I had a lot of options last night as far as what to do with my spare time and recreation dollars, but like a good loyal Seattle Mariners fan I decided to head down to Safeco Field to see if our boys could finish off the Astros and get their first sweep of the season. In addition rookie catcher Mike Zunino was scheduled to make his major-league debut so I did my usual routine of grabbing  a box seat off one of the scalpers for cheap, this time 25 bucks, and headed into enjoy a nice semi-cloudy evening in Seattle along with 13,000+ Mariners fans.

Though this game was kind of boring with these two powerhouse clubs unable to mount any sort of offense until the Mariners finally broke through in the eighth inning when Nick Franklin drove in Chavez with his third hit of the night much to the delight of the hard-core fans like myself down at the Safe. Mike Zunino had a nice game as well throwing out a runner and picking up his first major-league hit ,and just generally look and athletic and ready to be a Big Leaguer. I am glad to see him and Nick Franklin up with the Big Club as they seem to be hungry and athletic enough to make a difference. We’ve seen a lot of these guys come up and down the past three or four years so I have a pretty good idea of which ones are really athletic and which ones are sort of posers, and unfortunately it looks like Michael Saunders is putting on his posing act again and is ready for a trip to Tacoma. Perhaps he can switch out with Dustin Ackley after he regains his confidence as an outfielder in a week or so and he keeps hitting down there.

Jeremy Bonderman pitched one heckuva game,  I was out in the bullpen in the bottom of the eighth when Tom Wilhelmsen was warming up , after we scored a run the “Bartender” sort of sat down and I thought hey maybe Eric Wedge will leave Bonderman in and let them finish out the game and get the victory as he deserved. But  as we all know Eric Wedge had to bring in   the bartender who really looks like a drunk  who was relapsed recently, and then we  got to see an absolute nightmare meltdown as   Wilhelmsen and Medina   surrendered six runs in the ninth inning to take the wind out of our sails completely and send us all home shaking our heads once again . I hope Chuck Armstrong and Howard Lincoln are happy with what has become to this once respected and winning franchise, those two truly are a cancer and as everyone knows nothing really is going to change around here until they go. Yes I know Jack Z and Eric Wedge are on the hotseat, but as usual Howard and Chuck will slink away and hide in their plush seats up above looking down at us hapless fans……Oh what a dismal life it is to be a Mariners fan…

So now the Mariners get a day off before traveling down to Oakland to take on the red-hot Athletics with so many question marks and things up in the air that I don’t even know where to start. I suppose I will leave that to all the great stat-geeks and their hotshot Mariners blogs out there, but really even those guys are baffled now as all of their prospect development plans have fallen through and they too are left with just this dismal product that Chuck and Howard put out on the field year after bloody year . I’m sure not too many of you are reading this as this town is rapidly turning into a soccer town in the summer months to go along with our wonderful outdoor activity, but for those who are I feel your pain. I’m going to take a drive down to Portland this week and be like the guy from Lookout Landing and just comment on the Mariners from afar , maybe that will be a little less dismal … Go Mariners!http://jeffsmariners.com