Sunday, April 09, 2006
GAME 7: ATHLETICS 6, MARINERS 4
In 25 words or less: A perfect game, a chance to tie the series, and the scoreless innings streak all went by the wayside in this game.
This one featured Victoria, BC's own Rich Harden going up against Joel Piñeiro. The Mariners were trying to avoid going under .500, which conversely means they were trying to get back above .500 as well. The Mariners had just come off back-to-back dominations at the hands of Joe Blanton and Barry Zito with Harden taking the mound today. I certainly know I was prepared for a third dose of futility from the Mariner offense.
TOP 1ST
Mark Ellis was plunked* in the back leg on the first pitch. Mark Kotsay grounded a 2-2 pitch deep into the hole on the right side, where Lopez still threw to Betancourt at second and got the lead runner Ellis just in time (neighborhood). Bobby Crosby grounded a 2-0 pitch up the middle that led Betancourt to the second base bag, which he tagged, then threw to first to complete the double play. Piñeiro threw 10 pitches.
[*Edit Mon ~7:34p -- thanks to reader Terry for pointing out that getting beaned specifically implies the head or helmet.]
BOTTOM 1ST
Ichiro grounded the first pitch hard right to Nick Swisher at first. Jose Lopez was ahead 2-0 and whiffed on a 2-2 pitch down over the inner half. Raul Ibañez hit a hard grounder back to the mound. Harden threw nine pitches and the Mariners were up to 21 innings without scoring.
TOP 2ND
Eric Chavez got ahead 2-0 and flew out to leftfield on a 2-2 pitch. Frank Thomas took an 0-2 pitch knee-high over the inside corner, never swinging in three pitches. Milton Bradley worked a 1-2 count full before taking strike three. Piñeiro threw 16 pitches and had 26 through two.
BOTTOM 2ND
Richie Sexson whiffed on a 1-2 splitter down and away. Carl Everett took Bradley to the rightfield track on the 1-2 pitch. Adrian Beltre bounced the first pitch to Crosby, who bobbled it but still had enough time to make the out. Harden threw 13 pitches and had 22 through two.
TOP 3RD
Jay Payton drilled a single into leftfield. Jason Kendall singled on a hit-and-run, but it was to centerfield, so Payton had to hold at second. Nick Swisher popped high to leftfield and the runners held. Ellis singled the second pitch into rightfield, and Ichiro's throw home to get Payton was pretty late, enabling Kendall to get to third.
»» ATHLETICS 1, MARINERS 0
Kotsay flew out on the first pitch to Reed, who threw over the cutoff man, allowing Ellis to move to second. Crosby took a 1-2 pitch over the inside corner. Piñeiro threw 15 pitches and had 41 through three.
BOTTOM 3RD
Jeremy Reed whiffed on a 2-2 change low over the outer half. Yuniesky Betancourt rolled out to short. Guillermo Quiroz whiffed on a 97mph fastball up and out to finish a nine-pitch at-bat. Harden threw 17 pitches and had 39 through three.
TOP 4TH
Chavez grounded the second pitch to second. Frank Thomas had a 3-1 count and ended up rolling to short on a full count. Bradley took a 1-2 pitch on the outside corner for strike three, again leaving Bradley perturbed. Piñeiro threw 12 pitches and had 53 through four.
BOTTOM 4TH
Ichiro popped to Crosby drifting into shallow leftfield. Lopez hit the second pitch for a high lazy fly ball to leftfield. Ibañez whiffed on full-count heat. Harden threw 11 pitches and had 50 through four.
TOP 5TH
Payton was down 0-2 and tomahawked a 2-2 pitch for a groundout to short. Kendall got ahead 2-0 and stuck the 2-2 pitch into centerfield for a single. Swisher stroked the second pitch to the wall in rightfield for a single (luckily not more), allowing Kendall to move to third. Ellis slapped the second pitch for a slow-rolling double near the leftfield line, scoring Kendall and moving Swisher to third.
»» ATHLETICS 2, MARINERS 0
Kotsay got ahead 3-0 before taking the fourth ball intentionally to load the bases. Crosby crushed the 2-0 pitch right to Beltre, who had the ball go off his chest and up in the air as all the runners advanced 90 feet on the error.
»» ATHLETICS 3, MARINERS 0
Chavez popped an 0-2 pitch to leftfield, where Ibañez caught the ball and tried to nail Ellis coming home, but the play wasn't that close and the leftover runners moved into scoring position.
»» ATHLETICS 4, MARINERS 0
Thomas popped the second pitch to Lopez in shallow rightcenter. Piñeiro threw 27 pitches and had 80 through five.
BOTTOM 5TH
Sexson fell behind 0-2 and whiffed on a 2-2 fastball. Everett popped the first pitch right to Payton in left. Beltre pounded a 2-2 single into shallow centerfield, ending the perfect game. Reed lazily lined the second pitch right to Crosby at short. Harden threw 13 pitches and had 63 through five.
TOP 6TH
Bradley was ahead 2-0 and later grounded to Sexson for a 3-1 putout. Payton bounced a ball off the centerfield track and wall for a double. Kendall got ahead 2-0, then Piñeiro slipped during the at-bat, then Quiroz checked on him. Kendall had a 3-1 count as well and ended up rolling to short as Payton held at second. Swisher was ahead 2-0 and whiffed on a 2-2 breaking ball. Piñeiro threw 19 pitches and had 99 through six.
BOTTOM 6TH
Betancourt grounded the second pitch hard to third. Quiroz whiffed on a 2-2 splitter outside and in the dirt. Ichiro grounded to Swisher near the bag at first. Harden threw 11 pitches and had 74 through six.
TOP 7TH
Ellis grounded deep into the hole at short, and Betancourt tried to make the backhand play and throw, but he was way too deep and Ellis took the single. Kotsay grounded the second pitch to Lopez to start a 4-6-3 double play. Crosby pounded a hard single into leftfield. Chavez was ahead 2-0 and wound up popping a homer just over the rightfield fence. High-larious.
»» ATHLETICS 6, MARINERS 0
Thomas popped to Ichiro near the rightfield line. Piñeiro threw 16 pitches and had 115 through seven.
Piñeiro's line: 7 innings, 6 runs (5 earned), 10 hits, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts, 115 pitches (70 strikes)
BOTTOM 7TH
Lopez popped the second pitch to Kotsay in leftcenter. Ibañez smoked a 2-2 pitch right into Swisher's glove at first. Sexson was ahead 3-1 and wound up poking (jammed) a single into deep centerfield that Kotsay didn't dive for and took off the hop as Sexson took second with a double for the Mariners' second hit. Everett waved over an 0-2 pitch and ran to first anyway even though Kendall didn't drop the ball. Harden threw 17 pitches and had 91 through seven.
TOP 8TH
Jeff Harris came in for Piñeiro. Bradley got ahead 2-0 and nubbed out to short. Payton slapped an 0-2 pitch into rightfield for a single. Kendall grounded an 0-2 pitch up the middle for a 6-4-3 double play.
BOTTOM 8TH
Beltre worked a 1-2 count for a walk (what?!). Reed smacked a single the other way through the left-side hole for a single, moving Beltre to second.
Justin Duchscherer came in for Harden. Joe Borchard, hitting for Betancourt, grounded the first pitch to Ellis, who bobbled the ball and missed the chance at the double play, getting only Borchard at first as the runners moved to second and third. Roberto Petagine, hitting for Quiroz, drew a full-count walk to load the bases. Ichiro took a 2-1 pitch for a strike that was a bit off the plate, and later popped to Chavez near the third-base bag in foul ground on a full count. Lopez fell behind 0-2, fouling two pitches off the ground and himself, and ended up taking a 1-2 pitch off his left bicep to force Beltre across. Thus ended the Mariners' streak of scoreless innings at 27.
»» ATHLETICS 6, MARINERS 1
Joe Kennedy came in for Duchscherer. Ibañez somehow got out of the way of a 2-2 pitch (but should probably have gotten beaned), then whiffed on the next pitch (full count).
Duchscherer's line: 2/3 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts, 20 pitches (11 strikes)
Kennedy's line: 1/3 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 6 pitches (3 strikes)
TOP 9TH
Jake Woods came in for Harris. Defensively, Willie Bloomquist came in at short and Kenji Johjima came in to catch. Swisher flew out to Ichiro on a 2-0 pitch. Ellis popped the second pitch to Ichiro. Kotsay dumped a 2-0 pitch along the leftfield line that Beltre was going for, but Bloomquist took him out with a low block as the ball went off Beltre's glove into foul territory and Kotsay stood on first with a single. Crosby took a 1-2 pitch over the inside corner.
Woods' line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 12 pitches (7 strikes)
BOTTOM 9TH
Kirk Saarloos came in for Kennedy. Sexson took an 0-2 pitch over the outer half at the knees. Everett had the hitters' counts before walking on a 3-1 pitch. Beltre got ahead 3-0 and took the 3-1 offering up and in for a walk, moving Everett to second. Saarloos drew a visit from pitching coach Curt Young as Huston Street warmed in the bullpen. Reed watched his second pitch get by Kendall and to the backstop as Everett and Beltre moved to third and second, leaving Reed with a 2-0 count. Reed grounded to first for a groundout as Everett scored and Beltre moved to third.
»» ATHLETICS 6, MARINERS 2
Kenji Johjima took a 2-1 pitch down and in for a strike (iffy), then smacked a 2-2 hard grounder that ate up Chavez at third and went into leftfield for a single.
»» ATHLETICS 6, MARINERS 3
Huston Street came in for Saarloos. Willie Bloomquist watched as Johjima took second on the second pitch on catcher's indifference. Bloomquist later spanked a single into leftfield and Johjima hit the brakes at third since Payton got to the ball right away. Ichiro ripped the 0-1 pitch barely foul in front of the third-base bag. Bloomquist took second on indifference on Ichiro's 0-2 pitch. Ichiro chopped the 1-2 pitch high, but Street speared it, then underhanded it so high that Swisher had to leap for it. With a minor collision, Ichiro was safe at first as Johjima scored and Bloomquist moved to third. On the play, Ichiro turned toward second after the contact with Swisher, after which Swisher could have conceivably tagged Ichiro out but didn't. Street was charged with an error on the play.
»» ATHLETICS 6, MARINERS 4
Lopez grounded the second pitch to short. Thus ended the feeble attempt at a comeback.
Saarloos' line: 2/3 inning, 3 runs (2 earned), 1 hit, 2 walks, 1 strikeout, 23 pitches (11 strikes)
Street's line: 1/3 inning, 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, 10 pitches (7 strikes)
---
Gameball: Jake Woods.
Again, it was another tough day when it came to selecting someone worthy of a gameball. Offensively, Adrian Beltre had the best line on the team, getting the base hit that broke up Rich Harden's perfect game and drawing two walks to go along with it. He scored two of the Mariners' four runs. Of course, this is all tempered by the error charged to him in the fifth. The ball got up on him and it should have been an inning-ending double play if all went right. Instead, a runner scored on that play, then Eric Chavez was the next guy to come to the plate and hit a sacrifice fly. That's two runs that could be attributed to the error. The Mariners ended up losing by two runs. This brings us to Jake Woods. After his first appearance of the season on Thursday night was horrid (seven outs and three walks), it was either Woods or Jeff Harris that was going to get the gameball from me for this game, and by virtue of striking out one more batter, Woods gets it. Also, he held Oakland at bay in the ninth and kept the Mariners within five runs so that the bottom half of the inning was slightly interesting.
Goat: Ichiro.
He went 0-for-5 today. He went 2-for-5 in the first game of the series, then went 0-for-13 combined in the final three games of the series. He had a stolen base today, but that came after he got aboard on Huston Street's underhand skyscraping throw that pulled Nick Swisher off the bag in the ninth. Ichiro has started out the season with a 6-for-30 (.200) mark after seven games. Granted, the Mariner bats were completely dominated by the likes of Joe Blanton, Barry Zito, and Rich Harden, but there are some times where it has to start at the top. If Ichiro can't get it going and can't get on the basepaths and wreak havoc, it makes it that much harder for the rest of the lineup to get good pitches or have ducks on the pond or have something else on the pitcher's mind other than the hitter. Ichiro knows this team depends on him and he knows there are a lot of expectations heaped on him. I'm sure he knows that if the rest of the team isn't doing much, he's got to help pick up the slack. Going 0-for-13 in the final three games of a series against a division rival isn't a good way of doing such.
Yr W-L Pct GB Stk
2001 5-2 .714 -- W1
2000 4-3 .571 1 L1
2002 4-3 .571 1 W1
2003 4-3 .571 1 W2
2005 3-4 .429 2 W1
2006 3-4 .429 2 L3
2004 1-6 .143 4 L1
When it became apparent early on that the Mariner bats weren't going to do anything against Rich Harden, I rooted for the perfect game. As opposed to earlier situations in which the Mariners could have used Beltre's hits in this young season, he decided to hit a single to break up Rich Harden's perfect game with a mere 13 outs to go. I figured if the bats are going to suck, why not root for history? When Beltre hit that single, I was glad Beltre got a hit, sure, but I had a lot less to look forward to for the afternoon until the Oakland arms started self-destructing in the eighth and ninth innings. Other than that, Rich Harden was absolutely mowing the Mariner bats down, which was surprising. By surprising, of course, I mean that I completely expected it. It may be eight days after April Fools' Day, but I can still play opposites, and the Mariners can follow a 3-1 start by being the complete opposite of a good team. They did a great job of that over the weekend.
One bone of contention to pick in this game regarded the tenure of Joel Piñeiro. He got caught in the merry-go-round in the fifth and a 1-0 game became a 4-0 Oakland lead in an inning where he threw 27 pitches. He allowed a one-out double to Jay Payton in the sixth, but got away unscathed in the inning despite consistenly falling behind in the count. After six innings, Piñeiro's pitch count was at 99 with the top of the Oakland lineup due in the seventh. I was surprised to see him trotting out to the mound for the seventh, though I guess it's not all too hair-brained since Mike Hargrove is the manager of the team. My rationale for pulling him is that even though he's the #2 starter in the rotation, it's still early in the season, and you can't have him burn out later in the season. Of course, I know full well that Julio Mateo's horrendous outing on Friday night burned him for the rest of the series and that Rafael Soriano threw the night before, so the sources of long relief were limited to names like Jake Woods and Jeff Harris. On the other hand, the Mariners were slated for an off-day after this game.
In other words, a inning or two of Jeff Harris in the seventh and/or eighth might not have been so bad with the Mariners down 4-0. Instead, Piñeiro came out for the seventh and Mark Ellis hit a well-placed grounder deep in the hole on the left side to get aboard. If I hadn't already pulled Piñeiro, I pull him right here before Mark Kotsay comes up, and you can even use the righty-lefty rationale to pull him if you want Woods facing Kotsay or something. I'm even saying this in hindsight fully knowing that Kotsay hit into a double play. Piñeiro faced Bobby Crosby with two out and the bases empty, but Crosby drilled a single into leftfield. Hargrove could have sent another pitcher out there to start the seventh, and he had three chances in the seventh to pull Piñeiro, and he never did. Piñeiro didn't help himself out by starting Chavez out 2-0. He got a strike across before Chavez lofted one over the rightfield fence that effectively put the game out of doubt. The greatest part of all this was hearing Dave Henderson on the TV broadcast saying when Piñeiro came out for the seventh that these were the types of competitive things that get pitchers to 200 innings and save the bullpen and make you a durable starter and everything. The guy had 99 pitches after six innings in his second start of the season. Pull him, for goodness' sake.
It doesn't mean as much since the Mariners had an off day coming afterward, but Piñeiro did get through seven innings and therefore save the bullpen a bit. It was the first time since Jarrod Washburn's start on Wednesday that a Mariner starting pitcher had gotten out of the sixth inning. Julio Mateo should be fresh for Tuesday's game, as should Rafael Soriano, who were probably the two most burned arms in the bullpen. Mateo will more than likely be needed in the second game in Cleveland on Wednesday when Gil Meche starts.
As for all those runs in the eighth and ninth, it wasn't the Mariners that did that. It was Oakland starting to walk people, make errors, etc. The game was over for all intensive purposes in the eighth when Raul Ibañez evaded a beanball on a 2-2 count with the bases loaded and the Mariners down 6-1 with two out. If he takes it in the backside, the Mariners trail 6-2 with two out and Richie Sexson at the plate. Instead, Sexson led off the ninth inning, which wasn't as optimal.
But hey, there's no better team to face to snap a three-game losing streak than the Cleveland Indians, who've won five straight. It's one day off and then a trip to the Jake. I figure there will be two games in the series in which a team will score ten runs or more. Hopefully it isn't Cleveland both times. Watch out for falling spherical debris emanating from the bat of Travis Hafner.
Washburn. Lee. Tuesday.
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