Tuesday, April 06, 2004
NIN-TEN-DO
You know, as soon as this game ended, the only thought in my mind was this --
Which Mariners' weaknesses WEREN'T exposed today? I'll put down a cleaned-up version of my notes (cleaner than the notes I posted last season, which I'm sure were cumbersome to read), and then think about the weaknesses afterward or as I go along...
Top 1: Rich Aurilia looked quite crossed up on what should have been a double play ball. What a toss he made too, man...there was some lack of motor skills on that play. Someone I knew back in junior high told me how he would put one of his cats in a pillow case, swing said pillow case repeatedly, then let the cat walk out disoriented. That's what Aurilia looked like on this play.
Bot 1: Raul Ibanez looked horrible on the 2-0 pitch, then got a piddly double. Edgar was caught looking with two runners in scoring position.
Top 2: Jamie Moyer got too much of the plate and Jose Molina parked it for his third Major League homer. Adam Kennedy went to take the extra base and Ichiro hung him out to dry. Rich Aurilia muffed it. That's one that you can't blame on not being accustomed with the middle infielder next to you. Catch ball, tag runner. Nothing unusual. Mike Scioscia sent Adam Kennedy for third on the 2-1 pitch with two out; not the only time Kennedy would be sent for third in the game.
Bot 2: I'm no fan of Willie Bloomquist, which regular readers here at Sports and B's know, but I think back and a hit was probably the correct call on his bloop double because Garret Anderson did have a ways to go to get that ball. He still should have had it though. With that, I withdraw my Terry Mosher Assist allegation. An accurate throw from Vlad would have made it a close play on Olerud because after all, it's Olerud. Ichiro watched a close 2-2 pitch go by, then grounded out to Erstad. Winn hit a couple balls hard foul, then whiffed to leave two runners on base.
Top 3 -- Vlad Guerrero took a hack on 3-0, and why the hell not? He's Vlad. He was fooled by Moyer a couple pitches later and flew out. Garret Anderson waved at a pitch on 0-1 and battled with Jamie before grounding out to him. It was a relatively painless inning for Jamie.
Bot 3 -- Dave Niehaus says the lights are on at the Safe. I later learn this is to "minimize shadows." I say it's wasting electricity. Jeremy said "for a team that claims to be fiscally responsible, they sure do a lot of stupid things." I point to when we went to a game in 2001 during the California power crisis. The Mariners were no longer opening the CF gate three hours before game time, because they were supposedly saving energy. We waited an extra hour for the gate to open, got in, and the first thing we see is that every monitor in the place has an endless loop graphic saying "WELCOME TO MARINERS BASEBALL." No kidding? I thought I was there for Ski Bonkers or something, but baseball? Damn. I had this ticket on it that said "Mariners vs. Angels" on it and took it through the gate, but I really thought I was going to Ski Bonkers, but thanks to that perpetual graphic loop on the monitor, I'm glad I was able to tell myself that yes indeed, I was at a Mariner game. Bret Boone nearly waved at a fastball that was way inside before hitting weak fly ball number two to Adam Kennedy. Ibanez hit a ball right to Garret and Edgar lined one to Kennedy.
Top 4 -- Troy Glaus absolutely yoked that 3-0 Moyer pitch. That was just a majestic shot. Bloomquist barehanded a Guillen grounder then threw him out, probably resulting in his unfortunate cementing as Speizio's backup 3B for the time being. On the next play, he threw low and Olerud dug it out. Jose Molina then took Randy Winn to the warning track.
Bot 4 -- Dave Niehaus goes nuts over the return of Clyde the Aflac duck: HEEEEEEY CLYYYYYYDE!!!! Olerud grounded out to the pitcher, which is always great fun. Dan Wilson got an anomalous base hit. Bloomquist should have been wrung up on his 0-2 pitch. There were two outs, so a textbook hit-and-run probably wasn't on, because Bloomquist didn't swing at his 1-2 pitch, so it probably wasn't his fault. That said, WHO THE HELL SENT DAN WILSON FROM FIRST WITH TWO OUT??!! If it's Wilson sending himself, he's nuts. If it's Bob Melvin sending him, it doesn't surprise me. Upon hearing of this, Jeremy notified me that it was Bob Melvin's first fireworthy offense of the year.
Top 5 -- This was a really easy inning for Moyer. He got two strikes on Kennedy before a groundout to Boone. He got Eckstein to fly out to Ichiro. He sat Erstad down with a corner pitch.
Bot 5 -- I turned down the TV and turned up the radio so I could keep hearing Niehaus and not hear Rizzs. Colon got a strike on Bloomquist, then blew two straight fastballs by him. Colon threw a nice first-pitch change over for a strike, then got him to ground to third. Winn had the count 2-0 before flying out to center.
Top 6 -- Vlad walked on a 3-1 pitch, then Garret got a base knock to left field. Enter Troy Glaus on an 0-1 pitch. It looked like it landed 10 to 15 feet to the right of the first homer. Jose Molina hit one to the track in right, and it went off Ichiro's glove for a double. Adam Kennedy hit the ball off Moyer's leg and into right field, scoring Molina. Moyer was pulled before throwing another pitch. The whole inning up to this point was a horrible turn of events for any Mariner fan, and I'm sure it more was disheartening for the fans that don't expect things to go wrong. Julio Mateo was brought in and was quite worried about Kennedy at first. Kennedy took off toward second, and Wilson's throw didn't have him beat. Aurilia muffed it anyway. Kennedy was again sent from second, this time on a full count with two out. Eckstein would foul out.
Bot 6 -- Bartolo Colon was dealing at this point. He had Boone 3-1 and forced a groundout to short. He caught Ibanez looking on an ABSOLUTE MEATBALL. He got Edgar the same way he did in the first; he painted the corner.
Top 7 -- Erstad had a 1-2 count when I learned that Kevin Jarvis was warming up. I figured "it's 6-1, the game is lost anyway, what's the point? Give Jarvis some garbage time because when the hell else is he going to throw?" Erstad whiffed. Vlad grounded out to Aurilia. Garret had a full count when he hit a fly ball to left field that got past Ibanez and THERE'S NO DOUBT IN MY MIND RANDY WINN (as a leftfielder) WOULD HAVE HAD THAT BALL. Glaus hit a mammoth shot foul before sending Ichiro to the warning track.
Bot 7 -- Scot Shields relived Colon and took care of business in the 7th. Olerud bounced out to first, Aurilia hit a hard groundout to second, and Wilson flew out to Vlad.
Top 8 -- Kevin Jarvis came in for garbage time and boy, was it ever garbage. He struck out Jose Guillen on what was ruled a wild pitch. No word on what Ben Davis thought about it. Salmon flew out to Ibanez. Molina nearly hit into a double play. He later swiped second before Kennedy walked. Eckstein singled to left and IBANEZ OVERRAN THE BALL (get used to this type of stuff, folks!), and Molina scored. I'm pretty sure it was shallow enough that a cleanly played ball would have left the bases loaded with no runners scoring. THE ROUT WAS OFFICIALLY ON (7-1 at this point). Jarvis was pulled for Ron Villone. Jarvis couldn't even get out of the inning. Villone made damn sure to score all the runners he inherited. He had Erstad 0-2 before Erstad tagged a double to right to score Kennedy. Villone had the brilliant idea to go sidearmed with on a pretty low 1-0 pitch which Vlad TATTOOED off the top of the wall in centerfield. The bases cleared, then Villone got Garret Anderson to bounce to Olerud on a 2-0 pitch.
Bot 8 -- Dave Hansen pinch-hit for Bloomquist and singled on the first pitch. The front two rows of the Diamond Club were empty at this point, making it look great on TV...hope the Mariner brass liked that. THANK YOU, FANS!! Ichiro walked, Winn flew out to Chone Figgins. Boone was caught looking on a breaking ball. Ibanez walked (a camera pan showed a 60% full Diamond Club, which again looks great on television). Edgar had a 2-0 count before coaxing a walk to force in Hansen. Kevin Gregg came on to pitch, and you may remember him from this game last year. He was one of the many no-name pitchers the Mariners faced on last year's stretch run. He struck out Olerud, but Ichiro scored on the wild pitch. Here's what gets me: Rich Aurilia, the 7 hitter, is about to come up and Ron Fairly says "the big boys" are coming up; "guys that can hit the ball out of the ballpark." WHAAAAAATTT???!!! You're crazy, Ron, even if Aurilia hit the best Mariner hit of the game to the RCF gap not long after. That was all the Mariners would get. Francisco Rodriguez came on to face Dan Wilson. In a 10-5 game with two runners in scoring position, Wilson grounded out. Steve likes a pinch-hitter in this situation, and quite frankly, don't we all? Just one of those runs would have been nice in that September game from last year. One more win and the first game of that final A's series at the Safe last year means something.
Top 9 -- Glaus flew out to Aurilia. While Glaus was up, Mike Myers was warming up in the pen. Also in the pen: Shigetoshi Hasegawa. WHY THE HELL IS HASEGAWA (interim closer) WARMING UP IN A 10-5 GAME??!!?!! If this is Melvin's call, consider it Fireworthy Offense #2. Guillen grounded to second on his first pitch. Niehaus said there was "20 thousand, maybe 30" left in the stands. Yes, twenty, maybe thirty thousand of "the greatest fans in baseball" left on Opening Day, when surely they don't have to go back to work, and it's not going to be late when they get home. You gotta love these fans!!! Salmon worked a full count and grounded out.
Bot 9 -- Hansen walked. Percival warmed up. Ichiro whiffed on two balls in the dirt and struck out on the second one. Winn lined out to Guillen. Boone put a horrid swing on a 1-1 slider low and away. He liked it so much he did it twice. End game.
So after 23 outs, this "improved" offense of the Mariners mustered up one measly run. They had five hits going into the 8th. Woooooowwww. Looking at the boxscore, a grand total of ZERO Mariners had a multi-hit game, the Mariners starting lineup went an amazing 6-for-34 (.176). Colon set them down in order in the 5th, 6th, and 7th. The Mariners 2-5 hitters were 1-for-16. I know they put up four runs in the 8th, but consider this: the runs scored on three plays and only one of them involved hitting (Aurilia). The other was a walk (Edgar), and the other was a strikeout (Olerud) who could have been gunned down at first. They don't plan to score a lot of runs on dropped third strikes, do they?
As for the pitching, Moyer got too much of the plate on the Molina homer, and I'd have to see the Glaus homers again before I said anything about the location. If Moyer was trying to pitch Glaus to the deepest part of the park, it worked. Unfortunately, he was trying to keep Glaus IN the park too. Jarvis sucked ass like we all knew he would. Villone wasted no time letting all of Jarvis' runners score and his ERA explode. Vlad was absolutely not fooled on that sidearm pitch. Julio Mateo held down his end in the bullpen, giving up one hit in 1 1/3 innings.
The defense...I didn't think that the fears we had about the defense going in would rear their ugly heads quite that quickly. Ibanez had some definite issues out there in left, and Aurilia had some issues at short. Everyone else was fairly solid.
Should I give out a game ball? Hmm. No hitters had multi-hit games. I could pick Aurilia because of the big double, but he was a zoo at short. I hate Bloomquist and Garret should have caught that ball, so he's not getting it.
Gameball: Julio Mateo. 1 1/3 innings, 1 hit, 1 K, 24 pitches.
Okay, that was way too long. I hope you cherished this, because if it's not a weekend, I probably won't be posting something this long ever again.
Which Mariners' weaknesses WEREN'T exposed today? I'll put down a cleaned-up version of my notes (cleaner than the notes I posted last season, which I'm sure were cumbersome to read), and then think about the weaknesses afterward or as I go along...
Top 1: Rich Aurilia looked quite crossed up on what should have been a double play ball. What a toss he made too, man...there was some lack of motor skills on that play. Someone I knew back in junior high told me how he would put one of his cats in a pillow case, swing said pillow case repeatedly, then let the cat walk out disoriented. That's what Aurilia looked like on this play.
Bot 1: Raul Ibanez looked horrible on the 2-0 pitch, then got a piddly double. Edgar was caught looking with two runners in scoring position.
Top 2: Jamie Moyer got too much of the plate and Jose Molina parked it for his third Major League homer. Adam Kennedy went to take the extra base and Ichiro hung him out to dry. Rich Aurilia muffed it. That's one that you can't blame on not being accustomed with the middle infielder next to you. Catch ball, tag runner. Nothing unusual. Mike Scioscia sent Adam Kennedy for third on the 2-1 pitch with two out; not the only time Kennedy would be sent for third in the game.
Bot 2: I'm no fan of Willie Bloomquist, which regular readers here at Sports and B's know, but I think back and a hit was probably the correct call on his bloop double because Garret Anderson did have a ways to go to get that ball. He still should have had it though. With that, I withdraw my Terry Mosher Assist allegation. An accurate throw from Vlad would have made it a close play on Olerud because after all, it's Olerud. Ichiro watched a close 2-2 pitch go by, then grounded out to Erstad. Winn hit a couple balls hard foul, then whiffed to leave two runners on base.
Top 3 -- Vlad Guerrero took a hack on 3-0, and why the hell not? He's Vlad. He was fooled by Moyer a couple pitches later and flew out. Garret Anderson waved at a pitch on 0-1 and battled with Jamie before grounding out to him. It was a relatively painless inning for Jamie.
Bot 3 -- Dave Niehaus says the lights are on at the Safe. I later learn this is to "minimize shadows." I say it's wasting electricity. Jeremy said "for a team that claims to be fiscally responsible, they sure do a lot of stupid things." I point to when we went to a game in 2001 during the California power crisis. The Mariners were no longer opening the CF gate three hours before game time, because they were supposedly saving energy. We waited an extra hour for the gate to open, got in, and the first thing we see is that every monitor in the place has an endless loop graphic saying "WELCOME TO MARINERS BASEBALL." No kidding? I thought I was there for Ski Bonkers or something, but baseball? Damn. I had this ticket on it that said "Mariners vs. Angels" on it and took it through the gate, but I really thought I was going to Ski Bonkers, but thanks to that perpetual graphic loop on the monitor, I'm glad I was able to tell myself that yes indeed, I was at a Mariner game. Bret Boone nearly waved at a fastball that was way inside before hitting weak fly ball number two to Adam Kennedy. Ibanez hit a ball right to Garret and Edgar lined one to Kennedy.
Top 4 -- Troy Glaus absolutely yoked that 3-0 Moyer pitch. That was just a majestic shot. Bloomquist barehanded a Guillen grounder then threw him out, probably resulting in his unfortunate cementing as Speizio's backup 3B for the time being. On the next play, he threw low and Olerud dug it out. Jose Molina then took Randy Winn to the warning track.
Bot 4 -- Dave Niehaus goes nuts over the return of Clyde the Aflac duck: HEEEEEEY CLYYYYYYDE!!!! Olerud grounded out to the pitcher, which is always great fun. Dan Wilson got an anomalous base hit. Bloomquist should have been wrung up on his 0-2 pitch. There were two outs, so a textbook hit-and-run probably wasn't on, because Bloomquist didn't swing at his 1-2 pitch, so it probably wasn't his fault. That said, WHO THE HELL SENT DAN WILSON FROM FIRST WITH TWO OUT??!! If it's Wilson sending himself, he's nuts. If it's Bob Melvin sending him, it doesn't surprise me. Upon hearing of this, Jeremy notified me that it was Bob Melvin's first fireworthy offense of the year.
Top 5 -- This was a really easy inning for Moyer. He got two strikes on Kennedy before a groundout to Boone. He got Eckstein to fly out to Ichiro. He sat Erstad down with a corner pitch.
Bot 5 -- I turned down the TV and turned up the radio so I could keep hearing Niehaus and not hear Rizzs. Colon got a strike on Bloomquist, then blew two straight fastballs by him. Colon threw a nice first-pitch change over for a strike, then got him to ground to third. Winn had the count 2-0 before flying out to center.
Top 6 -- Vlad walked on a 3-1 pitch, then Garret got a base knock to left field. Enter Troy Glaus on an 0-1 pitch. It looked like it landed 10 to 15 feet to the right of the first homer. Jose Molina hit one to the track in right, and it went off Ichiro's glove for a double. Adam Kennedy hit the ball off Moyer's leg and into right field, scoring Molina. Moyer was pulled before throwing another pitch. The whole inning up to this point was a horrible turn of events for any Mariner fan, and I'm sure it more was disheartening for the fans that don't expect things to go wrong. Julio Mateo was brought in and was quite worried about Kennedy at first. Kennedy took off toward second, and Wilson's throw didn't have him beat. Aurilia muffed it anyway. Kennedy was again sent from second, this time on a full count with two out. Eckstein would foul out.
Bot 6 -- Bartolo Colon was dealing at this point. He had Boone 3-1 and forced a groundout to short. He caught Ibanez looking on an ABSOLUTE MEATBALL. He got Edgar the same way he did in the first; he painted the corner.
Top 7 -- Erstad had a 1-2 count when I learned that Kevin Jarvis was warming up. I figured "it's 6-1, the game is lost anyway, what's the point? Give Jarvis some garbage time because when the hell else is he going to throw?" Erstad whiffed. Vlad grounded out to Aurilia. Garret had a full count when he hit a fly ball to left field that got past Ibanez and THERE'S NO DOUBT IN MY MIND RANDY WINN (as a leftfielder) WOULD HAVE HAD THAT BALL. Glaus hit a mammoth shot foul before sending Ichiro to the warning track.
Bot 7 -- Scot Shields relived Colon and took care of business in the 7th. Olerud bounced out to first, Aurilia hit a hard groundout to second, and Wilson flew out to Vlad.
Top 8 -- Kevin Jarvis came in for garbage time and boy, was it ever garbage. He struck out Jose Guillen on what was ruled a wild pitch. No word on what Ben Davis thought about it. Salmon flew out to Ibanez. Molina nearly hit into a double play. He later swiped second before Kennedy walked. Eckstein singled to left and IBANEZ OVERRAN THE BALL (get used to this type of stuff, folks!), and Molina scored. I'm pretty sure it was shallow enough that a cleanly played ball would have left the bases loaded with no runners scoring. THE ROUT WAS OFFICIALLY ON (7-1 at this point). Jarvis was pulled for Ron Villone. Jarvis couldn't even get out of the inning. Villone made damn sure to score all the runners he inherited. He had Erstad 0-2 before Erstad tagged a double to right to score Kennedy. Villone had the brilliant idea to go sidearmed with on a pretty low 1-0 pitch which Vlad TATTOOED off the top of the wall in centerfield. The bases cleared, then Villone got Garret Anderson to bounce to Olerud on a 2-0 pitch.
Bot 8 -- Dave Hansen pinch-hit for Bloomquist and singled on the first pitch. The front two rows of the Diamond Club were empty at this point, making it look great on TV...hope the Mariner brass liked that. THANK YOU, FANS!! Ichiro walked, Winn flew out to Chone Figgins. Boone was caught looking on a breaking ball. Ibanez walked (a camera pan showed a 60% full Diamond Club, which again looks great on television). Edgar had a 2-0 count before coaxing a walk to force in Hansen. Kevin Gregg came on to pitch, and you may remember him from this game last year. He was one of the many no-name pitchers the Mariners faced on last year's stretch run. He struck out Olerud, but Ichiro scored on the wild pitch. Here's what gets me: Rich Aurilia, the 7 hitter, is about to come up and Ron Fairly says "the big boys" are coming up; "guys that can hit the ball out of the ballpark." WHAAAAAATTT???!!! You're crazy, Ron, even if Aurilia hit the best Mariner hit of the game to the RCF gap not long after. That was all the Mariners would get. Francisco Rodriguez came on to face Dan Wilson. In a 10-5 game with two runners in scoring position, Wilson grounded out. Steve likes a pinch-hitter in this situation, and quite frankly, don't we all? Just one of those runs would have been nice in that September game from last year. One more win and the first game of that final A's series at the Safe last year means something.
Top 9 -- Glaus flew out to Aurilia. While Glaus was up, Mike Myers was warming up in the pen. Also in the pen: Shigetoshi Hasegawa. WHY THE HELL IS HASEGAWA (interim closer) WARMING UP IN A 10-5 GAME??!!?!! If this is Melvin's call, consider it Fireworthy Offense #2. Guillen grounded to second on his first pitch. Niehaus said there was "20 thousand, maybe 30" left in the stands. Yes, twenty, maybe thirty thousand of "the greatest fans in baseball" left on Opening Day, when surely they don't have to go back to work, and it's not going to be late when they get home. You gotta love these fans!!! Salmon worked a full count and grounded out.
Bot 9 -- Hansen walked. Percival warmed up. Ichiro whiffed on two balls in the dirt and struck out on the second one. Winn lined out to Guillen. Boone put a horrid swing on a 1-1 slider low and away. He liked it so much he did it twice. End game.
So after 23 outs, this "improved" offense of the Mariners mustered up one measly run. They had five hits going into the 8th. Woooooowwww. Looking at the boxscore, a grand total of ZERO Mariners had a multi-hit game, the Mariners starting lineup went an amazing 6-for-34 (.176). Colon set them down in order in the 5th, 6th, and 7th. The Mariners 2-5 hitters were 1-for-16. I know they put up four runs in the 8th, but consider this: the runs scored on three plays and only one of them involved hitting (Aurilia). The other was a walk (Edgar), and the other was a strikeout (Olerud) who could have been gunned down at first. They don't plan to score a lot of runs on dropped third strikes, do they?
As for the pitching, Moyer got too much of the plate on the Molina homer, and I'd have to see the Glaus homers again before I said anything about the location. If Moyer was trying to pitch Glaus to the deepest part of the park, it worked. Unfortunately, he was trying to keep Glaus IN the park too. Jarvis sucked ass like we all knew he would. Villone wasted no time letting all of Jarvis' runners score and his ERA explode. Vlad was absolutely not fooled on that sidearm pitch. Julio Mateo held down his end in the bullpen, giving up one hit in 1 1/3 innings.
The defense...I didn't think that the fears we had about the defense going in would rear their ugly heads quite that quickly. Ibanez had some definite issues out there in left, and Aurilia had some issues at short. Everyone else was fairly solid.
Should I give out a game ball? Hmm. No hitters had multi-hit games. I could pick Aurilia because of the big double, but he was a zoo at short. I hate Bloomquist and Garret should have caught that ball, so he's not getting it.
Gameball: Julio Mateo. 1 1/3 innings, 1 hit, 1 K, 24 pitches.
Okay, that was way too long. I hope you cherished this, because if it's not a weekend, I probably won't be posting something this long ever again.
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