Saturday, August 07, 2004
SUPERFREAK OCCURRENCE
Yes, on the same day Rick James leaves us all, the Seattle/Tampa Bay game on Friday, 6 August 2004 ends on a play that could only be described as "superfreaky." Or if you're Rick Rizzs, "ridiculous."
Okay, I'll admit I slept through a decent portion of this game. However, I did see the Mariners score their first run, and I saw most of the last half of the game, including the final play, which everyone's been talking about. To aid my filling of gaps (not too many, there weren't many runs scored tonight), I have the usual boxscore, recap, and play-by-play, along with watching the final five innings of the game on Mariners Double Play on FSNNW.
The umpires somewhat came into the forefront on the very first play of the game, when Ichiro served one into rightfield on the second pitch. It was a blatant trap, though it was called an out, and a diving catch by Jose Cruz Jr. The other weird play of the inning involved Bret Boone's strikeout that wasn't caught. He didn't realize that at first, but then scurried to first. No matter though, nobody scored or got into scoring position in the inning.
Ryan Franklin trotted out to the mound in the first and Carl Crawford promptly singled, and drew the obligatory ton of pickoff throws. He did end up stealing second base on a 3-1 pitch to Aubrey Huff, but that was rendered moot when Huff walked. A flyout and lineout by Rocco Baldelli and Tino Martinez would end that threat. Yes, a mere 21 pitches in the first inning for Ryan Franklin. Somewhat dicey.
Dewon Brazelton got two quick outs in the 2nd before he managed to walk Dan Wilson. Justin Leone followed suit with a walk of his own. Both Wilson and Leone had 3-0 counts to start their at-bats. Brazelton wouldn't be quite as wild with Jose Lopez, but Aubrey Huff would. Lopez bounced a ball to Huff at third, who misplayed it (I'm pretty sure he let it by him, and I think it'd have to be that because Dan Wilson would have had to make it home from second on the play). That gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead.
The Mariner half of the 3rd saw the Mariners both begin and end the hit parade. Boone led off with a single, and Edgar Martinez hit a single of his own to sandwich an all-too-predictable Raul Ibanez flyout. Runners were on first and second for a Murderers Row of Scott Spiezio, Dan Wilson, and Justin Leone. Popout, bean, flyout. End of threat.
And there you have it! Those were the only bona fide scoring opportunities the Mariners had all night. The only innings in which the Mariners weren't retired 1-2-3 were the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th. There's many ways to slice this up. Tampa Bay pitching (Brazelton and Travis Harper) retired the final 16 Mariner hitters, and 22 of the final 23 (I can make a stat like that since the Mariners only had one baserunner after the 3rd inning, and it wasn't on a hit). Now there were some notables about those 1-2-3 innings: we see that Ichiro and Bloomquist both popped out in foul ground (now THAT's contact!!) to start the 7th, and generally we notice that a ton of the outs were flyouts. The boxscore confirms this, as Dewon Brazelton shows what I'd have to say is a grossly imbalanced ground/fly ratio of 4/19. Brazelton threw eight innings of 2-hit ball, and the only run he allowed was unearned. Travis Harper came out of the bullpen and pitched the final two innings for the Devil Rays.
Ryan Franklin allowed his only run in the 4th. Baldelli legged out an infield single and stood on third after Tino Martinez singled to right. Jose Cruz Jr. hit a fly ball to shallow leftfield, and shortstop Jose Lopez ran back to catch it. Now I don't know if there was any way Raul Ibanez could have caught it (though the wire article's making me think he had a chance), but Lopez caught the ball and obviously had his momentum taking him backward. Baldelli is on third base and realizes this, breaks for home, and scores. Franklin would bounce back and do immediate damage control, getting Robert Fick to bounce into a double play. Franklin's only other inning of turbulence was the 6th, when the bases were loaded with one out on a Baldelli single, Tino infield single, and Cruz ten-pitch hard-fought walk. Luckily, Fick was up again, and it was the same result, except with more style points. In an extremely quick play, Fick lined out to Boone, who quickly flipped to Lopez breaking across the bag at second, forcing out Tino.
The first and final plays of the game weren't the only superfreaky occurrences in the game...Dan Wilson threw out a runner at second (Carl Crawford, no less!) in the 7th!!! And there was much dancing and celebration in the streets.
George Sherrill came on to start the 8th. He needed seven pitches to catch Julio Lugo looking, but got two outs with his next two pitches to end the inning. He was pulled after throwing a wild strikeout pitch to Fick. Of course, wild pitches get more wilder with Miguel Olivo behind the plate. Olivo was catching as a result of Randy Winn pinch-hitting for Wilson. Winn took over in center, Bloomquist moved to third (setting up the defensive alignment for the big finish). Clint Nageotte came in and nailed Rey Sanchez. Geoff Blum bounced out on the next pitch to end the threat.
What I'll say before I get into the weirdness is that Nageotte faced seven batters tonight. Other than an intentional walk and two first pitches that were swung at, three hitters saw first-pitch balls. Worse yet, two of the seven hitters were walked, and another was beaned. Anyway, Nageotte allowed a leadoff single to Carl Crawford (he went 3-for-4 tonight...no better candidate for a winning run). Julio Lugo bunted Crawford over to second. Aubrey Huff was put on first. Baldelli walked. On four pitches. To load the bases. Tino came to the plate. On a 2-2 pitch, he hit a gingerly fly ball of medium depth to leftfield. To a casually observing baseball fan, the play appears to have a catch by Raul Ibanez, who comes up throwing home, and Carl Crawford tagging up at third, seeing the throw coming in, and deciding to hold. The casual baseball fan also reacts in wonderment as to why Crawford is being awarded home plate by third-base umpire Paul Emmel. Meanwhile, in the booth, Rick Rizzs is beside himself, almost throwing his headset onto the field (well, maybe not). Bill Krueger's speculation is what turns out to be the final call. Emmel thinks that Jose Lopez ran toward third and leaned over to intentionally obstruct Carl Crawford's view of the catch, and in turn tried to rob him of having a well-timed jump on the throw. Did I know such a rule existed? Hell no. Was it the correct call? I'm leaning toward no. We know the umpires don't have the power of instant replay, but it did appear to me that Jose didn't do his lean-in until after Crawford had taken off from third. Rizzs tried to use the over-the-field replay to show that Crawford had an unimpeded line of sight between Bloomquist and Lopez to see the catch (and he did have it timed perfectly). I bash Rizzs as a hopeless optimistic homer, but I think he was right for the most part tonight. I mean...I can understand if Lopez made physical contact to obstruct Crawford from reaching the plate, but I had no idea that obstructing lines of sight on a tag-up situation wasn't fair game. Boy, if I was a runner on first base with nobody else on, I'd ask for the catcher on the opposing team to hold up his hand and show me what signs he's giving because I obviously can't see them. My dad was an umpire for some youth games here a couple years ago, and I asked him if he knew where his rule book was, and unfortunately he doesn't. What I can't get over...if the runner can't see the play, isn't the third-base coach acting as the runner's eyes on the play anyway? Couldn't Tom Foley (ex-Expo player, Rays' third-base coach, not former Speaker of the House) just have yelled "GO!" and Carl could have taken off, with just about the same reaction time? This whole damn thing is weird...
Anyway, best case scenario if the call has no run scoring on the play is if Nageotte gets Cruz to hit into a double play. Worst case would be that he walks him, which probably has a high probability anyway considering Nageotte's control or lack thereof. Such a walk would render the "RBI sac fly" call moot.
Gameball: Ryan Franklin. Seven innings, 1 run, 7 hits, 3 walks, 1 strikeout, 109 pitches (59 strikes). A solid, balk-free outing. No reason to gameball a hitter when the whole team only got two hits.
Goat: Willie Bloomquist. 0-for-5, stranding three.
So...can you think of any new ways for the Mariners to lose a game this season? I couldn't have thought of the one that happened tonight even in my wildest dreams.
Sorry I'm late with this one...turns out other more worthy people (you know, the ones that work) use the 'net in this house.
Villone. Hendrickson (man, Piniella knows what he was thinking when he got Hendrickson; a trio of Mariner-beating no-names! Sosa/Waechter/Hendrickson). Fifteen hours.
Okay, I'll admit I slept through a decent portion of this game. However, I did see the Mariners score their first run, and I saw most of the last half of the game, including the final play, which everyone's been talking about. To aid my filling of gaps (not too many, there weren't many runs scored tonight), I have the usual boxscore, recap, and play-by-play, along with watching the final five innings of the game on Mariners Double Play on FSNNW.
The umpires somewhat came into the forefront on the very first play of the game, when Ichiro served one into rightfield on the second pitch. It was a blatant trap, though it was called an out, and a diving catch by Jose Cruz Jr. The other weird play of the inning involved Bret Boone's strikeout that wasn't caught. He didn't realize that at first, but then scurried to first. No matter though, nobody scored or got into scoring position in the inning.
Ryan Franklin trotted out to the mound in the first and Carl Crawford promptly singled, and drew the obligatory ton of pickoff throws. He did end up stealing second base on a 3-1 pitch to Aubrey Huff, but that was rendered moot when Huff walked. A flyout and lineout by Rocco Baldelli and Tino Martinez would end that threat. Yes, a mere 21 pitches in the first inning for Ryan Franklin. Somewhat dicey.
Dewon Brazelton got two quick outs in the 2nd before he managed to walk Dan Wilson. Justin Leone followed suit with a walk of his own. Both Wilson and Leone had 3-0 counts to start their at-bats. Brazelton wouldn't be quite as wild with Jose Lopez, but Aubrey Huff would. Lopez bounced a ball to Huff at third, who misplayed it (I'm pretty sure he let it by him, and I think it'd have to be that because Dan Wilson would have had to make it home from second on the play). That gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead.
The Mariner half of the 3rd saw the Mariners both begin and end the hit parade. Boone led off with a single, and Edgar Martinez hit a single of his own to sandwich an all-too-predictable Raul Ibanez flyout. Runners were on first and second for a Murderers Row of Scott Spiezio, Dan Wilson, and Justin Leone. Popout, bean, flyout. End of threat.
And there you have it! Those were the only bona fide scoring opportunities the Mariners had all night. The only innings in which the Mariners weren't retired 1-2-3 were the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th. There's many ways to slice this up. Tampa Bay pitching (Brazelton and Travis Harper) retired the final 16 Mariner hitters, and 22 of the final 23 (I can make a stat like that since the Mariners only had one baserunner after the 3rd inning, and it wasn't on a hit). Now there were some notables about those 1-2-3 innings: we see that Ichiro and Bloomquist both popped out in foul ground (now THAT's contact!!) to start the 7th, and generally we notice that a ton of the outs were flyouts. The boxscore confirms this, as Dewon Brazelton shows what I'd have to say is a grossly imbalanced ground/fly ratio of 4/19. Brazelton threw eight innings of 2-hit ball, and the only run he allowed was unearned. Travis Harper came out of the bullpen and pitched the final two innings for the Devil Rays.
Ryan Franklin allowed his only run in the 4th. Baldelli legged out an infield single and stood on third after Tino Martinez singled to right. Jose Cruz Jr. hit a fly ball to shallow leftfield, and shortstop Jose Lopez ran back to catch it. Now I don't know if there was any way Raul Ibanez could have caught it (though the wire article's making me think he had a chance), but Lopez caught the ball and obviously had his momentum taking him backward. Baldelli is on third base and realizes this, breaks for home, and scores. Franklin would bounce back and do immediate damage control, getting Robert Fick to bounce into a double play. Franklin's only other inning of turbulence was the 6th, when the bases were loaded with one out on a Baldelli single, Tino infield single, and Cruz ten-pitch hard-fought walk. Luckily, Fick was up again, and it was the same result, except with more style points. In an extremely quick play, Fick lined out to Boone, who quickly flipped to Lopez breaking across the bag at second, forcing out Tino.
The first and final plays of the game weren't the only superfreaky occurrences in the game...Dan Wilson threw out a runner at second (Carl Crawford, no less!) in the 7th!!! And there was much dancing and celebration in the streets.
George Sherrill came on to start the 8th. He needed seven pitches to catch Julio Lugo looking, but got two outs with his next two pitches to end the inning. He was pulled after throwing a wild strikeout pitch to Fick. Of course, wild pitches get more wilder with Miguel Olivo behind the plate. Olivo was catching as a result of Randy Winn pinch-hitting for Wilson. Winn took over in center, Bloomquist moved to third (setting up the defensive alignment for the big finish). Clint Nageotte came in and nailed Rey Sanchez. Geoff Blum bounced out on the next pitch to end the threat.
What I'll say before I get into the weirdness is that Nageotte faced seven batters tonight. Other than an intentional walk and two first pitches that were swung at, three hitters saw first-pitch balls. Worse yet, two of the seven hitters were walked, and another was beaned. Anyway, Nageotte allowed a leadoff single to Carl Crawford (he went 3-for-4 tonight...no better candidate for a winning run). Julio Lugo bunted Crawford over to second. Aubrey Huff was put on first. Baldelli walked. On four pitches. To load the bases. Tino came to the plate. On a 2-2 pitch, he hit a gingerly fly ball of medium depth to leftfield. To a casually observing baseball fan, the play appears to have a catch by Raul Ibanez, who comes up throwing home, and Carl Crawford tagging up at third, seeing the throw coming in, and deciding to hold. The casual baseball fan also reacts in wonderment as to why Crawford is being awarded home plate by third-base umpire Paul Emmel. Meanwhile, in the booth, Rick Rizzs is beside himself, almost throwing his headset onto the field (well, maybe not). Bill Krueger's speculation is what turns out to be the final call. Emmel thinks that Jose Lopez ran toward third and leaned over to intentionally obstruct Carl Crawford's view of the catch, and in turn tried to rob him of having a well-timed jump on the throw. Did I know such a rule existed? Hell no. Was it the correct call? I'm leaning toward no. We know the umpires don't have the power of instant replay, but it did appear to me that Jose didn't do his lean-in until after Crawford had taken off from third. Rizzs tried to use the over-the-field replay to show that Crawford had an unimpeded line of sight between Bloomquist and Lopez to see the catch (and he did have it timed perfectly). I bash Rizzs as a hopeless optimistic homer, but I think he was right for the most part tonight. I mean...I can understand if Lopez made physical contact to obstruct Crawford from reaching the plate, but I had no idea that obstructing lines of sight on a tag-up situation wasn't fair game. Boy, if I was a runner on first base with nobody else on, I'd ask for the catcher on the opposing team to hold up his hand and show me what signs he's giving because I obviously can't see them. My dad was an umpire for some youth games here a couple years ago, and I asked him if he knew where his rule book was, and unfortunately he doesn't. What I can't get over...if the runner can't see the play, isn't the third-base coach acting as the runner's eyes on the play anyway? Couldn't Tom Foley (ex-Expo player, Rays' third-base coach, not former Speaker of the House) just have yelled "GO!" and Carl could have taken off, with just about the same reaction time? This whole damn thing is weird...
Anyway, best case scenario if the call has no run scoring on the play is if Nageotte gets Cruz to hit into a double play. Worst case would be that he walks him, which probably has a high probability anyway considering Nageotte's control or lack thereof. Such a walk would render the "RBI sac fly" call moot.
Gameball: Ryan Franklin. Seven innings, 1 run, 7 hits, 3 walks, 1 strikeout, 109 pitches (59 strikes). A solid, balk-free outing. No reason to gameball a hitter when the whole team only got two hits.
Goat: Willie Bloomquist. 0-for-5, stranding three.
So...can you think of any new ways for the Mariners to lose a game this season? I couldn't have thought of the one that happened tonight even in my wildest dreams.
Sorry I'm late with this one...turns out other more worthy people (you know, the ones that work) use the 'net in this house.
Villone. Hendrickson (man, Piniella knows what he was thinking when he got Hendrickson; a trio of Mariner-beating no-names! Sosa/Waechter/Hendrickson). Fifteen hours.
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