116 wins and taking 3 of 4 from the Mariners
Why is this Orioles fan (for life), pumping up the Seattle Mariners? It’s just amazing that’s why. Maybe the most stunning fact of 2001 season was the campaign of second baseman, Bret Boone. He had never driven in 100 runs in a season and knocked in 141 runs that year.
There was one 15-game winning streak. These Mariners won 116 games and dropped just 46. Seattle only won the Western Division by 14 games and that’s because Oakland won 101 games.
Did I mention that Mr. Boone hit .331 and scored more than 100 runs while crossing over the 200-hit mark. He also hit 37 homers.
Of course that special club also had an outfielder named Ichiro Suzuki. He led the league in at-bats, hits, stolen bases and batting average (.350). Edgar Martinez was still around and he still drove in more than 100 runs. The veteran, John Olerud hit .302. Mike Cameron hit 25 homers and drove home 110 runs.
What a baseball machine. Five pitchers won 10 or more games. 20-game winner, Jamie Moyer, led the way. Paul Abbott went 17-4. Freddy Garcia won 18. Aaron Sele was 15-5.
After 59 games, the Seattle winning percentage was .797 and the lead was 17 games. Of course this magical season didn’t pay off with a World Championship. After beating the Indians in five games in the division series, they were taken out by the New York Yankees in five games. The only win was a 14-3 romp behind Moyer.
So our first-place Orioles had to take on a decent Seattle club this week. And we took three out of four in a very, very tough series. Neither team hit well.
Last Thursday, we sent 10-game winner Wei-Yin Chen at the Mariners. And all it took was one inning (the 4th) as Nick Markakis singled in a run and Delmon Young delivered a 3-run homer. It was a nice and tidy 4-0 win.
Friday’s game was plain tough. Making it that way was that guy on the mound. King Felix Hernandez went for the Mariners and young Kevin Gausman was on the mound for the Birds.
Nelson Cruz broke out a little slump with a solo homer in the second. And it stayed the way until Robinson Cano tripled and scored in the sixth. We got some stellar relief work from Brian Matusz, who fanned the side in the eighth. And then Chris Davis popped one out to provide the winning run in the 10th. Zach Britton picked up the save, 2-1.
Veteran Chris Young ended our short winning streak on Saturday. We trailed 4-0 until the eighth and put together a strange rally to score 3 runs. Still it was a 4-3 defeat.
In taking 3 out of 4, we needed another 10-inning game. We began on a sour note as our first three hitters struck out. Jon Schoop’s clutch single tied this game up at 1-1 in the third.
Manny Machado returned to the lineup after back problems and delivered a run-scoring single in the eighth. And then we were stunned when star reliever, Darren O’Day, allowed the tying run. Machado won it in the 10th with a bases loaded sacrifice fly. Britton cleaned up by fanning the side.
