03/31/2014 - Opening Day

The LAAOA hosted the M's on their respective opening days for this, the 2014 baseball season. Felix Hernandez took the opening day start, his seventh in his Mariner career. It would have been the eighth but, remember when Bill Bavasi forced Eric Bedard ahead of Felix in, what was it, 2008 in order to justify his trade? Mariners!

Anyway, Felix was good, Trout hit an otherworldly HR, and then Felix got mad. If you didn't know, a mad F
elix is the best pitcher in the Show. He rained hot fire onto Anaheim as if he were Alduin in the opening scene of Skyrim. Mike Trout said after the game, "Once we scored three runs on him he flicked a switch and went into nasty mode." Felix's final line?

AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

6 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 11 K

It was the top of the seventh that really stood out to me, though. Felix knew that he was done, that he wasn't going back out for the bottom of the inning. The team was down 3-2. It was all too familiar a song: Felix pitched well but the Mariner's offense couldn't get him a win. Felix cares about wins. He crouched at the end of the dugout while the Mariner offense went to work, watching, willing his team to score some runs and put him in line, if not for a win, at least a no-decision. Zunino triples (!) home Ackley. 3-3. Felix roars. Abe Almonte legs out a double, scoring Zunino. 4-3. Felix transforms into a Naga, a part-snake-part-human, nictitates his eye-membranes, sheds his skin, and in a flash of eye-searing brightness, emerges as a new man.

Jeff Gross/Getty Images

That moment. That moment right there was symbolic. No longer was this a Mariners team of the past. No longer was this team mired in the mediocrity of failure. This was a new team and everyone in the dugout and, dare I say, every Mariner fan watching on TV felt it. This, this ::shakes your collar:: THIS is what a turn-around felt like.

It is too soon to see if the team can sustain this kind of momentum but if the team were to turn it all around, that is what it would look like. Do not miss this.

Not content to sit on their laurels, indicative of this team's attitude as a new, never-quit team, they came up in the ninth and batted around, scoring 6 more. Smoak with a 3-run no-doubt shot that it looks like surprised even him pulled to right field and then the piling on with a heck of a lot of walks brought home by an Ackley triple.

Errata:

• I hope Logan Morrison is good because I find it difficult to root for him.
• Zunino looked overmatched at the plate. Hope his time in the bigs helps.
• The bullpen could be better than it is right now by re-aligning people within the organization. : (
• I love Dustin Ackley's beard. Don't be a hater.
• Miller looked better defensively than he had in years past. That is sooo awesome.