Felix Hernandez had a good game going until he didn’t, and the Mariners lost a chance revive their chances to catch the A’s as Oakland split the series with an 8-2 triumph.
Author: John Hickey
John Hickey
John is a longtime West Coast-based baseball writer who covered the Oakland As for two decades with The (Hayward) Daily Review and the Oakland Tribune. He headed north in 2000 to cover the Mariners for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, starting on the day Ken Griffey Jr. was traded to Cincinnati. After the print P-I closed in 2009, he joined the national sports staff of AOL FanHouse and contributes to Seattlepostglobe.org. He is a longtime baseball correspondent for the Tokyo Chunichi Press. A member of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) for two-plus decades, Hickey is a Hall of Fame voter. When hes not covering baseball, he has written about pro football, college sports, tennis, golf and winter sports. A University of California grad, Hickey is a fan of rock and jazz music, traveling, reading and cooking. He proved in high school that hes no athlete, but he does like to ski. Hickey and his wife live in Seattle in a house ruled by two magnanimous cats.
The Mariners are
An epic pitching duel ended absurdly in the 12th inning when Dee Gordon hit the second home run of his season for a 2-0 Mariners win that salvaged one game against the A’s.
A comebacker knocked James Paxton from the game (only a bruise), so Felix Hernandez responded with a mostly stout 5.2 innings. But the A’s won a second 1-run game on a row.
Joined at a press conference by several of his Mariners’ teammates, Robinson Cano said, ‘I let the team down,’ apologized, and took his spot at first base against the A’s.
The return of Robinson Cano Tuesday in Oakland will be different: Mr. Cool will be “uncomfortable,” said manager Scott Servais. Third, first, second — he must adjust.
Since June 15, the Athletics are 36-12, reminiscent of a tremendous run in 2002 when Oakland blew past the Mariners to win 103 games and the AL West. Deja vu?
The Seattle Mariners had a guy in their system in 2009 with some serious offensive promise. His name? Mike Morse. He came up in 2005 and played bits of the next four seasons in Seattle, but never saw a 2009 big league game with the Mariners. It was in the middle of that season that
There will be a new look to Safeco Field in 2013, with the walls from the left field corner to right-center coming closer to the plate. The cozier distances are going to make it tougher on fly ball pitchers, and that’s one reason the Mariners traded veteran left-handed starter Jason Vargas to the Angels Wednesday.
Baseball’s winter meetings begin Monday, and the Mariners, as they have been for years, are looking for serious hitting. The free agent pickings are thin.