Dae-Ho-Lee Makes difference in Mariner Win

It took the Mariners a while to get to the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night. I was wondering being down 3-1 whether the Mariners would win the game. The good news the Mariners were able to face the worst bullpen in all of baseball so they were able to win the game after all. I would have to say a good philosophy of every team is to keep going until you face the Red’s bullpen. Regardless how you are doing early the game the bullpen is coming up. All you have to do is to wear out the starting pitcher so he can’t go any further. Other words take a lot of pitches on every at bat. You don’t necessarily have to keep the bat on your shoulder you can continue hitting foul balls until one gets you a hit or an out if it works that way. The important thing is to have the pitcher throw around twenty pitches per inning than they will be out of the game by the fifth inning. It is a sure way against most teams but the Reds this is especially true.

The Red’s scored first with homer by shortstop Cozart against Iwakuma. The Reds scored their other two runs in the third and fourth inning. Iwakuma was able to make through six innings throwing 96 pitches. He was replaced by left Mike Montgomery in the seventh inning after Aoki pinched hitter for him who started the rally for the Mariners to score four runs. The key hit was by Dae-Ho-Lee who pinched hit for Adam Lind and produced a two run single. In the ninth inning Lee hit a home run to increase the Mariners lead. Nelson Cruz also hit a home run in the ninth inning too.

The Texas Rangers beat Houston on Friday to keep the Mariners in first place with a one and half lead. The Angels are in third place being five games behind while the Oakland A’s are six games back and the Astros in the cellar at eight games back.

Today the Mariners have Felix Hernandez going against left hander Lamb. Franklin Gutierrez is expected to play in left field as Cruz will be in right field since no designated hitter in Cincinnati. I don’t know much about Lamb except he has only started three games for the Reds and has an era of 5.79. Also he has only pitched fourteen innings so looks like he is having problems going five innings so this is good news for the Mariners besides the Red’s bullpen. Also Lee should be starting at first base today as well. It looks like Lamb likes giving up home runs as well so should be another good game for Lee along with Cruz. It looks like the Mariners should win another road series. Sure a nice way to start the season for sure. It looks like right now it is a two team race between the Mariners and the Rangers. Go M’s.