I’ll just start by saying that Saturday night’s victory over the Yankees was one of the more enjoyable ballgames I’ve seen all season.  Being a beautiful Saturday evening, I wasn’t particularly excited about plopping down to watch the game, but I wanted to get a glimpse of golden boy Justin Smoak in a Mariner uniform and was further motivated by King Felix Hernandez going against the Yankees.

The former disappointed.  Smoak’s debut didn’t go as bad as it could’ve, but it went pretty horribly.  Javier Vazquez, pitching backwards, made Smoak look silly all night.  Smoak didn’t even look close to making contact, striking out in his first three at bats and then managing a swinging bunt in his fourth.  The future!

Anything to further motivate the “why did we trade Cliff Lee for a guy hitting .209?” contingent.

The latter lived up to the moniker once again.  Felix has been unstoppable lately, racking up his fourth 9-inning performance in his last five starts and stifling the powerful Yankee lineup for the second time in ten days.  Since Felix got whooped in Anaheim in early May he has thrown 93.2 IP, struck out 92, walked 22, allowed 24 runs good for an ERA of 2.21.  That’s two seasons in a row that Felix has gone on a Cy Young rampage after getting whooped by the Angels in Anaheim.  Hopefully that series comes up really early in the schedule next year.

I can’t decide if the back to back strikeouts to finish out the game or the Jose Lopez grand slam was more exciting.  The Lopez salami was certainly more surprising.  I’m sure just about every Mariner fan groaned when Russell Branyan was given the free pass to load the bases and the realization that Lopez, one of the worst hitters in all Major League Baseball this season, had the game in his hands.

But then again, Joba Chamberlain isn’t a bad matchup for Lopez.  We know that when Lopez guesses right on a fastball he knows what to do with it, and he did it.  Lopez jumped on a chest-high mid-90s heater and deposited it just over the hand operated scoreboard in left field.  I was jumping up and down.  It was awesome.  Lopez dropped his bat and watched the homer like it was a 500 foot moonshot but in reality it just squeaked over the wall.  Then he emerged from the dugout and tipped his helmet to the fans.  From my living room I’m not sure either action was necessary, but I realize that it must have been approaching playoff atmosphere in that ballpark tonight and Lopez sure needed that release.

My fandom of Lopez has been all over the place over the years.  I’ve gone from hating him to kind of liking him and back again.  But while most of the time I don’t like the way he plays, I root for him because he seems like a person that deserves to be rooted for.  He’s been through a lot in his time with Seattle, including having to be a long way from home during the death of two siblings in separate seasons.  Shannon Drayer has done an amazing job of painting him as a quiet, sensitive, sweet kid, and that’s endearing in professional sports where the prickly ego-maniac is so prevalent.  I may enjoy seeing Lopez succeed more than any other Mariner.  You can see the joy and the sorrow in his face more than anyone else on the club as far as I can tell.  So watching Lopez celebrate with his teammates put a big goofy smile on my face.

Great game.  I can’t wait until next Felix Day.