Sunday, June 18, 2006
GAME 71: MARINERS 5, GIANTS 1
[initial partial post]
In 25 words or less: The pitching from the night before proved to be a little contagious, with the offense less so.
This one featured Jamey Wright going up against Jamie Moyer. Wright nearly broke camp with the Mariners in 2003, but the decision was made to keep Gil Meche instead. One rarity today was the start of Willie Bloomquist at second due to Jose Lopez having jammed a thumb in the Saturday game. Carl Everett came into the game 6-for-10 lifetime against Wright. The Mariners were attempting to sweep the Giants just three days after having been swept by the Giants' crossbay rivals in Oakland.
TOP 1ST
Jason Ellison drove the 3-1 pitch over the Nikon ad in leftcenter.
»» GIANTS 1, MARINERS 0
Omar Vizquel popped the second pitch to a running Bloomquist along the rightfield line. Randy Winn fell behind 0-2 and whiffed on a 1-2 change away. Barry Bonds was down 0-2 and took a 1-2 change over the outside corner. Moyer threw 15 pitches.
BOTTOM 1ST
Ichiro shot the second pitch past Vizcaino at first and into rightfield. Adrian Beltre looped a fly into left that was caught by a sliding Sweeney. Raul Ibañez watched as Ichiro nabbed second on the second pitch. Ibañez ended up grounding hard to first, moving Ichiro to third. Richie Sexson fell behind 0-2 before whiffing on a 2-2 breaking ball inside. Wright threw 15 pitches.
TOP 2ND
Ray Durham flew out high to Ibañez along the leftfield line. Pedro Feliz reached for an outside pitch and flew out to center. Jose Vizcaino ripped the first pitch up the middle for a single. Mark Sweeney flew out to Reed on a 2-2 pitch. Moyer threw 13 pitches and had 28 through two.
BOTTOM 2ND
Carl Everett was ahead 3-0 before flying to left on a full count. Kenji Johjima rolled the second pitch up the middle for a single. Jeremy Reed fell behind 0-2 and chopped a 1-2 pitch to third to start a 5-4-3 double play. Wright threw 12 pitches and had 27 through two.
TOP 3RD
Eliezer Alfonzo nearly poked an 0-2 pitch down the leftfield line for a double, but instead ended up grounding to Beltre behind the bag at third on a 1-2 pitch. Ellison fell behind 0-2 and ended up popping out to second on a 2-2 pitch. Vizquel lined the first pitch right to Ibañez in left. Moyer threw 11 pitches and had 39 through two.
BOTTOM 3RD
Willie Bloomquist singled through the left side on the second pitch. Yuniesky Betancourt bunted the first pitch down the first-base line as it went foul, and Niehaus questioned the rationale of bunting at this stage of the game to tie. Betancourt ended up bunting the next pitch to the left side, where Feliz made the play to first to move Bloomquist to second. Ichiro watched as Bloomquist stole third on a 1-2 pitch. Ichiro wound up whiffing on a 2-2 breaking ball away and in the dirt, and Alfonzo raced to get it on his left and threw to first in time as Bloomquist held at third. Beltre split his bat on a grounder to the mound that Wright kicked with his foot, except the ball hopped into left for a single, scoring Bloomquist on the single.
»» GIANTS 1, MARINERS 1
Ibañez watched as Wright made a pickoff throw at first that hit Beltre and went into foul territory, allowing Beltre to move to second. Ibañez got behind 0-2 and rolled past Durham and into center for a single on a 1-2 pitch, scoring Beltre.
»» MARINERS 2, GIANTS 1
Sexson watched as Ibañez stole second on an 0-2 pitch. Sexson worked the count for a walk. Pitching coach Dave Righetti visited the mound. Everett lined a single into shallow center on a full count, scoring Ibañez.
»» MARINERS 3, GIANTS 1
Johjima grounded the second pitch to second. Wright threw 30 pitches and had 57 through three.
TOP 4TH
Winn flew out short of the track in left on a 2-2 pitch. Bonds flew out high to left on the first pitch. Durham dumped the second pitch into shallow left for a single. Feliz reached for an outside second pitch and flew out to left. Moyer threw 12 pitches and had 51 through four.
BOTTOM 4TH
Reed lined out to left on a 2-0 pitch. Bloomquist whiffed on a 1-2 pitch down and away. Betancourt shot the second pitch through the left side for a single, but Sweeney muffed the grounder and Betancourt took second on the play. Ichiro rolled a 2-0 pitch to short. Wright threw 12 pitches and had 69 through four.
TOP 5TH
Vizcaino grounded the second pitch hard to third. Sweeney singled down the rightfield line on the first pitch. Alfonzo popped the second pitch down the leftfield line where Ibañez tried to leap to catch it, but was unsuccessful and the ball (ruled foul) rolled away. Alfonzo dumped an 0-2 pitch into leftcenter for a single, moving Sweeney to second. Ellison rolled the first pitch to short to start a 6-3 double play. Moyer threw eight pitches and had 59 through five.
BOTTOM 5TH
Beltre homered over the wall in rightcenter. Really.
»» MARINERS 4, GIANTS 1
Ibañez lined out to short on a 1-2 pitch. Sexson grounded the second pitch to short. Everett whiffed on a 1-2 breaking ball in the dirt. Wright threw 14 pitches and had 83 through five.
TOP 6TH
Vizquel singled through the left side on a 2-2 pitch. Winn was up 2-0 and ended up tapping back to the mound on a full count to start a 1-6-3 double play. Bonds was ahead 2-0 before whiffing on a 2-2 change. Moyer threw 16 pitches and had 75 through six.
BOTTOM 6TH
Johjima was down 0-2 and ended up tapping back to the mound on a 2-2 pitch. Reed bounced the first pitch to second. Bloomquist bounced a 1-2 pitch to short. Wright threw 11 pitches and had 94 through six.
TOP 7TH
Durham one-hopped the first pitch to short. Feliz popped to shallow center. Vizcaino fell behind 0-2 and bounced to third on a 2-2 pitch. Moyer threw ten pitches and had 85 through seven.
BOTTOM 7TH
Betancourt grounded out to second. Ichiro was ahead 3-0 and walked on a 3-1 pitch up and away. Beltre took the second pitch way outside and to the backstop, moving Ichiro to second. Beltre ended up grounding to second on the next pitch, moving Ichiro to third. Ibañez walked on four pitches. Sexson walked on four pitches to load the bases.
Tim Worrell came in for Wright. Everett fell behind 0-2 and took a 1-2 pitch over the outside corner. Worrell threw five pitches.
Wright's line: 6 2/3 innings, 4 runs, 8 hits, 4 walks, 4 strikeouts, 114 pitches (64 strikes)
TOP 8TH
Sweeney flew out to Beltre in foul ground on the first pitch. Alfonzo was hit on the left arm with a 1-2 pitch that he'd moved toward, and it was ruled a foul ball even with the noted contact (good call). Alfonzo popped the 1-2 pitch to a running Ichiro in rightcenter. Ellison was down 0-2 and took a 2-2 change over the outer half.
Moyer's line: 8 innings, 1 run, 6 hits, 0 walks, 4 strikeouts, 97 pitches (66 strikes)
BOTTOM 8TH
Johjima was ahead 2-0 and popped to Sweeney on the track in front of the manual scoreboard in left. Reed smacked a single up the middle into centerfield. Bloomquist flew out to shallow right. Betancourt shot the second pitch through the right side for a single on a hit-and-run, moving Reed to third. Ichiro drilled a single into rightcenter, scoring Reed and moving Betancourt to third.
»» MARINERS 5, GIANTS 1
Beltre flew out to Vizquel in shallow left on an 0-2 pitch.
Worrell's line: 1 1/3 innings, 1 run, 3 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 26 pitches (19 strikes)
TOP 9TH
JJ Putz came in for Moyer. Vizquel rolled out to short. Winn fell behind 0-2 and rolled to short on a 1-2 pitch. Bonds whiffed on a 1-2 fastball over the inner half.
Putz' line: 1 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 12 pitches (8 strikes)
---
Gameball: Adrian Beltre.
He's hit safely in fourteen of the sixteen games he's played this month. He homered in this game, giving him four for the month, double the combined amount he accumulated in April and May. In addition, he had nine extra-base hits combined in the first two months combined, whereas in June he has eight extra-base hits (four doubles with the four homers). He slugged .233 and .355 in April and May (.300 total), but in June he is slugging at a clip of .493 (season slug bumped up to .349). Needless to say, the .493 slugging month so far is great, grand, and wonderful. Beltre will always have his numbers compared to those of his 2004 season. In that season, he slugged .629, which from this point looks ungodly, but so do the rest of his numbers from that season. Isn't it fitting that he was great when the Mariners lost 99 games, but they bring him aboard and his 2005 season would have fit right in on the 2004 Mariner team. Quick fact: he hit more doubles in his 2005 season than in 2004 (36 to 32), but you could attribute that to some warning trackers not getting over the wall too. Anyway, we know his defense has been great too, though he's on pace to make way commit way more errors than he did last season: he has ten right now and had fourteen all of last year.
Goat: Richie Sexson.
His job is to drive in runs and hit balls out. He went hitless in this game. He strikes out a lot over the course of the season, but he did that only once in this game. He wasn't completely useless, however, since he drew two walks. Carl Everett did come in with a good history of hitting against Jamey Wright, so this wasn't horribly bad at all. Sexson has managed to work some 0-2 counts for walks in recent games, which shows unexpected patience. The good news is that despite his brutal .205 batting average, he's slugging .475, way higher than April (.351) or May (.358). That has mostly to do with the fact that half of his twelve hits this month have gone for extra bases and five of them have been homers. He's also had his most productive RBI month, and we've got twelve days left to go in the month. Even with the grossly low batting average, Sexson is still on pace to drive in 103 runs. If he actually hits better over the second half of the season, his 125 might not be too far out of reach. I think forty homers might be out of the question though. He's only pace for 25. With a decent second half, I think he could get to the mid 30s, but I think 40 is out of the question.
Yr W-L Pct GB Stk
2001 54-17 .761 -- W1
2003 48-23 .676 6 L1
2002 44-27 .620 10 W3
2000 41-30 .577 13 W4
2006 34-37 .479 20 W3
2005 32-39 .451 22 L1
2004 29-42 .408 25 L4
LINEUP SINCE THE TWEAK (May 30th)
Ichiro 39-for-81 (.481), 3 doubles, 1 triple, 3 homers, 8 RBIs, 6 walks, 4 strikeouts
Beltre 22-for-79 (.278), 4 doubles, 4 homers, 13 RBIs, 6 walks, 13 strikeouts
Lopez 18-for-71 (.253), 7 doubles, 1 homer, 11 RBIs, 5 walks, 12 strikeouts
Ibañez 22-for-62 (.355), 4 doubles, 1 triple, 6 homers, 22 RBIs, 10 walks, 9 strikeouts
Sexson 13-for-65 (.200), 1 double, 5 homers, 18 RBIs, 9 walks, 17 strikeouts
Everett 13-for-57 (.228), 1 homer, 4 RBIs, 4 walks, 12 strikeouts
Johjima 15-for-57 (.263), 5 doubles, 3 RBIs, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts
Reed 11-for-45 (.244), 1 double, 2 homers, 3 RBI, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts
Betancourt 21-for-63 (.333), 3 doubles, 2 triples, 1 homer, 7 RBIs, 3 walks, 5 strikeouts
Piñeiro. Penny. Tuesday.
/ Click for main page
