The Mariners wrapped up their two game exhibition series with the Yomiuri Giants in the Tokyo Dome with a 6-5 win gained through another late-inning power burst. Down by two in the seventh Mitch Haniger drove a mammoth homer into the hanging curtains in left center to tie the game. David Freitas, celebrating his 30th birthday, put the M's ahead with a solo-shot the next inning. The bullpen pitched five scoreless innings of one-hit ball to notch a two game sweep of the Giants.
Notable in the game: Ichiro started and went hitless three more times. He had a cringe-worthy at bat where he was called out on strikes, but he unleashed a vintage Ichi-throw from mid-rightfield on a fly straight into Healy's glove at third to hold a runner at second. After the game manager Scott Servais announced Ichiro will be added to the roster for the opening of the season against the A's Wednesday and, if he starts, will become the second oldest player after Julio Franco, by around 100 days, to do that in MLB history. Unless his hitting turns around immediately, his 2 for 31 performance, an .065 spring BA, portends the end of his playing career.
It was another disappointing start for Felix. Five runs, one unearned, in four innings. He threw a lot of pitches close to 80, struggling to get strikes, walking three. The Nippon TV close-ups, a favorite image for that network, revealed a Felix who by the end of his start looked tired. It feels like the time is running out for the King, too.
Haniger's home run was really long. Take a look, thanks to video from MLB's Los Marineros: https://twitter.com/losmarineros/status/1107648442195681286?s=21.
I haven't seen any estimate. It's about 361 to left-center and the wall is 13 feet high. The stands look to be another 25 feet higher and maybe 80 feet further from the fence and the drapery which hangs against the back wall looks to be another 12 feet higher. The ball appears to hit the curtain up another five feet, so Haniger' blast traveled between 380-390 out of the field and hit the back wall of the stadium 55 feet in the air.
True, the arc of the ball was starting downward and here I'm pushing my knowledge to its geometric limits. I'd guess the ball's fligtht peaks about 50 feet from the wall and hits the curtain at an altitude of 55 feet. Had this been an open ballpark, I think this ball would have traveled a good 600 feet. I'm embarrassed to admit I never took trig in high school, but I know physicists have figured out how to calculate home run distances. The article I found explaining this technique may as well be written in Japanese for all the sense I can make of it: http://baseball.physics.illinois.edu/Statcast-TPT.pdf I'll leave it to you to figure it out. All I know is he hit it a long way.
Watching the end of Ichiro's and Felix' career cast a decidedly bittersweet pall over these last two games. Careers end for the best of them, but it is hard to watch just hours away from the start of a brand new season.
Mariners have the day off tomorrow then they play for real Wednesday. First pitch on the west coast: 2:35 a.m., tv on ESPN, radio on KIRO-710 in Seattle.
I haven't seen any estimate. It's about 361 to left-center and the wall is 13 feet high. The stands look to be another 25 feet higher and maybe 80 feet further from the fence and the drapery which hangs against the back wall looks to be another 12 feet higher. The ball appears to hit the curtain up another five feet, so Haniger' blast traveled between 380-390 out of the field and hit the back wall of the stadium 55 feet in the air.
True, the arc of the ball was starting downward and here I'm pushing my knowledge to its geometric limits. I'd guess the ball's fligtht peaks about 50 feet from the wall and hits the curtain at an altitude of 55 feet. Had this been an open ballpark, I think this ball would have traveled a good 600 feet. I'm embarrassed to admit I never took trig in high school, but I know physicists have figured out how to calculate home run distances. The article I found explaining this technique may as well be written in Japanese for all the sense I can make of it: http://baseball.physics.illinois.edu/Statcast-TPT.pdf I'll leave it to you to figure it out. All I know is he hit it a long way.
Watching the end of Ichiro's and Felix' career cast a decidedly bittersweet pall over these last two games. Careers end for the best of them, but it is hard to watch just hours away from the start of a brand new season.
Mariners have the day off tomorrow then they play for real Wednesday. First pitch on the west coast: 2:35 a.m., tv on ESPN, radio on KIRO-710 in Seattle.
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