Mariners @ A's - Game 5 April 10, 2009 Mariners 5 A's 4

So things never really went the way Ryan Rowland-Smith had hoped they would. But hey, it is early in the season and all pitchers are going to have those outings where they just can't get it going.

3.1 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs, 0 earned, 4 BB's, 1 K, 1 throwing error. Looking at that pitching line you might think that doesn't seem so bad. But when you realize he just could not get anything going and his pitch count was already 82 so early in the game you had to take him out. That is one difference with Wak as opposed to people managing the M's the last year or two. HE TAKES GUYS OUT!! None of this buddy buddy and not wanting to hurt peoples feeling crap we saw so much last year. I don't know how many times McLaren left guys out there to get lit up when they should have been taken out. Nice to see Wak managing these games the way they should be.
Chris Jakubauskas gave up 2 earned runs in two innings of work but earned his first win. Corcoran got himself into a little bit of trouble but got himself out of it. Rookie Shawn Kelley had his first major league appearance and did a nice job striking out 2. Aardsma shut things down in 9th inning and earned his first career save.
Once again the bullpen was strong. A lot of people had serious doubts about the abilities of our bullpen coming out of spring training but so far so good. Nice to see.

The offense continues to roll getting timely hits and walks from everyone in the order. Chavez continued his hot start to the season with 3 more hits and 2 RBI's in this one.

The defense was a little sloppy making it's first 2 errors of the season. That is bound to happen in some games and they certainly didn't cost us.

GREAT start to the season for the whole team.