”El Espirador” - the vacuum cleaner...but with a bat. That was the nickname the late PI Mariner beat reporter J. Michael Kenyon gave the, uh, legendary Mariner shortstop, and boy did Lindor own the left side of infield last night. I’m not sure he’s the second coming of Omar Vasquel, but certainly the Indians fan in front of me wearing the Lindor jersey isn’t looking back. And brother, do I hope we can finally field a team that won’t have me looking back, because when you find yourself looking back at the ghosts of Mario Friggn’ Mendoza, something’s gotta change.
In all my days at Safeco Field. I’ve never seen Ichiro have such a bad game in a Mariner uniform. He always delighted me with surprise, win or lose. Last night he looked overmatched. BUT! It was great seeing him in a Mariner uniform again and one game don’t mean nuthin’.
Cosign on Sugar. with the nitpicking by the umps giving the Indian fans seating in front of me life, I enjoyed reminding the hometown fans around me loudly so the Cleveland faithful could hear that these guys can’t hit Eddie and they know it. Enjoy your false hopes, Indian fans. This is third season Sugar. He ain’t gonna crack, even if you put Rajah Davis on the basepaths. This isn’t Fernando Rodney (Ok, I was a little nervous about the slider in the dirt and a catcher I’d never heard of, but wasn’t gonna show it).
Great, great night. As I told the two young very knowledgeable ladies to my right, who went to Spring training together and answered all the questions I had about this year’s team: “Nice to meet you. See you in the World Series!”