Mariners @ A's - Game 6 April 11, 2009 Mariners 8 A's 5

Maybe Felix's ankle isn't feeling as great as we would all like to think. I think it definitely bothered him in this game and I definitely think it affected his delivery more than he would like us to know. Either way Felix didn't have the best of outings. He left after 5 and his line on the night was -- 7 hits, 5 earned runs, 2 BB's, 8 K's and 1 HR. In his defense Kenji did drop a ball that would have gotten them out of the inning. The inning stayed a live and before we knew it Jack Cust hit a 2 run HR to give them a 5-3 lead. Kenji made up for it though with a 2 RBI hit in the 8th.

Out came Felix and in came Batista who pitched well through 2 innings giving up only 1 hit. Lowe got the hold in the 8th and Morrow came in in the 9th and shut things down. He did walk a batter but in his defense he only had 4 innings of work in spring training. This is still spring training for him but I think once he settles in and finds his command he will be great for us in the 9th inning.

Once again the offense spread things around with hits and walks. It really is nice to see it come from all over the batting order and not just the same 2 or 3 guys. Balentien hurt his wrist in this one which ended up with him leaving the game in the 5th inning. Cedeno moved to LF and Lopez came into the game even though he was having the day off. Good tho since he had a 2 rbi double in the 8th inning that helped put the M's on top for good. We added another run in the top of the 9th to give Morrow a little more breathing room. Branyan hit his second HR of the season and he seems to be settling in well to our lineup and playing nice D over at first base.

That is 4 wins in the books for the M's out of the first 6. Yes it is early in the season but there are so many positives we are seeing from these guys that I think has been missing from this team for a few years now. They are most importantly playing as a team. They are playing as a team and winning as a team and it is exciting to see. 6 games in and our offense has scored 5+ runs in all but 1 of those games. Boy how many times did this team struggle to score more than 2 runs last year.