Saturday, June 17, 2006
GAME 69: MARINERS 5, GIANTS 4
In 25 words or less: Felix wins. Barry Bonds homers but is later mowed down by JJ Putz for the final out. Great game.
This one featured Noah Lowry going up against Felix Hernandez. The start originally was going to go to Gil Meche, but he came down with some lower back stiffness. Hernandez was pushed up in the rotation by a slot, but thanks to the off-day on Monday, he still got his four days of rest, so it's not like he was going on three days' rest or anything like that, though at times in this game it sort of seemed like it. Keep in mind that Kenji Johjima was behind the plate for this Hernandez start, whereas it was Rene Rivera last time. On the team front, the Mariners were trying to wash out the sick taste of broom left over from the three games in Oakland. On hand to see whether the Mariners would do just that included Nick Collison of your Seattle SuuuuuuperSonics, Kim Thayil of the unfortunately defunct seminal Seattle band Soundgarden, and the Mariners' newly signed Cal Bear, Brandon Morrow. As usual, Morrow is not to be confused with this guy.
TOP 1ST
Randy Winn fell behind 0-2 and grounded hard to first, though he took nine pitches to do so. Omar Vizquel nubbed a 0-2 pitch to short. Ray Durham grounded the 2-0 pitch to third. Hernandez threw 15 pitches.
BOTTOM 1ST
Ichiro lashed the second pitch a few rows into the rightfield seats.
»» MARINERS 1, GIANTS 0
Adrian Beltre fell behind 0-2 before whipping a 1-2 pitch into left for a single. Jose Lopez had a 3-0 count go full, then fouled off five pitches before spanking the eleventh pitch of the at-bat through the left side for a single, moving Beltre to second. Raul Ibañez reached for a pitch low and away and flew out to right, moving Beltre to third (Winn's arm in right). Richie Sexson worked an 0-2 count for a walk to load the bases, taking seven pitches to do so. Pitching coach Dave Righetti visited the mound. Mike Morse popped a 2-2 pitch just short of the track in right (Winn), scoring Beltre and moving Lopez to third.
»» MARINERS 2, GIANTS 0
Kenji Johjima took a 1-2 pitch down and in as Sexson nabbed second without a throw. Johjima ended up working the 1-2 count for a walk. Willie Bloomquist popped the first pitch (why?!?!) to Greene behind the plate to the screen. Lowry threw 41 pitches.
TOP 2ND
Barry Bonds crushed a 2-1 inner-half fastball about 15 rows or so into the rightfield seats. Damn.
»» MARINERS 2, GIANTS 1
Moises Alou popped a 1-2 pitch down the line, but Ibañez couldn't snag it in the sliver of foul ground down the leftfield line. Alou ended up grounding hard to third on a 2-2 pitch. Steve Finley drilled a liner on the first pitch, reaching the first row in rightfield in a hurry.
»» GIANTS 2, MARINERS 2
Pedro Feliz took an 0-2 curve over the outside corner. Mark Sweeney was ruled to have held a checkswing on a 1-2 low curve and later ripped a double down the rightfield line on a full-count, beating a multi-hop throw from Ichiro. Todd Greene was ahead 2-0 before whiffing on a 2-2 curve down and away. Hernandez threw 26 pitches and had 41 through two.
BOTTOM 2ND
Yuniesky Betancourt rolled the second pitch to second. Ichiro punched the second pitch off a diving Vizquel and into shallow center for a single. Beltre hit the first pitch hard, but grounded it right to Vizquel for a 6-4-3 double play. Lowry threw only five pitches and had 46 through two.
TOP 3RD
Winn slapped a 2-0 belt-high fastball into the fourth row of seats beyond the rightfield wall.
»» GIANTS 3, MARINERS 2
Vizquel popped the first pitch to Sexson in foul ground on the right side. Durham flew out to center. Bonds walked on a 3-1 pitch down and away. Alou chopped an 0-2 pitch to third. Hernandez threw 16 pitches and had 57 through three.
BOTTOM 3RD
Lopez fell behind 0-2 and wound up flying out high to right on a 1-2 pitch. Ibañez slapped a 1-2 pitch down the leftfield line and off the angle of the stands for a double. Sexson popped a 1-2 pitch high into right, moving Ibañez to third, and Winn's throw was wide to the cutoff, but Lowry backed up third. Morse had the hitters' counts before slapping a full-count pitch down the rightfield line and off the angled stands, netting himself a double and scoring Ibañez.
»» GIANTS 3, MARINERS 3
Johjima one-hopped the leftfield wall below the manual scoreboard with the first pitch, scoring Morse and getting a double for himself.
»» MARINERS 4, GIANTS 3
Bloomquist turned on a 2-0 inside pitch and pulled it far but foul. Bloomquist ended up poking the next pitch through the left side for a single to score Johjima. Bloomquist tried to stretch it into a double, but he was nailed on the cutoff of the relay.
»» MARINERS 5, GIANTS 3
Lowry's line: 3 innings, 5 runs, 8 hits, 2 walks, 0 strikeouts, 71 pitches (46 strikes)
TOP 4TH
Finley whiffed on an 0-2 curve in the dirt. Feliz scorched a 3-1 pitch just past a diving Beltre and down the leftfield line for a double. Sweeney one-hopped the wall in rightcenter with the second pitch, good for a double and an RBI as Feliz crossed the plate.
»» MARINERS 5, GIANTS 4
Greene walked on a full-count pitch inside and in the dirt. Pitching coach Rafael Chaves came to the mound for a visit. Winn was ahead 2-0 before grounding hard to first, where Sexson stopped but bobbled the ball, then underhanded to Hernandez covering first, who nearly overran the bag as Sweeney and Greene advanced to third and second. Vizquel bounced the second pitch to first. Hernandez threw 22 pitches and had 79 through five.
BOTTOM 4TH
Brad Hennessey came in for Lowry. Betancourt popped to a trotting Bonds in leftcenter. Ichiro grounded hard to second on a 2-0 pitch. Beltre fought off an up-and-in 1-2 pitch and dumped it into shallow center for a single. Lopez flew out high to Winn on the rightfield line on the second pitch. Hennessey threw 13 pitches.
TOP 5TH
Durham laid a nice first-pitch bunt along the third-base side, but Beltre did that charging barehand-and-throw thing that he does so well. Bonds got ahead 2-0 before foul-tipping an change up and away into Johjima's glove. Alou whiffed badly on a low 2-2 breaking ball. Hernandez threw 11 pitches and had 90 through five.
BOTTOM 5TH
Ibañez was ahead 3-0 and walked on a low full-count pitch. Sexson bounced the first pitch to short to start a 6-4-3 double play on which Vizquel barehanded the ball just to show off, but he's very good. Morse split his bat on a grounder to short, where Vizquel fielded the ball, though the barrel of the bat came out near him as well. Hennessey threw ten pitches and had 23 total.
TOP 6TH
Finley walked on a full-count pitch down and away. Feliz popped the first pitch to right. Sweeney flew out to left. Greene bounced the second pitch to short and Sexson was able to jump to pick Betancourt's high throw.
Hernandez' line: 6 innings, 4 runs, 6 hits, 3 walks, 5 strikeouts, 103 pitches (62 strikes)
BOTTOM 6TH
Johjima worked a 1-2 count full and poked a single up the middle. Bloomquist rolled an 0-2 pitch to second, where Durham ranged over to field the ball and tagged the second-base bag, but threw high to first and into the dugout as Bloomquist was awarded second. Betancourt didn't even have a pitch thrown to him when Hennessey and Vizquel caught Bloomquist redhanded on a daylight play at second. Betancourt fell behind 0-2 and flew out high to first on a 1-2 pitch. Hennessey threw 13 pitches and had 36 total.
TOP 7TH
Eddie Guardado came in for Hernandez. Winn walked on a full-count pitch down and in, the eighth pitch of the at-bat. Vizquel bunted the first pitch to a charging Sexson on the right side (3-4 putout), moving Winn to second. Durham whiffed on a 1-2 fastball down and away. Bonds was intentionally walked.
Rafael Soriano came in for Guardado. Alou flew out to Ibañez near the leftfield corner on the first pitch, one that could have been a bit more down. Soriano threw one pitch.
Guardado's line: 2/3 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 2 walks, 1 strikeouts, 17 pitches (8 strikes)
BOTTOM 7TH
Ichiro flew out high to center on a 2-0 pitch. Beltre looped a flyout to Durham moving back into right on an 0-2 pitch. Lopez was up 2-0 but lined out to left on a 2-2 pitch.
Hennessey's line: 4 innings, 0 runs, 2 hits, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts, 47 pitches (29 strikes)
TOP 8TH
Finley rolled a single up the middle. Feliz rolled the second pitch slowly to second, where Lopez backhand flipped to Betancourt at second, but Feliz was able to barely beat the throw back to first. Sweeney had the hitters' counts and took the 3-1 pitch up and away for a walk, moving Feliz to second. Greene had a 1-1 count on him when Chaves came to the mound for a visit. Greene wound up whiffed on a 2-2 slider away.
JJ Putz came in for Soriano. Winn was mowed down by a 97mph high fastball. Putz threw four pitches.
Soriano's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 1 hit, 1 walk, 1 strikeout, 16 pitches (9 strikes)
BOTTOM 8TH
Jeremy Accardo came in for Hennessey. Ibañez whiffed on a 1-2 breaking ball down and away. Sexson bounced out to short. Morse chopped the first pitch off the plate and to third.
Accardo's line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 9 pitches (7 strikes)
TOP 9TH
Vizquel was ahead 2-0 and would ground out to second. Durham checked his swing on an 0-2 pitch away and ended up getting blown down by a 2-2 belly-high 96mph fastball. Bonds worked a 1-2 count full before taking a splitter for strike three.
Putz' line: 1 1/3 innings, 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks, 3 strikeouts, 20 pitches (12 strikes)
---
Gameball: Adrian Beltre.
It's been about two and a half weeks since Mike Hargrove finally work up and messed with the order of the starting lineup. One of the biggest shakeups in the whole thing was moving Adrian Beltre up to the second slot. As indicated below, Beltre is hitting .275 since the shakeup, which isn't exactly 2004 numbers for him, but we're never going to see that again anyway. His batting average as of right now is .236, 12 points better than it was before the lineup was messed with, and if you ask me, it's at the expense of Jose Lopez. Anyway, Beltre's never dipped below .229 this month. In May, though, he was as low as .202. Of course, with the state Beltre was in, he needed a .264 May to bump his .189 average to .230. The weird thing is that he's hitting .254 this month, worse so far than in May, but he's had only two hitless games out of the fourteen in which he's played. In May, he had seven hitless games out of 28. This month, he has three multi-hit games, whereas he had six last month. The good thing about his getting on base in all these games is that we know he can get base hits and he's still got something. The bad thing is that one hit out of four at-bats is still just .250. I'm not even taking about the lack of power either.
Goat: Yuniesky Betancourt.
He's only in this spot because he was the only Mariner hitter that didn't reach base. Nonetheless, he's still hitting .313 this month. How fortunate are the Mariners to have a defensive whiz of a shortstop that hits .288 and bats in front of Ichiro once the lineup turns over? I might be obsessed with what Hargrove could or should do with this lineup and everything, but I wonder if there would be anything good to come out of moving Betancourt out of the ninth slot. Of course, he's got Ichiro hitting behind him, so you could say he might be getting some nice pitches to hit. However, the effect of Jeremy Reed hitting in front of Betancourt has been just slightly better than before, and I don't have the numbers of non-Reed people hitting in the eighth slot tabulated. Still, I wonder if there would be anything gained from moving Betancourt out of the ninth slot. For now, I'm leaning against the idea. Ironically, even with Betancourt hitting in front of him, Ichiro's on pace for 52 RBIs, which would be his second-lowest total for a Major League season (he had 51 in 2002). Of course, I think that's more of an indictment of the Mariner offense in general rather than of Ichiro.
Yr W-L Pct GB Stk
2001 53-16 .768 -- W1
2003 47-22 .681 6 W3
2002 42-27 .609 11 W1
2000 39-30 .565 14 W2
2006 32-37 .464 21 W1
2005 31-38 .449 22 L2
2004 29-40 .420 24 L2
LINEUP SINCE THE TWEAK (May 30th)
Ichiro 36-for-72 (.500), 3 doubles, 1 triple, 3 homers, 7 RBIs, 5 walks, 2 strikeouts
Beltre 19-for-69 (.275), 3 doubles, 3 homers, 10 RBIs, 6 walks, 11 strikeouts
Lopez 16-for-67 (.239), 7 doubles, 1 homer, 11 RBIs, 5 walks, 12 strikeouts
Ibañez 18-for-55 (.327), 3 doubles, 1 triple, 5 homers, 17 RBIs, 9 walks, 9 strikeouts
Sexson 12-for-60 (.200), 1 double, 4 homers, 16 RBIs, 6 walks, 15 strikeouts
Everett 12-for-50 (.240), 1 homer, 3 RBIs, 3 walks, 10 strikeouts
Johjima 14-for-53 (.264), 5 doubles, 3 RBIs, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts
Reed 9-for-37 (.243), 1 double, 1 homer, 2 RBI, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts
Betancourt 17-for-57 (.298), 3 doubles, 1 triple, 1 homer, 7 RBIs, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts
Noah Lowry didn't have it by a long shot in the first inning, which was quite apparent. Ichiro wasn't patient with him and decided to rip a homer, but Ichiro being patient just isn't his thing. Adrian Beltre got five pitches out of his at-bat, but it wasn't until Jose Lopez worked his count for eleven pitches that everyone truly knew Lowry might be having control issues. Raul Ibañez got four pitches out of his at-bat before Richie Sexson took seven pitches to force a walk from an 0-2 count. Mike Morse needed five pitches to hit his sacrifice fly to make it 2-0 in the first. Like Sexson two hitters beforehand, Kenji Johjima worked an 0-2 count for a walk, though he needed six pitches. At this point, the Mariners had runners on the corners with two out. Lowry having given up a homer, two singles, two walks, and a sacrifice fly, and he had thrown an insane 40 pitches in the first and had gotten two outs. Normally this is where every hitter coming to the plate makes the pitcher throw a strike before even thinking about swinging. So what does Willie Bloomquist do? He swings at the first pitch and pops out behind the plate, of course! I know only so much can happen with two out, but Lowry was really on the ropes that inning, and the Giants were extremely lucky to get out of that down just 2-0, and they easily could have won this game.
Here we sit with Felix Hernandez having won four straight starts. It's odd knowing that besides the crazy game he threw in Anaheim, he hasn't come close to hitting his stride yet. He gave up three homers in this game, but one was to Barry Bonds and the other two (Steve Finley and Randy Winn) were scorched line drives with the wind doing things inside the ol' ballyard. To say Felix wasn't sharp was probably an understatement since he walked three guys against five strikeouts. The ever-fun card to play, however, is the Rene Rivera-for-catcher card. Seriously, if Mike Hargrove wants to give Kenji Johjima a day off every once in a while, just have Rene Rivera catch every start by Felix. I guess the argument against this would be that Rivera's future won't be too lengthy with Jeff Clement comes down the pipe, so Felix would have to get used to throwing to a different catcher anyway. Still, it's nice to see Felix rip off a win streak even without getting back to the Felix we knew and loved last season.
This game probably isn't big in the large scope of things, but it was a fun one to watch. There was at least some excitement in town with Barry Bonds in the vicinity, but I must have gotten pretty wrapped up in the game since I clapped and exclaimed, "THERE YA GO!" when JJ Putz struck out Bonds for the final out of the game. It's been a while since I've actually yelled a positive exclamation at the computer monitor while watching a Mariner game.
Schmidt. Meche. Today.
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