MARINERS: Michael Pineda shows what he has to offer and represents the M's well in the All-Star game

Pineda showed his talent
 to the nation Tuesday

On Tuesday night, Michael Pineda showed all of baseball what we as Mariners fans have been seeing for 3 ½ months now.

In Joe Buck’s words, he’s filthy.

In his first All-Star game ever, Pineda pitched a lights out 4th inning where he popped up Troy Tulowitzki and struck out Scott Rolen and Rickie Weeks. Michael used a meager 10 pitches, and was throwing in the 95-97 MPH range. Pineda looked calm and prepared for that big stage, not something you would expect from the only rookie on the All-Star team.

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Not a lot of people on the East coast even know about the 22-year old right hander, with the Mariners games usually starting 10:00 PM East Coast time; so was refreshing to show off one of our golden arms to the nation in a good way and not in a “That Seattle guy just blew the All-Star game for us” kind of way.

My only complaint with Pineda’s performance doesn’t actually have to do with Pineda, but rather with television commentators Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. While Pineda was smoking fools, Buck and McCarver wouldn’t shut up about Derek Jeter not being in the All-Star game. It was ridiculous. Why not actually talk about what’s happening right in front of you instead of something that has been beaten all weekend by every sports show in existence? I get that it’s a big deal, but give Pineda a little more props than just saying “he is filthy.”

Maybe I’m being a little selfish here, but hey, I want my team to be talked about just as much as a guy who’s not even at the game.

Pineda wasn’t the only Mariner who pitched. Closer Brandon League threw the 8th inning, giving up two hits and a run. However, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds, as the American League catcher, Brian Wieters, let a ball get through his legs and in the process advance Hunter Pence to third, who ended up scoring.

Felix Hernandez, who was actually spotted in the American League clubhouse with a “Larry Bernandez” T-shirt on (yay for random, relatively useless facts!), did not pitch despite being selected to the team. The reason being Felix pitched two days before the All-Star game, therefore being excluded from pitching 1 inning of work, which doesn't make sense to me. But hey, I don’t make the rules.

Reach Nathan Parsons at nathanparsons98@yahoo.com