Mariners say goodbye to the Coliseum with airshow, win 6-4

destroying the pad on take off

What’s your favorite series finale to a show you never really loved? Something you watched and thought “oh that was pretty good, I guess, but not for me,” until you saw the finale that was shockingly good.

It’s not something that happens often, I admit. The closest for me is probably the ending of Star Wars Rebels, a TV show I never loved but that won me over in its surprisingly good final few episodes.

And then, of course, tonight’s Mariners game in Oakland. I have got in my fair share of jokes about the quality of the A’s team and of the Coliseum itself, but what’s happening to the team and to the people of Oakland is disappointing. As much as the A’s have terrorized the Mariners in certain years, they still belong in Oakland.

But they’re leaving. And they invited their old pals back to send them off for a little going away party.

And the party got started quickly as Victor Robles got plunked on the 5th pitch of the game and continued to terrorize catchers by swiping second and then taking third on a throwing error. Those extra bags turned out to not matter though when Cal connected on a fastball that caught far too much plate.

Beyond sending that ball nearly 400 feet at 112 mph, that ball was launched 140 feet into the air, which means that it had ²⁄₃ of the height needed to hit the roof at T-Mo. For a ball that high to still go out of the park is crazy. This homer also moved Cal up into 2nd place on the “catcher’s home runs in their first 4 seasons” list, and ties for 2nd place in home runs by Mariners catchers with 88. Great Scott!

In the third inning, Oakland pitcher Estes hung a first pitch sweeper to Julio. J-Rod, who has been looking a little more controlled at the plate of late, jumped all over it for a second deck, chair wrecking blast.

This homer wasn’t quite as hard hit as Cal’s and it didn’t go quite as high, but it did go 448 feet so I think it should have counted for double runs.

On the other side of the ball, Mariners starter Bryan Woo struggled with command for much of the game, getting into several three ball counts in the 2nd and 3rd innings. In the third he allowed three singles to load the bases, and then gave up his first ever run to Oakland on a Seth Brown sac fly. But he buckled down and ended the inning by getting Zach Gelof to chase of the plate.

In the fifth — stop me if you’ve heard this before — Victor Robles led off by getting on base, and quickly advanced to second before taking third on a miscue. But unlike the first inning, this time required a little help from Julio behind him. After legging out an infield single, Robles was in motion to steal second when Julio hit a hard ground ball to the third baseman, Max Schuemann. Schuemann couldn’t field it cleanly, and just had to hang on to it. But no one covered third base, and the speedy Victor grabbed those extra 90 feet.

And this time it mattered since Cal couldn’t replicate his moonshot. But he did put one deep enough to score Victor easily, returning the M’s to their 3 run lead.

A lead that wouldn’t last very long as Woo, with his pitch count climbing, gave up a solo shot to Brent Rooker to return the deficit to two runs. And so the score sat for a long, long while. Woo was relieved in the 6th by Troy Taylor, and the A’s were unable to do anything against the M’s bullpen.

Incidentally, during these scoring doldrums, Cal hit a little ground ball single to left. And then, after sizing up Oakland reliever Scott Alexander, he stole second base. He is now just one behind his boss Dan Wilson for most stolen bases by a Mariners catcher in a single season. Does Wilson give him the red light to keep his record?

In the top of the ninth, Luke Raley decided to get in on the party by launching a two run homer 410 feet to straight away center, securing the final home run by a Mariner at the Oakland Coliseum.

But when the baseball gods decide they want a 2-run game, they get a 2-run game and there is nothing you can do about it. Andrés Muñoz came in to pitch the ninth for the M’s and after getting two quick outs, he lost a little command. He walked Lawrence Butler and then gave Brent Rooker just a little too much fastball over the plate. And then during Rooker’s trot they Oakland audio team played Muñoz’s walkup song. Admittedly, that’s really funny.

But Andrés is Andrés and was able to easily dispatch JJ Bleday, giving the Mariners win number 159 in the Coliseum, and closing the door on this era of baseball. A happy ending for us, and a sad one for Oakland fans. Instead of Rebels, for them the end of this series may be like the end of Star Trek Enterprise, a flawed but enjoyable show with an early ending caused by greed and mismanagement.

And as miserable looking as it is, I’ll miss the Coliseum. At least it’s pretty close to Starfleet Academy.