Friday, July 22, 2005
GAME 94: BLUE JAYS 6, MARINERS 3
Blue Jays 6, Mariners 3
In 25 words or less: Toronto came forth with the brooms, and now let's hope that some additional housecleaning is done in the starting rotation.
This one featured Joel Piñeiro going up against Josh Towers. For those able to watch the game, they saw it on MLB.tv since it wasn't televised in the Seattle area. So, it was a DiamondVision (or JaysVision) bonanza. Does anyone realize how badly the top-of-screen score constant graphics have spoiled us as sports fans? I've realized I really like to know what the count is without having to remember it from the pitch before. This of course has something to do with my short attention span, but I just really like a tastefully designed score constant.
TOP 1ST
Grade: C-
Again, not much of a start. Ichiro chopped out up the middle to second. Randy Winn flew out high to centerfield on a full count. Raul Ibañez flew out to short on the second pitch.
BOTTOM 1ST
Grade: A
Piñeiro had a good first. Russ Adams bounced out to short. Frank Catalanotto rolled out to short. Vernon Wells chopped out to short. That's Mike Morse with three errorless chances.
TOP 2ND
Grade: C
Sigh... Richie Sexson fouled off the first two pitches before whiffing on a 2-2 slider low and outside. Adrian Beltre popped to Shea Hillenbrand in foul territory near the dugout on the first-base side. Jeremy Reed tagged the first pitch into rightfield for a single, then broke for second on the second pitch to Mike Morse, but was nailed by a throw from Ken Huckaby, though I'd have to admit it kinda looked like Reed was safe.
BOTTOM 2ND
Grade: C+
Toronto drew first blood. Shea Hillenbrand rolled the second pitch to short. Aaron Hill had the hitters' counts and later flew out to rightfield. Reed Johnson worked a 1-2 count full, then bopped a pitch into the seats in leftfield.
»» BLUE JAYS 1, MARINERS 0
Eric Hinske couldn't check his swing on a 2-2 pitch.
TOP 3RD
Grade: C-
Nothing above a whimper for the Mariner bats. Mike Morse got behind 0-2 and lined out a 2-2 pitch near the track in rightfield. Jose Lopez took a 1-0 pitch behind him, fouled off three pitches after being up 3-1, then flew out high to Hill near the bag at third. Pat Borders grounded hard to Hill, who booted it for an error. Ichiro rolled the first pitch to second.
BOTTOM 3RD
Grade: D+
All hail the big inning. Frank Menechino smacked a 3-1 pitch throug the left side for a single. Ken Huckaby fouled off an 0-2 pitch before rolling very slowly to Lopez at second, moving Menechino to second. Adams dumped a single into rightcenter, and Menechino scored.
»» BLUE JAYS 2, MARINERS 0
Catalanotto flew out to left. Wells rolled a ball up the middle, and Morse fielded it and threw immediately, but it wasn't in time. Lopez remained down on the field after the play, and Hargrove and a trainer attended to him. Lopez wound up able to finish the game. Hillenbrand got behind 0-2, then golfed a low pitch over the plate and deposited it into the first couple rows in leftfield.
»» BLUE JAYS 5, MARINERS 0
Hill got ahead 2-0, then grounded out to short two pitches later. (54:53)
TOP 4TH
Grade: C-
Winn grounded hard to Hillenbrand, who dove to his right and underhanded to Towers at first. Ibañez flew out high to center on the second pitch. Sexson hit the second pitch high into the air, where it went as a flyout into shallow center.
BOTTOM 4TH
Grade: A-
Piñeiro bounced back with a good inning. Johnson fouled off a couple of full-count pitches before flying out to Ichiro in the rightcenter gap. Hinske foul-tipped a 2-2 pitch into Borders' glove. Menechino chopped an 0-2 pitch near the mound, where Beltre gobbled it up and threw to first.
TOP 5TH
Grade: C-
Beltre rolled out to short on the first pitch. Reed fouled off a 2-0 pitch and nubbed the next pitch to short, where Adams came up with the ball, then fell down (possibly thrown off by the ball hitting a seam in the turf), and it went as an error (terrible call). Morse got ahead 2-0 flew out to left on a 2-2 pitch. Lopez checkswung, but tapped along the third-base line, where Towers picked it up and threw in time to first.
BOTTOM 5TH
Grade: B
A very minor threat was quelled. Huckaby rolled out to second. Adams fouled off three 0-2 pitches before getting jammed and chopping a ball to Lopez, who charged and threw in time to first. Catalanotto drove a pitch into the gap and to the wall in leftcenter for a double. Wells couldn't check his swing on a dirtball outside.
TOP 6TH
Grade: B
The bats woke up a bit. Borders flew out high to left on the second pitch. Ichiro scraped a 1-2 pitch just off the ground and served it into leftfield for a single. Ichiro stole second on the 1-1 pitch to Winn, who pushed a single through the left side on the next pitch, moving Ichiro to third. Ibañez flew out to left on a 2-0 pitch, deep enough to score Ichiro.
»» BLUE JAYS 5, MARINERS 1
Winn stole second on the second pitch to Sexson, who wrapped a double into the gap in rightcenter, scoring Winn.
»» BLUE JAYS 5, MARINERS 2
Beltre rolled a ball up the middle where Adams moved over to plug the hole and throw to first.
BOTTOM 6TH
Grade: B
This could have been really bad. Hillenbrand broke his bat on the second pitch, dinking a single into centerfield. Hill walked on a low 3-1 pitch. Johnson whiffed at a 1-2 pitch down and away. Hinske grounded the first pitch to Sexson behind the bag at first, who threw to second, but Morse's throw back to first was barely beat by Hinske (3-6 fielder's choice) as Hillenbrand moved to third. Menechino fouled off a 3-1 pitch before taking the next one very high, a curveball that got away from Piñeiro, loading the bases. Huckaby reached for an 0-2 pitch, and Sexson gloved it and threw to a covering Piñeiro.
Piñeiro's line: 6 innings, 5 runs, 7 hits, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts, 115 pitches (77 strikes)
TOP 7TH
Grade: C-
No offensive help here. Reed bounced the second pitch to second. Morse hit a low liner that was caught by Wells. Lopez drove a pitch into the gap in leftcenter, but fell victim to a running catch by Wells, reaching down for the ball.
BOTTOM 7TH
Grade: C+
Julio Mateo came in for Piñeiro. Adams flew out to Winn near the leftfield track on the first pitch. Catalanotto got behind 0-2, took three balls, fouled off a full-count pitch, then drove a ball into the gap in leftcenter, where Reed sold the ranch, diving and missing the ball as it rolled to the wall. Catalanotto scooted to third with a triple, then Morse threw to third for some reason, or rather over Beltre and into the third-base dugout, allowing Catalanotto to score.
»» BLUE JAYS 6, MARINERS 2
Wells fouled off a couple of 1-2 pitches before shooting a ball past a diving Morse into centerfield for a single. Hillenbrand was beaned in the arm on an 0-2 pitch, moving Wells to second. Hill got behind 0-2 and lined out softly to Sexson. Johnson got behind 0-2 and later flew out to Reed.
Mateo's line: 1 inning, 1 run, 2 hits, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, 25 pitches (18 strikes)
TOP 8TH
Grade: B-
Borders clubbed a 2-2 pitch down the leftfield line and into the corner for a double.
Scott Schoeneweis came in for Towers. Ichiro got behind 0-2, but eventually punched a single through the right side and moving Borders to third. Winn chopped the second pitch to third, and it went for a 5-4-3 double play, and Borders scored. As is always clarified when this happens, Winn gets no RBI on the play.
»» BLUE JAYS 6, MARINERS 3
Ibañez took a full-count pitch low and outside for a walk.
Miguel Batista came in for Schoeneweis. Sexson reached on the second pitch outside and chopped out to short.
Towers' line: 7 innings, 3 runs, 5 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 96 pitches (60 strikes)
Schoeneweis' line: 2/3 inning, 0 runs, 1 hit, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts, 14 pitches (9 strikes)
BOTTOM 8TH
Grade: B
Jeff Nelson came in for Mateo. Hinske got ahead 3-0 and tagged the 3-1 pitch to the wall in the leftfield corner for a double. Menechino grounded a ball past Nelson and toward Morse, who threw to third to try to get an advancing Hinske, but Beltre threw the ball over Lopez (in the book as a fielder's choice). Runners remained on first and second. Huckaby air-bunted the second pitch to Nelson off the mound, who let the ball drop and threw to third, then Beltre went to second for the textbook 1-5-6 double play. Adams got ahead 2-0 and ended up ripping the 2-1 pitch up the middle and into centerfield for a single, moving Huckaby to second. Alex(is) Rios got ahead 2-0 flew out to Ichiro near the rightfield corner.
Nelson's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 2 hits, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, 19 pitches (10 strikes)
TOP 9TH
Grade: C
Beltre got ahead 2-0, but flew out near the track in the rightfield corner on the 2-2 pitch. Reed singled past the shortstop. Morse took a 1-2 pitch over the inner half of the plate. Lopez chopped out to third. Ballgame.
Batista's line: 1 1/3 innings, 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 18 pitches (11 strikes)
---
Gameball: Jeremy Reed.
He was one bad scoring decision away from a three-hit game. I guess I'm letting him slide for diving and missing the Catalanotto ball that got past him and went for a triple. What does this all mean? Well, Reed and Beltre now are both hitting .261. I guess I'd just like Reed to get up to about .280 and hover there. I'd be happy with that. One curious thing I've thought about is whether Jeremy Reed's centerfielding is better than that of Randy Winn last year. Are they about the same, except Winn's tenure in centerfield was too close to the Mike Cameron era that we hadn't fully adjusted to a realistic expectation yet? I'm not sure, but I'm leaning toward Reed being a better centerfielder than Winn. Anyway, two solid singles for Reed, and what should have been an infield hit.
Goat: Joel Piñeiro.
I'll have more about Piñeiro below. Though he had a couple of solid innings, Piñeiro chomped on a healthy serving of long ball, and that turned out to be the game. Granted, if the Mariners score only three runs, they're not going to win many games, but if a Mariner starting pitcher gives up five runs, there's almost no way in hell that the Mariners win the game. Not this year, anyway.
Yr W-L Pct GB Stk
2001 68-26 .723 -- W2
2002 58-36 .617 10 L2
2003 58-36 .617 10 L1
2000 55-39 .585 13 L1
2005 41-53 .436 27 L3
2004 37-57 .394 31 W2
Well, how do you like that? A road sweep of the Angels before the break, a home split against the Orioles, and now the bad kind of sweep in Toronto. This translates into the Mariners losing five of seven after the break. If there's one thing you can depend on with this team, it's either that they'll win a game, then lose one, or they'll reel off a four-game win streak and then lose four straight or five of six or something. Yes, it's frustrating, but I didn't expect this year to be easy.
For all intensive purposes, the game was over the minute Shea Hillenbrand golfed that three-run homer in the third. So, what it amounts to is a pretty boring game, which I guess is fortunate for Mariner fans in the Northwest that didn't get the game televised. MLB.tv had the stadium video with a crew of Billy Sample and Brian McRae voicing over it. The coolest thing was when they didn't cut away during pitching changes, and Sample and McRae would shoot the breeze while the in-game promotional stuff was showing on the board. Also different about the Blue Jays was their "in-game host," and I didn't know quite what to think about that. Yes, things are different nowadays in the Rogers Centre.
The Mariners had some chances late to score, but not really to tie the game. Richie Sexson's RBI single in the sixth that made it 5-2 had already happened with two out, and an Adrian Beltre homer after that would have brought the Mariners within a run, but it wouldn't have tied the game. Randy Winn had runners on the corners with nobody out in the eighth and the score 6-2. A double-play ball there isn't exactly what the doctor ordered, though a run did cross the plate. I guess you could say the Mariners had chances to get back in it, but really, they didn't. That kind of thing will happen when you stake the other team out to a 5-0 lead in the third inning against Joel Piñeiro, who's got to be hurt by this point. That's got to be the only explanation, right?
Anyone out there like the Mariners' starting pitching in this series? Let's tally it up, shall we? Mariner starting pitchers in the Toronto series combined for a spkarling 14 2/3 innings, 19 runs, 25 hits, 5 walks, 10 strikeouts, and 296 pitches (194 strikes). That translates to an ERA of (drum roll...) 11.66. Great. Grand. Wonderful. Yes, that averages 1.30 runs an inning. The Blue Jays piled 27 runs on the Mariners in the series, with all but eight given up by the starters. Still, there were big innings for the Blue Jays, and they didn't even face Gil Meche in the series. Amazing. In a related note, the Mariners just got swept by a team whose starting pitchers included Ted Lilly, Gustavo Chacin, and Josh Towers. I'm only glad Lilly got tagged in his game, but that doesn't make the whole outlook too bright.
As we know, the Blue Jays were apparently struggling when the Mariners came into town. The Mariners had just split a series with the Orioles, though they'd won the last two games and maybe they'd recaptured the magic from the sweep in Anaheim. You know what's sad? I can only vaguely remember a time when the Mariners weren't the elixir for a struggling team. How I miss those times. I know things should be on the up-and-up soon, but it shouldn't have taken this long.
Moyer. Elarton. Today.
In 25 words or less: Toronto came forth with the brooms, and now let's hope that some additional housecleaning is done in the starting rotation.
This one featured Joel Piñeiro going up against Josh Towers. For those able to watch the game, they saw it on MLB.tv since it wasn't televised in the Seattle area. So, it was a DiamondVision (or JaysVision) bonanza. Does anyone realize how badly the top-of-screen score constant graphics have spoiled us as sports fans? I've realized I really like to know what the count is without having to remember it from the pitch before. This of course has something to do with my short attention span, but I just really like a tastefully designed score constant.
TOP 1ST
Grade: C-
Again, not much of a start. Ichiro chopped out up the middle to second. Randy Winn flew out high to centerfield on a full count. Raul Ibañez flew out to short on the second pitch.
BOTTOM 1ST
Grade: A
Piñeiro had a good first. Russ Adams bounced out to short. Frank Catalanotto rolled out to short. Vernon Wells chopped out to short. That's Mike Morse with three errorless chances.
TOP 2ND
Grade: C
Sigh... Richie Sexson fouled off the first two pitches before whiffing on a 2-2 slider low and outside. Adrian Beltre popped to Shea Hillenbrand in foul territory near the dugout on the first-base side. Jeremy Reed tagged the first pitch into rightfield for a single, then broke for second on the second pitch to Mike Morse, but was nailed by a throw from Ken Huckaby, though I'd have to admit it kinda looked like Reed was safe.
BOTTOM 2ND
Grade: C+
Toronto drew first blood. Shea Hillenbrand rolled the second pitch to short. Aaron Hill had the hitters' counts and later flew out to rightfield. Reed Johnson worked a 1-2 count full, then bopped a pitch into the seats in leftfield.
»» BLUE JAYS 1, MARINERS 0
Eric Hinske couldn't check his swing on a 2-2 pitch.
TOP 3RD
Grade: C-
Nothing above a whimper for the Mariner bats. Mike Morse got behind 0-2 and lined out a 2-2 pitch near the track in rightfield. Jose Lopez took a 1-0 pitch behind him, fouled off three pitches after being up 3-1, then flew out high to Hill near the bag at third. Pat Borders grounded hard to Hill, who booted it for an error. Ichiro rolled the first pitch to second.
BOTTOM 3RD
Grade: D+
All hail the big inning. Frank Menechino smacked a 3-1 pitch throug the left side for a single. Ken Huckaby fouled off an 0-2 pitch before rolling very slowly to Lopez at second, moving Menechino to second. Adams dumped a single into rightcenter, and Menechino scored.
»» BLUE JAYS 2, MARINERS 0
Catalanotto flew out to left. Wells rolled a ball up the middle, and Morse fielded it and threw immediately, but it wasn't in time. Lopez remained down on the field after the play, and Hargrove and a trainer attended to him. Lopez wound up able to finish the game. Hillenbrand got behind 0-2, then golfed a low pitch over the plate and deposited it into the first couple rows in leftfield.
»» BLUE JAYS 5, MARINERS 0
Hill got ahead 2-0, then grounded out to short two pitches later. (54:53)
TOP 4TH
Grade: C-
Winn grounded hard to Hillenbrand, who dove to his right and underhanded to Towers at first. Ibañez flew out high to center on the second pitch. Sexson hit the second pitch high into the air, where it went as a flyout into shallow center.
BOTTOM 4TH
Grade: A-
Piñeiro bounced back with a good inning. Johnson fouled off a couple of full-count pitches before flying out to Ichiro in the rightcenter gap. Hinske foul-tipped a 2-2 pitch into Borders' glove. Menechino chopped an 0-2 pitch near the mound, where Beltre gobbled it up and threw to first.
TOP 5TH
Grade: C-
Beltre rolled out to short on the first pitch. Reed fouled off a 2-0 pitch and nubbed the next pitch to short, where Adams came up with the ball, then fell down (possibly thrown off by the ball hitting a seam in the turf), and it went as an error (terrible call). Morse got ahead 2-0 flew out to left on a 2-2 pitch. Lopez checkswung, but tapped along the third-base line, where Towers picked it up and threw in time to first.
BOTTOM 5TH
Grade: B
A very minor threat was quelled. Huckaby rolled out to second. Adams fouled off three 0-2 pitches before getting jammed and chopping a ball to Lopez, who charged and threw in time to first. Catalanotto drove a pitch into the gap and to the wall in leftcenter for a double. Wells couldn't check his swing on a dirtball outside.
TOP 6TH
Grade: B
The bats woke up a bit. Borders flew out high to left on the second pitch. Ichiro scraped a 1-2 pitch just off the ground and served it into leftfield for a single. Ichiro stole second on the 1-1 pitch to Winn, who pushed a single through the left side on the next pitch, moving Ichiro to third. Ibañez flew out to left on a 2-0 pitch, deep enough to score Ichiro.
»» BLUE JAYS 5, MARINERS 1
Winn stole second on the second pitch to Sexson, who wrapped a double into the gap in rightcenter, scoring Winn.
»» BLUE JAYS 5, MARINERS 2
Beltre rolled a ball up the middle where Adams moved over to plug the hole and throw to first.
BOTTOM 6TH
Grade: B
This could have been really bad. Hillenbrand broke his bat on the second pitch, dinking a single into centerfield. Hill walked on a low 3-1 pitch. Johnson whiffed at a 1-2 pitch down and away. Hinske grounded the first pitch to Sexson behind the bag at first, who threw to second, but Morse's throw back to first was barely beat by Hinske (3-6 fielder's choice) as Hillenbrand moved to third. Menechino fouled off a 3-1 pitch before taking the next one very high, a curveball that got away from Piñeiro, loading the bases. Huckaby reached for an 0-2 pitch, and Sexson gloved it and threw to a covering Piñeiro.
Piñeiro's line: 6 innings, 5 runs, 7 hits, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts, 115 pitches (77 strikes)
TOP 7TH
Grade: C-
No offensive help here. Reed bounced the second pitch to second. Morse hit a low liner that was caught by Wells. Lopez drove a pitch into the gap in leftcenter, but fell victim to a running catch by Wells, reaching down for the ball.
BOTTOM 7TH
Grade: C+
Julio Mateo came in for Piñeiro. Adams flew out to Winn near the leftfield track on the first pitch. Catalanotto got behind 0-2, took three balls, fouled off a full-count pitch, then drove a ball into the gap in leftcenter, where Reed sold the ranch, diving and missing the ball as it rolled to the wall. Catalanotto scooted to third with a triple, then Morse threw to third for some reason, or rather over Beltre and into the third-base dugout, allowing Catalanotto to score.
»» BLUE JAYS 6, MARINERS 2
Wells fouled off a couple of 1-2 pitches before shooting a ball past a diving Morse into centerfield for a single. Hillenbrand was beaned in the arm on an 0-2 pitch, moving Wells to second. Hill got behind 0-2 and lined out softly to Sexson. Johnson got behind 0-2 and later flew out to Reed.
Mateo's line: 1 inning, 1 run, 2 hits, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, 25 pitches (18 strikes)
TOP 8TH
Grade: B-
Borders clubbed a 2-2 pitch down the leftfield line and into the corner for a double.
Scott Schoeneweis came in for Towers. Ichiro got behind 0-2, but eventually punched a single through the right side and moving Borders to third. Winn chopped the second pitch to third, and it went for a 5-4-3 double play, and Borders scored. As is always clarified when this happens, Winn gets no RBI on the play.
»» BLUE JAYS 6, MARINERS 3
Ibañez took a full-count pitch low and outside for a walk.
Miguel Batista came in for Schoeneweis. Sexson reached on the second pitch outside and chopped out to short.
Towers' line: 7 innings, 3 runs, 5 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 96 pitches (60 strikes)
Schoeneweis' line: 2/3 inning, 0 runs, 1 hit, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts, 14 pitches (9 strikes)
BOTTOM 8TH
Grade: B
Jeff Nelson came in for Mateo. Hinske got ahead 3-0 and tagged the 3-1 pitch to the wall in the leftfield corner for a double. Menechino grounded a ball past Nelson and toward Morse, who threw to third to try to get an advancing Hinske, but Beltre threw the ball over Lopez (in the book as a fielder's choice). Runners remained on first and second. Huckaby air-bunted the second pitch to Nelson off the mound, who let the ball drop and threw to third, then Beltre went to second for the textbook 1-5-6 double play. Adams got ahead 2-0 and ended up ripping the 2-1 pitch up the middle and into centerfield for a single, moving Huckaby to second. Alex(is) Rios got ahead 2-0 flew out to Ichiro near the rightfield corner.
Nelson's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 2 hits, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, 19 pitches (10 strikes)
TOP 9TH
Grade: C
Beltre got ahead 2-0, but flew out near the track in the rightfield corner on the 2-2 pitch. Reed singled past the shortstop. Morse took a 1-2 pitch over the inner half of the plate. Lopez chopped out to third. Ballgame.
Batista's line: 1 1/3 innings, 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 18 pitches (11 strikes)
---
Gameball: Jeremy Reed.
He was one bad scoring decision away from a three-hit game. I guess I'm letting him slide for diving and missing the Catalanotto ball that got past him and went for a triple. What does this all mean? Well, Reed and Beltre now are both hitting .261. I guess I'd just like Reed to get up to about .280 and hover there. I'd be happy with that. One curious thing I've thought about is whether Jeremy Reed's centerfielding is better than that of Randy Winn last year. Are they about the same, except Winn's tenure in centerfield was too close to the Mike Cameron era that we hadn't fully adjusted to a realistic expectation yet? I'm not sure, but I'm leaning toward Reed being a better centerfielder than Winn. Anyway, two solid singles for Reed, and what should have been an infield hit.
Goat: Joel Piñeiro.
I'll have more about Piñeiro below. Though he had a couple of solid innings, Piñeiro chomped on a healthy serving of long ball, and that turned out to be the game. Granted, if the Mariners score only three runs, they're not going to win many games, but if a Mariner starting pitcher gives up five runs, there's almost no way in hell that the Mariners win the game. Not this year, anyway.
Yr W-L Pct GB Stk
2001 68-26 .723 -- W2
2002 58-36 .617 10 L2
2003 58-36 .617 10 L1
2000 55-39 .585 13 L1
2005 41-53 .436 27 L3
2004 37-57 .394 31 W2
Well, how do you like that? A road sweep of the Angels before the break, a home split against the Orioles, and now the bad kind of sweep in Toronto. This translates into the Mariners losing five of seven after the break. If there's one thing you can depend on with this team, it's either that they'll win a game, then lose one, or they'll reel off a four-game win streak and then lose four straight or five of six or something. Yes, it's frustrating, but I didn't expect this year to be easy.
For all intensive purposes, the game was over the minute Shea Hillenbrand golfed that three-run homer in the third. So, what it amounts to is a pretty boring game, which I guess is fortunate for Mariner fans in the Northwest that didn't get the game televised. MLB.tv had the stadium video with a crew of Billy Sample and Brian McRae voicing over it. The coolest thing was when they didn't cut away during pitching changes, and Sample and McRae would shoot the breeze while the in-game promotional stuff was showing on the board. Also different about the Blue Jays was their "in-game host," and I didn't know quite what to think about that. Yes, things are different nowadays in the Rogers Centre.
The Mariners had some chances late to score, but not really to tie the game. Richie Sexson's RBI single in the sixth that made it 5-2 had already happened with two out, and an Adrian Beltre homer after that would have brought the Mariners within a run, but it wouldn't have tied the game. Randy Winn had runners on the corners with nobody out in the eighth and the score 6-2. A double-play ball there isn't exactly what the doctor ordered, though a run did cross the plate. I guess you could say the Mariners had chances to get back in it, but really, they didn't. That kind of thing will happen when you stake the other team out to a 5-0 lead in the third inning against Joel Piñeiro, who's got to be hurt by this point. That's got to be the only explanation, right?
Anyone out there like the Mariners' starting pitching in this series? Let's tally it up, shall we? Mariner starting pitchers in the Toronto series combined for a spkarling 14 2/3 innings, 19 runs, 25 hits, 5 walks, 10 strikeouts, and 296 pitches (194 strikes). That translates to an ERA of (drum roll...) 11.66. Great. Grand. Wonderful. Yes, that averages 1.30 runs an inning. The Blue Jays piled 27 runs on the Mariners in the series, with all but eight given up by the starters. Still, there were big innings for the Blue Jays, and they didn't even face Gil Meche in the series. Amazing. In a related note, the Mariners just got swept by a team whose starting pitchers included Ted Lilly, Gustavo Chacin, and Josh Towers. I'm only glad Lilly got tagged in his game, but that doesn't make the whole outlook too bright.
As we know, the Blue Jays were apparently struggling when the Mariners came into town. The Mariners had just split a series with the Orioles, though they'd won the last two games and maybe they'd recaptured the magic from the sweep in Anaheim. You know what's sad? I can only vaguely remember a time when the Mariners weren't the elixir for a struggling team. How I miss those times. I know things should be on the up-and-up soon, but it shouldn't have taken this long.
Moyer. Elarton. Today.
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