Inauspicious Beginnings For Old Friends

First, hey, how 'bout that Gil Meche!!!

Lookout Landing:

If there was anything memorable about the bottom of the first, it was Jose Vidro's at bat with two down, where he rolled a grounder several feet to Ellis' right. Ellis backhanded the ball on the run and turned to make a quick off-balance throw, but, realizing that Vidro has the footspeed of a mattress, stopped, got his feet back under him, and made a easy throw to get the DH by ten feet. The Vidro era was officially underway...

With one down, a classic swinging-bunt single by Ichiro sparked a little rally, and Vidro came to the plate with two on. He flabbed an easy comebacker to the mound, but just as he was considering whether or not to bother jogging his fat ass to first on a sure double play, Bobby Crosby made his second error of the day trying to haul in Haren's toss, and the bases were loaded. The game stopped for a minute to let Vidro catch his breath...

Jose Vidro hit his fourth groundball of the game - I hope you're not expecting much power - and second should-be routine double play, this one actually being properly turned by Oakland's comically pathetic defensive middle infield. The at bat made me think that maybe the people who've been comparing Vidro to Edgar aren't totally wrong after all; they don't mean prime Edgar, but rather old, brittle, and close to retirement Edgar, the Edgar who hit .263/.342/.385 in 2004 before calling it quits once and for all. That's the sort of comparison I can get behind. Lose your taped copy of Edgar's last game? Come to Safeco and watch a fatter version of the same guy do the same thing every day. The only difference is that this time your tears won't be out of respectful appreciation.

Jose Guillen: 0-2, but then it wasn't against the Angels.

Alfonso Soriano: 1-4, 0 SB

Brad Wilkerson: 0-3, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 hearty chuckle from some anonymous beat writer.

Somewhere deep in the bowels of ratty old RFK, Jim Bowden is fist bumping himself.

(I'm not sure that that's a euphemism, but it might as well be)