Wednesday, August 04, 2004
TOIL AND TROUBLE
Let's start out with Jamie Moyer's line tonight: 7 innings, 4 runs (basically two bad pitches; 2-run longballs by Melvin Mora in the 1st and Larry Bigbie in the 3rd), 8 hits, no walks, 4 strikeouts, 113 pitches (70 strikes).
Let's see how the Mariner offense helped waste it.
Randy Winn and Willie Bloomquist were still on base to start the game after Oriole pitcher Dave Borkowski's throwing error. Number 3 and 4 hitters coming up...jubilation and high anticipation, right? Bret Boone is caught looking, Raul Ibanez whiffs. Bucky Jacobsen singled to load the bases. Scott Spiezio watches strike three.
Bucky Jacobsen had singled himself aboard to lead off the 5th and was standing on second after a Spiezio groundout. Since Moyer was pitching, Wilson was catching. Wilson whiffed. Justin Leone flew out.
Wouldn't you know it, Bucky hit a leadoff single in the 7th also. Spiezio followed with the same thing. Ichiro was brought off the bench to pinch-run for Bucky (yeah, I'd say that's probably a speed advantage), who was the tying run, with the Mariners down 4-3. Problem? Two young guys coming to the plate. Leone bounced out to Jason Grimsley (highly inopportune) and Lopez bounced out to Tejada.
This isn't to say the Mariner offense didn't do anything in this game, because they did. They lost 5-4, not 5-0. Two runs scored in the 2nd: one on a Leone hammering of a hanging curve, and one on a Bloomquist single to score Jose Lopez. One run scored in the 4th on a Bloomquist single to score Leone.
The Mariners' 4th run tied the score in the 8th. Bloomquist hit a one-out single before Boone whiffed. Bloomquist stole second on a 1-1 count with Ibanez at bat. Ibanez hit a grounder to Miguel Tejada that easily should have been the last out of the inning. Instead, the ball ate Tejada up, and the former MVP was a little slow getting a handle on his bearings and the ball. Bloomquist alertly scored (I'll give this to him: he probably had his best game of the year) to tie the game.
So Miguel Tejada just booted the ball in the top of the 8th and let the tying run cross the plate. I STILL want him on my team. Why? Tejada mashes the second pitch from George Sherrill (Moyer didn't come out for the 8th) into the rightfield corner for a double. Two batters later, Jerry Hairston is up and Dan Wilson has trouble getting the handle on a wild pitch. Tejada breaks for third. Wilson airmails the throw to Leone at third; Tejada's aggressive baserunning gets him to third. Jerry Hairston Jr. singles on the next pitch. There's your ballgame. Jorge Julio turns out the lights on Wilson/Leone/Lopez (7-8-9) in the 9th, like I thought he would. To cap this paragraph, Tejada singlehandedly got himself to third base, where just a healthy fly ball would have gotten the O's the lead; he doubled, then took third on the wild pitch, which is small beans until you realize the play was still pretty close, and that no slouch could have made it to third on that play. Miguel Tejada, former MVP, set up that run all by himself, and Jerry Hairston drove it in. If you don't think he set it up himself, just agree with me that he took George Sherrill to the cleaners. Ballgame.
No, the Mariners didn't have the lead in this one. But they couldn't solve Dave Borkowski in the 1st or 5th (he's a no-name, surely the Mariners not solving a no-name surprises no one by now) and couldn't solve Jason Grimsley (dammit) in the 7th. Add that and Miguel Tejada's one-man schooling of George Sherrill, and you have the makings of a 5-4 Mariner defeat at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles.
Gameball: Jamie Moyer. I posted his line as the first line of this post. The Mariners needed about 7 out of him in the nightcap after Ron Villone gutted the first game and let us all know the answer to the question "who will take Travis Blackley's spot in the rotation?" Not Clint Nageotte, who went 3 innings in the first game (the answer is Bobby Madritsch, for anyone who doesn't know) to help clean up Villone's mess.
Goat: Raul Ibanez. As the cleanup hitter tonight, Raul went 0-for-5, struck out once, and stranded EIGHT RUNNERS. He ended the 2nd, 4th, and 6th innings with his outs. It's a shame, because Bucky only went 3-for-4 in the fifth spot (yes, right behind Raul) in the lineup.
Meche. Cabrera. Fourteen hours.
[Edit ~11:09a -- Totally forgot to note that Rafael Palmeiro hit a single in the fourth to pass Babe Ruth after tying the Bambino in the first game. That's 2874 hits for Raffie.]
Let's see how the Mariner offense helped waste it.
Randy Winn and Willie Bloomquist were still on base to start the game after Oriole pitcher Dave Borkowski's throwing error. Number 3 and 4 hitters coming up...jubilation and high anticipation, right? Bret Boone is caught looking, Raul Ibanez whiffs. Bucky Jacobsen singled to load the bases. Scott Spiezio watches strike three.
Bucky Jacobsen had singled himself aboard to lead off the 5th and was standing on second after a Spiezio groundout. Since Moyer was pitching, Wilson was catching. Wilson whiffed. Justin Leone flew out.
Wouldn't you know it, Bucky hit a leadoff single in the 7th also. Spiezio followed with the same thing. Ichiro was brought off the bench to pinch-run for Bucky (yeah, I'd say that's probably a speed advantage), who was the tying run, with the Mariners down 4-3. Problem? Two young guys coming to the plate. Leone bounced out to Jason Grimsley (highly inopportune) and Lopez bounced out to Tejada.
This isn't to say the Mariner offense didn't do anything in this game, because they did. They lost 5-4, not 5-0. Two runs scored in the 2nd: one on a Leone hammering of a hanging curve, and one on a Bloomquist single to score Jose Lopez. One run scored in the 4th on a Bloomquist single to score Leone.
The Mariners' 4th run tied the score in the 8th. Bloomquist hit a one-out single before Boone whiffed. Bloomquist stole second on a 1-1 count with Ibanez at bat. Ibanez hit a grounder to Miguel Tejada that easily should have been the last out of the inning. Instead, the ball ate Tejada up, and the former MVP was a little slow getting a handle on his bearings and the ball. Bloomquist alertly scored (I'll give this to him: he probably had his best game of the year) to tie the game.
So Miguel Tejada just booted the ball in the top of the 8th and let the tying run cross the plate. I STILL want him on my team. Why? Tejada mashes the second pitch from George Sherrill (Moyer didn't come out for the 8th) into the rightfield corner for a double. Two batters later, Jerry Hairston is up and Dan Wilson has trouble getting the handle on a wild pitch. Tejada breaks for third. Wilson airmails the throw to Leone at third; Tejada's aggressive baserunning gets him to third. Jerry Hairston Jr. singles on the next pitch. There's your ballgame. Jorge Julio turns out the lights on Wilson/Leone/Lopez (7-8-9) in the 9th, like I thought he would. To cap this paragraph, Tejada singlehandedly got himself to third base, where just a healthy fly ball would have gotten the O's the lead; he doubled, then took third on the wild pitch, which is small beans until you realize the play was still pretty close, and that no slouch could have made it to third on that play. Miguel Tejada, former MVP, set up that run all by himself, and Jerry Hairston drove it in. If you don't think he set it up himself, just agree with me that he took George Sherrill to the cleaners. Ballgame.
No, the Mariners didn't have the lead in this one. But they couldn't solve Dave Borkowski in the 1st or 5th (he's a no-name, surely the Mariners not solving a no-name surprises no one by now) and couldn't solve Jason Grimsley (dammit) in the 7th. Add that and Miguel Tejada's one-man schooling of George Sherrill, and you have the makings of a 5-4 Mariner defeat at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles.
Gameball: Jamie Moyer. I posted his line as the first line of this post. The Mariners needed about 7 out of him in the nightcap after Ron Villone gutted the first game and let us all know the answer to the question "who will take Travis Blackley's spot in the rotation?" Not Clint Nageotte, who went 3 innings in the first game (the answer is Bobby Madritsch, for anyone who doesn't know) to help clean up Villone's mess.
Goat: Raul Ibanez. As the cleanup hitter tonight, Raul went 0-for-5, struck out once, and stranded EIGHT RUNNERS. He ended the 2nd, 4th, and 6th innings with his outs. It's a shame, because Bucky only went 3-for-4 in the fifth spot (yes, right behind Raul) in the lineup.
Meche. Cabrera. Fourteen hours.
[Edit ~11:09a -- Totally forgot to note that Rafael Palmeiro hit a single in the fourth to pass Babe Ruth after tying the Bambino in the first game. That's 2874 hits for Raffie.]
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