All Hail the Chief

He's the Chief and he needs hailing....

No, I'm not talking about Freddy Garcia. How about that decision to pull Meche after he surrendered the HR to Chavez in the sixth? That doesn't happen last season; instead, Bryan Price would have left Meche in to surrender the rest of the lead, and the game. If we're going to use AAA pitching, at least we must manage it well. I'm chalking this one up to Rafael Chaves.

The result? Sole possession of first place!! Sure, it's early April, but there's nothing wrong with inexplicable smiling.

Our Edwin Nunez Award for the evening goes to Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez, who in his debut hit THREE Nats batters, including Jose Guillen twice. And didn't face any kind of retaliation. Both benches were warned, but when Duaner Sanchez made it a four-bean game, he was not ejected. Later in the game, Washington pitcher Felix Rodriguez was ejected for being the only National to hit a Mets batter. That's some good umpiring right there. Rodriguez had just come in to start the 8th inning, down 9-5, and had already given up a hit before throwing inside twice to Paul Lo Duca. Honestly, it looked to me like he was just not sharp. Edwin would be proud.

Back to the FIRST PLACE Seattle Mariners. Tonight, when most teams would be throwing an even worse pitcher than the night before (5th game with no off day, 5th starter), we cleverly have somebody JUST a bit better than Gil Meche can ever hope to be.

Long Live the King!

At 7:05, King Felix takes the hill for his inaugural crushing of his opponents. My confidence level about the impending game goes WAY up when we have a legitimate ace starter going. King Felix should be ready. This is good, because the A's have some pretty decent pitching as well...their fifth starter is Joe Blanton. His rookie campaign last season was impressive, as he won 12 games while posting an ERA of 3.53. He is not a scary strikeout pitcher, although it is possible that he develops in that direction a bit in the next few seasons. Regardless, it doesn't look like his season last year was smoke and mirrors. All in all, a nice #5.

Seattle fans, get to the ballpark, and prepare for a pitcher's duel.