Thursday, April 22, 2004
ARRÊT
"Dream another dream...this dream is over"
-- Van Halen, "The Dream is Over"
Okay, the dream isn't really over, but a four-game winning streak is.
I don't have the international keyboard on right now, so there's no hat over the E in the headline. Sorry to the linguistic sticklers out there. (Thanks to Steve at the Wheelhouse for the later tip, changed ~12:23p.)
I'll first warn you that schoolwork tonight prevents me from posting an inning-by-inning recap. But I'm still trying here.
Tim Hudson's shutout bid was spoiled in the 7th inning, so I don't get to call the Mariners Tim Hudson's bitch this time.
Gil Meche had an outing that is reminiscent of past years' early-season outings from Freddy Garcia (you remember, the years where he'd start off shaky and then warm up with the weather?). Freddy's outings would total out as something like 5 2/3 innings, 5 runs, 9 hits, a few walks, 5 or so strikeouts, and 115 pitches. In other words, some control struggle and some deep counts. Meche's line tonight was 5 2/3 innings, 3 runs, 6 hits, 5 walks, 4 strikeouts, 112 pitches.
I frankly was kind of surprised that Bob Melvin trotted Gil Meche out there for the 6th. I've counted back through the game logs and I think Meche was at 91 pitches. Given Meche's past with arm issues, his unprecedented (for him) workload of last year, and the fact that it's only April...do you really want Meche to come out for the 6th? If anything, I would have let him get one out (hopefully the first or second batter) and then yield to the bullpen. One baserunner, and he'd be gone. I'm not Bob Melvin though. There's letting your starter clean up his own mess, and then there's running the risk of wrecking your starter's arm later in the season (Jeremy has set his over/under for the inevitable Gil Meche DL stint). Melvin gave Meche a chance to clean up his own mess, and he nearly got out of it until Esteban German had something to say about it, and gave the A's a 3-0 lead on his RBI single.
After the fans stretched, the Mariner rally started with Raul Ibanez getting beaned, then Rich Aurilia moving him over to third with a single. John Olerud knocked Ibanez in to put a crooked number on the scoreboard for the Mariners, making it 4-1. Then Dave Hansen did exactly what he was brought to the team for (okay, maybe that whole "ditching Cirillo" thing was part of it too), parking one off Hudson to tie it after being in the hole 0-2.
Then came the 9th. Mike Myers, fresh off getting Mark Kotsay out to end the 8th, was brought out for the 9th. He would face two batters in the 9th before he was pulled so Shig Hasegawa could face Jermaine Dye. Myers walked Eric Byrnes and allowed an Eric Chavez single. As far as I'm concerned, there's your game. Dye doubled on the first pitch off Hasegawa to clear the bases and give the A's the 6-4 lead. The insurance run came across two batters later on an Erubiel Durazo sacrifice fly, with Bret Boone flashing the leather in between. By that, I mean he made an error.
If it seemed like the Mariners were grounding into double plays left and right, it's because they were. The Mariners racked up a handful of double plays: Spiezio in the 1st, Ibanez in the 4th, Davis in the 5th, Edgar in the 6th, and Boone in the 8th. Wow. If only they could have thrown one into the 7th there, the Mariners could have grounded into double plays for five straight innings.
Before I hand out the gameball and goat, I'll bring to everyone's attention that Edgar and Boone (3 and 4 hitters tonight) went a combined 0-for-7, struck out twice, and left five runners on base.
One more thing before the gamer and goat...that was one weird lineup Melvin threw out there tonight. Edgar batting third didn't tweak me too much. Spiezio batting second...that was weird. McCracken batting 9th...I can't say I argue with the placement as much as the fact that he's on any of the 30 Major League rosters.
Okay, the "Wrap It Up" box is blinking at me...
Gameball: John Olerud. 2-for-3 with an RBI and a beaning. He got the badly-needed clutch hit to drive in the first Mariner run and give the rally in the 7th some steam. The bad thing? This performance raised his average to a hefty .224. Ouch.
Everyone and their mother would have picked Dave Hansen with a gameball here, but I hate being really obvious. That's going to happen here with the goat, too. Everyone's going to say that no matter what, Hasegawa's job is to nail the door shut, and put out the fire, but...
Goat: Mike Myers. ...someone had to start the fire in the first place. This guy only faced two hitters in the 9th and let both of them get aboard. You just can't do that in a tie game, and you can't do it with Jermaine Dye, Scott Hatteberg (okay, not as fearsome as Dye), and Erubiel Durazo (I fear this guy, and he will warm up eventually) coming afterward.
I hope everyone enjoyed the four-game winning streak. Unfortunately, I can't remember who in the blogosphere said it (I'll give credit when I do remember), but just like the first ten games weren't an accurate gauge for the rest of the season, the four games before tonight weren't an accurate gauge either. It's going to be somewhere in between those two extremes. Also on this front will be the inevitable neutralization of Raul Ibanez. The four days before tonight may be Raul's high point for the entire 2004 season.
On the bright side, one thing is sort of holding up in the early stages of the season. I thought (before the Angels picked up Vlad Guerrero) that the only way the Mariners could win the AL West would be if the rest of the division sucked. Okay, so the rest of the division doesn't suck, but no one is head-and-shoulders above the rest either. The Mariners are a mere three games back (I don't know how this happened) of first-place Oakland after the loss tonight. Of course, we've learned one thing since this unbalanced schedule came into place. The Mariners have really gained their cushion in the years of the unbalanced schedule by doing really well in divisional play. Where the Mariners stumbled was when they failed to beat up on the patsies of the American League, and especially the memorable run of no-name worldbeaters they faced last year.
My goodness...I'm reading through the recaps at SportsLine and they have banner ads plastered EVERYWHERE for Iron Chef America tomorrow (Thursday) on the Food Network. Surely the theme ingredients won't be nearly as exotic as those on the original Iron Chef episodes. It's going to be really weird without voiceovers though. That was one of the main nuances of the original Iron Chef episodes. Of course, one of Chris Kattan's great roles in SNL history was when he played the Iron Chef host.
Okay, time to end this and get some sleep...
Mulder. Moyer. Thursday night. Hope my homework's done.
[Edit Thu ~11:30p -- Sorry to anyone who depended on us for knowing what part of the day the game was in, because it turns out it was a day game. Sorry.]
-- Van Halen, "The Dream is Over"
Okay, the dream isn't really over, but a four-game winning streak is.
I don't have the international keyboard on right now, so there's no hat over the E in the headline. Sorry to the linguistic sticklers out there. (Thanks to Steve at the Wheelhouse for the later tip, changed ~12:23p.)
I'll first warn you that schoolwork tonight prevents me from posting an inning-by-inning recap. But I'm still trying here.
Tim Hudson's shutout bid was spoiled in the 7th inning, so I don't get to call the Mariners Tim Hudson's bitch this time.
Gil Meche had an outing that is reminiscent of past years' early-season outings from Freddy Garcia (you remember, the years where he'd start off shaky and then warm up with the weather?). Freddy's outings would total out as something like 5 2/3 innings, 5 runs, 9 hits, a few walks, 5 or so strikeouts, and 115 pitches. In other words, some control struggle and some deep counts. Meche's line tonight was 5 2/3 innings, 3 runs, 6 hits, 5 walks, 4 strikeouts, 112 pitches.
I frankly was kind of surprised that Bob Melvin trotted Gil Meche out there for the 6th. I've counted back through the game logs and I think Meche was at 91 pitches. Given Meche's past with arm issues, his unprecedented (for him) workload of last year, and the fact that it's only April...do you really want Meche to come out for the 6th? If anything, I would have let him get one out (hopefully the first or second batter) and then yield to the bullpen. One baserunner, and he'd be gone. I'm not Bob Melvin though. There's letting your starter clean up his own mess, and then there's running the risk of wrecking your starter's arm later in the season (Jeremy has set his over/under for the inevitable Gil Meche DL stint). Melvin gave Meche a chance to clean up his own mess, and he nearly got out of it until Esteban German had something to say about it, and gave the A's a 3-0 lead on his RBI single.
After the fans stretched, the Mariner rally started with Raul Ibanez getting beaned, then Rich Aurilia moving him over to third with a single. John Olerud knocked Ibanez in to put a crooked number on the scoreboard for the Mariners, making it 4-1. Then Dave Hansen did exactly what he was brought to the team for (okay, maybe that whole "ditching Cirillo" thing was part of it too), parking one off Hudson to tie it after being in the hole 0-2.
Then came the 9th. Mike Myers, fresh off getting Mark Kotsay out to end the 8th, was brought out for the 9th. He would face two batters in the 9th before he was pulled so Shig Hasegawa could face Jermaine Dye. Myers walked Eric Byrnes and allowed an Eric Chavez single. As far as I'm concerned, there's your game. Dye doubled on the first pitch off Hasegawa to clear the bases and give the A's the 6-4 lead. The insurance run came across two batters later on an Erubiel Durazo sacrifice fly, with Bret Boone flashing the leather in between. By that, I mean he made an error.
If it seemed like the Mariners were grounding into double plays left and right, it's because they were. The Mariners racked up a handful of double plays: Spiezio in the 1st, Ibanez in the 4th, Davis in the 5th, Edgar in the 6th, and Boone in the 8th. Wow. If only they could have thrown one into the 7th there, the Mariners could have grounded into double plays for five straight innings.
Before I hand out the gameball and goat, I'll bring to everyone's attention that Edgar and Boone (3 and 4 hitters tonight) went a combined 0-for-7, struck out twice, and left five runners on base.
One more thing before the gamer and goat...that was one weird lineup Melvin threw out there tonight. Edgar batting third didn't tweak me too much. Spiezio batting second...that was weird. McCracken batting 9th...I can't say I argue with the placement as much as the fact that he's on any of the 30 Major League rosters.
Okay, the "Wrap It Up" box is blinking at me...
Gameball: John Olerud. 2-for-3 with an RBI and a beaning. He got the badly-needed clutch hit to drive in the first Mariner run and give the rally in the 7th some steam. The bad thing? This performance raised his average to a hefty .224. Ouch.
Everyone and their mother would have picked Dave Hansen with a gameball here, but I hate being really obvious. That's going to happen here with the goat, too. Everyone's going to say that no matter what, Hasegawa's job is to nail the door shut, and put out the fire, but...
Goat: Mike Myers. ...someone had to start the fire in the first place. This guy only faced two hitters in the 9th and let both of them get aboard. You just can't do that in a tie game, and you can't do it with Jermaine Dye, Scott Hatteberg (okay, not as fearsome as Dye), and Erubiel Durazo (I fear this guy, and he will warm up eventually) coming afterward.
I hope everyone enjoyed the four-game winning streak. Unfortunately, I can't remember who in the blogosphere said it (I'll give credit when I do remember), but just like the first ten games weren't an accurate gauge for the rest of the season, the four games before tonight weren't an accurate gauge either. It's going to be somewhere in between those two extremes. Also on this front will be the inevitable neutralization of Raul Ibanez. The four days before tonight may be Raul's high point for the entire 2004 season.
On the bright side, one thing is sort of holding up in the early stages of the season. I thought (before the Angels picked up Vlad Guerrero) that the only way the Mariners could win the AL West would be if the rest of the division sucked. Okay, so the rest of the division doesn't suck, but no one is head-and-shoulders above the rest either. The Mariners are a mere three games back (I don't know how this happened) of first-place Oakland after the loss tonight. Of course, we've learned one thing since this unbalanced schedule came into place. The Mariners have really gained their cushion in the years of the unbalanced schedule by doing really well in divisional play. Where the Mariners stumbled was when they failed to beat up on the patsies of the American League, and especially the memorable run of no-name worldbeaters they faced last year.
My goodness...I'm reading through the recaps at SportsLine and they have banner ads plastered EVERYWHERE for Iron Chef America tomorrow (Thursday) on the Food Network. Surely the theme ingredients won't be nearly as exotic as those on the original Iron Chef episodes. It's going to be really weird without voiceovers though. That was one of the main nuances of the original Iron Chef episodes. Of course, one of Chris Kattan's great roles in SNL history was when he played the Iron Chef host.
Okay, time to end this and get some sleep...
Mulder. Moyer. Thursday night. Hope my homework's done.
[Edit Thu ~11:30p -- Sorry to anyone who depended on us for knowing what part of the day the game was in, because it turns out it was a day game. Sorry.]
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