Game winner
On a day that had plenty of highlights for both the Mariners and Cubs, M’s rookie catcher Mike Zunino sent us home happy in extra innings.
Brad Miller made his Major League debut on Friday night, yet his night will be remembered more for the dramatic win than his ability to draw a walk and steal second.
The dramatics came a little less than a week after Kendrys Morales pinch hit walked off, the second time in Mariners history that this has happened.
But back to big Mike.
After allowing a run to score earlier in the game when he let a bad throw get by him, I’m sure that payback was in his head for the rest of the game.
The big hit
Bottom of the 10th, bases loaded, one out, 3-2 count. It just can’t get any more dream like for a rookie in the show.
Let the celebration begin! (Photo: espn.go.com)
But instead of going down swinging, as many of us have in our very own dream scenarios, he took the 88 MPH pitch right back up the middle to score the Condor Michael Saunders.
As he rounded first base, he let up his pace, threw off his helmet, and relished in the frenzy that surrounded him on the first of what will hopefully be many walk off hits.
A walk off hit, to me, is the equivalent of a PK shoot out in a soccer match – we sure got our fair share of those dramatics this week – nothing beats the excitement of the sudden death moment.
It was surely a moment that will not be forgotten for a long time in these parts.
Don’t forget how we got there though
Not taking anything away from Zunino, but we must look at how the thought of a comeback became reality.
In the 8th inning, Kendrys Morales lined a double to right center field. On came Michael Saunders to pinch run. Then, the savior of our Mariners this season, Raul Ibanez, did the unthinkable.
A single would’ve tied the game, but Raul had other ideas.
Ibanez hit a sinking liner just under the glove of a diving Cub. The ball made it all the way to the wall. Saunders scored easily, hell, he could of walked in from second base.
Raul was chugging hard into second base after he saw the ball got free. He turned and headed for third without the slightest hesitation, and landed safely at third with a stand-up triple.
If it were anybody else (besides Justin Smoak) it probably would have been an inside the park homerun.
But a stand-up triple by Ibanez to set up the walk off by Zunino kind of sounds better doesn’t it?
Check out the game highlight video here, courtesy of mariners.com.
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