8th Inning: Tacoma @ NYY

Alright so the game got out of hand tonight, and with two innings to go, down by 10, John McLaren surrendered to the Yankees and sent up 6, yes SIX, September callup players to pinch hit back to back to back to back to back to back in the eighth inning (Reed, Clement, Jones, Jimerson, Balentien, Green) and has now used Mike Morse in the 9th as the seventh consecutive pinch-hitter. Not to mention that Rob Johnson is now listed as the catcher and Willie Bloomquist came in to play short. And thats just the madness that transpired with regards to the lineup. As far as pitching goes, Ramirez started and he was followed by O'Flaherty, Morrow, Rowland-Smith, Parrish, and White. Thats 3 of the 5 lefties in the pen and 5 of the 11 available relievers.

In these first two games the Yankees broadcasters have pointed out that the Mariners have a 35 man roster right now and they made a good point in saying that clubs normally don't callup that many players because they just get in the way and can disrupt chemistry. But of course our management has no sense of team chemistry, they've proven that to us. Now I understand that we've have been losing, but I have to agree completely with those guys on that one. This is the most bizarre and absurd things I've ever seen in my life... aside from squirrels climbing foul poles, go figure. I will try to not extend this part of my rant, but let me say that I am completely dumbfounded and critical of this September Mega Roster of Fat that we've sewn onto our already crippling body. This metaphorical "Mariner Man" now has man-boobs that appeared quick enough to make Pamela Anderson jealous.

But anyways back to the game. What bugged the living hell out of me tonight was using all of these roster fillers or stuffers or whatever you want to call the army of raw druid re-enforcements that were recruited for battle (no offense to the callups, but they are young and raw, and we are in a playoff race). When we are in a damn playoff race and we are playing the team that we most need to beat, I want to see my starters playing out there the entire nine innings. I don't care if we are down by 10, 20, 50, or 100 runs (which the Baltimore Orioles have shown us is a real possibility), I want to see us battle for the entire game with the best we've got. Five runs in two innings is not an impossible task. I really don't know what the deal is, but it's like John McLaren just had Christmas in September and ripped his new toys out of the boxes ASAP and had to play with them all. These players are now packed like sardines in a can. How are our veterans supposed to take these guy's under their wings and teach them how to fly when the plane is going down and all hands are in the cockpit trying to keep this baby in the air?
It's lunacy.

Note: It's sad when your top batter according to Yahoo was 1 for 1 with 2 rbi (Balentien)

Another Note: We used 18 position players and 6 pitchers in this game... that's gotta be some kind of record(s). I mean thats like All-Star Game stuff right there.