Monday, May 02, 2005
GAME 25: ATHLETICS 3, MARINERS 2
Athletics 3, Mariners 2
In 25 words or less: Nice job by Joel Pineiro, but quite simply, s#&@ happens. So does unclutch hitting, but hey, we're Mariner fans. We're no strangers to this.
This one featured Joel Pineiro against Barry Zito.
TOP 1ST
Grade: C-
Zito had a somewhat laborious 1-2-3 inning. After fouling off a ton of pitches, Ichiro tapped a ball back to Zito on the tenth pitch of his at-bat. Randy Winn popped out to second baseman Mark Ellis on the outfield grass. Adrian Beltre had the hitters' counts but was foiled by a diving stab and throw from the knees out of Eric Chavez at third, later featured as a Web Gem on Baseball Tonight.
BOTTOM 1ST
Grade: B-
Pineiro got through fairly unscathed. Mark Kotsay whiffed on a high 0-2 pitch. Pineiro started off the next two hitters with 3-0 counts. Jason Kendall went full and grounded out to Beltre at third. Eric Chavez took a 3-1 changeup low and away for a two-out walk. Pineiro got ahead quickly on Scott Hatteberg, going 0-2 and then getting the top-ranked Web Gem of the night on a 1-2 pitch, a fly ball into the gap in rightcenter that Ichiro ran a couple miles to get.
TOP 2ND
Grade: C-
Zito was rolling along. Richie Sexson had a 2-0 count, but foul-tipped a full-count fastball into Kendall's glove for strike three. Beet Boone swung at a low pitch, flying out to center. Raul Ibanez grounded his first pitch to second.
BOTTOM 2ND
Grade: A
Pineiro had an incredibly easy inning. Erubiel Durazo bounced out to Sexson (3-1 putout), Mark Ellis took an 0-2 slider over the inside corner for strike three, and Bobby Kielty failed to check his swing on an 0-2 high fastball. Pineiro threw only eight pitches in the inning.
TOP 3RD
Grade: B
The Mariners did something?! Willie Bloomquist nearly hit a double into the corner in leftfield, but it went foul. He ended up tapping a way outside 1-2 pitch back to Zito for an easy out. Jeremy Reed had the hitters' counts and connected on the 3-1 pitch, smashing it deep to rightfield. Nick Swisher tried to make a running catch, but missed, and subsequently plowed his right shoulder at near-full speed into the outfield wall. Swisher did manage to throw the ball to the infield, and Reed came out of it with a triple. Swisher came out of the game with the injury. Eric Byrnes came into the game in leftfield, and Kielty was moved to right. Oakland drew the infield in with Miguel Olivo at the plate. Olivo fouled off a bunch of pitches and was able to loft a fly ball just short of the track in leftfield, more than adequate enough to score Reed from third.
»» MARINERS 1, ATHLETICS 0
Ichiro got down 0-2 and later lined one toward the line in leftfield, and it was caught by Byrnes on the run, though it wasn't the crazy catch he made in foul territory on Saturday.
BOTTOM 3RD
Grade: B-
Pineiro wasn't giving Oakland very much. Byrnes popped out to Sexson along the first-base line in foul territory. Marco Scutaro got behind 0-2, and two pitches later grounded a ball to Bloomquist, who threw high to first, though Sexson jumped for the ball and came down on the bag in time. Kotsay singled to center on the 0-2 pitch. Kendall rolled a ball to Beltre, who threw to second for the forceout (5-4 fielder's choice).
TOP 4TH
Grade: C-
Zito got some help. Winn had the hitters' counts and stung a 3-1 pitch over Scutaro's glove and into leftfield for a single. Beltre hit the first pitch hard to Chavez, who easily started the 5-4-3 double play. Sexson grounded out to Scutaro to end the inning.
BOTTOM 4TH
Grade: C-
Rotten luck. Chavez lined a pitch up and away to leftfield for a single. Hatteberg swung at a high first pitch and flew out to Ichiro. Durazo singled to almost the same spot as Chavez. Ellis flew out to Reed in leftcenter. With two on and two out, Kielty hit a ball down the first-base line and Sexson was waiting to make the play. The ball hit the first-base bag and went high into the air. Boone ran over to get it after it landed (it was in the outfield grass past first base by this point), but he had no play anywhere (especially because he never got a grip on the ball), and Chavez scored to tie the game.
»» ATHLETICS 1, MARINERS 1
Luckily, Byrnes ended the carnage quickly by flying out to Reed on the first pitch.
TOP 5TH
Grade: C-
Even the good things turned bad. Boone lined out to left on the first pitch. Ibanez got down 0-2 and later tapped back to the mound. Bloomquist dinked one into centerfield for a single, but that was quickly negated. With a 1-1 count on Reed, and after having seen a couple Zito pickoff throws, Bloomquist took off and Zito threw to first. The end result was a 1-3-6 putout, a pickoff.
BOTTOM 5TH
Grade: A
Pineiro had his easiest inning of the day. Scutaro bounced out to Beltre on the second pitch. Kotsay grounded out to Boone on the first pitch. Kendall swung at the second pitch and grounded out to short. Pineiro got ground balls involving all four infielders on five pitches total.
TOP 6TH
Grade: A-
A clutch hit? Reed had a 3-0 count and hit the 3-1 pitch into centefield for a leadoff single. Olivo fouled off some pitches again before rolling one to Ellis behind the mound, who threw to first. Reed went to second. Ichiro had a 3-1 count, but only managed a groundout to second as Reed moved along to third. Winn hit a 1-2 pitch barely foul down the leftfield line. He worked the count full and doubled off the base of the wall in the gap in leftcenter, scoring Reed and giving the Mariners the lead.
»» MARINERS 2, ATHLETICS 1
Beltre took a might hack at a 2-0 pitch high and outside. He later swung at a pitch up and in, grounding out to Chavez.
BOTTOM 6TH
Grade: C-
More rotten luck, and the inning started off with the same hitter as in the other crappy inning. Chavez ripped the first pitch into rightfield for a single. Hatteberg almost doubled down the line on his 0-2 pitch. A couple pitches later, Hatteberg hit a high popup to shallow rightfield that Boone went back for, but lost in the sun. Ichiro couldn't race forward fast enough to catch it on the fly, and his throw to second to try and force out Chavez wasn't in time. To rub it in, Durazo walloped his first pitch into the gap in rightcenter to clear the bases. Durazo was hung up between second and third on the relay back to the field, eventually tagged out by Sexson.
»» ATHLETICS 3, MARINERS 2
Ellis smashed the first pitch over Winn's head in leftfield, one-hopping the wall for a double. Kielty had a 2-0 count, but mashed a 2-1 pitch which went to Sexson, making a diving backhanded stop and a 3-1 putout. Byrnes popped up to Boone on the infield to end the inning, but its too bad he didn't get the other one.
TOP 7TH
Grade: C-
Nothing doing for the bats. Sexson hit a grounder in the hole to Scutaro, who one-hopped his throw in time to first. Boone reached the sky with a fly ball to Byrnes in left. Ibanez had a 2-0 count hit a high fly to Byrnes in leftcenter two pitches later.
Zito's line: 7 innings, 2 runs, 5 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 114 pitches (71 strikes)
BOTTOM 7TH
Grade: A
Pineiro was still on his game. Scutaro got down 0-2 and lined out to Ichiro on 1-2. Kotsay bounced one to Sexson, who tossed to a covering Pineiro for the putout. Kendall grounded out to short on the second pitch.
TOP 8TH
Grade: C-
Justin Duchscherer came in for Zito and the Mariner lineup still did nothing. Bloomquist flew out to center on the second pitch. Reed bounced one past Ellis for a single, but Olivo eventually erased him by tapping back to the mound and starting the 1-6-3 double play.
Duchscherer's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, 10 pitches (7 strikes)
BOTTOM 8TH
Grade: A
Pineiro finished out his outing, slicing through the meat of the Oakland order. Chavez popped to the shortstop on the infield. Pineiro got ahead 0-2 on Hatteberg and got him to whiff on an off-speed 1-2 pitch. Durazo bounced one to Sexson for a 3-1 putout.
Pineiro's line: 8 innings, 3 runs, 8 hits, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts, 100 pitches (69 strikes)
TOP 9TH
Grade: F
Octavio Dotel came in to close it out. The first seven pitches he threw were balls. Eight of the first nine pitches he threw were balls. Ichiro walked on four pitches, and Winn had walked on a 3-1 pitch down and in. After a visit from the pitching coach, Dotel toed the rubber once again to face Beltre and Sexson with two on and nobody out. Dotel became a strike-throwing machine. Beltre took an 0-2 pitch down the middle, which is inexcusable, I don't care if you're looking for something else or not (and I like Beltre). Sexson bounced the 0-1 pitch to Scutaro at short, and the 6-4-3 double play was the result. Ballgame.
Dotel's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 2 walks, 1 strikeout, 14 pitches (6 strikes)
---
Gameball: Jeremy Reed.
He was 3-for-3 out of the #8 slot in the lineup with a triple. He scored all the Mariners' runs in the game. After his third single, he was on first with one out when Olivo grounded into a double play to end the 8th. Just like that, Reed's batting average is up to a much more respectable .268. It was a great day when Mike Hargrove decided to leave Reed in the lineup even against lefties. He's got to see lefties eventually anyway, so I didn't see the rationale in yanking him every time a lefty took the mound. The guy's going to give you quality at-bats a great majority of the time.
Goat: Adrian Beltre.
0-for-4, striking out once, stranding four, and grounding into a double play. If i were a real punk, I could give another goat to Bret Boone (check the archive page, he's leading the team), but Beltre has yet to heat up. I'm not doubting he will, but when do we earn the right to bitch? When does the league adjustment period wear off? At least he's playing awesome defense on the corner. People might have been able to imagine Sexson having six homers in April, but did we see Beltre having only two? I just hope he heats up soon.
How far can you really expect to get when Ichiro, Adrian Beltre, Richie Sexson, Bret Boone, and Raul Ibanez combine to go 0-for-17? If you throw in Miguel Olivo and make it 0-for-19, that makes two-thirds of your lineup who didn't get a hit. It almost makes me wish Joel Pineiro would have gotten rocked so it would have been bad all the way around, and it wouldn't have been so close.
But it was close. Joel Pineiro pitched a great game (and thankfully rested the bullpen after they worked overtime in Moyer's game), but once again, the offense had their chances but couldn't come through. Of course, Pineiro got screwed bigtime by the ball Bobby Kielty hit the first-base bag with to score the tying run, and Boone couldn't get a handle on the ball. Ditto for the ball that Boone lost in the sun; Pineiro would have faced Durazo (who hit the game-winning double) with Chavez on first and one out as opposed to two runners with nobody out. Maybe in a perfect world, Joel gets a double play right there.
What to make of this? If the Mariners get a hit here or there, and if they don't have balls bouncing off bags and getting lost in the sun, they arguably could have swept this series. Instead, they win the first game and drop the next two. Days like Saturday and Sunday are why no rational mind had the Mariners pegged at 90 wins this year.
Where does this leave us? The lack of clutch hitting readies the Mariners for three home games against the Angels, of course. Overastute folks will have noticed so far that I never refer to the Angels with a city name. That will continue as long as I'm doing these or until they change their name back to something sensible. If I had my way, they'd still be the California Angels.
Washburn. Franklin. Tonight.
In 25 words or less: Nice job by Joel Pineiro, but quite simply, s#&@ happens. So does unclutch hitting, but hey, we're Mariner fans. We're no strangers to this.
This one featured Joel Pineiro against Barry Zito.
TOP 1ST
Grade: C-
Zito had a somewhat laborious 1-2-3 inning. After fouling off a ton of pitches, Ichiro tapped a ball back to Zito on the tenth pitch of his at-bat. Randy Winn popped out to second baseman Mark Ellis on the outfield grass. Adrian Beltre had the hitters' counts but was foiled by a diving stab and throw from the knees out of Eric Chavez at third, later featured as a Web Gem on Baseball Tonight.
BOTTOM 1ST
Grade: B-
Pineiro got through fairly unscathed. Mark Kotsay whiffed on a high 0-2 pitch. Pineiro started off the next two hitters with 3-0 counts. Jason Kendall went full and grounded out to Beltre at third. Eric Chavez took a 3-1 changeup low and away for a two-out walk. Pineiro got ahead quickly on Scott Hatteberg, going 0-2 and then getting the top-ranked Web Gem of the night on a 1-2 pitch, a fly ball into the gap in rightcenter that Ichiro ran a couple miles to get.
TOP 2ND
Grade: C-
Zito was rolling along. Richie Sexson had a 2-0 count, but foul-tipped a full-count fastball into Kendall's glove for strike three. Beet Boone swung at a low pitch, flying out to center. Raul Ibanez grounded his first pitch to second.
BOTTOM 2ND
Grade: A
Pineiro had an incredibly easy inning. Erubiel Durazo bounced out to Sexson (3-1 putout), Mark Ellis took an 0-2 slider over the inside corner for strike three, and Bobby Kielty failed to check his swing on an 0-2 high fastball. Pineiro threw only eight pitches in the inning.
TOP 3RD
Grade: B
The Mariners did something?! Willie Bloomquist nearly hit a double into the corner in leftfield, but it went foul. He ended up tapping a way outside 1-2 pitch back to Zito for an easy out. Jeremy Reed had the hitters' counts and connected on the 3-1 pitch, smashing it deep to rightfield. Nick Swisher tried to make a running catch, but missed, and subsequently plowed his right shoulder at near-full speed into the outfield wall. Swisher did manage to throw the ball to the infield, and Reed came out of it with a triple. Swisher came out of the game with the injury. Eric Byrnes came into the game in leftfield, and Kielty was moved to right. Oakland drew the infield in with Miguel Olivo at the plate. Olivo fouled off a bunch of pitches and was able to loft a fly ball just short of the track in leftfield, more than adequate enough to score Reed from third.
»» MARINERS 1, ATHLETICS 0
Ichiro got down 0-2 and later lined one toward the line in leftfield, and it was caught by Byrnes on the run, though it wasn't the crazy catch he made in foul territory on Saturday.
BOTTOM 3RD
Grade: B-
Pineiro wasn't giving Oakland very much. Byrnes popped out to Sexson along the first-base line in foul territory. Marco Scutaro got behind 0-2, and two pitches later grounded a ball to Bloomquist, who threw high to first, though Sexson jumped for the ball and came down on the bag in time. Kotsay singled to center on the 0-2 pitch. Kendall rolled a ball to Beltre, who threw to second for the forceout (5-4 fielder's choice).
TOP 4TH
Grade: C-
Zito got some help. Winn had the hitters' counts and stung a 3-1 pitch over Scutaro's glove and into leftfield for a single. Beltre hit the first pitch hard to Chavez, who easily started the 5-4-3 double play. Sexson grounded out to Scutaro to end the inning.
BOTTOM 4TH
Grade: C-
Rotten luck. Chavez lined a pitch up and away to leftfield for a single. Hatteberg swung at a high first pitch and flew out to Ichiro. Durazo singled to almost the same spot as Chavez. Ellis flew out to Reed in leftcenter. With two on and two out, Kielty hit a ball down the first-base line and Sexson was waiting to make the play. The ball hit the first-base bag and went high into the air. Boone ran over to get it after it landed (it was in the outfield grass past first base by this point), but he had no play anywhere (especially because he never got a grip on the ball), and Chavez scored to tie the game.
»» ATHLETICS 1, MARINERS 1
Luckily, Byrnes ended the carnage quickly by flying out to Reed on the first pitch.
TOP 5TH
Grade: C-
Even the good things turned bad. Boone lined out to left on the first pitch. Ibanez got down 0-2 and later tapped back to the mound. Bloomquist dinked one into centerfield for a single, but that was quickly negated. With a 1-1 count on Reed, and after having seen a couple Zito pickoff throws, Bloomquist took off and Zito threw to first. The end result was a 1-3-6 putout, a pickoff.
BOTTOM 5TH
Grade: A
Pineiro had his easiest inning of the day. Scutaro bounced out to Beltre on the second pitch. Kotsay grounded out to Boone on the first pitch. Kendall swung at the second pitch and grounded out to short. Pineiro got ground balls involving all four infielders on five pitches total.
TOP 6TH
Grade: A-
A clutch hit? Reed had a 3-0 count and hit the 3-1 pitch into centefield for a leadoff single. Olivo fouled off some pitches again before rolling one to Ellis behind the mound, who threw to first. Reed went to second. Ichiro had a 3-1 count, but only managed a groundout to second as Reed moved along to third. Winn hit a 1-2 pitch barely foul down the leftfield line. He worked the count full and doubled off the base of the wall in the gap in leftcenter, scoring Reed and giving the Mariners the lead.
»» MARINERS 2, ATHLETICS 1
Beltre took a might hack at a 2-0 pitch high and outside. He later swung at a pitch up and in, grounding out to Chavez.
BOTTOM 6TH
Grade: C-
More rotten luck, and the inning started off with the same hitter as in the other crappy inning. Chavez ripped the first pitch into rightfield for a single. Hatteberg almost doubled down the line on his 0-2 pitch. A couple pitches later, Hatteberg hit a high popup to shallow rightfield that Boone went back for, but lost in the sun. Ichiro couldn't race forward fast enough to catch it on the fly, and his throw to second to try and force out Chavez wasn't in time. To rub it in, Durazo walloped his first pitch into the gap in rightcenter to clear the bases. Durazo was hung up between second and third on the relay back to the field, eventually tagged out by Sexson.
»» ATHLETICS 3, MARINERS 2
Ellis smashed the first pitch over Winn's head in leftfield, one-hopping the wall for a double. Kielty had a 2-0 count, but mashed a 2-1 pitch which went to Sexson, making a diving backhanded stop and a 3-1 putout. Byrnes popped up to Boone on the infield to end the inning, but its too bad he didn't get the other one.
TOP 7TH
Grade: C-
Nothing doing for the bats. Sexson hit a grounder in the hole to Scutaro, who one-hopped his throw in time to first. Boone reached the sky with a fly ball to Byrnes in left. Ibanez had a 2-0 count hit a high fly to Byrnes in leftcenter two pitches later.
Zito's line: 7 innings, 2 runs, 5 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 114 pitches (71 strikes)
BOTTOM 7TH
Grade: A
Pineiro was still on his game. Scutaro got down 0-2 and lined out to Ichiro on 1-2. Kotsay bounced one to Sexson, who tossed to a covering Pineiro for the putout. Kendall grounded out to short on the second pitch.
TOP 8TH
Grade: C-
Justin Duchscherer came in for Zito and the Mariner lineup still did nothing. Bloomquist flew out to center on the second pitch. Reed bounced one past Ellis for a single, but Olivo eventually erased him by tapping back to the mound and starting the 1-6-3 double play.
Duchscherer's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, 10 pitches (7 strikes)
BOTTOM 8TH
Grade: A
Pineiro finished out his outing, slicing through the meat of the Oakland order. Chavez popped to the shortstop on the infield. Pineiro got ahead 0-2 on Hatteberg and got him to whiff on an off-speed 1-2 pitch. Durazo bounced one to Sexson for a 3-1 putout.
Pineiro's line: 8 innings, 3 runs, 8 hits, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts, 100 pitches (69 strikes)
TOP 9TH
Grade: F
Octavio Dotel came in to close it out. The first seven pitches he threw were balls. Eight of the first nine pitches he threw were balls. Ichiro walked on four pitches, and Winn had walked on a 3-1 pitch down and in. After a visit from the pitching coach, Dotel toed the rubber once again to face Beltre and Sexson with two on and nobody out. Dotel became a strike-throwing machine. Beltre took an 0-2 pitch down the middle, which is inexcusable, I don't care if you're looking for something else or not (and I like Beltre). Sexson bounced the 0-1 pitch to Scutaro at short, and the 6-4-3 double play was the result. Ballgame.
Dotel's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 2 walks, 1 strikeout, 14 pitches (6 strikes)
---
Gameball: Jeremy Reed.
He was 3-for-3 out of the #8 slot in the lineup with a triple. He scored all the Mariners' runs in the game. After his third single, he was on first with one out when Olivo grounded into a double play to end the 8th. Just like that, Reed's batting average is up to a much more respectable .268. It was a great day when Mike Hargrove decided to leave Reed in the lineup even against lefties. He's got to see lefties eventually anyway, so I didn't see the rationale in yanking him every time a lefty took the mound. The guy's going to give you quality at-bats a great majority of the time.
Goat: Adrian Beltre.
0-for-4, striking out once, stranding four, and grounding into a double play. If i were a real punk, I could give another goat to Bret Boone (check the archive page, he's leading the team), but Beltre has yet to heat up. I'm not doubting he will, but when do we earn the right to bitch? When does the league adjustment period wear off? At least he's playing awesome defense on the corner. People might have been able to imagine Sexson having six homers in April, but did we see Beltre having only two? I just hope he heats up soon.
How far can you really expect to get when Ichiro, Adrian Beltre, Richie Sexson, Bret Boone, and Raul Ibanez combine to go 0-for-17? If you throw in Miguel Olivo and make it 0-for-19, that makes two-thirds of your lineup who didn't get a hit. It almost makes me wish Joel Pineiro would have gotten rocked so it would have been bad all the way around, and it wouldn't have been so close.
But it was close. Joel Pineiro pitched a great game (and thankfully rested the bullpen after they worked overtime in Moyer's game), but once again, the offense had their chances but couldn't come through. Of course, Pineiro got screwed bigtime by the ball Bobby Kielty hit the first-base bag with to score the tying run, and Boone couldn't get a handle on the ball. Ditto for the ball that Boone lost in the sun; Pineiro would have faced Durazo (who hit the game-winning double) with Chavez on first and one out as opposed to two runners with nobody out. Maybe in a perfect world, Joel gets a double play right there.
What to make of this? If the Mariners get a hit here or there, and if they don't have balls bouncing off bags and getting lost in the sun, they arguably could have swept this series. Instead, they win the first game and drop the next two. Days like Saturday and Sunday are why no rational mind had the Mariners pegged at 90 wins this year.
Where does this leave us? The lack of clutch hitting readies the Mariners for three home games against the Angels, of course. Overastute folks will have noticed so far that I never refer to the Angels with a city name. That will continue as long as I'm doing these or until they change their name back to something sensible. If I had my way, they'd still be the California Angels.
Washburn. Franklin. Tonight.
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