Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim @ Seattle Mariners (game 1)

The first game of this series started at 7.10pm, and I decided to walk down to the stadium, which took slightly longer than I thought, but I got there just in time.  The crowds are not very large, so there were whole sections in the upper deck that were closed off, and even the lower tiers weren't full by any means.

The game did not start well for Seattle.  The first two Angel hitters reached base, and then Mike Trout hit a 3-run HR.  Marte followed later in the inning with a solo HR, so the Mariners were down 4 before even having had a bat.  In their first inning, the Mariners also managed to get people on base, but just the 1 run crossed the plate.  The top of the 2nd was a struggle for Miranda, the Mariner pitcher, too, although he got through it without giving up any more runs.  He was up at around 50 pitches though.

Then the bottom of the second was where it all unravelled for Los Angeles.  It became seemingly impossible to get anybody out.  There were no extra base hits - just walks and singles - but it was a procession of base runners, as the Mariners managed to score NINE runs.  They'd put 6 on the board before anybody was out, and by the time the inning had ended, the lead-off batter had already had his 3rd plate appearance of the game.

The game had been going an hour and a quarter by this point.

Fortunately, normal service was resumed from that point, and no more runs were scored until the bottom of the 8th when Nelson Cruz hit a lead-off home run, and amazingly, if the Mariners had gone quietly in the 8th and the Angels succumbed easily in the 9th, the game would have been over in less than 3 hours!  But the Mariners got more base runners but no runs, and then the Angels mounted a rally in the top of the 9th, and we watched a procession of new pitchers failing to get anybody out.  In the end, the Angels managed to bring the tying run to the plate before they were finally retired and the game was won - 3 and a half hours after starting.