Sunday, August 24, 2003
BLAME GAME
A bunch of ways to place the blame after Saturday's game. I'll go with McLemore, Mabry (see earlier post for outcry over his inclusion in the lineup), Garcia. Sure, Mabry went 2-for-3 and Mac went 3-for-3, but their accomplishments were horribly overshadowed by their boneheaded mistakes.
First off, Garcia turned in a crappy outing. It definitely isn't his worst, but it was reminiscent of one of Pineiro's outings where Joel sucks, but he doesn't suck like he did in Friday's game. Early on, Freddy was trying to do his best Joel-of-Friday impression, throwing 25 pitches in the 1st. Damon singled after being down 0-2 in the count. He scored from first when Todd Walker (this guy sucks, I don't know why the Mariners can get this guy out) doubled on a 3-1 pitch. More on Garcia later.
The Mariner bats succumbed 1-2-3 (Cameron, Winn, Boone) off the putrid John Burkett in the 1st. In the second, Olerud and Guillen hit one-out singles and Mabry then doubled to score Olerud to tie the score at 1-1. McLemore then singled to score both Guillen and Mabry to give the Mariners a 3-1 lead. This seemed nice at the time for the Mariners. Maybe a little confidence, maybe Freddy would feel more comfortable on the mound.
What does Freddy do with a lead? He didn't want to keep the lead, so he gave up back-to-back homers to Trot Nixon and Bill Mueller to tie it at 3. Garcia threw 29 pitches in the 2nd, for a total of 54 pitches in 2 innings. Freddy always throws a lot of pitches, but if he was really on, 54 pitches gets him into the 4th or 5th. We haven't seen him at his best in quite a while though.
Then the Mariner offense replied to the game being tied by...going down in order in the 3rd (Winn, Boone, Edgar).
Garcia walked Ramirez on four pitches to start the 3rd. Ortiz then walked, though Ramirez was going on the 3-2 pitch. Davis threw to second, which was moot until Ramirez left second base to pick up his helmet without time being called. McLemore tagged him out (he'll nullify this shortly), and it was probably the best thing to happen to the Mariners in the game. Kevin Millar singled to right to put runners at 1st and 2nd with 1 out. On the first pitch, Trot Nixon bounced the ball to Mac, who stepped on second to force out Millar, but then threw the ball about 20 feet to the left of Garcia at first. A good throw ends the inning, but Ortiz scores and the Mariners are down 4-3.
In the 4th, the Mariners loaded the bases with nobody out on an Olerud double, Guillen walk, and Mabry single. Davis and Mac hit sac flies to give the Mariners the lead again at 5-4. Cameron then hits a single to leftcenter and Mabry breaks for home and beats the throw. Problem? He didn't stick his hand out to touch the plate after he past Varitek's leg, which was blocking the plate. It was an easy thing to do. Touch the damn plate. This would figure into the outcome...
Mariner bats went out 1-2-3 in the 5th (Winn, Boone, Edgar -- AGAIN), and Olerud hit a leadoff single in the 6th and was erased on a double play ball by Guillen, then Mabry bounced out (three batters).
Soriano pitched the 6th for the Mariners, and did okay. Scott Sauerbeck faced the Mariners in the 7th, and yielded one-out singles to Mac and Cameron. With runners at 1st and 3rd with 1 out, Mac took off from third on a Winn bouncer to the Sauerbeck. Sauerbeck throws to Varitek, and Mac stops short of the plate and gets in a rundown, which is bad enough to begin with, but worse yet, it doesn't last long enough for the runners to advance. But the real stupidity in this play is that Mac arguably would have scored because he was close enough to the plate and Varitek would have had to lay down the tag. Mac could have scored. Yes, that's the SECOND TIME Mac managed to screw up in this game. This was right about the time where I said "if the Mariners lose this game by one or two runs, I'm going to be so pissed."
So Soriano pitched in the 7th with a 1-run lead instead of what could have been a 2-run lead or 3-run lead (thank you, Mark McLemore, you cost the Mariners a run both ways). Soriano wasn't sharp on this day, nor was he sharp in Toronto. Ortiz homered on a full count (tied the game) and gave up a single to Millar, and a walk to Mueller, and then he was pulled for Benitez. Benitez had Varitek 0-2 and then gave up a single to score Millar to give the Sox a 6-5 lead. He's had a couple decent chances and I'm not liking the Armando Benitez era in Seattle so far.
And the Mariners bats responded in the 8th by...going down in order (Martinez, Olerud, Guillen). Clutch is everything in life.
On came the Mariner 9th against BH Kim. Ichiro pinch hit (why he wasn't in the lineup anyway is an outrage) for Mabry and grounded out, and it looked like the Mariners were dead. Davis grounded out and then they looked really dead. Then McLemore hit a fly ball to Nixon which was lost in the sun and went for a double. Cameron singled to score Mac and tie the game at 6. Cameron stole second but Winn struck out to end the threat.
Sasaki came on in the 9th and it was pretty hairy. Nixon lined out, Mueller singled, and Varitek whiffed. Two out, one on, and then Damon walked to put the winning run (Mueller) in scoring position. Then Sasaki uncorked a wild pitch to put the winning run at third. Luckily, Kapler bounced out to Mac, who threw it to first without any harm this time.
Boone, Edgar, and Olerud went 1-2-3 in the 10th. Again, clutch.
Sasaki came on to pitch the 10th and gave up a 1-out single to Damian Jackson. Rhodes then came in and got Ortiz to fly out to Mac. But Rhodes hasn't pitched well for about three months. Millar looked for a first-pitch fastball and took it to the right of the Monster, and Cameron jumped and snow-coned the ball, which fell out on the way down. Jackson scored, game over.
Assessment: McLemore cost the Mariners a 2-run swing (error and bonehead baserunning play). He is a defensive liability ESPECIALLY at shortstop, and is an offensive liability on any day except for this game. Mabry cost the Mariners a run, and I don't know what the hell he was doing in this game, and he also is an offensive liability any day except for this one. And Melvin is a dumbass -- you mean to tell me Ichiro can rest against the Red Sox and NOT next week against the Devil Rays and Orioles teams of the world? That's absurd. Freddy was crap, and if he turns in even 3/4 of how he pitched the three outings before this, the Mariners easily win this game. Garcia was getting squeezed with the strike zone (which Melvin argued and got ejected for), and it's possible there was some sort of conspiracy theory for the umps to make up for how they squeezed Burkett back in Seattle in the last Burkett/Garcia battle. Sure, Soriano blew a one-run lead and deserves a little blame, but am I gonna blame him more than the guys who have sucked most of or all of this year? No. Benitez gave the Mariners the lead, so that was bad. Sasaki allowed the runner in the 10th, which Rhodes scored. Bad on both ends there. From the boxscore, the Mariners' 2-3-4 hitters (Winn, Boone, Edgar) went a combined 0-for-15. That's a black hole we usually see out of Wilson, Bloomquist, and McLemore, but to have it in the teeth of the lineup hurts. Olerud showed some much-needed signs of life, going 3-for-5.
I guess I almost wished Trot would have caught that ball in the 9th, so the Mariners didn't have to burn two more innings out of their bullpen, though it turned out to be Sasaki and Rhodes, who are crap. The Mariner pen needs rest badly and having Franklin going the next day does not help the cause at all. Franklin won his last start on Tuesday, but went only 6 innings (pen pitched 3 innings). Meche sucked on Wednesday and went 6 innings (pen went 2 innings). Moyer wasn't himself on Thursday and went 6 (pen 2). Pineiro sucked horribly on Friday and went 4 2/3 (pen 3 1/3). Garcia sucked in this game and went 5 innings (pen 4 2/3). Put it all together and on this road trip, the starters have gone 27 2/3 innings (avg 5.53 inn/start) and the bullpen has gone 15 innings (3 per game). This cannot continue, folks. The bullpen is burning out fast. If the pitchers get into the 7th and 8th the next time through the rotation, it will help very very very very VERY much.
And while I'm on the bullpen, Rafael Soriano should never be pitching in the 6th. This should never ever happen. I don't think Lachemann would do it, so it was probably Melvin running the game from the tunnel, and giving out decisions like Soriano pitching the 6th and Sasaki pitching the 9th when it should have been the exact opposite. The way Melvin's using this bullpen lately is atrocious.
AND TO TOP IT OFF, the Oakland A's frigging won. With John Halama starting. You gotta be kidding me. Bottom line is the Mariners have lost four straight, and are now a measly 2 games ahead of the A's; the lead hasn't been this small in a looooooong time, and I don't like the feeling. The way the Mariners have gone though, they're lucky the A's haven't taken over first place in the past week, because they easily could have. Easily.
Being a Seattle sports fan sucks. It also means that no two pro teams win on the same day, so the Seahawks won a preseason game. Go figure.
First off, Garcia turned in a crappy outing. It definitely isn't his worst, but it was reminiscent of one of Pineiro's outings where Joel sucks, but he doesn't suck like he did in Friday's game. Early on, Freddy was trying to do his best Joel-of-Friday impression, throwing 25 pitches in the 1st. Damon singled after being down 0-2 in the count. He scored from first when Todd Walker (this guy sucks, I don't know why the Mariners can get this guy out) doubled on a 3-1 pitch. More on Garcia later.
The Mariner bats succumbed 1-2-3 (Cameron, Winn, Boone) off the putrid John Burkett in the 1st. In the second, Olerud and Guillen hit one-out singles and Mabry then doubled to score Olerud to tie the score at 1-1. McLemore then singled to score both Guillen and Mabry to give the Mariners a 3-1 lead. This seemed nice at the time for the Mariners. Maybe a little confidence, maybe Freddy would feel more comfortable on the mound.
What does Freddy do with a lead? He didn't want to keep the lead, so he gave up back-to-back homers to Trot Nixon and Bill Mueller to tie it at 3. Garcia threw 29 pitches in the 2nd, for a total of 54 pitches in 2 innings. Freddy always throws a lot of pitches, but if he was really on, 54 pitches gets him into the 4th or 5th. We haven't seen him at his best in quite a while though.
Then the Mariner offense replied to the game being tied by...going down in order in the 3rd (Winn, Boone, Edgar).
Garcia walked Ramirez on four pitches to start the 3rd. Ortiz then walked, though Ramirez was going on the 3-2 pitch. Davis threw to second, which was moot until Ramirez left second base to pick up his helmet without time being called. McLemore tagged him out (he'll nullify this shortly), and it was probably the best thing to happen to the Mariners in the game. Kevin Millar singled to right to put runners at 1st and 2nd with 1 out. On the first pitch, Trot Nixon bounced the ball to Mac, who stepped on second to force out Millar, but then threw the ball about 20 feet to the left of Garcia at first. A good throw ends the inning, but Ortiz scores and the Mariners are down 4-3.
In the 4th, the Mariners loaded the bases with nobody out on an Olerud double, Guillen walk, and Mabry single. Davis and Mac hit sac flies to give the Mariners the lead again at 5-4. Cameron then hits a single to leftcenter and Mabry breaks for home and beats the throw. Problem? He didn't stick his hand out to touch the plate after he past Varitek's leg, which was blocking the plate. It was an easy thing to do. Touch the damn plate. This would figure into the outcome...
Mariner bats went out 1-2-3 in the 5th (Winn, Boone, Edgar -- AGAIN), and Olerud hit a leadoff single in the 6th and was erased on a double play ball by Guillen, then Mabry bounced out (three batters).
Soriano pitched the 6th for the Mariners, and did okay. Scott Sauerbeck faced the Mariners in the 7th, and yielded one-out singles to Mac and Cameron. With runners at 1st and 3rd with 1 out, Mac took off from third on a Winn bouncer to the Sauerbeck. Sauerbeck throws to Varitek, and Mac stops short of the plate and gets in a rundown, which is bad enough to begin with, but worse yet, it doesn't last long enough for the runners to advance. But the real stupidity in this play is that Mac arguably would have scored because he was close enough to the plate and Varitek would have had to lay down the tag. Mac could have scored. Yes, that's the SECOND TIME Mac managed to screw up in this game. This was right about the time where I said "if the Mariners lose this game by one or two runs, I'm going to be so pissed."
So Soriano pitched in the 7th with a 1-run lead instead of what could have been a 2-run lead or 3-run lead (thank you, Mark McLemore, you cost the Mariners a run both ways). Soriano wasn't sharp on this day, nor was he sharp in Toronto. Ortiz homered on a full count (tied the game) and gave up a single to Millar, and a walk to Mueller, and then he was pulled for Benitez. Benitez had Varitek 0-2 and then gave up a single to score Millar to give the Sox a 6-5 lead. He's had a couple decent chances and I'm not liking the Armando Benitez era in Seattle so far.
And the Mariners bats responded in the 8th by...going down in order (Martinez, Olerud, Guillen). Clutch is everything in life.
On came the Mariner 9th against BH Kim. Ichiro pinch hit (why he wasn't in the lineup anyway is an outrage) for Mabry and grounded out, and it looked like the Mariners were dead. Davis grounded out and then they looked really dead. Then McLemore hit a fly ball to Nixon which was lost in the sun and went for a double. Cameron singled to score Mac and tie the game at 6. Cameron stole second but Winn struck out to end the threat.
Sasaki came on in the 9th and it was pretty hairy. Nixon lined out, Mueller singled, and Varitek whiffed. Two out, one on, and then Damon walked to put the winning run (Mueller) in scoring position. Then Sasaki uncorked a wild pitch to put the winning run at third. Luckily, Kapler bounced out to Mac, who threw it to first without any harm this time.
Boone, Edgar, and Olerud went 1-2-3 in the 10th. Again, clutch.
Sasaki came on to pitch the 10th and gave up a 1-out single to Damian Jackson. Rhodes then came in and got Ortiz to fly out to Mac. But Rhodes hasn't pitched well for about three months. Millar looked for a first-pitch fastball and took it to the right of the Monster, and Cameron jumped and snow-coned the ball, which fell out on the way down. Jackson scored, game over.
Assessment: McLemore cost the Mariners a 2-run swing (error and bonehead baserunning play). He is a defensive liability ESPECIALLY at shortstop, and is an offensive liability on any day except for this game. Mabry cost the Mariners a run, and I don't know what the hell he was doing in this game, and he also is an offensive liability any day except for this one. And Melvin is a dumbass -- you mean to tell me Ichiro can rest against the Red Sox and NOT next week against the Devil Rays and Orioles teams of the world? That's absurd. Freddy was crap, and if he turns in even 3/4 of how he pitched the three outings before this, the Mariners easily win this game. Garcia was getting squeezed with the strike zone (which Melvin argued and got ejected for), and it's possible there was some sort of conspiracy theory for the umps to make up for how they squeezed Burkett back in Seattle in the last Burkett/Garcia battle. Sure, Soriano blew a one-run lead and deserves a little blame, but am I gonna blame him more than the guys who have sucked most of or all of this year? No. Benitez gave the Mariners the lead, so that was bad. Sasaki allowed the runner in the 10th, which Rhodes scored. Bad on both ends there. From the boxscore, the Mariners' 2-3-4 hitters (Winn, Boone, Edgar) went a combined 0-for-15. That's a black hole we usually see out of Wilson, Bloomquist, and McLemore, but to have it in the teeth of the lineup hurts. Olerud showed some much-needed signs of life, going 3-for-5.
I guess I almost wished Trot would have caught that ball in the 9th, so the Mariners didn't have to burn two more innings out of their bullpen, though it turned out to be Sasaki and Rhodes, who are crap. The Mariner pen needs rest badly and having Franklin going the next day does not help the cause at all. Franklin won his last start on Tuesday, but went only 6 innings (pen pitched 3 innings). Meche sucked on Wednesday and went 6 innings (pen went 2 innings). Moyer wasn't himself on Thursday and went 6 (pen 2). Pineiro sucked horribly on Friday and went 4 2/3 (pen 3 1/3). Garcia sucked in this game and went 5 innings (pen 4 2/3). Put it all together and on this road trip, the starters have gone 27 2/3 innings (avg 5.53 inn/start) and the bullpen has gone 15 innings (3 per game). This cannot continue, folks. The bullpen is burning out fast. If the pitchers get into the 7th and 8th the next time through the rotation, it will help very very very very VERY much.
And while I'm on the bullpen, Rafael Soriano should never be pitching in the 6th. This should never ever happen. I don't think Lachemann would do it, so it was probably Melvin running the game from the tunnel, and giving out decisions like Soriano pitching the 6th and Sasaki pitching the 9th when it should have been the exact opposite. The way Melvin's using this bullpen lately is atrocious.
AND TO TOP IT OFF, the Oakland A's frigging won. With John Halama starting. You gotta be kidding me. Bottom line is the Mariners have lost four straight, and are now a measly 2 games ahead of the A's; the lead hasn't been this small in a looooooong time, and I don't like the feeling. The way the Mariners have gone though, they're lucky the A's haven't taken over first place in the past week, because they easily could have. Easily.
Being a Seattle sports fan sucks. It also means that no two pro teams win on the same day, so the Seahawks won a preseason game. Go figure.
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