Final Score: Boston Red Sox 14, Seattle Mariners 3Oh what a glorious homecoming! In a day that had everything from the ’67 Sox throwing out the first pitch, to some singing celebrities (Goulet!) the only thing that wasn’t perfect was the weather. Cold and overcast, this wasn’t the sunny summer day that is usual baseball fare, but I guess the Mariners couldn’t complain. They’ve been buried under snow in Cleveland for the last week.
Yes, it was a fun filled day of spectacle and wonder. I’m sure everyone in attendance had a fantastic time.
Except the Mariners. The Sox kicked the ever-loving crap out of that sorry sack of a team. Those sea green, compass wearing sissies were shellacked from the start.
I can’t tell you how excited I was to see Jeff Weaver starting. This joker was a World Series winning pitcher? Are you kidding me? He couldn’t find the plate all day (if you consider the 2 innings he pitched all day) and anything that did make it over was quickly hit over his head. The best was Drew’s homer to dead center that left Weaver slack jawed. Haha Weaver! So stupid!!
Not much better from the relief pitchers Woods and Morrow. The offense busted out and it was like T-ball. Every starter managed a hit except for Pedroia.
Not that it would have mattered too much if the offense wasn’t this hot. Josh Beckett was putting on a clinic. He had all his pitches working, and except for a 2 hit one run 3rd inning, he was perfect. 7 innings, 8 K and all the bells and whistles. And I don’t know if he is distracted from the Japanese inter-squad game tomorrow, but Ichiro went down swinging 3 times to Beckett. Amazing stuff.
The only blemish to this pristine opener was a little bad blood between former teammates and sparring partners Brendan Donnelly and Jose Guillen. Their history extends back to when the Angeles benched Guillen in 2004 for mouthing of to manager Mike Scioscia and then traded to the Nationals during that off-season. Once there, Guillen had Nats manager Frank Robinson look in Donnelly’s glove for pine tar and got Donnelly kicked from the game (and suspended) which caused some heated words and a near fight.
Flash forward a few years and both players are on different teams and now they hold each other in much higher regard. No… wait. That should read: “want to kill each other in front of 35,000 people.”
Long story short, Guillen struck out, he and Donnelly jawed a bit, the benches cleared, hardly any shoving, Guillen was tossed and then for some reason Donnelly beaned Kenji Johjima in the ass and was ejected. Simple as that. Honestly it doesn’t make that much sense to me, but at least we got another lame pseudo rival out of it. Move over Tampa Bay!
To cap off this afternoon of baseball delight, fresh off the DL Mike Timlin jogged in for the ninth inning to the sound of “Black Betty” and the roar of a standing ovation. Sorry but that pretty much was his highlight. He gave up 2 runs before Seattle remembered that they had already lost this game and relinquished the final out. Thanks for coming Mike… no really, thank you.
But forget all that! All around it was a brilliant day. Big bats, big pitching, big win. I just hope they saved some runs for tomorrow when Dice K goes up against King Felix.
Oh and does this look like a weight loss before and after picture or is it just me?
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