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So our first game of the season is now upon us! Time to get excited Seattle fans. This season will be a struggle as we 'play the kids' and have to compete in the same division as Texas and Anaheim. I think Jack Z has done a fantastic job though of building the farm and over the next few years we are going to see the benefits of his strategy.

I am looking forward to seeing how Smoak, Ackley and Montero mesh together in the middle of the lineup. I am thrilled that we have some of the best pitching prospects going around in Hultzen, Paxton & Walker and we might even see one or two of them pitch at some stage in the Majors this year.

First two games are in Tokyo, Japan:

Wed, March 28 @ 6:10 AM (ET): Hernandez (0-0) vs McCarthy (0-0)
Thu, March 29 @ 5:10 AM (ET): Vargas (0-0) vs Colon (0-0)
Fri, April 6 @ 10:05 PM (ET): TBA
Sat, April 7 @ 9:05PM (ET): TBA

I'm up and watching the opener at 3:00 a.m., which is a pretty stupid thing to do. So far, a fantastic start. Sims and Blowers talk about Figgins being more patient, and Figgins then takes a strike down the middle and then grounds out weakly on the next pitch. Hell of an at bat, there, Figgins.

My alarm went off to watch it but I just went back to bed. Sounds like Ichiro and Ackley were ready to go but I am disappointed that Montero, Smoak, and Carp were all hitless.

Considering I didnt get off work until 3 AM ET, I obviously slept through the game, haha.

Just looked over the boxscore. Great to see King Felix dominating and Ichiro coming up big in the #3 hole. Love it.

Looks like Montero had a rough game, but I'm not worried. How'd he look at the plate?

Although I was up at 3 watching the game, I only lasted until the middle of the 6th inning and then went back to bed. I felt it was one of those games destined for extra innings which would just irritate me, and wasn't surprised when I read the box score in the morning.

bennith13 wrote:Sounds like Ichiro and Ackley were ready to go but I am disappointed that Montero, Smoak, and Carp were all hitless.

On the one at bat where he didn't get a hit, Ichiro still drove the ball pretty well. I hope it's a sign of things to come.

Montero and Smoak also seemed like victims of bad luck. Carp looks terrible; He didn't look good during the spring and didn't look any better this morning chasing bad pitches. And as a plus, his defense is subpar.

Bay_Areas_Finest wrote:Just looked over the boxscore. Great to see King Felix dominating and Ichiro coming up big in the #3 hole. Love it.

Felix looked fantastic. Sure, it was the A's, but I don't think it would have mattered who he was pitching against.

Bay_Areas_Finest wrote:Looks like Montero had a rough game, but I'm not worried. How'd he look at the plate?

Olivo was behind the plate; Montero was at DH. Looks like the same arrangement tonight too.

Just watched the replay of the game. Bad base running from Saunders probably caused Felix the win. Montero and Smoak will probably be fine after watching how they got out, but you are right sweezo, Carp looked terrible. Its kind of worrisome to me that we have no OF prospects that really could come in and take his spot if he goes back to what he was. Hopefully in the first two rounds that gets addressed in the draft this year. I like a lot of what we have going on but we just need some guys that more athletic guys that can hit in the OF.

If we win this game tonight you have to feel pretty good about starting the year out 3-0 or even 4-0 with Felix getting to pitch the third game. Hopefully when I wake up in the morning Smoak and or Montero has hit a HR.

Edit: Ok, so I just saw that Carp gets to sit down tonight and Seager is taking his spot in the line up and FIggy is going out the LF. I like Wedge.

A's fan here. Great series over in Japan, some great pitching, not surprisingly. Yea not sure it was worth it to get up at 3AM to watch, haha that sucked. We couldve skipped the 1st hour of each game and not missed anything.

Now we have to wait a week to start up again haha. I have a bad feeling the A's and the Mariners will be fighting for 3rd place with the teams that the Angels and Rangers have currently. Both teams have improved offenses hopefully, but the starting pitching was too good

Crap, here we go again with no offense. I was excited by the prospect of scoring a few more runs this year but its not looking great after for first series.

bennith13 wrote:
Edit: Ok, so I just saw that Carp gets to sit down tonight

Even better...Carp's on the DL, and Peguero's coming up to take his spot! If one player could make Carp's approach at the plate in the opener look good, it's Peguero.

not a lot to say after the two midweek games. that was a very typical mariner/athletic series... pitching dominated, hitters looked like they belonged in AAA, nobody outside of the northwest/bay area gave a hoot.

loved what felix and vargas brought. hopefully our young hitters round into form in time.

Here we go!

1: Figgins (LF)
2: Ackley (2B)
3: Ichiro! (RF)
4: Smoak (1B)
5: Montero (DH)
6: Seager (3B)
7: Olivo (C)
8: Saunders (CF)
9: Ryan (SS)
SP: Vargas

Mariners lead 1-0.

Kyle Seager! Mariners lead 4-0.

Holy **** we're scoring runs! Seager finds a hole for a 2 RBI base hit. McCarthy's not going to last a whole lot longer at this rate; get to the pen and make them pay.

Figgins RBI single! WOW.

3 for 5 with runners in scoring position.

Slats wrote:Figgins RBI single! WOW.

Credit where it's due: Figgins has had a pretty good game so far. He worked a count in his first at bat [striking out on a pitch outside, for which I cannot fault him]. He creates a run with a sacrifice bunt that forced the 3B to make a tough play at first. Drove in a run, then stole a base on a well-time jump, and then tried to confuse the SS by hopping over a ball hit in play as it went through the basepath [on what ended up being an out]. Sure, he didn't take off on a potential sac fly by Smoak, but the 3B coach held him up...so he should've stayed.

That's pretty much what one wants out of a leadoff hitter, right?

Sweezo wrote:

Slats wrote:Figgins RBI single! WOW.

Credit where it's due: Figgins has had a pretty good game so far. He worked a count in his first at bat [striking out on a pitch outside, for which I cannot fault him]. He creates a run with a sacrifice bunt that forced the 3B to make a tough play at first. Drove in a run, then stole a base on a well-time jump, and then tried to confuse the SS by hopping over a ball hit in play as it went through the basepath [on what ended up being an out]. Sure, he didn't take off on a potential sac fly by Smoak, but the 3B coach held him up...so he should've stayed.

That's pretty much what one wants out of a leadoff hitter, right?

So far, so good from Figlet! Stolen base as well.

That was a huge HR from Cespedes.

Figgins again!