Safeco Field (Seattle Mariners)

Just an absolutely gorgeous field, in my opinion. In fact, several years ago, when asked where is the most beautiful place I have ever been, my answer was Safeco Field.

I have been to a handful of games here. My sister used to live in the Seattle area and lured us out for visits with promises of Mariner baseball games. We went to the second ever game played at Safeco Field. I remember sitting out in the right-center field seats.

Here is the box score for that game:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SEA/SEA199907160.shtml

We also went to another game (maybe the next day?) and had sweet seats down low on the third base line. I'm not posting a box score because I can't say for sure what game it was.

Now that I live in the Portland, OR area, Safeco is the closest MLB park to me, about three hours away. Last season we drove up to Seattle to catch a couple Jays games. A friend of mine who lives out here (the same friend from the last post who got the Choo HR ball) is a Mariners fan. I talked him into going to the games with me. I told him that Jays fans turn out really well for the Seattle game so we need to make sure to get tickets early. I don't think he was expecting the type of Jays fan representation that takes place at Safeco. Neither did I, at least to the degree of representation. I would say that there were probably more Jays fans than Mariner fans at the two games we attended. It was crazy. Just tons of blue all throughout the stadium. Tons of "Lets go Bluejays!" chants throughout the game. Whenever Seattle would score there would be chants of "USA!" After the game my friend said, "Well, now I know what it feels like to attend a Bluejays home game."

The Mariners won the first game as I had to again watch King Felix carve up my Jays. And Marco Estrado was uncharacteristically off his game. We sat in the center field seats which were fine, but I never like not having a good view of the scoreboard.

Here is the link to the box score:

http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2015_07_24_tormlb_seamlb_1&c_id=sea#game=2015_07_24_tormlb_seamlb_1,game_state=Wrapup,game_tab=box

Fortunately, the Jays won the second game. Poor starts from both pitchers with Drew Hutchison getting lit up like he was all season on the road and J.A. Happ walking tons of batters and getting the early hook. It was looking pretty bleak until Ezequiel Carrera hit a pinch-hit two-run homer to tie the game in the 8th. I was confused why he was pinch hitting and was voicing my displeasure with the move when he randomly hit the homer. Needless to say, I was very happy to be proven wrong. Jays took the lead in the ninth on a two-run single by Chris Colabello. It was a nice come from behind W. We sat up high down the third base line. I liked sitting up there better than center field.

Here's the box score:

http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2015_07_25_tormlb_seamlb_1&c_id=sea#game=2015_07_25_tormlb_seamlb_1,game_state=Wrapup,game_tab=box

Here's Carrera's HR:

http://m.mlb.com/video/v293851683/torsea-carrera-hits-gametying-tworun-homer-in-8th/?game_pk=415112

Colabello's go-ahead single:

http://m.mlb.com/video/v293951183/torsea-blue-jays-take-lead-on-colabellos-single/?game_pk=415112

And the Osuna save:

http://m.mlb.com/video/v294035083/torsea-osuna-fans-gutierrez-to-save-86-win/?game_pk=415112

The videos are cool because it really shows how many Jays fans are in the Seattle stadium. Also, it was very shortly after these games  that the Jays season took a turn toward playoff contention after making some big time trades. It would have been fun to see the playoff version of the Jays play last season, but this was fun too.