Monday, May 23, 2005
GAME 43: MARINERS 5, PADRES 0
Mariners 5, Padres 0
In 25 words or less: A starting pitcher steps up, and it's Mister Interleague, who gives the bullpen a badly-needed rest.
This one featured Major League newbie Tim Stauffer facing Aaron Sele. Also featured was the 2005 return of the Ageless Wonder, otherwise known as Pat Borders, 42 years young. I know Miguel Olivo's not a straight-up Freddy-type headcase, but I'm hoping Borders can help turn him around.
TOP 1ST
Grade: A-
Sele started off with a very low-pitch inning. Dave Roberts grounded out to second. Mark Sweeney singled to right, but he was doubled off when Ryan Klesko hit a well-placed ground ball to short. Sele threw only five pitches.
BOTTOM 1ST
Grade: C-
The Mariner bats didn't respond with much. Ichiro bounced a 2-0 pitch to second. Randy Winn hit a grounder behind the first-base bag, and Phil Nevin caught up to it and ran to the bag. Adrian Beltre got behind 0-2 and later flew out high to Roberts in rightcenter. Stauffer threw 12 pitches.
TOP 2ND
Grade: A-
Sele got his first 1-2-3 inning. Brian Giles foul-tipped a full-count pitch into the catcher's glove for a strikeout. Phil Nevin got down 0-2, and later he shot a ball down the third-base line, where Beltre backhanded it and threw in time to first. Geoff Blum swung at a 3-1 pitch, but flew out to Ichiro in shallow rightfield. Sele threw 17 pitches.
BOTTOM 2ND
Grade: B+
The Mariners would draw first blood. Richie Sexson bounced the first pitch off the track and wall in centerfield and coasted in for a stand-up double. Raul Ibañez got behind 0-2 and later hit a ball hard to Sean Burroughs at third, who held Sexson at second and threw to first for the out. Bret Boone hithis first pitch just inside the leftfield line and off the angle where the stands come toward the field. Sexson scored, and Boone had hits in 10 of 11 games.
»» MARINERS 1, PADRES 0
Jeremy Reed fouled off a 2-0 pitch, then Stauffer hung the next pitch. Reed hit a chopper toward the right side that had some eyes, getting past a diving Blum and into rightfield. Boone scored.
»» MARINERS 2, PADRES 0
Pat Borders hit a grounder to second that went for a 4-6 fielder's choice as Borders and his 42-year-old wheels beat out the throw back to first. Wilson Valdez had a 3-0 count fall full, but thankfully walked. Ichiro whiffed on a 1-2 pitch high and outside of the zone. Stauffer threw 23 pitches.
TOP 3RD
Grade: B+
Not the smoothest inning for Sele, but still no damage. Sean Burroughs flew out to Winn near the leftfield line. Miguel Ojeda whiffed on an 0-2 curve low and away. Damian Jackson fouled off the 3-1 pitch before taking the next pitch just barely high, going for Sele's first walk of the game. Roberts took a 3-0 gimmie pitch that was quite high. Sele took a break on the mound to tuck his shoelaces into his shoes, and Ron Fairly asked aloud why Sele doesn't just get shorter shoelaces. The next pitch was grounded right to Sexson at first, who stepped on the bag. Sele threw 18 pitches.
BOTTOM 3RD
Grade: C-
The offense would go back to sleep. Winn hit a slow roller to third that was charged by Burroughs, who threw over in time. Beltre whiffed at a 1-2 dirty slider low and away. Sexson bounced out to second to end the inning. Sele threw 14 pitches.
TOP 4TH
Grade: A-
Sele would chug through a bad bounce. Sweeney rolled out to second. Klesko hit a hard grounder back to the mound that went off Sele's left foot and bounced to Boone, who by then had no play. Luckily, Giles hit a ball to Sexson, who was able to start the 3-6-3 double play. Sele threw nine pitches.
BOTTOM 4TH
Grade: B
Add-on? Ibañez hit a 2-0 pitch that bounced to the wall in the gap in rightcenter and off the angled part of the fence. Ibañez was able to stretch it out into a triple. The Padres drew the infield in and Boone responded by hitting the second pitch very shallow to Giles in rightfield. Needless to say, Ibañez didn't score. Reed got another high pitch and laced it into rightfield for a single, plating Ibañez.
»» MARINERS 3, PADRES 0
Borders hit a foul ball high along the rightfield line, and Blum ran over to get it. Valdez rolled one to Blum at second to end the inning. Stauffer threw 11 pitches.
TOP 5TH
Grade: B-
Sele rolled along. Nevin hit a hard grounder to Beltre. Blum looked like he got all of his second pitch, but he was Geoff Blum power, and Ichiro camped out on the track in rightfield before catching it. Burroughs hit a roller just under Sele's glove and into centerfield for a two-out single. Ojeda hit a hard grounder to Valdez at short, who went to second for the easy out to end the inning. Sele threw 12 pitches.
BOTTOM 5TH
Grade: C
The bats were in some slumber once again. Ichiro rolled one to second. Winn had a 3-0 count go full before he took an outside pitch for a walk. Beltre smoked his 1-2 pitch, but right to the second baseman, who had the easy 4-6 fielder's choice. Beltre beat out the double play, and hopefully his hamstring held up. Sexson chopped a ball back to the mound to end the inning. Stauffer threw 14 pitches.
TOP 6TH
Grade: A-
Sele had one of his better innings. Jackson worked a 1-2 count full before flying out to Reed in centerfield. Roberts flew out to Winn in the corner in leftfield. Sweeney flew out to Reed on the first pitch to end the inning. Sele threw 12 pitches.
BOTTOM 6TH
Grade: B
The Mariners would chase Stauffer, though it didn't look like it at first. Ibañez flew out high to first baseman Nevin. Boone whiffed at some hard stuff low and outside. Reed ripped a double into the gap in rightcenter. Borders took a four-pitch walk. Valdez poked a full-count pitch through the right side for a single to score Reed and move Borders to second. Imagine that -- with two out, the bottom of the lineup pushes a run across.
»» MARINERS 4, PADRES 0
Chris Hammond came in for Stauffer. Ichiro flew out to centerfield to end the inning.
Stauffer's line: 5 2/3 innings, 4 runs, 7 hits, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts, 99 pitches (59 strikes)
TOP 7TH
Grade: A
Sele would somehow settle into even more of a groove. Klesko flew out to center. Giles split his bat in half, rolling out to second. Nevin grounded out to Valdez at short. Sele threw 11 pitches and had 84 through seven.
BOTTOM 7TH
Grade: B+
They tacked on another one. Winn bounced a ball to Burroughs at third, who took a bit of time and barely nailed Winn. Beltre fouled off a couple of 1-2 pitches before reaching at a pitch low and away and managing to make very good contact, looping one off the track and off the way in leftcenter, good for a double. Sexson doubled off the track and wall in leftfield as well, and Beltre scored. Back-to-back homers one night, back-to-back doubles the next (afternoon).
»» MARINERS 5, PADRES 0
Ibañez fouled off a 3-1 pitch and rolled the next one toward first for a 3-1 putout. Boone looked at a 2-2 pitch over the outside corner for strike three.
Hammond's line: 1 1/3 innings, 1 run, 2 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 29 pitches (18 strikes)
TOP 8TH
Grade: A
Sele was rolling once again. Blum hit one to Sexson, who made the backhand play falling backwards, then tossed to a covering Sele. Burroughs hit a 2-0 quick roller to Sexson. Ojeda whiffed on a 1-2 curve low and away. Sele threw nine pitches and had 93 through eight.
BOTTOM 8TH
Grade: C
Darrell May came in for Hammond. Reed flew out to Giles in rightcenter. Borders poked the first pitch into leftfield for an old single. Valdez hit a broken-bat popup to rightfield. Ichiro flew out to Giles on the first pitch to end the inning.
May's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, 8 pitches (6 strikes)
TOP 9TH
Grade: B-
Sele averted disaster one last time, though there weren't many in this game. Jackson grounded out to short. Roberts poked a single into rightfield. Sweeney flew out just short of the track in centerfield. Klesko got down 0-2 and popped the 2-2 pitch high to shallow rightfield, where Boone came down with it. Ballgame.
Sele's line: 9 innings, 0 runs, 4 hits, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts, 112 pitches (69 strikes)
---
Gameball: Aaron Sele.
Like the middle game of the series, there are a few ways to go with the gameball. I'm picking the one that I think is least likely to repeat the performance. Richie Sexson had hit two doubles in a game again, and Jeremy Reed can go 3-for-4 again this year, but I'm not so sure Aaron Sele can repeat this performance, which was a great one, no doubt about that. The point is, if he doesn't game a gameball for this, he may never get one. Needless to say, it was the first complete game of the month for Mariner starting pitchers. This was only the sixth time in the month of May that a Mariner starting pitcher recorded an out in the seventh inning, which doesn't sound so bad until you consider they had a stretch of eight straight games without one.
Goat: Ichiro.
This one's a rarity. Ichiro didn't get on base once in five plate appearances. Two groundouts, two flyouts, and a strikeout. Definitely not a banner day for Ichiro. The 0-for-5 outing decreased his batting average to a measly .322. But hey, he robbed Klesko on Saturday, so maybe this was payback.
Well, the performance by Aaron Sele wasn't the only thing that made the game an odd one. The other oddity is that Ichiro and Randy Winn combined to go 0-for-8 and only got on base once between themselves (Winn walked). Everyone else in the lineup got a hit. Hitters 3 through 9 in the lineup went 10-for-26. Six of the ten Mariner hits went for extra bases. Richie Sexson hit two of the five doubles, while Raul Ibañez had the lone triple.
Richie Sexson went 2-for-4 for the second straight game and raised his average by .003 to .241. As mentioned, he hit two doubles. The other multi-hit game in the lineup belonged to Jeremy Reed, who feasted off some pitches that Tim Stauffer left too high in the zone. Reed flew out in his fourth and final at-bat, and had to settle for a piddly 3-for-4 day with a double. Of course, considering that the bottom of the lineup needs someone to step up every once in a while, a 3-for-4 day is quite nice for anyone in the bottom third to get. For the rest of the bottom of the order, both Pat Borders and Wilson Valdez managed a hit apiece. Valdez walked along with his two-out RBI single that chased Stauffer in the sixth.
As one might suspect, a four-hit complete game shutout does a lot for the collective numbers of the Mariners' starting staff in the month of May, which previous to the last two games were much much worse. The rotation's May ERA went from 7.30 after Friday's game to 7.03 after Saturday's game. A four-hit complete-game shutout leaves the rotation's ERA for the month at 6.43. Aaron Sele threw 15 of his 22 May innings in the last two starts. Two starts after he was on the very hot seat, he suddenly has the best May ERA of the rotation at 4.50. Sele also decreased his walk rate from one per inning to 0.64, which is always much more preferable. Of course, the individual numbers suffer from the fact that you'll probably only get five starts in the span of a month, but Sele just chopped a whole 0.60 off of the rotation's ERA, so he definitely did something with this game. Frankly, and I said this once or twice after his decent starts earlier this year, if Sele gets into the sixth inning every game and gives up four runs, I'll take it every time out. That's all I want and reasonably expect from him. I hope he can build on this.
[Edit ~11:50a -- In the second to last sentence of the above paragraph, the vital word "if" was omitted. Until I put it where it should have been, of course.]
The average Mariner starting pitcher this month takes the following line: 5.526 innings (we'll say 5 2/3), 4.05 runs (3.95 earned), 6.6 hits, 2.7 walks, 3 strikeouts, 95.7 pitches (57.6 strikes). The Mariners' starting pitchers managed to go at least six innings in all three games against the Padres. There are two pitchers left to get onto this train, and they are Joel Piñeiro, who goes tomorrow, and Jamie Moyer, who goes on Wednesday. If they get on track, we might be on the road back to mediocre baseball. Hey, it's a lot better than absolutely poor baseball.
The Mariners have won two of their last three series after having lost 10 of 11 games. They have raised their May record to 6-13. There are eight games left in May, and while they're guaranteed a losing month, the last two series wins were against Boston and San Diego, who were two very hot teams coming to Seattle. It's got to start somewhere. I'm not expecting this team to make the playoffs, but I am expecting some watchable and enjoyable baseball in the near future.
Crab cakes!
Piñeiro. Chen. Tomorrow.
In 25 words or less: A starting pitcher steps up, and it's Mister Interleague, who gives the bullpen a badly-needed rest.
This one featured Major League newbie Tim Stauffer facing Aaron Sele. Also featured was the 2005 return of the Ageless Wonder, otherwise known as Pat Borders, 42 years young. I know Miguel Olivo's not a straight-up Freddy-type headcase, but I'm hoping Borders can help turn him around.
TOP 1ST
Grade: A-
Sele started off with a very low-pitch inning. Dave Roberts grounded out to second. Mark Sweeney singled to right, but he was doubled off when Ryan Klesko hit a well-placed ground ball to short. Sele threw only five pitches.
BOTTOM 1ST
Grade: C-
The Mariner bats didn't respond with much. Ichiro bounced a 2-0 pitch to second. Randy Winn hit a grounder behind the first-base bag, and Phil Nevin caught up to it and ran to the bag. Adrian Beltre got behind 0-2 and later flew out high to Roberts in rightcenter. Stauffer threw 12 pitches.
TOP 2ND
Grade: A-
Sele got his first 1-2-3 inning. Brian Giles foul-tipped a full-count pitch into the catcher's glove for a strikeout. Phil Nevin got down 0-2, and later he shot a ball down the third-base line, where Beltre backhanded it and threw in time to first. Geoff Blum swung at a 3-1 pitch, but flew out to Ichiro in shallow rightfield. Sele threw 17 pitches.
BOTTOM 2ND
Grade: B+
The Mariners would draw first blood. Richie Sexson bounced the first pitch off the track and wall in centerfield and coasted in for a stand-up double. Raul Ibañez got behind 0-2 and later hit a ball hard to Sean Burroughs at third, who held Sexson at second and threw to first for the out. Bret Boone hithis first pitch just inside the leftfield line and off the angle where the stands come toward the field. Sexson scored, and Boone had hits in 10 of 11 games.
»» MARINERS 1, PADRES 0
Jeremy Reed fouled off a 2-0 pitch, then Stauffer hung the next pitch. Reed hit a chopper toward the right side that had some eyes, getting past a diving Blum and into rightfield. Boone scored.
»» MARINERS 2, PADRES 0
Pat Borders hit a grounder to second that went for a 4-6 fielder's choice as Borders and his 42-year-old wheels beat out the throw back to first. Wilson Valdez had a 3-0 count fall full, but thankfully walked. Ichiro whiffed on a 1-2 pitch high and outside of the zone. Stauffer threw 23 pitches.
TOP 3RD
Grade: B+
Not the smoothest inning for Sele, but still no damage. Sean Burroughs flew out to Winn near the leftfield line. Miguel Ojeda whiffed on an 0-2 curve low and away. Damian Jackson fouled off the 3-1 pitch before taking the next pitch just barely high, going for Sele's first walk of the game. Roberts took a 3-0 gimmie pitch that was quite high. Sele took a break on the mound to tuck his shoelaces into his shoes, and Ron Fairly asked aloud why Sele doesn't just get shorter shoelaces. The next pitch was grounded right to Sexson at first, who stepped on the bag. Sele threw 18 pitches.
BOTTOM 3RD
Grade: C-
The offense would go back to sleep. Winn hit a slow roller to third that was charged by Burroughs, who threw over in time. Beltre whiffed at a 1-2 dirty slider low and away. Sexson bounced out to second to end the inning. Sele threw 14 pitches.
TOP 4TH
Grade: A-
Sele would chug through a bad bounce. Sweeney rolled out to second. Klesko hit a hard grounder back to the mound that went off Sele's left foot and bounced to Boone, who by then had no play. Luckily, Giles hit a ball to Sexson, who was able to start the 3-6-3 double play. Sele threw nine pitches.
BOTTOM 4TH
Grade: B
Add-on? Ibañez hit a 2-0 pitch that bounced to the wall in the gap in rightcenter and off the angled part of the fence. Ibañez was able to stretch it out into a triple. The Padres drew the infield in and Boone responded by hitting the second pitch very shallow to Giles in rightfield. Needless to say, Ibañez didn't score. Reed got another high pitch and laced it into rightfield for a single, plating Ibañez.
»» MARINERS 3, PADRES 0
Borders hit a foul ball high along the rightfield line, and Blum ran over to get it. Valdez rolled one to Blum at second to end the inning. Stauffer threw 11 pitches.
TOP 5TH
Grade: B-
Sele rolled along. Nevin hit a hard grounder to Beltre. Blum looked like he got all of his second pitch, but he was Geoff Blum power, and Ichiro camped out on the track in rightfield before catching it. Burroughs hit a roller just under Sele's glove and into centerfield for a two-out single. Ojeda hit a hard grounder to Valdez at short, who went to second for the easy out to end the inning. Sele threw 12 pitches.
BOTTOM 5TH
Grade: C
The bats were in some slumber once again. Ichiro rolled one to second. Winn had a 3-0 count go full before he took an outside pitch for a walk. Beltre smoked his 1-2 pitch, but right to the second baseman, who had the easy 4-6 fielder's choice. Beltre beat out the double play, and hopefully his hamstring held up. Sexson chopped a ball back to the mound to end the inning. Stauffer threw 14 pitches.
TOP 6TH
Grade: A-
Sele had one of his better innings. Jackson worked a 1-2 count full before flying out to Reed in centerfield. Roberts flew out to Winn in the corner in leftfield. Sweeney flew out to Reed on the first pitch to end the inning. Sele threw 12 pitches.
BOTTOM 6TH
Grade: B
The Mariners would chase Stauffer, though it didn't look like it at first. Ibañez flew out high to first baseman Nevin. Boone whiffed at some hard stuff low and outside. Reed ripped a double into the gap in rightcenter. Borders took a four-pitch walk. Valdez poked a full-count pitch through the right side for a single to score Reed and move Borders to second. Imagine that -- with two out, the bottom of the lineup pushes a run across.
»» MARINERS 4, PADRES 0
Chris Hammond came in for Stauffer. Ichiro flew out to centerfield to end the inning.
Stauffer's line: 5 2/3 innings, 4 runs, 7 hits, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts, 99 pitches (59 strikes)
TOP 7TH
Grade: A
Sele would somehow settle into even more of a groove. Klesko flew out to center. Giles split his bat in half, rolling out to second. Nevin grounded out to Valdez at short. Sele threw 11 pitches and had 84 through seven.
BOTTOM 7TH
Grade: B+
They tacked on another one. Winn bounced a ball to Burroughs at third, who took a bit of time and barely nailed Winn. Beltre fouled off a couple of 1-2 pitches before reaching at a pitch low and away and managing to make very good contact, looping one off the track and off the way in leftcenter, good for a double. Sexson doubled off the track and wall in leftfield as well, and Beltre scored. Back-to-back homers one night, back-to-back doubles the next (afternoon).
»» MARINERS 5, PADRES 0
Ibañez fouled off a 3-1 pitch and rolled the next one toward first for a 3-1 putout. Boone looked at a 2-2 pitch over the outside corner for strike three.
Hammond's line: 1 1/3 innings, 1 run, 2 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 29 pitches (18 strikes)
TOP 8TH
Grade: A
Sele was rolling once again. Blum hit one to Sexson, who made the backhand play falling backwards, then tossed to a covering Sele. Burroughs hit a 2-0 quick roller to Sexson. Ojeda whiffed on a 1-2 curve low and away. Sele threw nine pitches and had 93 through eight.
BOTTOM 8TH
Grade: C
Darrell May came in for Hammond. Reed flew out to Giles in rightcenter. Borders poked the first pitch into leftfield for an old single. Valdez hit a broken-bat popup to rightfield. Ichiro flew out to Giles on the first pitch to end the inning.
May's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, 8 pitches (6 strikes)
TOP 9TH
Grade: B-
Sele averted disaster one last time, though there weren't many in this game. Jackson grounded out to short. Roberts poked a single into rightfield. Sweeney flew out just short of the track in centerfield. Klesko got down 0-2 and popped the 2-2 pitch high to shallow rightfield, where Boone came down with it. Ballgame.
Sele's line: 9 innings, 0 runs, 4 hits, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts, 112 pitches (69 strikes)
---
Gameball: Aaron Sele.
Like the middle game of the series, there are a few ways to go with the gameball. I'm picking the one that I think is least likely to repeat the performance. Richie Sexson had hit two doubles in a game again, and Jeremy Reed can go 3-for-4 again this year, but I'm not so sure Aaron Sele can repeat this performance, which was a great one, no doubt about that. The point is, if he doesn't game a gameball for this, he may never get one. Needless to say, it was the first complete game of the month for Mariner starting pitchers. This was only the sixth time in the month of May that a Mariner starting pitcher recorded an out in the seventh inning, which doesn't sound so bad until you consider they had a stretch of eight straight games without one.
Goat: Ichiro.
This one's a rarity. Ichiro didn't get on base once in five plate appearances. Two groundouts, two flyouts, and a strikeout. Definitely not a banner day for Ichiro. The 0-for-5 outing decreased his batting average to a measly .322. But hey, he robbed Klesko on Saturday, so maybe this was payback.
Well, the performance by Aaron Sele wasn't the only thing that made the game an odd one. The other oddity is that Ichiro and Randy Winn combined to go 0-for-8 and only got on base once between themselves (Winn walked). Everyone else in the lineup got a hit. Hitters 3 through 9 in the lineup went 10-for-26. Six of the ten Mariner hits went for extra bases. Richie Sexson hit two of the five doubles, while Raul Ibañez had the lone triple.
Richie Sexson went 2-for-4 for the second straight game and raised his average by .003 to .241. As mentioned, he hit two doubles. The other multi-hit game in the lineup belonged to Jeremy Reed, who feasted off some pitches that Tim Stauffer left too high in the zone. Reed flew out in his fourth and final at-bat, and had to settle for a piddly 3-for-4 day with a double. Of course, considering that the bottom of the lineup needs someone to step up every once in a while, a 3-for-4 day is quite nice for anyone in the bottom third to get. For the rest of the bottom of the order, both Pat Borders and Wilson Valdez managed a hit apiece. Valdez walked along with his two-out RBI single that chased Stauffer in the sixth.
As one might suspect, a four-hit complete game shutout does a lot for the collective numbers of the Mariners' starting staff in the month of May, which previous to the last two games were much much worse. The rotation's May ERA went from 7.30 after Friday's game to 7.03 after Saturday's game. A four-hit complete-game shutout leaves the rotation's ERA for the month at 6.43. Aaron Sele threw 15 of his 22 May innings in the last two starts. Two starts after he was on the very hot seat, he suddenly has the best May ERA of the rotation at 4.50. Sele also decreased his walk rate from one per inning to 0.64, which is always much more preferable. Of course, the individual numbers suffer from the fact that you'll probably only get five starts in the span of a month, but Sele just chopped a whole 0.60 off of the rotation's ERA, so he definitely did something with this game. Frankly, and I said this once or twice after his decent starts earlier this year, if Sele gets into the sixth inning every game and gives up four runs, I'll take it every time out. That's all I want and reasonably expect from him. I hope he can build on this.
[Edit ~11:50a -- In the second to last sentence of the above paragraph, the vital word "if" was omitted. Until I put it where it should have been, of course.]
The average Mariner starting pitcher this month takes the following line: 5.526 innings (we'll say 5 2/3), 4.05 runs (3.95 earned), 6.6 hits, 2.7 walks, 3 strikeouts, 95.7 pitches (57.6 strikes). The Mariners' starting pitchers managed to go at least six innings in all three games against the Padres. There are two pitchers left to get onto this train, and they are Joel Piñeiro, who goes tomorrow, and Jamie Moyer, who goes on Wednesday. If they get on track, we might be on the road back to mediocre baseball. Hey, it's a lot better than absolutely poor baseball.
The Mariners have won two of their last three series after having lost 10 of 11 games. They have raised their May record to 6-13. There are eight games left in May, and while they're guaranteed a losing month, the last two series wins were against Boston and San Diego, who were two very hot teams coming to Seattle. It's got to start somewhere. I'm not expecting this team to make the playoffs, but I am expecting some watchable and enjoyable baseball in the near future.
Crab cakes!
Piñeiro. Chen. Tomorrow.
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