Sunday, May 09, 2004
MOOSED
After his somewhat slow start this year, do you think Mike Mussina was looking forward to this series on the calendar? Sure, I all but chalked this one up as a loss before the series, but I didn't think Mussina would be THAT good tonight. The guy absolutely manhandled the Mariners after the first two innings.
Let's look at the first two innings (computer's in a different room at the parents' house. Mothers' Day, y'all)...
In the first, Ichiro and Bret Boone had singled their way on and manned the corners with one out. Raul Ibanez was never behind in the count in his at-bat, but struck out on the 2-2 pitch. Edgar got down 1-2 and bounced into a 5-4 fielders' choice.
In the second, the ever-patient John Olerud bounced out to Derek Jeter on the first pitch. Rich Aurilia singled his way on and Quinton McCracken drew a walk. Enter Ichiro with two on and two out. He got down 1-2 much like Edgar the inning before, but Ichiro whiffed, which of course looked like crap because the logical end to Ichiro's swing is some sort of movement toward first base. When he's swinging and missing, he's not running to first, so it looks weird. It looks more like he's going to corkscrew himself into the dirt or something.
Mussina then mowed down 14 in a row from the second inning into the seventh, when John Olerud actually was patient and walked on five pitches with one out. Mussina went twenty batters without giving up a hit (Aurilia single in the 2nd, Ichiro single in 8th). The Mariners didn't have a baserunner in scoring position after the 2nd inning. Yes, the crowd was out of it for the game, save the Mariners failed oportunities in the first few innings and some strikeouts of Alex Rodriguez. Mussina finished with 123 pitches over his eight shutout innings of four-hit ball and probably would have had a complete game if not for the jams of the first two innings.
I haven't gotten to the pitching yet. Gil Meche kept the Yankees off the board through the first five innings. However, he got into a ton of deep counts, as I've counted 11 batters out of 24 faced that saw five or more pitches from Gil Meche. A look at Gil's line shows two walks and six strikeouts, and simple math says that the walks and strikeouts would have taken at least 26 pitches (4 pitches/walk, 3/strikeout). Thus, the Yankees ramped up Meche's pitch count early and often.
Still, Meche's only real trouble of the first five innings occurred when Kenny Lofton hit a one-out double in the 5th. He then got Derek Jeter to fly out and Bernie Williams to strike out.
Then the wheels fell off the wagon in the 6th. Alex fouled off three pitches in his at-bat (watching three) before doubling to lead off. Jason Giambi then doubled on an 0-2 pitch to draw first blood for the Yankees. Then Gary Sheffield smoked the first pitch he saw into leftfield. I don't know what Raul Ibanez was doing on that ball; it kind of looked like he fidgeted with the glove or something, but the ball was well within reach. Remember, he dove AFTER he missed the ball, so no style points there. It was 2-0, and it's safe to say the game at that point was all over but the shouting. Just for good measure, Jorge Posada took Meche to a full count and roped a double to score Sheffield. Meche finished with 105 pitches.
Ron Villone (I've called him Vanilli, but I guess if I actually liked the guy, I might call him Rovo) cleaned up Meche's mess in the 6th, but he came out for the 7th. He gave up a one-out single to Bernie, but struck out Alex and was one out away from ending the inning and keeping the score at 3-0. Jason Giambi (he does kind of look smaller to me, but maybe that's because my mind was looking for it) had something to say about that, smoking an 0-1 pitch about 10 rows or so back into the section just to the left of the rightfield foul pole. Consecutive doubles by Gary Sheffield and Jorge Posada gave the Yankees their final tallies, making it 6-0.
After the game, I realized I didn't have my radio at home with me, so I couldn't listen to KJR's postgame without hopping into my car. So, I was subjected to Rick Rizzs and Dave Henderson on FSNNW, who I tried to tune out until Bill Krueger came on. Bill's explanation as to why Meche fell off the face of the earth in the 6th? He thought the Yankees were stealing signs from second base. Well, I guess if they actually were stealing signs, second would be a likely place to start, given the visibility of the catcher's fingers from that vantage point, and also the fact that the Yankees hit four straight doubles in that inning. Bill tried to cite his experience with the apparently sign-stealing and hard-hitting 1993 Tigers as grounds for saying this. Meche did get pounded suddenly, though I think this is kind of a stretch. Maybe the Yankees just have good hitters? Bill thought the hitters batting after Alex's double looked like they knew what was coming. I guess there might be a little merit to this conspiracy theory, but I think it's kind of a stretch.
Gameball: JJ Putz. The guy's been solid. Six batters tonight, five strikeouts. After the game, Bob Melvin mentioned him as a pitcher up from the minors in the same vein with Rafael Soriano and Julio Mateo. Of course, Melvin is a guy we can partially thank for repeatedly squashing the chances that any of these up-from-the-minors guys might one day be left-handed.
Goat: Raul Ibanez. 0-for-4 with a hat trick, stranding two. Don't forget the fly ball that he just plain missed in the 6th that scored the second Yankee run and breached the dam, opened the floodgates, (insert sudden disastrous happening involving a large volume of matter here), etc. I've been hard on Raul this year, no doubt about that, but he deserves it tonight. I don't care if he was facing Mike Mussina tonight. He put up the above line tonight BATTING CLEANUP. Did I mention he's making $13.25M over three years? Everyone knew the Mariners were sacrificing defense a little, and they certainly knew that tonight. However, lots of guys worse than and including Mike Cameron could have done what Raul Ibanez did at the plate tonight. Of course, a lot of those same guys would have also caught that ball off Sheffield's bat in the 6th.
By virtue of the Mariners scratching out yesterday's win against Jon Lieber (and frankly, rocking him more than I thought they would), the Mariners still have a chance to win this series. If there was one game out of the three that they were most likely to lose, it was definitely this one. The Mariners absolutely lucked out by not drawing Javier Vazquez or Kevin Brown along with Mussina in this series. If they did, they'd definitely be staring at a series loss, no question about it.
Osborne. Moyer. Tomorrow.
Let's look at the first two innings (computer's in a different room at the parents' house. Mothers' Day, y'all)...
In the first, Ichiro and Bret Boone had singled their way on and manned the corners with one out. Raul Ibanez was never behind in the count in his at-bat, but struck out on the 2-2 pitch. Edgar got down 1-2 and bounced into a 5-4 fielders' choice.
In the second, the ever-patient John Olerud bounced out to Derek Jeter on the first pitch. Rich Aurilia singled his way on and Quinton McCracken drew a walk. Enter Ichiro with two on and two out. He got down 1-2 much like Edgar the inning before, but Ichiro whiffed, which of course looked like crap because the logical end to Ichiro's swing is some sort of movement toward first base. When he's swinging and missing, he's not running to first, so it looks weird. It looks more like he's going to corkscrew himself into the dirt or something.
Mussina then mowed down 14 in a row from the second inning into the seventh, when John Olerud actually was patient and walked on five pitches with one out. Mussina went twenty batters without giving up a hit (Aurilia single in the 2nd, Ichiro single in 8th). The Mariners didn't have a baserunner in scoring position after the 2nd inning. Yes, the crowd was out of it for the game, save the Mariners failed oportunities in the first few innings and some strikeouts of Alex Rodriguez. Mussina finished with 123 pitches over his eight shutout innings of four-hit ball and probably would have had a complete game if not for the jams of the first two innings.
I haven't gotten to the pitching yet. Gil Meche kept the Yankees off the board through the first five innings. However, he got into a ton of deep counts, as I've counted 11 batters out of 24 faced that saw five or more pitches from Gil Meche. A look at Gil's line shows two walks and six strikeouts, and simple math says that the walks and strikeouts would have taken at least 26 pitches (4 pitches/walk, 3/strikeout). Thus, the Yankees ramped up Meche's pitch count early and often.
Still, Meche's only real trouble of the first five innings occurred when Kenny Lofton hit a one-out double in the 5th. He then got Derek Jeter to fly out and Bernie Williams to strike out.
Then the wheels fell off the wagon in the 6th. Alex fouled off three pitches in his at-bat (watching three) before doubling to lead off. Jason Giambi then doubled on an 0-2 pitch to draw first blood for the Yankees. Then Gary Sheffield smoked the first pitch he saw into leftfield. I don't know what Raul Ibanez was doing on that ball; it kind of looked like he fidgeted with the glove or something, but the ball was well within reach. Remember, he dove AFTER he missed the ball, so no style points there. It was 2-0, and it's safe to say the game at that point was all over but the shouting. Just for good measure, Jorge Posada took Meche to a full count and roped a double to score Sheffield. Meche finished with 105 pitches.
Ron Villone (I've called him Vanilli, but I guess if I actually liked the guy, I might call him Rovo) cleaned up Meche's mess in the 6th, but he came out for the 7th. He gave up a one-out single to Bernie, but struck out Alex and was one out away from ending the inning and keeping the score at 3-0. Jason Giambi (he does kind of look smaller to me, but maybe that's because my mind was looking for it) had something to say about that, smoking an 0-1 pitch about 10 rows or so back into the section just to the left of the rightfield foul pole. Consecutive doubles by Gary Sheffield and Jorge Posada gave the Yankees their final tallies, making it 6-0.
After the game, I realized I didn't have my radio at home with me, so I couldn't listen to KJR's postgame without hopping into my car. So, I was subjected to Rick Rizzs and Dave Henderson on FSNNW, who I tried to tune out until Bill Krueger came on. Bill's explanation as to why Meche fell off the face of the earth in the 6th? He thought the Yankees were stealing signs from second base. Well, I guess if they actually were stealing signs, second would be a likely place to start, given the visibility of the catcher's fingers from that vantage point, and also the fact that the Yankees hit four straight doubles in that inning. Bill tried to cite his experience with the apparently sign-stealing and hard-hitting 1993 Tigers as grounds for saying this. Meche did get pounded suddenly, though I think this is kind of a stretch. Maybe the Yankees just have good hitters? Bill thought the hitters batting after Alex's double looked like they knew what was coming. I guess there might be a little merit to this conspiracy theory, but I think it's kind of a stretch.
Gameball: JJ Putz. The guy's been solid. Six batters tonight, five strikeouts. After the game, Bob Melvin mentioned him as a pitcher up from the minors in the same vein with Rafael Soriano and Julio Mateo. Of course, Melvin is a guy we can partially thank for repeatedly squashing the chances that any of these up-from-the-minors guys might one day be left-handed.
Goat: Raul Ibanez. 0-for-4 with a hat trick, stranding two. Don't forget the fly ball that he just plain missed in the 6th that scored the second Yankee run and breached the dam, opened the floodgates, (insert sudden disastrous happening involving a large volume of matter here), etc. I've been hard on Raul this year, no doubt about that, but he deserves it tonight. I don't care if he was facing Mike Mussina tonight. He put up the above line tonight BATTING CLEANUP. Did I mention he's making $13.25M over three years? Everyone knew the Mariners were sacrificing defense a little, and they certainly knew that tonight. However, lots of guys worse than and including Mike Cameron could have done what Raul Ibanez did at the plate tonight. Of course, a lot of those same guys would have also caught that ball off Sheffield's bat in the 6th.
By virtue of the Mariners scratching out yesterday's win against Jon Lieber (and frankly, rocking him more than I thought they would), the Mariners still have a chance to win this series. If there was one game out of the three that they were most likely to lose, it was definitely this one. The Mariners absolutely lucked out by not drawing Javier Vazquez or Kevin Brown along with Mussina in this series. If they did, they'd definitely be staring at a series loss, no question about it.
Osborne. Moyer. Tomorrow.
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