Shades of Scioscia

Hello, and welcome to Lookout Landing. Hopefully tonight you did not waste three plus hours of your life watching the Seattle Mariners and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim play tug of war with the lead, only to see the Mariners SPLAT! into a giant mud puddle at the end. The game was okay, then it was good, then it was very very bad, then it was Angelol funny, and then it was bad again. As a general rule it’s not good to try to write your recap as the game is going on, because so much can change, but you can usually get away with creating some sort of thematic intro and then weaving the game details throughout that. This evening both teams said screw that, and now I find myself with a pile of useless ideas and a wonderful community that expects some sort of something after games.

Since I doubt any of you really want to dwell on tonight much longer, and because Nathan is out of town and chaos reigns, I give you: The Mike Scioscia Color Palette of Emotions. (Inspired by this thought, back in the seventh inning when everything was still fun).

Please use this chart for reference:

1st inning: A healthy, peachy 1625. The Mariners did not score, but the Angels scored one off a Super Trout sac fly.

2nd inning: Scooching on over to a rosy 178 after a beautiful Ketel Marte RBI bunt and a Seth Smith single that brought in two more runs. The non-Trout Angels went down 1-2-3.

3rd and 4th innings: Sinking back down to a less ruddy 170 as neither team did anything.

5th inning: Swelling to a robust 1785 as Kyle Seager drives in another run and Scioscia is forced to pull his starter, Jhoulys Chacin, and the Angels offense remained quiet.

6th inning: Flush with victorious vigor at 1787 after Nick Vincent gives up a three run home run to Albert Pujols, and a solo shot to Bennie and the Jett Bandys.

7th inning: Hitting 1797 levels of crimson rage watching as Robinson Cano reached on a fielding error, Nelson Cruz walked, and then two wild pitches brought Cano in to score the tying run. Pushing into 186 as Kyle Seager hit the go-ahead sac fly. His carnelian state further reinforced by anemic offensive efforts against the mighty Vidal Nuño.

8th inning: Peaking at a stout 1807 after Nori Aoki stole second, but settling back to a swarthy 1775 after the call was overturned. He puffed back up to a vigorous 1787 in the bottom half of the inning as Arquimedes Caminero gave up his first run as a Mariner on a solo home run to Jefry Marte to tie the game, then gave up one more with a Cliff Pennington RBI triple to give the Angels the lead.

9th inning: Glistening with a triumphant 177 as Cruz grounded into a double play, Seager flied out, and he was able to leave in his shiny white Hummer, rocking out to Korn all the way home.