Kicking Off 2008 With a Brutal Mariners Loss (4/6/08)

Hope springs eternal in the month of April.  And entereing April 2008, I was hopeful that the Mariners were about to embark on a successful campaign in the AL West.  And I was happy to be there at the beginning of it all.  For the first weekend of the 2008 season, the Mariners were in Baltimore and that is where we met up with them on April 6, 2008.

As we approached the field for the first time of the season…

…Tim was brimming with excitement.

Soon after we arrived, the Camden Yards grounds crew removed the tarp from the field…

…and we were in business for the 2008 baseball season.

With no batting practice taking place, we took the opportunity to get a family picture by the LF foul pole:

And Tim was all smiles and giggles as he looked through the foul pole to the beautiful baseball field:

Before the game started, Tim checked out one of our favorite spots at Camden Yards…

…the marker plaque where Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a ball off of the warehouse.

Then we headed over to our seats in centerfield:

We attended this game with some of Tim’s best friends.  All told, our group was about 15 people.  So Tim was extra excited throughout the whole game.

And even better, Felix Hernandez was dealing like crazy on the mound.  In his second start of the season, he pitched 8 scoreless innings, gave up only 5 hits, struck out 6 and maintained his flawless 0.00 ERA.

To go along with King Felix’s mastery, Raul Ibanez put together a 3-4 day at the plate including his first homerun of the season to help lead the Mariners offense.

Everything was looking great, and Tim (and I) was having a blast…

…as the games progressed, he just kept getting more and more silly…

…this was my favorite pose of the day…

…yep, I caught me a knucklehead.

As the innings ticked by and the Mariners marched toward an apparent win, the kids were excited to see the Orioles Bird visit the outfield seats:

As the win got closer and closer, Tim decided to start sharing his Mariners love…

…with his model friend, Avary.  It was a major hugfest in CF.

But then things turned dark.

Heading into the bottom of the ninth, the Mariners had a 2-0 lead.  King Felix had dominated from his 1st pitch to his 97th pitch.  But for some reason, soon-to-be-fired Mariners manager, John McLaren pulled Felix and went to the bullpen.

Bad decision.

It took Eric O’Flaherty only three batters to get the first two outs, and give up the first Orioles run of the day.  O’Flaherty’s fourth-and-final batter-faced, Luke Scott, hit a single.  That was all she wrote for O’Flaherty.

With two outs, a runner on first, and a 1-run lead, Mark Lowe entered the game.  Another bad decision by McLaren.  Lowe’s first batter hit a single sending pinch-runner Adam Jones to third.  Lowe then threw a wild pitch and Adam Jones came in to tie the game at 2-2…

…”Oh, brother, there goes King Felix’s win.”

We started praying for extra-innings.  But one batter later, Luis Hernandez hit another single bringing in the losing run.

Aye, aye, aye…a great day with friends at the ballpark ended in misery…it was a gut-wrenching Mariners loss.  Unfortunately, it would be a sign of things to come for the 2008 Mariners.