Thursday, May 06, 2004
NON-SCREW DE GRACE
Steve Sandmeyer tonight echoed the exact thought that I had after the last out was made in the final game of the Minnesota/Seattle series...
This is exactly the type of game the Mariners have to win.
On a more scary note, this may be the method that the Mariners have to go about winning. This is sad considering the go-ahead run was plated on a Dan Wilson double-play ball. Even Dave Niehaus was lamenting the inning that had passed, saying "the Mariners load the bases with nobody out and score one measly run." Rick Rizzs has a microchip implanted in his brain which gives him a small electric shock every time he mentally constructs a sentence using any negative words (including measly) in context to the Seattle Mariners, heretofore referred to as "the Company."
The Company baseball team had a paltry five singles on the night and still won. The Twins had Torii Hunter only for a pinch-hit at-bat and did not play Doug Mientkiewicz tonight. The Twins had JOSE OFFERMAN batting CLEANUP tonight.
The Mariners were 0-14 in games where they were outhit by the opposition until tonight. That was a KJR stat, and if someone at KJR comes to me and bitches about me using a bunch of their stats, then sorry, KJR.
Two ways to take this latest stretch of Mariner baseball...
-- They won two straight series!! Yayyy!!!
-- This offense stunk it up in the Twins series and the only way they can hope to win is if the starting pitcher stands on his head.
I guess there's a couple simple thoughts running through my mind, and it kind of reiterates what I've said. The Mariners absolutely have to win games like this. If a starting pitcher does this well or even lightly less as well, the Mariners absolutely cannot afford to lose these games and fail to scrape together enough runs. This can also be taken as: the offense can't keep screwing the starting pitchers out of wins. This of course is when the starting pitching is actually deserving of the wins, which hasn't happened often this year, but has happened with Freddy.
I'll try to sum it up again because I'm losing mental coherence here...the Mariners have to win these types of games because the offense is nowhere near potent enough to win high-scoring games in a regular basis.
The Mariners won't be able to win with their offensive output of the Twins series against the Yankees. Yes, I do realize I'm saying that even though the Yankees will trot Donovan Osborne (do something about that, George) out to the mound for one of those games. Also, if Jon Lieber's 60% of his Cub form, he should be a solid back-end guy for that rotation. That guy used to be a workhorse before the ol' arm injury.
Lastly, yay for no Spider Man 2 on the bags. I liked Scott Miller's take the other day about MLB apparently deeming its own game "[not] good enough to sell to kids anymore." I just think they should put a ton more money into things like RBI and many outlets of youth baseball. Anyway, everyone can bring their children to the Montreal/Seattle series June 11-13 without having to explain what the new red square-looking patterns on the base bags are.
Gameball: Freddy Garcia. Because it wasn't going to be one of the hitters. Tonight, it's either this guy or Guardado, and I'm picking Freddy. 7 innings, 6 hits, 1 run, 1 BB, and 8 K on 109 pitches.
Goat: Raul Ibanez. 0-for-3 stranding one, and having that weird in-betweener fly ball with Rich Aurilia. Steve Sandmeyer mentioned that the Mariners have the best fielding percentage in baseball right now, but we've been reminded countless times (or converted wholly, in my case) just one month into the season of how overrated fielding percentage is as a statistic. Balls like the one between Aurilia and Ibanez tonight HAVE to be caught. No questions, just catch the ball. They may not make plays that count as errors in the scoring, but we know on a daily basis whether the defense is doing its job or not.
The Mariners' two series wins also mean they've won four of six. But is it really a good time for the Yankees to come to town?
Lieber. Franklin. Tomorrow.
This is exactly the type of game the Mariners have to win.
On a more scary note, this may be the method that the Mariners have to go about winning. This is sad considering the go-ahead run was plated on a Dan Wilson double-play ball. Even Dave Niehaus was lamenting the inning that had passed, saying "the Mariners load the bases with nobody out and score one measly run." Rick Rizzs has a microchip implanted in his brain which gives him a small electric shock every time he mentally constructs a sentence using any negative words (including measly) in context to the Seattle Mariners, heretofore referred to as "the Company."
The Company baseball team had a paltry five singles on the night and still won. The Twins had Torii Hunter only for a pinch-hit at-bat and did not play Doug Mientkiewicz tonight. The Twins had JOSE OFFERMAN batting CLEANUP tonight.
The Mariners were 0-14 in games where they were outhit by the opposition until tonight. That was a KJR stat, and if someone at KJR comes to me and bitches about me using a bunch of their stats, then sorry, KJR.
Two ways to take this latest stretch of Mariner baseball...
-- They won two straight series!! Yayyy!!!
-- This offense stunk it up in the Twins series and the only way they can hope to win is if the starting pitcher stands on his head.
I guess there's a couple simple thoughts running through my mind, and it kind of reiterates what I've said. The Mariners absolutely have to win games like this. If a starting pitcher does this well or even lightly less as well, the Mariners absolutely cannot afford to lose these games and fail to scrape together enough runs. This can also be taken as: the offense can't keep screwing the starting pitchers out of wins. This of course is when the starting pitching is actually deserving of the wins, which hasn't happened often this year, but has happened with Freddy.
I'll try to sum it up again because I'm losing mental coherence here...the Mariners have to win these types of games because the offense is nowhere near potent enough to win high-scoring games in a regular basis.
The Mariners won't be able to win with their offensive output of the Twins series against the Yankees. Yes, I do realize I'm saying that even though the Yankees will trot Donovan Osborne (do something about that, George) out to the mound for one of those games. Also, if Jon Lieber's 60% of his Cub form, he should be a solid back-end guy for that rotation. That guy used to be a workhorse before the ol' arm injury.
Lastly, yay for no Spider Man 2 on the bags. I liked Scott Miller's take the other day about MLB apparently deeming its own game "[not] good enough to sell to kids anymore." I just think they should put a ton more money into things like RBI and many outlets of youth baseball. Anyway, everyone can bring their children to the Montreal/Seattle series June 11-13 without having to explain what the new red square-looking patterns on the base bags are.
Gameball: Freddy Garcia. Because it wasn't going to be one of the hitters. Tonight, it's either this guy or Guardado, and I'm picking Freddy. 7 innings, 6 hits, 1 run, 1 BB, and 8 K on 109 pitches.
Goat: Raul Ibanez. 0-for-3 stranding one, and having that weird in-betweener fly ball with Rich Aurilia. Steve Sandmeyer mentioned that the Mariners have the best fielding percentage in baseball right now, but we've been reminded countless times (or converted wholly, in my case) just one month into the season of how overrated fielding percentage is as a statistic. Balls like the one between Aurilia and Ibanez tonight HAVE to be caught. No questions, just catch the ball. They may not make plays that count as errors in the scoring, but we know on a daily basis whether the defense is doing its job or not.
The Mariners' two series wins also mean they've won four of six. But is it really a good time for the Yankees to come to town?
Lieber. Franklin. Tomorrow.
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