Saturday, August 23, 2003
ROAD TRIP FROM HELL
Not a good time to be a Mariner fan.
We'll start with Friday's game in this post. I have to say, I never tricked myself into thinking the Mariners were going to win this game.
The Mariners continued their trend of having horrible offense against terrible pitchers, this time against Jeff Suppan, who the Mariners have OWNED over the years. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the Mariners torch this guy (they used to do the same thing with Roy Halladay). But the Mariners inexplicably do crappy against Suppan, as they were set down 1-2-3 in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th innings. But the main (and sickening) story of the early innings was Joel Pineiro in his FOURTH STRAIGHT CRAPPY OUTING. This is no time for the Mariners to have the entire rotation go down the tubes (as they would learn the next day), and though the A's may have lost Mulder for the year and Hudson for a start, they are facing TORONTO right now and I don't think the A's quite have the penchant for losing to crappy pitchers like the Mariners do.
Well, Pineiro threw 41 frigging pitches in the first. A decent outing by Pineiro and those 41 pitches gets him into the 3rd or 4th inning. Instead, he walks the first two batters and Nomar singles in a run. Pineiro somehow strikes out Manny and Ortiz, and gets ahead 0-2 on Kevin Millar before he falls to a full count and allows a single. Ugh. Joel had an 0-2 count and only needed one more strike to finish the inning down only 1-0 and with around 28 pitches. So Millar singles to make it 2-0, and Trot Nixon doubles on the next pitch to make it 3-0. By this point, I'm convinced the game is over, given the Mariners penchant for crappy offense against Mariner pitching and the fact that Joel is pitching like crap and will not get far in the game and will further burn out the already overworked bullpen. Joel threw 26 more pitches in the 2nd, for a total of 67 pitches, which on a better day would get him into the 5th or 6th. Cameron muffed Todd Walker's fly ball toward the triangle area in right-center, and Walker ended up on third and scored on a Nomar sac fly 7 pitches later to put the Red Sox up 4-0. In a sick twist of fate, Joel threw 23 pitches and mowed down 6 straight Red Sox hitters in the 3rd and 4th. Entering the 5th with 90 pitches, Joel loaded the bases with two outs and finished with 112 pitches before he was pulled for Mateo, who pitched through the 7th for the Mariners.
Joel dug the Mariners a deep hole early, but the Mariners offense didn't help itself out either. Besides those three 1-2-3 innings, the Mariners nullified an Edgar leadoff single in the 2nd, and blew a two-on-and-one-out situation in the 6th. The Mariners did convert when Winn doubled, moved to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a Sanchez sac fly to make it 4-1 Sox. The Mariners hit the pay station again in the 7th as Sanchez tripled and scored on a Wilson groundout (that's the only way Wilson gets his RBIs) that chased Suppan. Alan Embree came in and gave up two straight doubles to Ichiro and McLemore, the latter of which scored Ichiro to make it 4-3 Sox. Boone then struck out with Mac on 2nd.
Mateo pitched 2 1/3 innings, but tacked on another run -- a Ramirez bomb --to make it 5-3. Shiggy was brought in for some reason in the 8th, but I guess the rationale is that he needed work. He would give up a bomb to Varitek to extend the Red Sox lead to 6-3. This whole paragraph is a shame because...
The Mariners showed some signs of life in the 9th. Sanchez drew a full-count walk off B-H Kim, then Davis hit a deep ball on the first pitch. Trot Nixon reached above and over the bullpen fence in right to get it. A Davis home run there would have put the Mariners down by one at 6-5. If the Mariners get what we expect from the bullpen, a home run there would have put the Mariners ahead 5-4. If Joel does what we expect from him, all is moot and the whole game is different. Anyway, Ichiro beat out a double play that would have ended it and then Mac hit a double to make it 6-5 and bring the go-ahead run to the plate. Boone singled. Edgar then fouled off Kim's first three pitches and somehow worked the count full and fouled off three more pitches before going out with a whimper, popping the ball found just outside of first to Millar to end it.
And the Mariners lucked out again and kept a 3-game lead on the A's because they lost also.
We'll start with Friday's game in this post. I have to say, I never tricked myself into thinking the Mariners were going to win this game.
The Mariners continued their trend of having horrible offense against terrible pitchers, this time against Jeff Suppan, who the Mariners have OWNED over the years. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the Mariners torch this guy (they used to do the same thing with Roy Halladay). But the Mariners inexplicably do crappy against Suppan, as they were set down 1-2-3 in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th innings. But the main (and sickening) story of the early innings was Joel Pineiro in his FOURTH STRAIGHT CRAPPY OUTING. This is no time for the Mariners to have the entire rotation go down the tubes (as they would learn the next day), and though the A's may have lost Mulder for the year and Hudson for a start, they are facing TORONTO right now and I don't think the A's quite have the penchant for losing to crappy pitchers like the Mariners do.
Well, Pineiro threw 41 frigging pitches in the first. A decent outing by Pineiro and those 41 pitches gets him into the 3rd or 4th inning. Instead, he walks the first two batters and Nomar singles in a run. Pineiro somehow strikes out Manny and Ortiz, and gets ahead 0-2 on Kevin Millar before he falls to a full count and allows a single. Ugh. Joel had an 0-2 count and only needed one more strike to finish the inning down only 1-0 and with around 28 pitches. So Millar singles to make it 2-0, and Trot Nixon doubles on the next pitch to make it 3-0. By this point, I'm convinced the game is over, given the Mariners penchant for crappy offense against Mariner pitching and the fact that Joel is pitching like crap and will not get far in the game and will further burn out the already overworked bullpen. Joel threw 26 more pitches in the 2nd, for a total of 67 pitches, which on a better day would get him into the 5th or 6th. Cameron muffed Todd Walker's fly ball toward the triangle area in right-center, and Walker ended up on third and scored on a Nomar sac fly 7 pitches later to put the Red Sox up 4-0. In a sick twist of fate, Joel threw 23 pitches and mowed down 6 straight Red Sox hitters in the 3rd and 4th. Entering the 5th with 90 pitches, Joel loaded the bases with two outs and finished with 112 pitches before he was pulled for Mateo, who pitched through the 7th for the Mariners.
Joel dug the Mariners a deep hole early, but the Mariners offense didn't help itself out either. Besides those three 1-2-3 innings, the Mariners nullified an Edgar leadoff single in the 2nd, and blew a two-on-and-one-out situation in the 6th. The Mariners did convert when Winn doubled, moved to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a Sanchez sac fly to make it 4-1 Sox. The Mariners hit the pay station again in the 7th as Sanchez tripled and scored on a Wilson groundout (that's the only way Wilson gets his RBIs) that chased Suppan. Alan Embree came in and gave up two straight doubles to Ichiro and McLemore, the latter of which scored Ichiro to make it 4-3 Sox. Boone then struck out with Mac on 2nd.
Mateo pitched 2 1/3 innings, but tacked on another run -- a Ramirez bomb --to make it 5-3. Shiggy was brought in for some reason in the 8th, but I guess the rationale is that he needed work. He would give up a bomb to Varitek to extend the Red Sox lead to 6-3. This whole paragraph is a shame because...
The Mariners showed some signs of life in the 9th. Sanchez drew a full-count walk off B-H Kim, then Davis hit a deep ball on the first pitch. Trot Nixon reached above and over the bullpen fence in right to get it. A Davis home run there would have put the Mariners down by one at 6-5. If the Mariners get what we expect from the bullpen, a home run there would have put the Mariners ahead 5-4. If Joel does what we expect from him, all is moot and the whole game is different. Anyway, Ichiro beat out a double play that would have ended it and then Mac hit a double to make it 6-5 and bring the go-ahead run to the plate. Boone singled. Edgar then fouled off Kim's first three pitches and somehow worked the count full and fouled off three more pitches before going out with a whimper, popping the ball found just outside of first to Millar to end it.
And the Mariners lucked out again and kept a 3-game lead on the A's because they lost also.
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