Wednesday, April 12, 2006
GAME 8: INDIANS 9, MARINERS 5
In 25 words or less: Who would you take in a matchup between a team that had lost three straight and a team that had won five straight?
This one featured Jarrod Washburn going up against Cliff Lee.
First off, you gotta love the archived MLB.tv Mariners' feed cutting in as the Indians took the field. I wonder how that bowling match turned out, since it was pre-empted by the ballgame and everything. Also, since the Mariners had lost three straight, there's nothing like facing a team that's won five straight and might be the best team in baseball right now, and to do so at their ballyard. Also, this was Richie Sexson's 1000th career game, in the park of the team he came up with. The first broadcast crew on the tube today was Dave Niehaus and Dave Valle. Hooooo-ray.
TOP 1ST
Ichiro fell behind 1-2, took a pitch barely off the plate outside, and ended up with the walk. Jose Lopez flew out high to leftfield. Raul Ibañez fell behind 0-2 and later whiffed on a 1-2 pitch over the outside corner. Richie Sexson got ahead 3-1 and ended up roping a full-count fly ball right to Michaels at the wall in leftcenter. Quite the shot, but not enough trajectory. Lee threw 23 pitches.
BOTTOM 1ST
Grady Sizemore poked the first pitch off of Washburn's foot, and the ball rolled to Lopez, who threw in time to first. Jason Michaels rolled the second pitch to short, and Sexson threw over Betancourt during the around-the-horn toss after the play. Jhonny Peralta popped the second pitch to center. Washburn threw a mere six pitches.
TOP 2ND
PRONUNCIATION ALERT -- Dave Niehaus tells us that Kenji Johjima prefers his name be pronounced with no stressed syllables (that's what I got from Niehaus' explanation). In other words, the word Johjima has the same linguistic cadence as the word Nagano. Adrian Beltre popped the 2-0 pitch foul and it was caught over the railing of the Mariners' first-base dugout by Perez, who is wearing number 33, which I can't believe hasn't been retired in Cleveland yet (Eddie Murray). Carl Everett worked a 1-2 count full before whiffing on a high fastball. Kenji Johjima took a 1-2 pitch over the inside corner. Lee threw 15 pitches and had 38 through two.
BOTTOM 2ND
Travis Hafner hit a hard grounder to second on the second pitch. Victor Martinez drilled the first pitch into shallow centerfield for a single. Eduardo Perez bounced the first pitch to Lopez up the middle to start a 4-6-3 double play. Washburn threw only four pitches and had 10 through two.
TOP 3RD
Joe Borchard fell behind 0-2 and whiffed on a 1-2 high fastball. Yuniesky Betancourt smacked the second pitch for a liner up the middle, but it was caught on the backhand by Belliard. Ichiro fell behind 0-2 and whiffed on a 1-2 change. Lee threw 12 pitches and had 50 through three.
BOTTOM 3RD
Ron Belliard lined the second pitch right to Belliard in center. Aaron Boone cranked a double high off the scoreboard in leftcenter. Casey Blake reached down on the second pitch and flew out to Borchard, who took a few steps back and had to race forward to catch it. Sizemore slapped the second pitch for a single into leftfield which shorthopped Ibañez, enabling Boone to score from second on the play.
»» INDIANS 1, MARINERS 0
Michaels flew out to Ichiro in shallow right on the second pitch. Washburn threw 12 pitches and had 22 through three.
TOP 4TH
Lopez lined out right to Michaels in leftfield. Ibañez whiffed on an 0-2 pitch knee-high over the outside corner. Sexson smoked a 2-2 pitch right to Blake in rightfield on a rope. Lee threw 10 pitches and had 60 through four.
BOTTOM 4TH
Peralta stuck a single into leftfield which hopped over Ibañez and to the wall (error), enabling Peralta to get to second. Hafner pounded the first pitch for a single to centerfield, moving Peralta to third. Martinez ripped the first pitch off the track and off the wall, scoring Peralta and moving Hafner to third.
»» INDIANS 2, MARINERS 0
Perez grounded the 2-2 pitch to Beltre, who went toward the hole to make the play and went to first instead of home as Hafner scored and Martinez held at second.
»» INDIANS 3, MARINERS 0
Belliard popped the first pitch to Lopez on the rightfield grass. Boone took a 2-2 pitch that was high and away but plain went off of Johjima's glove for a passed ball, moving Martinez to third. Boone flew out high to Johjima behind the plate on a full count. Washburn threw 18 pitches and had 40 through four.
TOP 5TH
Beltre cranked the first pitch foul down the leftfield line and never made contact for the rest of the at-bat as he got down 0-2 and ended up whiffing on a 1-2 change off the plate outside and low. Everett whiffed on the same 1-2 change low and off the plate that got Beltre. Johjima doubled off the far right of the scoreboard wall in leftcenter. Borchard fell behind 0-2 and later flew out high to fairly deep centerfield. Lee threw 19 pitches and had 79 through five.
BOTTOM 5TH
Blake fell behind 0-2 but later poked a grounder down the leftfield line and off the sidewall past the tarp for a double. Sizemore bounced the second pitch right to Sexson, who ran to the first-base bag as Blake held at second. Michaels grounded the first pitch right to Betancourt, who threw to first as Blake held once again. Peralta lined a ball over the big scoreboard wall in leftfield.
»» INDIANS 5, MARINERS 0
Hafner fell behind 0-2 but it didn't matter since he blasted the next pitch over the 405ft marker in dead-centerfield. It was a blatantly hanging breaking ball, by the way.
»» INDIANS 6, MARINERS 0
Martinez took a first-pitch strike followed by four balls. Perez lasered the 2-2 pitch right into the glove of a charging Ichiro. Washburn threw 27 pitches.
Washburn's line: 5 innings, 6 runs, 9 hits, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts, 67 pitches (43 strikes)
TOP 6TH
Betancourt hit a hard grounder past Boone at third and into leftfield and he beat the throw to second for a double. Ichiro served a 1-2 pitch for a flyout to left. Lopez jumped on the first pitch, homering over the scoreboard in leftfield.
»» INDIANS 6, MARINERS 2
Ibañez drilled the second pitch into rightfield for a single. Lee got a visit from his pitching coach and his catcher. Sexson fell behind 0-2 and chopped a 1-2 pitch up the middle that Belliard charged, and he made the play to first as Ibañez moved to second. Beltre bounced a ball to the left side, and Boone had the ball go off the heel of his glove and past him for an error, moving Ibañez to third. Everett smeared the first pitch right to Belliard, who caught the ball on his knees. Lee threw 17 pitches.
Lee's line: 6 innings, 2 runs, 4 hits, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts, 96 pitches (68 strikes)
BOTTOM 6TH
Jeff Harris came in for Washburn. Belliard bounced the second pitch to short. Boone fell behind 0-2 and wound up hitting a high 1-2 pitch to Borchard in center for a flyout. Blake took an 0-2 belt-high fastball over the outside corner for strike three. Harris threw nine pitches.
TOP 7TH
Fernando Cabrera came in for Lee. Johjima spanked the first pitch into leftfield for a single. Borchard, hitting lefty this time, whiffed on a 1-2 splitter in the dirt. Betancourt got the hitters' counts and smacked a 3-1 pitch high off the leftfield wall for a double, scoring Johjima. A bad throw in from leftfield helped matters concerning the scoring of Johjima.
»» INDIANS 6, MARINERS 3
Ichiro dumped an 0-2 pitch into shallow leftfield that Michaels charged and caught on the play. Lopez whiffed on an 0-2 breaking ball down and outside.
Cabrera's line: 1 inning, 1 run, 2 hits, 0 walks, 2 strikeouts, 16 pitches (12 strikes)
BOTTOM 7TH
Sizemore bounced the second pitch to Lopez in the hole, who plugged it and made the play at first. Michaels scooped the second pitch into leftfield for a single. Peralta bashed the second pitch off the leftfield wall for a double, moving Michaels to third.
George Sherrill came in for Harris. Hafner got ahead 3-1 and they gave him the intentional fourth ball. Martinez pumped a second-pitch single into leftfield, scoring Michaels and moving Peralta and Hafner to third and second.
»» INDIANS 7, MARINERS 3
JJ Putz came in for Sherrill. Ben Broussard, hitting for Perez, fell back 0-2 and wound up whiffing on a 1-2 high fastball over the inner half. Belliard smoked the first pitch up the middle for a single to score Peralta and Hafner, but the throw from Borchard in toward the plate was cut off by Sexson at the mound, who threw to Beltre at third as Martinez was blatantly out.
»» INDIANS 9, MARINERS 3
Harris' line: 1 1/3 innings, 2 runs, 2 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 15 pitches (11 strikes)
Sherrill's line: 0 innings, 1 run, 1 hit, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts, 7 pitches (2 strikes)
Putz' line: 2/3 inning, 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 5 pitches (4 strikes)
TOP 8TH
Scott Sauerbeck came in for Cabrera. Ibañez hooked a 3-1 pitch for possibly home-run distance but hooked it foul. He ended up with a walk on a low pitch.
Matt Miller, whose motion looks like he's barely trying to throw, came in for Sauerbeck. Sexson walked on a high 3-1 pitch. Beltre was plunked in the left elbow and/or back with the first pitch, loading the bases and drawing another visit from Carl Willis, Cleveland pitching coach. Everett bounced the first pitch up the middle for a clutch 4-6-3 double play, scoring Ibañez. The only remaining runner was Sexson, who stood at third.
»» INDIANS 9, MARINERS 4
Johjima grounded right to Boone at third.
Sauerbeck's line: 0 innings, 1 run, 0 hits, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts, 7 pitches (3 strikes)
Miller's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts, 10 pitches (4 strikes)
BOTTOM 8TH
Julio Mateo came in for Putz. Boone lined the first pitch into leftfield, where Ibañez had some judgment difficulty and stepped back and reached up and back to mae the catch. Blake took a full-count pitch down the pipe at the knees. Sizemore flew out to left on a high 0-2 pitch.
Mateo's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 12 pitches (9 strikes)
TOP 9TH
Rafael Betancourt came in for Miller. Borchard fell behind 0-2 but worked the count full before blistering a single through the right side. Roberto Petagine, hitting for Y Betancourt, nearly homered to leftfield on an 0-2 count, instead going off the wall for a double, moving Borchard to third. Ichiro bounced an 0-2 pitch to short as Petagine held and Borchard scored.
»» INDIANS 9, MARINERS 5
Lopez laced a first-pitch flyout to Sizemore in leftcenter. Ibañez took Michaels to the leftfield track for the final flyout.
R Betancourt's line: 1 inning, 1 run, 2 hits, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, 17 pitches (13 strikes)
---
Gameball: Yuniesky Betancourt.
He doubled to lead off the sixth and doubled in the seventh as well, the latter to score Kenji Johjima with the third Mariner run of the game. The double in the seventh brought the Mariners to within three runs of the Indians at 6-3. Betancourt finished the game with a boxscore line of 2-for-3 with an RBI and the two doubles, with a run scored. He also helped turn a double play. But more importantly, this 2-for-3 day with two doubles came from the ninth slot in the batting order. That's good stuff right there. Joe Borchard, though he didn't have a stellar day, came up with a 1-for-4 day, and Kenji Johjima came up with a 2-for-4 day. Put 'em all together, and the bottom third of the lineup went 5-for-11. Throw in Roberto Petagine's pinch-hit appearance, and it's 6-for-12, easily the most productive part of the Mariner lineup. If you look at the boxscore, it'd be shaped weird if you drew a graph or something where zero represented a vertical line and one hit or two hits was represented by lines deviating in both directions from zero. Basically, I'm just saying all this crap so I can use the AC/DC reference. If you remember the song "Whole Lotta Rosie," Bon Scott refers to the numbers "42-39-56." In this game, the bottom third of the lineup was the 56. You could say they got a lot. The worst part is when the lineup would roll over and Ichiro hangs up an 0-for-4. More on that later.
Goat: Carl Everett.
Dinosaurically bad. I know they paid him a lot of money and everything, but I'm still trying to come to grips with the fact that they're trotting him out there hitting righthanded. As has been noted, his results will be almost wholly proven at the plate since he's the designated hitter and everything. Think...after all those years of fearing interleague play because we knew Edgar Martinez wouldn't be playing much for a span of two weeks or so, now we actually get to look forward to it so that we don't have to see Carl Everett out there. Better yet, since they'll be trotting pitchers out there to hit, the net difference might be zero, considering the way he's hitting (or not hitting) right now. What's ticking me off is this -- if you don't have an Edgar Martinez or someone that's an incredible hitter, then the DH should be used to get playing time or spot starts for good hitters or something, or to give a guy like Richie Sexson a day off from the field. If you ask me, the expensive Carl Everett is sucking up playing time that could be used for the Joe Borchards and the Roberto Petagines of the world.
Yr W-L Pct GB Stk
2001 6-2 .750 -- W2
2000 5-3 .625 1 W1
2002 5-3 .625 1 W2
2003 4-4 .500 2 L1
2005 4-4 .500 2 W2
2006 3-5 .375 3 L4
2004 1-7 .125 5 L1
I talked about the bottom of the lineup doing great in the Betancourt gameball entry, and I talked about the lineup rolling over to Ichiro. For all intents and purposes (didn't grammatically mess that one up this time!) lately, the lineup has literally been rolling over when it gets to Ichiro. This latest stretch he's on right now is an 0-for-18 stretch which started with his last at-bat in the April 6th game against Oakland, where he lined into a double play. The Mariners won that game. Ironically, the Mariners have lost four straight, and Ichiro has zero hits in those games. Coincidence? Yes and no, since some of the pitching's been crappy, the middle of the lineup hasn't been doing too well either, etc. Still, that middle of the lineup thing could be a feeding-off-Ichiro thing too, and when Ichir's not thriving, you know how it goes. Ichiro's not a Richie Sexson or an Adrian Beltre, for whom I'd use the phrase "this team will go as far as ______ will take them," but Ichiro definitely is a big part of any success this team might or might not have.
Another big part of any success this team might or might not have depends on Jarrod Washburn. I can't tell whether he was actually good the first three innings or if the Indians were just teasing him. It was clear early on what the Indians' game plan was, and it was to be aggressive and swing early in the count. If Washburn was going to leave this game, it wouldn't be because he was tired, it'd be because the Indians would have lit him up. That's exactly what they did. To me, it was almost like the Indians had Washburn solved before either team even stepped onto the field today. They had a gameplan which was clear as day early in the game, and even though Washburn threw a measly ten pitches after two, they kept sticking with it, and before you knew it, Washburn was giving up back-to-back homers to double up on a 3-0 deficit. Balls were getting hit hard by the Indians. I don't think I'd go as far as to say the hitters knew exactly what was coming, but they sure knew what they were doing. Fans of the Washburn signing got what they wanted in his first start of the season, while those who hated the signing and think Washburn is a lefthanded Ryan Franklin got a feather in their caps after this game.
The Mariners got a lot of line drives early off of Cliff Lee, but it wasn't meant to be. Really, it wouldn't be the same for the Mariners if they didn't have someone in the American League that completely dominates them. Pedro Martinez is firmly entrenched in the National League now, so the Mariners won't be facing him as often, obviously. Someone has to take his place, and now I have the feeling thy name is Cliff Lee. Lee is a grand 5-0 against these Seattle Mariners. The one guy in the rotation that could probably beat him is Washburn. Why? Well, it was Franklin that beat Pedro last year, right? It makes no sense, which is why it makes absolute sense. Of course, over the last few games, it's not just an exclusive-to-Cliff Lee thing, it's spread out among the arms of Joe Blanton, Barry Zito, Rich Harden, and Lee. You know, as crappy as this four-game stretch has been, probably the only positive you can draw out of it is that the Mariners have been losing to guys like Joe Blanton, Barry Zito, Barry Zito, and Cliff Lee. The A's and the Indians are pretty good teams, and those pitchers are by no means chop liver. Of course, if the Mariners ever hope to contend for the playoffs or the division title, they need to eventually get it together against pitchers like these. That obviously won't happen with the team in its current state. They'll improve, yes, but just how much is open to speculation.
As for Jeremy Reed sitting once again while a lefty starts on the mound for the opposition, I've already said I'm tired of it. In this game, however, I'm glad he was benched for Joe Borchard instead of Willie Bloomquist. I'll leave it at that.
Meche. Byrd. Tonight.
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