Sunday, May 28, 2006
GAME 52: TWINS 4, MARINERS 3 (10 INNINGS)
In 25 words or less: The Mariners couldn't win in spite of themselves. How much more unwatchable baseball will this team have to play before people start getting fired?
This one featured Joel Piñeiro going up against Johan Santana. The good? Mike Hargrove finally decided to have somebody else DH. The bad? It's still part of a plan to rob Jeremy Reed of at-bats. Of course, Santana's a lefty, and Hargrove's never going to have Reed hit against lefties. Still, someone other than Carl Everett was in the lineup to DH today, and he just made Beltre the DH, started Willie Bloomquist in centerfield, and put Mike Morse at third. In other words, it was a day to pray no one hit anything to third. I'll give you a hint...if you didn't get enough of baserunning errors and lack of hitting with runners in scoring position in the first two games of the series, you're in for even more of a treat for this game.
Scroll down a post or click here to see Jeremy's immediate postgame reaction.
TOP 1ST
Ichiro drilled a 1-2 pitch past Santana and into center for a single. Jose Lopez shot a line drive barely over the leftfield wall.
»» MARINERS 2, TWINS 0
Raul Ibañez grounded the first pitch to second. Richie Sexson whiffed at three straight fastballs, the last above the belt. Adrian Beltre grounded a 2-0 pitch to short. Santana threw 16 pitches.
BOTTOM 1ST
Lew Ford grounded to short. Luis Castillo bounced the first pitch near the mound and Rivera pounced and threw to first, but Laz Diaz called it foul. Castillo ended up flying out to a drifting Bloomquist in leftcenter. Joe Mauer smoked the second pitch into rightfield for a single. Torii Hunter bounced a 1-2 pitch to short for a 6-4 fielder's choice. Piñeiro threw 12 pitches.
TOP 2ND
Mike Morse whiffed on an 0-2 pitch. Willie Bloomquist tapped the first pitch along the first-base line, where Santana ran over to get it and tag Bloomquist coming down the line. Rene Rivera fell behind 0-2 and whiffed on a 1-2 breaking ball away in the dirt. Santana threw eight pitches and had 24 through two.
BOTTOM 2ND
Michael Cuddyer chopped high to Morse behind the bag at third. Justin Morneau was ahead 3-0 and walked on a 3-1 count. Mike Redmond flew out to center on a 2-0 pitch. Luis Rodriguez grounded an 0-2 pitch and had it stopped by Lopez diving to his right, who gathered himself and threw to Betancourt covering second for the force. Piñeiro threw 14 pitches and had 26 through two.
TOP 3RD
Yuniesky Betancourt shot the second pitch down the leftfield line for a double. Ichiro was up 2-0 and ended up air-bunting to Morneau halfway down the first-base line. Lopez walked on four pitches. Ibañez chopped the second pitch to the right side, where Morneau had a way to go and threw to a covering Santana at first, who stepped on the bag just in time. The runners moved up a base each on the play. Sexson popped a 2-0 pitch to Punto in shallow left. Santana threw 15 pitches and had 39 through three.
BOTTOM 3RD
Nick Punto bounced out to second. Ford took a full-count breaking ball over the inside corner. Castillo took a 2-2 offspeed pitch over the inside corner. Piñeiro threw 16 pitches and had 42 through three.
TOP 4TH
Beltre fell behind 0-2 and drove a 2-2 pitch into the leftcenter gap for a double on the eighth pitch of the at-bat. Morse chopped a 1-2 pitch to the left side near the mound where Punto barehanded and threw in time to first as Beltre held at second. Bloomquist chopped the first pitch to second, moving Beltre to third. Rivera whiffed on a 1-2 pitch. Santana threw 17 pitches and had 56 through four.
BOTTOM 4TH
Mauer slapped a 2-2 pitch into left for a single. Hunter rolled the first pitch to short where Betancourt ran it to second and threw to first for the double play. Cuddyer grounded hard past Morse into left for a single. Morneau drove the first pitch five rows into the leftfield seats.
»» TWINS 2, MARINERS 2
Redmond poked the first pitch into center for a single. Pitching coach Rafael Chaves visited the mound. Rodriguez flew out high to Betancourt in shallow center on a 2-2 pitch. Piñeiro threw 16 pitches and had 58 through four.
TOP 5TH
Betancourt grounded a 1-2 pitch hard to third, where Rodriguez made a very nice diving stop and threw from his knees to first, but Morneau had the one-hop throw bounce off the heel of his glove as Betancourt reached with the single. Ichiro chopped a 2-2 pitch through the left side for a single, moving Betancourt to second. Lopez bunted nicely down the third-base line, moving the runners to third and second. Ibañez popped the second pitch sufficiently deep to left to score Betancourt.
»» MARINERS 3, TWINS 2
Sexson whiffed on a 2-2 change. Santana threw 22 pitches and had 78 through five.
BOTTOM 5TH
Punto bounced an 0-2 pitch to second. Ford was down 0-2 and rolled a 1-2 pitch to second. Castillo rolled to short, but Betancourt couldn't get a good grip on the ball on an odd play. Mauer took a 1-2 pitch for a strike and a pitchout helped nail Castillo at second. Piñeiro threw 14 pitches and had 72 through five.
TOP 6TH
Beltre popped a 2-2 pitch to shallow right, where it was caught over the shoulder by Castillo. Morse grounded to third, where Rodriguez made the stop and threw in time to first. Bloomquist slapped a single into center on the second pitch. Rivera flew out to left on the first pitch. Santana threw 11 pitches and had 89 through six.
BOTTOM 6TH
Mauer bashed a high 0-2 pitch that one-hopped over the centerfield wall for a double. Hunter bounced the first pitch to first (3-1 putout), moving Mauer to third. Cuddyer grounded hard to third, where Morse made the nice stop and checked Mauer back to third, but didn't gather himself enough to throw to first. Morneau walked on four pitches to load the bases. Redmond flew out to deep center, scoring Mauer and moving Cuddyer to third.
»» TWINS 3, MARINERS 3
Rodriguez lined a 2-2 pitch right to Ichiro. Piñeiro threw 19 pitches and had 91 through six.
TOP 7TH
Betancourt fell behind 0-2 and chopped a 1-2 pitch to short. Ichiro smacked a letter-high 2-0 fastball to the wall in rightcenter for an amazingly easy-looking triple. Lopez air-bunted on a squeeze attempt, popping to Santana, and of course Ichiro had gone with the pitch, so Santana threw easily to third to complete the double play. Santana threw ten pitches and had 99 through seven.
Santana's line: 7 innings, 3 runs, 8 hits, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts, 99 pitches (66 strikes)
BOTTOM 7TH
Punto flew out to left on a 1-2 pitch. Ford flew out to right on the second pitch. Castillo grounded hard off Piñeiro's glove on an 0-2 pitch, and Castillo barely beat Betancourt's recovery throw.
George Sherrill came in for Piñeiro. Mauer got ahead 2-0 and watched with a 2-2 count as Sherrill picked Castillo off of first (scored 1-3-6) on the sixth pickoff attempt, though Sexson had to catch Sherrill's high pickoff throw before the play was made. Sherrill threw four pitches.
Piñeiro's line: 6 2/3 innings, 3 runs, 9 hits, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts, 100 pitches (65 strikes)
TOP 8TH
Matt Guerrier came in for Santana. Ibañez grounded out to second. Sexson had the hitters' counts and walked on a 3-1 pitch up and in. Beltre mashed an 0-2 pitch deep and foul before whiffing under a breaking ball on the next pitch. Morse failed to check his swing on an 0-2 breaking ball outside. Guerrier threw 15 pitches.
BOTTOM 8TH
Mauer fell behind 0-2 and took a 1-2 fastball over the inner half.
Rafael Soriano came in for Sherrill. Hunter was down 0-2 and foul-tipped a 1-2 fastball into Rivera's glove. Cuddyer flew out to left on the second pitch. Soriano threw six pitches.
Sherrill's line: 2/3 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 8 pitches (5 strikes)
TOP 9TH
Bloomquist was down 0-2 and poked a 1-2 pitch up the middle for a single. Rivera bunted the first pitch along the right side to advance Bloomquist to second. Betancourt grounded a 2-0 pitch to short, and Bloomquist took off for third anyway with the grounder in front of him and was thrown out on a 6-5 fielder's choice. Ichiro watched as Betancourt tried to steal second and was gunned down by Redmond. Guerrier threw 11 pitches and had 26 total.
Guerrier's line: 2 innings, 0 runs, 1 hit, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts, 26 pitches (17 strikes)
BOTTOM 9TH
Morneau foul-tipped an 0-2 fastball into Rivera's glove. Redmond fell behind 0-2 as well, ending with a hard grounder to first on a 1-2 pitch. Rodriguez walked on four pitches. Punto whiffed on a high 1-2 pitch. Soriano threw 18 pitches and had 24 total.
Soriano's line: 1 2/3 innings, 0 runs, 0 hits, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts, 24 pitches (17 strikes)
TOP 10TH
Joe Nathan came in for Guerrier. Ichiro bounced a grounder up the middle to Castillo, who ranged to his right and threw to first quickly, but Ichiro barely beat it out. Lopez missed on two bunt attempts before singling a 2-2 pitch past a diving Castillo and into center, moving Ichiro to second. Ibañez popped a bunt foul (it landed) as Redmond went to the mound for a visit. Ibañez ended up smoking a full-count pitch (after Hargrove has him try to bunt twice) right to a running Cuddyer on the rightfield track, and Ichiro froze on the line drive, holding at second. Sexson got ahead 3-1 before flying out to the track in center, and no runners advanced, even with Hunter crashing into the wall and falling down, but for some reason Ichiro hung about 20 feet from second on the play and had to retreat on what wasn't exactly a line drive. Rick Rizzs and Dave Valle didn't even bother questioning the play, which I found out when I replayed it hours later for clarification purposes (live feed was FSN North/Minnesota feed). Beltre flew out to Hunter in leftcenter on a 2-2 pitch. Nathan threw 27 pitches.
Nathan's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 1 hit, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts, 27 pitches (15 strikes)
BOTTOM 10TH
Eddie Guardado came in for Soriano. Ford fell behind 0-2 and cranked a hanging 1-2 breaking ball on the outer half over the baggie in center.
»» TWINS 4, MARINERS 3
Guardado's line: 0 innings, 1 run, 1 hit, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, 8 pitches (7 strikes)
---
Gameball: Rafael Soriano.
Other than walking Luis Rodriguez on four pitches with two out in the ninth, Soriano did his thing and did it well. He finished off the eighth and struck out three of the six batters he faced and did so in explosive fashion. He was a bit more dominating in April than he has been this month, but he's still been solid. In April he had a 1.88 ERA and gave up three runs on nine hits in 14 1/3 innings, walking four and striking out 16. With three games left in May, he has a 3.29 ERA this month, giving up five runs and nine hits in 12 innings, walking five and striking out 13. He's also given up three homers this month after not getting taken yard in April. All told, Soriano and JJ Putz are anchoring this bullpen right now while Julio Mateo tries to come back from injury and Eddie Guardado tries to come back from crappiness. The greatest thing about Soriano today was that he didn't fail at the plate in a clutch situation and he didn't make any sort of baserunning error. That's refreshing. Yay for pitchers.
Goat: Mike Morse.
Let me just say there's any number of goat possibilities to pick for this game, what with the baserunning zoo. With the score 3-2 for the Mariners in the bottom of the sixth, the Twins had a runner on third with one out. Like I said at the top of the post, I found it nice that Mike Hargrove was giving some DH at-bats to someone else. What Hargrove for some reason didn't realize was this -- if you don't have Adrian Beltre in the game on defense, what the hell is he worth right now? Likewise, it's a precipitous drop in defensive goodness when you go from the slick-fielding Beltre to the iron-gloved Morse. So, if Morse gets any playing time with this team, it should be as a DH. Anyway, with the runner on third and one out, Morse made the nice stop and checked the runner, Joe Mauer, back to third, but couldn't muster a throw to first. Joel Piñeiro walked Justin Morneau on four pitches (sort of intentional) and then Mike Redmond hit the sacrifice fly to score Mauer, and that pretty much broke the game. Of course, also figuring into the goat selection is that Morse went 0-for-4 and struck out twice. No glove, no stick, no use. Unless he's going to be a pinch-hitter off the bench, there's absolutely no role for him on the team.
Yr W-L Pct GB Stk
2001 40-12 .769 -- W8
2002 34-18 .654 6 W2
2003 34-18 .654 6 W3
2000 27-25 .519 13 L1
2005 22-30 .423 18 W1
2006 22-30 .423 18 L4
2004 19-33 .365 21 L2
Let's start with what little good there is, shall we? Joel Piñeiro was actually pretty good. I expected the Mariners to get completely crushed in this game with Johan Santana starting for the Twins. I figured Piñeiro would give up roughly double the runs he gave up, and I figured Santana would strike out double the Mariner hitters that he struck out. He got ten groundouts to seven flyouts, for what that whole groundball transformation is or might be worth. He left a couple of pitches up, but when he can do that and only give up three runs, that's a good thing. I'll take Piñeiro's line from today and gladly take it every time he goes out to the mound. There's a ton of other Mariners you can go to if you want to pin this loss on someone, but Piñeiro's not it. He walked two guys and nine hits is a few more than I'd like to see, but he was remarkably efficient, throwing 100 pitches in his outing. Needless to say, it was his best start since he was named Player of the Week, and that seems like eons ago. His three starts prior to this saw him give up 16 runs (15 earned) in 14 innings, good for a 9.64 ERA. He gave up 23 hits, three homers, eight walks, and he struck out four. Sadly, this outing only knocked 0.12 off his ERA, lowering him to 5.13.
Amidst all the patheticness of this game, it was easy to look over the pure boxscore stats, which is small consolation. Ichiro was 4-for-5 with a triple, though there's the whole tagging up thing and he air-bunted the one time. Jose Lopez was 2-for-4 with a homer and a walk, though apparently the homer wasn't enough for Hargrove to consider letting him swing away the rest of the game. Willie Bloomquist went 2-for-4, but the last time I saw someone take off from second with a ground ball right in front of them, it was me back in high school. Okay, it was probably a Mariner back in the 2004 season, but still, that's an elementary baserunning mistake. Yuniesky Betancourt went 2-for-4, and about the only bad thing he did was not get a grip on the one grounder. The badness boxscorewise were 0-for-4s out of Raul Ibañez, Richie Sexson, and Morse. Rene Rivera chipped in with an 0-for-3, though he bunted successfully and probably was the only guy that had a legitimate reason to be up there bunting.
But since everyone still following the team on a day-to-day basis at this point is masochistic (not that other way you might be thinking of), let's get down to the nitty gritty...
List of badness...
-- top 3rd: Betancourt hits a leadoff double, Ichiro air-bunts. Lopez walks on four pitches, the runners get moved over but not driven in by Ibañez. Sexson pops out.
-- top 4th: Beltre leads off with a double, Morse hits a ball in front of him and he holds. Bloomquist moves Beltre to third, but he never scores as Rivera finishes the inning.
-- top 5th: With Betancourt and Ichiro aboard and nobody out, Mike Hargrove has Jose Lopez, leading RBI man on the team, bunt the runners over, which he does. Ibañez drives Betancourt in from third with a fly ball, but Sexson strikes out.
-- bottom 5th: With two out, Betancourt fields a Luis Castillo grounder cleanly, but can't get a grip on the ball and doesn't get off a throw. The play turns out to be inconsequential.
-- bottom 6th: The Morse play, covered in the Goat section. Everyone knows Beltre gets the out at first on that ball. Instead of a runner on third and two out, it's first and third with one out. Piñeiro walked Morneau, then Cuddyer hit the game-tying fly ball. Anyway, Hargrove looks like an idiot once again, and it wasn't the last time that happened in this game.
-- top 7th: Ichiro leads off with a triple and Hargrove has his leading RBI man try to bunt again, this time with a squeeze. Lopez air-bunts it, and Ichiro is doubled off.
-- top 9th: Bloomquist leads off with a single and is bunted to second by Rivera, who is the number eight hitter in the lineup and is terrible, therefore making him a good candidate to bunt. Betancourt grounds to short, and Bloomquist takes off for third with the ball hit right in front of him. Easy 5-6 putout. Betancourt getting gunned down at second with Ichiro at the plate was more of a merciful end to the inning.
-- top 10th: Ichiro legs out a grounder for a single, and Hargrove has Lopez try to bunt again. Luckily Lopez bunts all but his third strike foul, and singles on a 2-2 pitch. Ibañez, after Hargrove inexplicably puts the bunt sign on a couple more times, lines out near the track in right, and not even Ichiro advances, though the ball is hit hard, so it's somewhat passable (Cuddyer's momentum was taking him the other way, however). Sexson takes Torii Hunter to the track in center with his fly ball, but Ichiro hangs about 20 feet away from the second-base bag on the fly ball, which isn't exactly a line drive, and has to retreat back to second on the flyout. If you ask me, it was more than deep enough for him to tag up, and Hunter fell down after he caught it, aaaaaaand Ichiro's more than fast enough to get to third safely as only a miracle relay could have beat him to third. I don't know if that's on Carlos Garcia coaching third or what, but I don't think it is, since Ichiro is Ichiro. Beltre flies out to end it.
The Mariners were three games back of the division lead after winning the fourth game of their four-game winning streak. After the second win in the Baltimore series, the Mariners were two back of the division lead. Thanks to this four-game losing streak, the Mariners are now five back of the division lead in a virtual tie with the Angels for the cellar spot in the division. Seattle is in third by percentage points.
Washburn. Rheinecker. Tomorrow.
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