willie Bloomquist honestly. However, if he keeps throwing 8 scoreless innings a start, that probably won't be the case.

That's a good question to throw out there. If you had to keep one, between Silva and Wash, who would you keep and why?