Friday, August 29, 2003
WHAT THE HELL??!!?!
Just after my merciless ripping of the Mariners as a bad come-from-behind team in my last post, they put on three runs in the 9th to get a badly-needed win and hopefully a boost in psyche, as well as keeping up with the Joneses in Oakland (seven straight now) and Boston. But for now, the hell to keeping up, they need to just find themselves and play like they can play before they can start worrying about the other teams, but by then it might be too late.
But the Mariners still did play a little over 8 innings of crappy baseball, sans the pitching. Blown scoring opportunities: in the 3rd, the first Mariner hit was a one-out Wilson double, and he was stranded at second by Bloomquist (YAY!) and Ichiro (crap lately). In the 5th, with Guillen on second and one out, Winn walked, Wilson whiffed, and Bloomquist (YAY!) lined out.
Nothing happened until the 9th when ICHIRO ACTUALLY DID SOMETHING!!! And they sure needed it. Ichiro sets the damn table, and then it goes from there. Cameron walked and then Eric "Pedro" DuBose was pulled for closer Jorge Julio. He then yielded a clutch single to Edgar to make it 2-1. Boone whiffed after Mac stole second, and Guillen was put on to load the bases for Olerud, which was a great strategy move considering Guillen and Olerud are both slow and a ground ball in the infield ends the game. Olerud hit a ground ball to the second baseman. It just got under Brian Roberts' glove. Cam scored from third and Mac scored from second. Game. It feels great to have some good karma again. Sure, it doesn't mean much if they don't win tomorrow, but it's about time there was a little morsel to feel good about around here.
The Mariners have scored 3 or less runs in 11 of their last 18 games. That from David Locke. So even with the pitching the way it has been the last four days, if the Mariner pitchers give up four runs (say, average MLB starting pitcher), they're gonna lose most of the time.
Basically, the rest of the true meaning of this comes tomorrow, when we see how well the Mariners play and how loose (or tight) they look tomorrow. Hopefully they feel great out there.
To follow up that "18-41 (updated, .305) when the Mariners don't score first" stat, some quick math will show that the Mariners are 60-16 (.789 winning pct) when they DO score first.
But the Mariners still did play a little over 8 innings of crappy baseball, sans the pitching. Blown scoring opportunities: in the 3rd, the first Mariner hit was a one-out Wilson double, and he was stranded at second by Bloomquist (YAY!) and Ichiro (crap lately). In the 5th, with Guillen on second and one out, Winn walked, Wilson whiffed, and Bloomquist (YAY!) lined out.
Nothing happened until the 9th when ICHIRO ACTUALLY DID SOMETHING!!! And they sure needed it. Ichiro sets the damn table, and then it goes from there. Cameron walked and then Eric "Pedro" DuBose was pulled for closer Jorge Julio. He then yielded a clutch single to Edgar to make it 2-1. Boone whiffed after Mac stole second, and Guillen was put on to load the bases for Olerud, which was a great strategy move considering Guillen and Olerud are both slow and a ground ball in the infield ends the game. Olerud hit a ground ball to the second baseman. It just got under Brian Roberts' glove. Cam scored from third and Mac scored from second. Game. It feels great to have some good karma again. Sure, it doesn't mean much if they don't win tomorrow, but it's about time there was a little morsel to feel good about around here.
The Mariners have scored 3 or less runs in 11 of their last 18 games. That from David Locke. So even with the pitching the way it has been the last four days, if the Mariner pitchers give up four runs (say, average MLB starting pitcher), they're gonna lose most of the time.
Basically, the rest of the true meaning of this comes tomorrow, when we see how well the Mariners play and how loose (or tight) they look tomorrow. Hopefully they feel great out there.
To follow up that "18-41 (updated, .305) when the Mariners don't score first" stat, some quick math will show that the Mariners are 60-16 (.789 winning pct) when they DO score first.
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