Wednesday, July 06, 2005
GAME 82: ROYALS 8, MARINERS 6
Royals 8, Mariners 6
In 25 words or less: The Mariners scored some runs, but all we're left with is one question -- what's eating Gilbert Meche?
***NOTE: I'm leaving the inning-by-inning stuff rough here so I don't fall to sleep when I'm at work tomorrow (Wednesday). I had some more stuff than usual to do when I got off work on Tuesday afternoon like making a run to Circuit City and staying on hold with the local cable company for 50 minutes. This is all made harder by my non-car-having state. Thanks for your patience. I'll clean the inning-by-inning stuff at a later time. In the meantime, I've still bookended the inning-by-inning stuff with my usual banter, so feast on that as you may.
This one featured Gil Meche against ex-reliever DJ Carrasco, who just went to starting pitching this year. Yes, these are the kinds of experiments you get with the Royals lately.
A couple of mentions were made on the broadcast about the possibility after the All-Star break of Rafael Palmeiro reaching 3000 hits during the homestand at Safeco Field. History aside, that just makes me sick because of how many times he's lit up the Mariners in the past. I'm sick of him, and I'm sick of Viagra. Now when I think of him, I think of the Saturday Night Live commercial parody for Dr. Porkenheimer's Boner Juice.
TOP 1ST
Grade: C
Ichiro 4-pitch BB
Winn (6-for-55) 0-2 nearly hitting Winn's foot, Ichiro to second. foul. foul. 1-2 bounced to first, Ichiro to third
Ibañez 2-0 pop Teahen drifting back near line, Ichiro holds (may have scored)
Sexson 1-2 whiff low/away K
BOTTOM 1ST
Grade: A
DeJesus 0-1 flyout LF
Gotay 1-2. Full foul flyout high Bloomquist
Sweeney 0-1 groundout to first
TOP 2ND
Grade: B
Beltre 3-1 whiff. Full outside mash HR LF
»» MARINERS 1, ROYALS 0
Reed 0-2 groundout to short
Lopez 0-2. 1-2 groundout to second
Bloomquist 0-1 poke single RF
Borders 1-2 whiff low/away K, moot throwout of Bloomquist at second
BOTTOM 2ND
Grade: F
Stairs 0-2. 1-2 single hole right side past Lopez
Brown 0-2. 2-2 foul. foul. foul. whiff K
Teahen 2-0. 2-2 whiff fastball K
Berroa 0-1 up/away single RF, Stairs to second
Costa 1-1 single over short, Stairs scores, Berroa to second
»» ROYALS 1, MARINERS 1
Castillo 0-2 (Niehaus talking about Royals swinging and hitting the fastballs). Full foul. BB low/away (bases loaded)
DeJesus 1-2. 2-2 ball at feet, past Borders, Berroa scores, Costa to third, Castillo to second
»» ROYALS 2, MARINERS 1
DeJesus Full foul (up/in, probably ball four). foul. single up middle through mound, Costa, Castillo score
»» ROYALS 4, MARINERS 1
Gotay 1-0 groundout to second
TOP 3RD
Grade: C
Ichiro 1-0 single past short (now 10-for-19)
Winn 0-1 bouncer GIDP 6-4-3
Ibañez 2-0 single past third baseman into LF
Sexson 1-2 tap beside mound
BOTTOM 3RD
Grade: C
Sweeney 1-0 tap in front of plate, Borders can't pick it up (E2)
Stairs 0-2 foul. 1-2 chop to first, Sweeney to second
Brown 2-0. 2-2 foul. groundout to second, Sweeney to third
Teahen 4-pitch BB
Berroa 0-1 triple RF, Sweeney, Teahen score
»» ROYALS 6, MARINERS 1
Costa 2-0. 2-2 groundout to second
TOP 4TH
Grade: C
Beltre 3-0. 3-1 foul. Full up middle single CF
Reed 0-2. 1-2 roller 3-1 putout (couldn't get the DP)
Lopez first-pitch one-hop to pitcher
Bloomquist 2-0. 3-1 up/away BB
Borders 1-0 5-4 FC
BOTTOM 4TH
Grade: C
Castillo 2-0. 2-1 double into RF corner
DeJesus 1-0 (Price to mound) nearly a HR to rightcenter, goes for double, Castillo scores
»» ROYALS 7, MARINERS 1
Meche out, Thornton in
Gotay 1-2 low liner LF
Sweeney IBB
Stairs 2-0. 2-2. Full 6-4-3 DP
Meche's line: 3 innings, 7 runs (5 earned), 7 hits, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts, 80 pitches (50 strikes)
TOP 5TH
Grade: B
Ichiro 1-1 foul pop LF near stands
Winn 1-1 double down RF line
Ibañez 1-0 roller to mound, Winn to third
Sexson 1-0 bouncing single through hole left side, Winn scores
»» ROYALS 7, MARINERS 2
Beltre 0-2 whiff up/away K
BOTTOM 5TH
Grade: A-
Brown 1-0 lined to Ichiro, nearly loses ball in lights
Teahen 1-2 roller to short, barely out
Berroa 2-0 high chop to third
TOP 6TH
Grade: B
Reed 1-0 single over second
Lopez 0-1 double off wall LF, Reed to third
Bloomquist 1-1 roll into LCF gap, double, Reed and Lopez score
»» ROYALS 7, MARINERS 4
Borders 0-1 lined to CF (drifting back), Bloomquist to third
Carrasco out, Sisco in
Ichiro 1-0 flyout LF, Bloomquist beats throw
»» ROYALS 7, MARINERS 5
Winn first-pitch single past short
Ibañez 1-1 flyout LF short of track
Carrasco's line: 5 1/3 innings, 5 runs, 10 hits, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts, 87 pitches (55 strikes)
BOTTOM 6TH
Grade: C+
Costa 4-pitch BB
Castillo (2-0 Price to mound) 3-0. 3-1 barely down/away BB
Thornton out, Putz in
DeJesus first-pitch flyout deep RCF (Ichiro) gap, Costa to third (throw to second)
Gotay 1-2 flyout Reed LCF, Costa scores
»» ROYALS 8, MARINERS 5
Sweeney 3-1 5-4 FC
Thornton's line: 2 innings, 1 run, 0 hits, 3 walks, 0 strikeouts, 32 pitches (12 strikes)
TOP 7TH
Grade: B-
Sexson 1-2 ball out over plate double off wall RF corner
Beltre 2-0 hard single LCF, Sexson scores
»» ROYALS 8, MARINERS 6
Reed 1-2. Full outside corner looking K (low?)
Sisco out, Wood in
Lopez (pickoff throw gets away from Stairs, but runners hold). 0-2 hard grounder GIDP 5-4-3
Sisco's line: 1 inning, 1 run, 3 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 20 pitches (12 strikes)
BOTTOM 7TH
Grade: B+
Stairs 0-2 groundout to second
Brown 0-1 HBP in back
Teahen 1-2. 2-2 Brown steals second, dirt throw (after taking off many times). Full high whiff K
Berroa first-pitch pop to short
Putz' line: 2 innings, 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeouts, 22 pitches (14 strikes)
TOP 8TH
Grade: C
Bloomquist first-pitch single up middle past second baseman
Snelling PH (two pickoff throws)
Wood out, Gobble in
Spiezio PH 2-0. 2-2 foul. foul. Full flyout CF near track
Ichiro 1-0 Bloomquist steals second (no throw). 2-0 flyout track RF, Bloomquist to third
Winn 1-2. 2-2 looking K inside corner
Wood's line: 2/3 inning, 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, 4 pitches (4 strikes)
Gobble's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 16 pitches (9 strikes)
BOTTOM 8TH
Grade: B+
Putz out, Villone in (Olivo in)
Costa 2-2 foul. Full hard grounder to mound
Castillo 1-2. 2-2 low liner LF
DeJesus 3-1 high BB
Gotay 0-2 whiff K
Villone's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 1 walk, 1 strikeout, 20 pitches (11 strikes)
TOP 9TH
Grade: C-
Gobble out, MacDougal in
Ibañez 1-1 very high chop to mound
Sexson 1-2. Full high/in looking K
Beltre 1-2 foul. low/away whiff K
MacDougal's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks, 2 strikeouts, 14 pitches (9 strikes)
---
Gameball: Randy Winn.
I gave him the goat after the first game of the series, saying he fell off the face of the earth. A good way to get back onto the face of the earth would be to have a multi-hit game, which Randy Winn had in this game. He went 2-for-5 with a double and scored one of the Mariners' six runs. He struck out once. In a sick twist, his average of .266 leaves him .003 behind Adrian Beltre, thanks to the three-hit game by the latter. More about him later.
Goat: Gil Meche.
Did he look like a pitcher that had eight wins coming into the game? I could have looked at Gil Meche's 8-5 record going into this game every day for the five days beforehand and not realized or thought that he'd won eight games. Dave and Ron were in the booth talking about it before Meche got lit up -- he had a chance to be a 10-game winner going into the All-Star break. All I thought to myself was, what?! Really?! I don't know if I'm blocking out all of Meche's good moemnts this year or what, but all I can remember is an erratic pitcher. Or I'm mixing him up with Joel Piñeiro or something. Who knows. Anyway, it's a start like this that makes you realize that even though Gil Meche has eight wins, he also has the now-six losses. The bottom line is that the Mariner bats gave the team a chance to win. Meche didn't.
Yr W-L Pct GB Stk
2001 61-21 .744 -- W5
2003 53-29 .654 8 L1
2002 52-30 .634 9 W1
2000 49-33 .598 12 W1
2005 35-47 .427 26 L1
2004 32-50 .390 29 L5
Yeah, so you look at the boxscore and see that the two people in the lineup that had three hits apiece are Adrian Beltre and Willie Bloomquist. Adrian Beltre is a couple steps above tepid right now, to say the least. It's good to see him string together a couple of good games. He drove in two runs with his 3-for-5 day. The two outs were strikeouts. He can get his old jersey #29 on his back at any ol' time now. No one else is wearing it, after all.
We've said things in this space before. If Willie Bloomquist is getting three hits in a game, I can't complain. I do have a grip on reality, as amazing as that may seem. His average is also up to a bulldozing .235. Miguel Olivo is jealous with his .147.
More lineup shuffling in this one. We'd been warmed up to the idea of Raul Ibañez hitting in the third slot, but today we got a switch of Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson in the fourth and fifth slots. It definitely worked for at least one day. Sexson and Beltre combined for a 5-for-10 day.
More about Meche? Sure. The trainwreck of a second inning featured Meche unable to put batters away with two out. He struck out Emil Brown, but Brown had worked the count full and fouled off a few pitches before strike three. Meche did get Mark Teahen on a 2-2 pitch. Alberto Castillo was down 0-2 and was walked. David DeJesus worked a 1-2 count full, fouled off a couple pitches, then hit the two-run single. Brown and DeJesus worked Meche for 16 pitches between the both of them, but Meche faced six other hitters in the inning. Basically, that was a meltdown. Not that we haven't seen that from Meche. Surely you remember any Ricoh Scouting Report since the beginning of the season.
I was hoping I wouldn't be talking about a rubber game in a series against the Royals, but yeah, it's coming at us. You can only hope to contain it.
Sele. Hernandez. Today.
In 25 words or less: The Mariners scored some runs, but all we're left with is one question -- what's eating Gilbert Meche?
***NOTE: I'm leaving the inning-by-inning stuff rough here so I don't fall to sleep when I'm at work tomorrow (Wednesday). I had some more stuff than usual to do when I got off work on Tuesday afternoon like making a run to Circuit City and staying on hold with the local cable company for 50 minutes. This is all made harder by my non-car-having state. Thanks for your patience. I'll clean the inning-by-inning stuff at a later time. In the meantime, I've still bookended the inning-by-inning stuff with my usual banter, so feast on that as you may.
This one featured Gil Meche against ex-reliever DJ Carrasco, who just went to starting pitching this year. Yes, these are the kinds of experiments you get with the Royals lately.
A couple of mentions were made on the broadcast about the possibility after the All-Star break of Rafael Palmeiro reaching 3000 hits during the homestand at Safeco Field. History aside, that just makes me sick because of how many times he's lit up the Mariners in the past. I'm sick of him, and I'm sick of Viagra. Now when I think of him, I think of the Saturday Night Live commercial parody for Dr. Porkenheimer's Boner Juice.
TOP 1ST
Grade: C
Ichiro 4-pitch BB
Winn (6-for-55) 0-2 nearly hitting Winn's foot, Ichiro to second. foul. foul. 1-2 bounced to first, Ichiro to third
Ibañez 2-0 pop Teahen drifting back near line, Ichiro holds (may have scored)
Sexson 1-2 whiff low/away K
BOTTOM 1ST
Grade: A
DeJesus 0-1 flyout LF
Gotay 1-2. Full foul flyout high Bloomquist
Sweeney 0-1 groundout to first
TOP 2ND
Grade: B
Beltre 3-1 whiff. Full outside mash HR LF
»» MARINERS 1, ROYALS 0
Reed 0-2 groundout to short
Lopez 0-2. 1-2 groundout to second
Bloomquist 0-1 poke single RF
Borders 1-2 whiff low/away K, moot throwout of Bloomquist at second
BOTTOM 2ND
Grade: F
Stairs 0-2. 1-2 single hole right side past Lopez
Brown 0-2. 2-2 foul. foul. foul. whiff K
Teahen 2-0. 2-2 whiff fastball K
Berroa 0-1 up/away single RF, Stairs to second
Costa 1-1 single over short, Stairs scores, Berroa to second
»» ROYALS 1, MARINERS 1
Castillo 0-2 (Niehaus talking about Royals swinging and hitting the fastballs). Full foul. BB low/away (bases loaded)
DeJesus 1-2. 2-2 ball at feet, past Borders, Berroa scores, Costa to third, Castillo to second
»» ROYALS 2, MARINERS 1
DeJesus Full foul (up/in, probably ball four). foul. single up middle through mound, Costa, Castillo score
»» ROYALS 4, MARINERS 1
Gotay 1-0 groundout to second
TOP 3RD
Grade: C
Ichiro 1-0 single past short (now 10-for-19)
Winn 0-1 bouncer GIDP 6-4-3
Ibañez 2-0 single past third baseman into LF
Sexson 1-2 tap beside mound
BOTTOM 3RD
Grade: C
Sweeney 1-0 tap in front of plate, Borders can't pick it up (E2)
Stairs 0-2 foul. 1-2 chop to first, Sweeney to second
Brown 2-0. 2-2 foul. groundout to second, Sweeney to third
Teahen 4-pitch BB
Berroa 0-1 triple RF, Sweeney, Teahen score
»» ROYALS 6, MARINERS 1
Costa 2-0. 2-2 groundout to second
TOP 4TH
Grade: C
Beltre 3-0. 3-1 foul. Full up middle single CF
Reed 0-2. 1-2 roller 3-1 putout (couldn't get the DP)
Lopez first-pitch one-hop to pitcher
Bloomquist 2-0. 3-1 up/away BB
Borders 1-0 5-4 FC
BOTTOM 4TH
Grade: C
Castillo 2-0. 2-1 double into RF corner
DeJesus 1-0 (Price to mound) nearly a HR to rightcenter, goes for double, Castillo scores
»» ROYALS 7, MARINERS 1
Meche out, Thornton in
Gotay 1-2 low liner LF
Sweeney IBB
Stairs 2-0. 2-2. Full 6-4-3 DP
Meche's line: 3 innings, 7 runs (5 earned), 7 hits, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts, 80 pitches (50 strikes)
TOP 5TH
Grade: B
Ichiro 1-1 foul pop LF near stands
Winn 1-1 double down RF line
Ibañez 1-0 roller to mound, Winn to third
Sexson 1-0 bouncing single through hole left side, Winn scores
»» ROYALS 7, MARINERS 2
Beltre 0-2 whiff up/away K
BOTTOM 5TH
Grade: A-
Brown 1-0 lined to Ichiro, nearly loses ball in lights
Teahen 1-2 roller to short, barely out
Berroa 2-0 high chop to third
TOP 6TH
Grade: B
Reed 1-0 single over second
Lopez 0-1 double off wall LF, Reed to third
Bloomquist 1-1 roll into LCF gap, double, Reed and Lopez score
»» ROYALS 7, MARINERS 4
Borders 0-1 lined to CF (drifting back), Bloomquist to third
Carrasco out, Sisco in
Ichiro 1-0 flyout LF, Bloomquist beats throw
»» ROYALS 7, MARINERS 5
Winn first-pitch single past short
Ibañez 1-1 flyout LF short of track
Carrasco's line: 5 1/3 innings, 5 runs, 10 hits, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts, 87 pitches (55 strikes)
BOTTOM 6TH
Grade: C+
Costa 4-pitch BB
Castillo (2-0 Price to mound) 3-0. 3-1 barely down/away BB
Thornton out, Putz in
DeJesus first-pitch flyout deep RCF (Ichiro) gap, Costa to third (throw to second)
Gotay 1-2 flyout Reed LCF, Costa scores
»» ROYALS 8, MARINERS 5
Sweeney 3-1 5-4 FC
Thornton's line: 2 innings, 1 run, 0 hits, 3 walks, 0 strikeouts, 32 pitches (12 strikes)
TOP 7TH
Grade: B-
Sexson 1-2 ball out over plate double off wall RF corner
Beltre 2-0 hard single LCF, Sexson scores
»» ROYALS 8, MARINERS 6
Reed 1-2. Full outside corner looking K (low?)
Sisco out, Wood in
Lopez (pickoff throw gets away from Stairs, but runners hold). 0-2 hard grounder GIDP 5-4-3
Sisco's line: 1 inning, 1 run, 3 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 20 pitches (12 strikes)
BOTTOM 7TH
Grade: B+
Stairs 0-2 groundout to second
Brown 0-1 HBP in back
Teahen 1-2. 2-2 Brown steals second, dirt throw (after taking off many times). Full high whiff K
Berroa first-pitch pop to short
Putz' line: 2 innings, 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeouts, 22 pitches (14 strikes)
TOP 8TH
Grade: C
Bloomquist first-pitch single up middle past second baseman
Snelling PH (two pickoff throws)
Wood out, Gobble in
Spiezio PH 2-0. 2-2 foul. foul. Full flyout CF near track
Ichiro 1-0 Bloomquist steals second (no throw). 2-0 flyout track RF, Bloomquist to third
Winn 1-2. 2-2 looking K inside corner
Wood's line: 2/3 inning, 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, 4 pitches (4 strikes)
Gobble's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 16 pitches (9 strikes)
BOTTOM 8TH
Grade: B+
Putz out, Villone in (Olivo in)
Costa 2-2 foul. Full hard grounder to mound
Castillo 1-2. 2-2 low liner LF
DeJesus 3-1 high BB
Gotay 0-2 whiff K
Villone's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 1 walk, 1 strikeout, 20 pitches (11 strikes)
TOP 9TH
Grade: C-
Gobble out, MacDougal in
Ibañez 1-1 very high chop to mound
Sexson 1-2. Full high/in looking K
Beltre 1-2 foul. low/away whiff K
MacDougal's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks, 2 strikeouts, 14 pitches (9 strikes)
---
Gameball: Randy Winn.
I gave him the goat after the first game of the series, saying he fell off the face of the earth. A good way to get back onto the face of the earth would be to have a multi-hit game, which Randy Winn had in this game. He went 2-for-5 with a double and scored one of the Mariners' six runs. He struck out once. In a sick twist, his average of .266 leaves him .003 behind Adrian Beltre, thanks to the three-hit game by the latter. More about him later.
Goat: Gil Meche.
Did he look like a pitcher that had eight wins coming into the game? I could have looked at Gil Meche's 8-5 record going into this game every day for the five days beforehand and not realized or thought that he'd won eight games. Dave and Ron were in the booth talking about it before Meche got lit up -- he had a chance to be a 10-game winner going into the All-Star break. All I thought to myself was, what?! Really?! I don't know if I'm blocking out all of Meche's good moemnts this year or what, but all I can remember is an erratic pitcher. Or I'm mixing him up with Joel Piñeiro or something. Who knows. Anyway, it's a start like this that makes you realize that even though Gil Meche has eight wins, he also has the now-six losses. The bottom line is that the Mariner bats gave the team a chance to win. Meche didn't.
Yr W-L Pct GB Stk
2001 61-21 .744 -- W5
2003 53-29 .654 8 L1
2002 52-30 .634 9 W1
2000 49-33 .598 12 W1
2005 35-47 .427 26 L1
2004 32-50 .390 29 L5
Yeah, so you look at the boxscore and see that the two people in the lineup that had three hits apiece are Adrian Beltre and Willie Bloomquist. Adrian Beltre is a couple steps above tepid right now, to say the least. It's good to see him string together a couple of good games. He drove in two runs with his 3-for-5 day. The two outs were strikeouts. He can get his old jersey #29 on his back at any ol' time now. No one else is wearing it, after all.
We've said things in this space before. If Willie Bloomquist is getting three hits in a game, I can't complain. I do have a grip on reality, as amazing as that may seem. His average is also up to a bulldozing .235. Miguel Olivo is jealous with his .147.
More lineup shuffling in this one. We'd been warmed up to the idea of Raul Ibañez hitting in the third slot, but today we got a switch of Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson in the fourth and fifth slots. It definitely worked for at least one day. Sexson and Beltre combined for a 5-for-10 day.
More about Meche? Sure. The trainwreck of a second inning featured Meche unable to put batters away with two out. He struck out Emil Brown, but Brown had worked the count full and fouled off a few pitches before strike three. Meche did get Mark Teahen on a 2-2 pitch. Alberto Castillo was down 0-2 and was walked. David DeJesus worked a 1-2 count full, fouled off a couple pitches, then hit the two-run single. Brown and DeJesus worked Meche for 16 pitches between the both of them, but Meche faced six other hitters in the inning. Basically, that was a meltdown. Not that we haven't seen that from Meche. Surely you remember any Ricoh Scouting Report since the beginning of the season.
I was hoping I wouldn't be talking about a rubber game in a series against the Royals, but yeah, it's coming at us. You can only hope to contain it.
Sele. Hernandez. Today.
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