Atta Boy

As mentioned before, one of my child hood buddies, Jake, is playing major league baseball. His first year was wearing an Angels uniform. This year he went to the Mariners as a relief pitcher. And last week, the Mariners moved him into the starting rotation. I'm not sure who was the most excited about it. When we visited with Jake over the Memorial Day holiday, he said that his goal was to be in the starting rotation. Woo hoo buddy, you made it! Below is a clip from an aritcle that I found on the Mariners website today about his first outing as a starting pitcher in the big league:

Actually, it looked like it had, thanks in large part to a guy making his first Major League start, left-hander Jake Woods, and a two-run home run off the bat of Richie Sexson in the fourth inning.
Woods, the chosen one to replace a struggling Joel Pineiro in the rotation, guaranteed that he will have a second Major League start based on a performance that saw him tie his old team in knots with a dizzying arsenal of curveballs, changeups and well-placed fastballs.
"He's been here, but we have never actually seen him as a starter and that's tough to do when you haven't seen him as a starter," Figgins said of Woods, who made the Angels Opening Day roster in 2005. "Sometimes you pitch different. It's tough when you face somebody for the first time like that."
With Seattle's bullpen thin after rookie Mark Lowe went on the 15-day disabled list with right elbow tendinitis, the one thing the Mariners needed from Woods happened to be the one thing they weren't sure they could get.
Innings.
Woods, a long reliever who has worked three innings or more in 10 different games this season, worked ahead of hitters and worked fast. He threw his curveball for strikes early in the count and let his defense -- six groundouts, nine flyouts -- do the rest.
"I threw [all pitches] for strikes, and when you do that right out of the gate, they know you can throw that pitch for strikes at any time," said Woods, who pitched in front of about 45-50 friends and family who made the drive from his hometown of Fresno.
Woods carried a three-hit shutout into the sixth inning when Orlando Cabrera started the inning with a double down the left-field line. Vladimir Guerrero then lofted an opposite-field double down the right-field line to score Cabrera.
Woods then got Juan Rivera on a comebacker to the mound and Garret Anderson on a routine ground ball to Jose Lopez at second base for the second out. But with a right-hander in Robb Quinlan at the plate, Hargrove went to his bullpen for Julio Mateo.