Nightcap: 8/13/07 vs. Twins

The success from the road trip has followed the Mariners to the Safe where they took the first game in a three game series against the Twins by a score of 4-3. The colossal matchup between Johan Santana and King Felix was a good one as both pitchers had quality outings. Santana went seven and gave up three earned runs and Felix went six giving up only one. Though Felix did not get the W due to a bad first showing at Safeco for John Parrish, he pitched well enough to deserve the win and got out of some big jams early in the game. Vidro had three hits and drove in a run, but the player of the game was the resurgent Richie Sexson who is finally showing life three quarters into the season. After a good road trip for Sexson, he went two for four and drove in three. Two of those runs were plated on a two out double that almost left the park for a homerun, and his third rbi came in the form of a walkoff solo shot in the bottom of the ninth to put the M's in the win column for the sixth time in the last seven games. We now advance to sixteen games over .500 which I believe is the highest we've been all year, and equally important is Richie Sexson getting some confidence and raising his average to .210; where it hasn't been since July 5th.

Tomorrow's matchup should be interesting. We send out Horacio Ramirez who somehow is 7-3 while posting a 7.12 era and the Twins send out young phenom Matt Garza who is 1-3 with a 1.70 era. So Garza loses when he gives up few runs and Ramirez wins when he gives up a lot of runs... I can't talk about this anymore because I'm too confused.

Umpires: HP--Jim Reynolds (Boring name = 2/10) 1B--Tim Welke (Semi-boring name = 4/10) 2B--Lance Barksdale (Pretty cool name = 7/10) 3B--Gary Cederstrom (Pretty cool name = 6/10) (Overall Umpire Name Coolness Grade (UNCG) = 19/40)

Time: 2:36 (Another pretty quick one, thanks Richie)

Attendance: 37,902 (And some STILL booed Sexson for strikeouts in at bats 3 and 4)

Weather: 70 degrees, partly cloudy (Niehaus was extremely happy, he said he could barely breathe on the road trip... Get this guy some oxygen next time)

Wind: 1 mph, left to right