Marty Lurie Talks San Francisco Giants Baseball
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And down the strech they come….


Around 38 games left for all
teams including the Mariners
and the Athletics and I have
a feeling this is going to
be decided the last three
games of the season here
at Safeco Field.

By Amaury Pi-Gonzalez
SeattleIs anybody aware of this ?
The Seattle Mariners are the ONLY
team in the Majors this year to have
used the same five starters all
season from their very first game
in April until today as they
board their charter going east
to Toronto and Boston.

The same five in the starting
rotation: Freddy Garcia, Jaime
Moyer,Gil Meche,Ryan Franklin
and Joel Pineiro.

Freddy Garcia pitched another
great game Sunday beating
the best hitting team in
baseball, the Red Sox
and has won his last two
and allowed just over 3 runs
in his last 3 starts.

The Mariners bullpen has
been doing a sensational
job. Specially Rafael
Soriano, Julio Mateo
and Shigetoshi Hasegawa
(who is perfect in closing
role 13 for 13)he has taken
over for his country man
Kazuhiro Sasaki who is’
with the team but not
quite 100% physically.
Then there is Armando
Benitez also in the same
bullpen and of course the
only lefty in the pen here
veteran Arthur Rhodes.
This is a very good bullpen
with most of these guys
throwing smoke.

The “secret”weapon here
is young (23)Dominican right
hander Rafael Soriano,
who throws around 98
mph with control and is
somebody the league is
already noticing, although
he started the season in
Triple A with Tacoma he
is here to stay.

The Mariners are this week
in Toronto for three games
and then to Boston for a
4-game set from Friday
to Monday. This Saturday
Pedro Martinez beat Seattle
for the 11th time in his
career, he has the best
record of his career against
one team against the Mariners,
all he has to do is show up
and he wins. He has an
incredible ERA of like .60
in his ten wins against
the Mariners, simply
amazing.

The Mariners strenght
is their pitching and the
best defense in the
league(less errors) I
have witnessed a great
fielding team during the
whole year with potential
Gold Gloves going to
Ichiro Susuki, Mike Cameron
and Bret Boone, these guys
just do not miss the ball.
Cameron outn with a groin
pulled has been replaced
for the past few games with
leftfielder Randy Winn who
has impressed a lot of people
with his fielding and presently
hot hitting. Winn has been playing
centerfield for Cameron.

And now ‘down the strech they
come’ Mariners and Athletics
for the last 38 games of the
2003 season.

This week the Mariners and
Athletics go on to the East
Coast for a series of very
important games prior to
coming back to their respective
home fields. When the
Mariners return here to
Seatttle they will play
Tampa Bay and then Baltimore
from the 26th until the
31st of August, then they
leave for Tampa and Baltimore.

Of course the Mariners have
six games left with the A’S
at Oakland September
19-20-21 and here at
Safeco the last three games
of the season September
26-27-28.

Ahhhhh, nothing better than
a pennant race with 40 or
so games left, with two
teams very similar, the
A’S with better starters,
the Mariners the edge
on their bullpen, the defense
also goes to the Mariners
who are on a pace to
make less errors than
anybody in history for
a 162-game season.
The hitting ? Both teams
seem to be almost the
same. And off and on
offense. Ichiro, Boone
and Martinez the three
key guys in the lineup
when it comes to
scoring.

Somepeople though the
Mariners were in trouble
when they didn’t make
a big trade prior to the
July 31 deadline, but maybe
the trade they wanted to
make: Freddy Garcia to
Boston for Trot Nixon might
be the “best trade they
didn’t make”since Freddy
Garcia has been pitching
like lights out.

Oh, speaking about trades,
Rey Sanchez (remember him?)
when he replaced Rich Aurilia
in San Francisco in July of
1998 when Aurilia had a groin
prroblem ? Since Rey Sanchez
came into Seattle he has been
hitting at a .340 clip and making
all the plays at shortstop. Regular
shortstop Carlos Guillen is out
with a groin problem and when
he comes back -by the end of the
month-he might be playing third base,
were he played as a very young
man here when they had a
guy playing shortstop here
that went by the name of
Alex Rodriguez.
Jeff Cirillo who makes like
$6 million this season has
been a bust here, was sent down
to Tacoma and he is hurt again.
A guy that hit over .300 all of
his career but since he came
to Seattle in 2002 has hit for
a .236 average with the
Mariners. Needless to say
GM Pat Gillick is not very
thrill about this, but such are
the fortunes in baseball and the
Mariners have to live with their
decisions.

Pat Gillick won two World Series
with the Toronto Blue Jays in
1992-93 and he is as knowledable
baseball man as you would find
anywhere doesn’t say much
about Cirillo. What can he
say? The guy has stunk
the joint !

It is very conceibable that both
the Mariners and the Athletics
will advance to Postseason,
one will win the division the
other team as wild card, but
the Red Sox might have to say
something about that.

The Boston Red Sox had a lineup
Sunday at Safeco where 5 guys
were hitting over .300 and
the first 8 in the lineup had
over 60 RBI each. Oh, If they
could clone Pedro Martinez.
For the moment Jeff Suppan
has not won a game for the
Red Sox.

There are a bunch of questions
pending in this race to the
finish in our Western Division.

Did the A’S throw Rich Harden
in the frying pan to roast ?
Can Zito reverse his fortunes?
Can Freddy Garcia continue to
pitch well? He has been perfect
in one month then stunk in the
next month and so on…

Saturday on a very close play
at first base Mariners rookie
manager Bob Melvin got thrown
out of the game just for the second
time in his career. The pressure
seem to be getting to him, If
he didn’t feel any pressure he
would not be human.

Mariners are on a pace to draw
way over 3 million fans again
in this fantastic park.

Hasta la proxima….
(until the next one)
———————————————————–

0 comments

1 Anonymous { 08.18.03 at 12:15 pm }

Could you please post your text in a wider column, like Marty’s is? It would make it much easier to read.

2 Anonymous { 08.19.03 at 11:49 am }

Will do. Will try not to rush it and wrie it from
airport again.
Saludos
APG

3 Anonymous { 08.19.03 at 1:17 pm }

Thanks!

4 Anonymous { 09.22.07 at 1:14 pm }

5 Anonymous { 09.22.07 at 1:51 pm }

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