Wednesday, July 28, 2004
(SUB)MARINERS AT 15
R = I - 5,
where
R = number of games in Mariners' current road losing streak
I = number of games in Ichiro's current hitting streak
Jamie Moyer went all Pedro/Randy on us (with strikeouts, not blazing speed or arm/back problems), but it was all for naught in today's loss, by a score of 3-2 to the Oakland A's.
Ichiro is now at 20 games in his hit streak, while the Mariners have lost 15 straight games on the road (gaffes in my previous posts regarding this number have been rectified).
As for the Mariner offense, one might expect little to no scoring opportunities for the Mariners against a pitcher of Mark Mulder's calibre, and today was no surprise. The Mariners' only real scoring chances (usually by this I mean "runner in scoring position with less than two out") were in the 3rd and 8th.
In the 3rd, Ichiro, Randy Winn, and Bret Boone played Singlefest-where-nobody-scores with one out, then Bucky Jacobsen was caught looking. Mulder really wasted the pitch on 0-2 to Raul Ibanez, uncorking a wild pitch to score Ichiro. Raul was caught looking on the next pitch.
In the 8th, Bret Boone ended up on third after a double and an error by Eric Byrnes on the throw from centerfield. After what was probably an insufficiently deep fly ball to leftfield by Bucky (this wasn't a TV game), Ibanez hit a comebacker to the mound that Mulder snared. Bret Boone was caught dead in-between third and home. There goes your go-ahead run. Scott Spiezio was the next hitter. Okay, I'll tell you what he did: he popped out to short. If Boone was still on third after the Ibanez play, we can only hope that Bob Melvin would have pinch-hit for Spiezio, maybe with Edgar or some sort of half-viable rightie option off the bench.
The quote that I heard on the KONG sports segment at 10 (and backed up by the wire) was Hasegawa saying that Eric Byrnes "closed his eyes" before he hit that homer. After seeing the homer on the highlight reel, I have to say the pitch was pretty freakin' high, and Byrnes pretty much tomahawked it out just to the left of the stairs in leftfield. Boy, what a year for Hasegawa. It's been a painful one.
As for the events of the 9th inning, Ken Levine's Law applies: the leadoff walk always comes around to score unless it doesn't. This time, it did, and there was nothing Ichiro's arm could do about it.
Gameball: Jamie Moyer. Easy choice here, and he really did get screwed. Seven innings, 1 run, 5 hits, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts, 105 pitches (69 strikes). His ERA of 4.29 in comparison to the three pitchers in the game after him: Shig Hasegawa (5.64), Mike Myers (5.33), Julio Mateo (5.05). Great numbers for three of the main veteran (use term loosely with Mateo) guys in the Mariner bullpen. Remember back in the day when Arthur Rhodes' ERA was under 1 for the longest time? We're light years away from that. By "we" in this case, I mean both the fans/readers as well as Rhodes.
Goat: Willie Bloomquist. 0-for-4 with a strikeout, stranding one. Is it unfair that Bucky hits a solo BuckyBlast(TM), but strikes out once and strands six runners, yet I don't give him the goat? Who cares?!! On three occasions, Bloomquist got out (caught looking in 3rd, bounced to Mulder in 5th, bounced to short in 7th), and Ichiro got on base behind him (infield single, walk, single). If Bloomquist gets on base just one out of those three times, well, it certainly would have helped. The one time Bloomquist did get on base (9th inning), Miguel Olivo was forced out on the ground ball he hit. I know it's Mark Mulder out there, but hey, welcome to playing every day in the big leagues.
And to those who didn't get Jeremy's extremely witty final line of his game post...
Villone. Sele. Tomorrow.
where
R = number of games in Mariners' current road losing streak
I = number of games in Ichiro's current hitting streak
Jamie Moyer went all Pedro/Randy on us (with strikeouts, not blazing speed or arm/back problems), but it was all for naught in today's loss, by a score of 3-2 to the Oakland A's.
Ichiro is now at 20 games in his hit streak, while the Mariners have lost 15 straight games on the road (gaffes in my previous posts regarding this number have been rectified).
As for the Mariner offense, one might expect little to no scoring opportunities for the Mariners against a pitcher of Mark Mulder's calibre, and today was no surprise. The Mariners' only real scoring chances (usually by this I mean "runner in scoring position with less than two out") were in the 3rd and 8th.
In the 3rd, Ichiro, Randy Winn, and Bret Boone played Singlefest-where-nobody-scores with one out, then Bucky Jacobsen was caught looking. Mulder really wasted the pitch on 0-2 to Raul Ibanez, uncorking a wild pitch to score Ichiro. Raul was caught looking on the next pitch.
In the 8th, Bret Boone ended up on third after a double and an error by Eric Byrnes on the throw from centerfield. After what was probably an insufficiently deep fly ball to leftfield by Bucky (this wasn't a TV game), Ibanez hit a comebacker to the mound that Mulder snared. Bret Boone was caught dead in-between third and home. There goes your go-ahead run. Scott Spiezio was the next hitter. Okay, I'll tell you what he did: he popped out to short. If Boone was still on third after the Ibanez play, we can only hope that Bob Melvin would have pinch-hit for Spiezio, maybe with Edgar or some sort of half-viable rightie option off the bench.
The quote that I heard on the KONG sports segment at 10 (and backed up by the wire) was Hasegawa saying that Eric Byrnes "closed his eyes" before he hit that homer. After seeing the homer on the highlight reel, I have to say the pitch was pretty freakin' high, and Byrnes pretty much tomahawked it out just to the left of the stairs in leftfield. Boy, what a year for Hasegawa. It's been a painful one.
As for the events of the 9th inning, Ken Levine's Law applies: the leadoff walk always comes around to score unless it doesn't. This time, it did, and there was nothing Ichiro's arm could do about it.
Gameball: Jamie Moyer. Easy choice here, and he really did get screwed. Seven innings, 1 run, 5 hits, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts, 105 pitches (69 strikes). His ERA of 4.29 in comparison to the three pitchers in the game after him: Shig Hasegawa (5.64), Mike Myers (5.33), Julio Mateo (5.05). Great numbers for three of the main veteran (use term loosely with Mateo) guys in the Mariner bullpen. Remember back in the day when Arthur Rhodes' ERA was under 1 for the longest time? We're light years away from that. By "we" in this case, I mean both the fans/readers as well as Rhodes.
Goat: Willie Bloomquist. 0-for-4 with a strikeout, stranding one. Is it unfair that Bucky hits a solo BuckyBlast(TM), but strikes out once and strands six runners, yet I don't give him the goat? Who cares?!! On three occasions, Bloomquist got out (caught looking in 3rd, bounced to Mulder in 5th, bounced to short in 7th), and Ichiro got on base behind him (infield single, walk, single). If Bloomquist gets on base just one out of those three times, well, it certainly would have helped. The one time Bloomquist did get on base (9th inning), Miguel Olivo was forced out on the ground ball he hit. I know it's Mark Mulder out there, but hey, welcome to playing every day in the big leagues.
And to those who didn't get Jeremy's extremely witty final line of his game post...
Villone. Sele. Tomorrow.
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