Friday, May 14, 2004
SIX GOOSE EGGS LAID
It was somewhat of a slow burn tonight.
The Mariner offense put six goose eggs on the board on the same night in which they lost their sixth game in a row, hence the post title.
It started out with some fairly good signs for the Mariners, as they managed to put up a run for Gil Meche before he stepped to the mound. Of course, Ichiro didn't score on a hit. The Scott Spiezio single moved him to third, then Edgar hit a sacrifice fly to give the Mariners an early lead. People have been talking about how with the Mariners' penchant of singles hitting and their lack of speed, it takes three hits in a row for the Mariners to score a run. In this case, it took three balls in play to get Ichiro to second and score him.
Then Gil Meche came out to the mound. There were runners on the corners with two out (Alex got aboard on a double to the gap in leftcenter which Raul Ibanez took his eye off of...$13.25M/3yrs), and I thought, man, if Gil gets out of this unscathed, it'll be amazing. I had a feeling he actually would, despite Raul's boneheaded play. What happens next? Four walks, three runs across. I thought he was throwing a lot of pitches BEFORE he walked the first run in. It was almost disheartening to see Gil Meche wilt on the mound in the Bronx. This is probably a tarnish on his career doings in the Bronx, is it not? I think I saw on Baseball Tonight that this was the first time a Mariner starting pitcher didn't get past the first inning since July of 1997. What happens if Raul is actually a competent leftfielder and actually catches that ball? I know as well as anyone that Jose Cruz Jr. had a horrendous 0-for-32 slump (something brutal) earlier this year, but he won a Gold Glove last year and is making $6M over 2 years, and he and Ibanez are probably an offensive wash right now anyway, if Cruz isn't better (he might be by now). [Edit ~9:33 -- DAMMIT! I'm wrong. Cruz was batting .200 going into tonight. Ouch.]
Ron Villone came in and Miguel Cairo (a former Mariner who sucks...Bavasi is probably on the phone right now with Brian Cashman) swung at the first pitch and flew out to end the horrific first inning. Even after the carnage, the Mariners were still within striking distance -- the Yankees had scored all those runs without a hit, and left the bases loaded. The way they scored the runs was disturbing, sure, but the score was still only 3-1. To help his cause, Villone would not allow a baserunner to the 4th, retiring seven straight.
As Villone was setting down the Yankee hitters in the 2nd and 3rd, the Mariners were scratching out some hits. Ichiro had doubled in the first and later scored, and in the 2nd and 3rd, the Mariners hit three more doubles. Of course, they didn't manage to get an extra-base hit after the 3rd inning.
Also in the 2nd, Dave Hansen pulled a double into the corner. Dan Wilson hit a single to centerfield, but it wasn't enough to push Hansen across. It just has to be something, right? Hansen never scored that inning. In the 3rd, the Mariners actually did score, and Randy Winn got aboard on a double, moved to third on a passed ball, and scored on a Spiezio sac fly. It just can't be an RBI single, can it?
That's what the 4th inning was for. Dan Wilson had the third of three straight singles to tie the game at 3. Ramon Santiago bunted the two runners into scoring position (might as well, he can't hit anyway so make him useful). Ichiro then worked the count full and singled to get the Mariners a 4-3 lead (seemed a leap away from the first inning) on a play in which Dan Wilson couldn't score from second. He'd score on Randy Winn's single though, which gave the Mariners the 5-3 lead. If you already know what the final score was, you know the Mariners would not score for the rest of the game.
Final fact for now for the Mariner offense: they didn't put a runner into scoring position after the 4th inning.
Ron Villone came into the bottom of the 4th having retired seven straight. Against the 7-8-9 hitters of the Yankee lineup, he yielded two singles and a sacrifice bunt. It only got worse with the 1-2-3 hitters of the Yankee lineup. Derek Jeter nubbed one right back to the mound, and Villone muffed it (Ron Fairly then went on another jag about wishing the pitchers wouldn't barehand the ball so much), loading the bases. Villone then walked Bernie Williams to get the Yankees within one. Alex Rodriguez just got under his pitch for a home run, which instead was a game-tying sacrifice fly. None of the Yankees' first five run-scoring plays involved a base hit. Three came on Meche walks, one was a Villone walk, and the 5th run was on Alex's sac fly.
In the 5th, Gary Sheffield led off with a single, then Hideki Matsui flew out. Villone tried to snap throw to first and was way off. Sheffield went to second and scored on a Tony Clark single. You know it's bad when you're putting your crap against their crap, and you realize Tony Clark is coming out on top. 6-5 Yankees.
That was basically the game, as Mike Mussina shut down the Mariners in the 5th and 6th, and Paul Quantrill (who the Mariners used to just blister once upon a time) and Gabe White (part of Jeremy's Mariner offseason plan from last winter) took care of the rest.
The Yankees tacked on some more carnage. They loaded the bases with nobody out against Julio Mateo in the 7th. JJ Putz's second pitch to John Flaherty was a curveball very low and very away that found the backstop. And what a feeling it must be when you can afford to rest a Jason Giambi for most of a game and bring him up off the bench when you need him, and still have Tony Clark go 2-for-2 in his place. Giambi was given a free pass, and Putz whiffed Jeter. But Bernie Williams drove in the final two runs with his single. 9-5 Yankees.
How quietly did the Mariners go offensively in the 8th and 9th?
-- 8th inning
Cabrera flew out on an 0-1 pitch (3 pitches)
Hansen grounded out on 2-2 (5 pitches)
Wilson flew out on 0-1 (2 pitches)
-- 9th inning
Santiago flew out (1st pitch)
Ichiro bounced back to the mound on 0-1 (2 pitches)
Winn was beaned on 1-1 (3 pitches)
Spiezio bounced out to Alex on 0-1 (2 pitches)
Congratulations, Gabe White! You set down the 6-7-8 hitters of the Mariner lineup with 10 pitches, nothing astounding there. Buuuuut, you DID set down the 9-1-2-3 hitters in the Mariner lineup on EIGHT PITCHES, even after you beaned one of the hitters. Anyway, six outs on 18 pitches for Gabe White.
Gameball: Dave Hansen. Why the hell not? 2-for-3 with a double and a walk, starting at first base in an amazing infield of Spiezio/Santiago/Cabrera/Hansen. My apartment has brick walls, and due to the strength of brick-and-mortar, my apartment has not shown any structural damage from repeated instances of cranial impact.
Goat: Raul Ibanez. 0-for-4, stranding three, and letting Alex Rodriguez's fly ball drop for a double. Was the game over at that point? Heck no, as we figured out, because the Mariners ended up taking the lead. The way the Mariners have been going, though, you knew the Ibanez ball would lead to something bad. If Ibanez catches that ball, it's possible Meche doesn't lose his mind. If the Mariners didn't have every Monday off this month, I'd say their bullpen would have their arms fall off within the next few days, especially knowing that Freddy Garcia isn't pitching in the Yankee series. Luckily for them, the off day buys some time to rest the bullpen arms. You know, it's like I'm not even having to stretch to goat Ibanez anymore.
Finally, how fitting is it that the one time the Mariners finally get to Mike Mussina, they manage to scratch out eleven hits against him (four doubles), score five runs, have him only in the game for six innings, and lose?
Six in a row. Will the Mariners make it seven in a row against Donovan Osborne? If they don't, it'll be eight in a row after Sunday, because I don't see any way in hell the Mariners beat Kevin Brown unless he overtorques his body from his pitching motion either sometime between now and the game or during the game itself. Raul Ibanez has a chance to look VERY stupid on Sunday.
Moyer. Osborne. Tomorrow.
By the way, I'd like to thank whoever thought of making the Brewers wear their Milwaukee Braves uniforms in a game at home against the Atlanta Braves. Thanks for messing with my mind, whoever you are.
[Edit ~10:13p -- I've gone through in the last hour and discovered a ton of spelling mistakes which hopefully I've nailed down. For what it's worth, I scored a verbal 580 my first time taking the SAT, and then dropped 40 points on verbal the next time I took it (math gains helped offset the blow). I took a GRE prep test last week and sucked to the tune of something like 480, though I did take it fairly cold. I actually pride myself on spelling, and usually a spelling mistake will stop me dead in my tracks and I'll go back and change it as soon as I find it. As for the test scores...I can spell and stuff, but if you give me an analogy that says "duct tape is to remote control as orange circus peanuts are to ____" and give me choices like index cards, Dixie cups, a can of Spam, and bubble wrap, I'll never know what to choose. And yes, that sample question was severely dumbed down as I didn't use any SAT vocab words like "insouciant" and "egregious."]
The Mariner offense put six goose eggs on the board on the same night in which they lost their sixth game in a row, hence the post title.
It started out with some fairly good signs for the Mariners, as they managed to put up a run for Gil Meche before he stepped to the mound. Of course, Ichiro didn't score on a hit. The Scott Spiezio single moved him to third, then Edgar hit a sacrifice fly to give the Mariners an early lead. People have been talking about how with the Mariners' penchant of singles hitting and their lack of speed, it takes three hits in a row for the Mariners to score a run. In this case, it took three balls in play to get Ichiro to second and score him.
Then Gil Meche came out to the mound. There were runners on the corners with two out (Alex got aboard on a double to the gap in leftcenter which Raul Ibanez took his eye off of...$13.25M/3yrs), and I thought, man, if Gil gets out of this unscathed, it'll be amazing. I had a feeling he actually would, despite Raul's boneheaded play. What happens next? Four walks, three runs across. I thought he was throwing a lot of pitches BEFORE he walked the first run in. It was almost disheartening to see Gil Meche wilt on the mound in the Bronx. This is probably a tarnish on his career doings in the Bronx, is it not? I think I saw on Baseball Tonight that this was the first time a Mariner starting pitcher didn't get past the first inning since July of 1997. What happens if Raul is actually a competent leftfielder and actually catches that ball? I know as well as anyone that Jose Cruz Jr. had a horrendous 0-for-32 slump (something brutal) earlier this year, but he won a Gold Glove last year and is making $6M over 2 years, and he and Ibanez are probably an offensive wash right now anyway, if Cruz isn't better (he might be by now). [Edit ~9:33 -- DAMMIT! I'm wrong. Cruz was batting .200 going into tonight. Ouch.]
Ron Villone came in and Miguel Cairo (a former Mariner who sucks...Bavasi is probably on the phone right now with Brian Cashman) swung at the first pitch and flew out to end the horrific first inning. Even after the carnage, the Mariners were still within striking distance -- the Yankees had scored all those runs without a hit, and left the bases loaded. The way they scored the runs was disturbing, sure, but the score was still only 3-1. To help his cause, Villone would not allow a baserunner to the 4th, retiring seven straight.
As Villone was setting down the Yankee hitters in the 2nd and 3rd, the Mariners were scratching out some hits. Ichiro had doubled in the first and later scored, and in the 2nd and 3rd, the Mariners hit three more doubles. Of course, they didn't manage to get an extra-base hit after the 3rd inning.
Also in the 2nd, Dave Hansen pulled a double into the corner. Dan Wilson hit a single to centerfield, but it wasn't enough to push Hansen across. It just has to be something, right? Hansen never scored that inning. In the 3rd, the Mariners actually did score, and Randy Winn got aboard on a double, moved to third on a passed ball, and scored on a Spiezio sac fly. It just can't be an RBI single, can it?
That's what the 4th inning was for. Dan Wilson had the third of three straight singles to tie the game at 3. Ramon Santiago bunted the two runners into scoring position (might as well, he can't hit anyway so make him useful). Ichiro then worked the count full and singled to get the Mariners a 4-3 lead (seemed a leap away from the first inning) on a play in which Dan Wilson couldn't score from second. He'd score on Randy Winn's single though, which gave the Mariners the 5-3 lead. If you already know what the final score was, you know the Mariners would not score for the rest of the game.
Final fact for now for the Mariner offense: they didn't put a runner into scoring position after the 4th inning.
Ron Villone came into the bottom of the 4th having retired seven straight. Against the 7-8-9 hitters of the Yankee lineup, he yielded two singles and a sacrifice bunt. It only got worse with the 1-2-3 hitters of the Yankee lineup. Derek Jeter nubbed one right back to the mound, and Villone muffed it (Ron Fairly then went on another jag about wishing the pitchers wouldn't barehand the ball so much), loading the bases. Villone then walked Bernie Williams to get the Yankees within one. Alex Rodriguez just got under his pitch for a home run, which instead was a game-tying sacrifice fly. None of the Yankees' first five run-scoring plays involved a base hit. Three came on Meche walks, one was a Villone walk, and the 5th run was on Alex's sac fly.
In the 5th, Gary Sheffield led off with a single, then Hideki Matsui flew out. Villone tried to snap throw to first and was way off. Sheffield went to second and scored on a Tony Clark single. You know it's bad when you're putting your crap against their crap, and you realize Tony Clark is coming out on top. 6-5 Yankees.
That was basically the game, as Mike Mussina shut down the Mariners in the 5th and 6th, and Paul Quantrill (who the Mariners used to just blister once upon a time) and Gabe White (part of Jeremy's Mariner offseason plan from last winter) took care of the rest.
The Yankees tacked on some more carnage. They loaded the bases with nobody out against Julio Mateo in the 7th. JJ Putz's second pitch to John Flaherty was a curveball very low and very away that found the backstop. And what a feeling it must be when you can afford to rest a Jason Giambi for most of a game and bring him up off the bench when you need him, and still have Tony Clark go 2-for-2 in his place. Giambi was given a free pass, and Putz whiffed Jeter. But Bernie Williams drove in the final two runs with his single. 9-5 Yankees.
How quietly did the Mariners go offensively in the 8th and 9th?
-- 8th inning
Cabrera flew out on an 0-1 pitch (3 pitches)
Hansen grounded out on 2-2 (5 pitches)
Wilson flew out on 0-1 (2 pitches)
-- 9th inning
Santiago flew out (1st pitch)
Ichiro bounced back to the mound on 0-1 (2 pitches)
Winn was beaned on 1-1 (3 pitches)
Spiezio bounced out to Alex on 0-1 (2 pitches)
Congratulations, Gabe White! You set down the 6-7-8 hitters of the Mariner lineup with 10 pitches, nothing astounding there. Buuuuut, you DID set down the 9-1-2-3 hitters in the Mariner lineup on EIGHT PITCHES, even after you beaned one of the hitters. Anyway, six outs on 18 pitches for Gabe White.
Gameball: Dave Hansen. Why the hell not? 2-for-3 with a double and a walk, starting at first base in an amazing infield of Spiezio/Santiago/Cabrera/Hansen. My apartment has brick walls, and due to the strength of brick-and-mortar, my apartment has not shown any structural damage from repeated instances of cranial impact.
Goat: Raul Ibanez. 0-for-4, stranding three, and letting Alex Rodriguez's fly ball drop for a double. Was the game over at that point? Heck no, as we figured out, because the Mariners ended up taking the lead. The way the Mariners have been going, though, you knew the Ibanez ball would lead to something bad. If Ibanez catches that ball, it's possible Meche doesn't lose his mind. If the Mariners didn't have every Monday off this month, I'd say their bullpen would have their arms fall off within the next few days, especially knowing that Freddy Garcia isn't pitching in the Yankee series. Luckily for them, the off day buys some time to rest the bullpen arms. You know, it's like I'm not even having to stretch to goat Ibanez anymore.
Finally, how fitting is it that the one time the Mariners finally get to Mike Mussina, they manage to scratch out eleven hits against him (four doubles), score five runs, have him only in the game for six innings, and lose?
Six in a row. Will the Mariners make it seven in a row against Donovan Osborne? If they don't, it'll be eight in a row after Sunday, because I don't see any way in hell the Mariners beat Kevin Brown unless he overtorques his body from his pitching motion either sometime between now and the game or during the game itself. Raul Ibanez has a chance to look VERY stupid on Sunday.
Moyer. Osborne. Tomorrow.
By the way, I'd like to thank whoever thought of making the Brewers wear their Milwaukee Braves uniforms in a game at home against the Atlanta Braves. Thanks for messing with my mind, whoever you are.
[Edit ~10:13p -- I've gone through in the last hour and discovered a ton of spelling mistakes which hopefully I've nailed down. For what it's worth, I scored a verbal 580 my first time taking the SAT, and then dropped 40 points on verbal the next time I took it (math gains helped offset the blow). I took a GRE prep test last week and sucked to the tune of something like 480, though I did take it fairly cold. I actually pride myself on spelling, and usually a spelling mistake will stop me dead in my tracks and I'll go back and change it as soon as I find it. As for the test scores...I can spell and stuff, but if you give me an analogy that says "duct tape is to remote control as orange circus peanuts are to ____" and give me choices like index cards, Dixie cups, a can of Spam, and bubble wrap, I'll never know what to choose. And yes, that sample question was severely dumbed down as I didn't use any SAT vocab words like "insouciant" and "egregious."]
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