Earlier in the day, my wife asked me who was pitching. I replied with “Chan Ho Park”, to which she said “Oh boy, there’s a loss”. And after the first couple of innings, oh boy did I think that was true. Chan Ho Park walked something like 5 batters in the first two innings – including the first seven pitches of the game for a ball! However, due to some luck, and an awesome fielding play by Carl Everett in left, Chan Ho escaped unscathed. The Mariners (without Edgar Martinez, I might add) left the bases loaded in the first two innings. Chan Ho ended up going 5 innings, walking 7 and throwing 114 pitches all told. Boy did he luck out in getting the win tonight. CJ Nitkowski gave up the other run, and Cordero & Urbina were lights out again – something nice to see. If I had to categorize this pitching performance by Park, it’s “lucky”.
Fourth save for Urbina. Assuming he stays the entire season, and isn’t traded in July, at this rate, he might beat the team record for saves in a season.
On the other side of the ball, Rafael Palmeiro continued his apparent love of Safeco Field with a big two run jack in the 5th inning to right center field. At the time, that gave us the lead in the game, and we never gave it up again. The only other RBI (one run wasn’t credited as such) was by Carl Everett, who had a nice game overall.
I have to say, a very surprising win. I certainly wasn’t expecting a win when Chan Ho went into Seattle, and I’m still pretty down on him, but it was very nice to get.