Saturday, July 10, 2010
GAME 86: YANKEES 6, MARINERS 1
[box]
[actual post Wed 14 Jul ~8:17p; due to extensive traveling, finished this piece the day after the All-Star Game.]
Let's be honest. Once the Cliff Lee deal went down in the hours before game time, this game became a complete afterthought. The only not directly involving the trade was who the Mariners were going to send to the mound to start in Cliff Lee's spot. Though they called up Luke French from Tacoma to take the vacated spot on the 25-man roster, they pulled David Pauley from the bullpen to make the start on two days' rest. He really didn't do badly at all. The offense, however, remained hapless long enough to where the bullpen eventually put the game out of reach.
-- the starting pitching will be addressed in the gameballs
-- the bullpen...not good. Chad Cordero lit the game ablaze with his performance in the sixth inning after taking over for David Pauley. He was charged with two runs, but came into the game with two runners aboard, and they scored as well, helping inflate the ERA of Pauley. Luke French then came in and mopped up the final three innings, giving up one run in the process.
-- the bullpen rest bulletin: Cordero and French threw in this game. Going into Saturday's game, Brian Sweeney and David Aardsma will have a day of rest, Brandon League and Garrett Olson will have two days of rest, and Sean White will have three days of rest.
-- the offense? They got nine hits, but they were pretty scattered. The Mariners ran into the real Phil Hughes this time around. He wasn't the aberration that got clobbered in the Bronx when the Mariners last faced him. Talk about scattering the hits, the Mariners got six hits off Hughes, and four of those hits were doubles. Still, the Mariners managed just the one run, which they didn't get until they were down by a margin of 5-0. Pathetic.
-- now, the Ichiro/Figgins stat. Ichiro was scoreless with two hits, and Figgins got a hit and scored one. The Mariners remain 11-6 when both players score, but are now 16-27 when both players get hits.
Gameballs
1) David Pauley
For an emergency start on two days' rest, he was great. Things didn't get out of control until he left the game, so his outing still looks good. It also looks better thanks to a Jose Lopez error, which made two of Pauley's three runs unearned.
2) Ichiro
The Mariners' leadoff hitter went 2-for-4 in the game, pushing him to 116-for-354 (.328) on the season. This leaves him on pace to finish the season with 219 hits. His first hit of the game with a single with Jack Wilson on first and one out in the third inning. His other hit was a leadoff single in the eighth, though the Yankees had pulled away by that point.
3) Rob Johnson
How often do you get zero passed balls, zero wild pitches, and two hits in the boxscore with Rob Johnson? Not too often, but that's what happened here. Of course, that doesn't mean this game added up to anything close to a win, but you take the positives were you can. Since it's been nine years since this team's made the playoffs, we've had ample time to get used to the little things in baseball since we can't seem to get accustomed to winning.
Goat
Franklin Gutierrez
From about June 4th to July 4th, he was on a pretty steady decline, but still getting some hits here and there. In that span, he dropped from a .294 average to a .277 average, hitting a not-good .247 in the month of June. In the last five games, he's completely hitless, going 0-for-19. That's a pretty good reason the offense is awful lately. Granted, he's batting lower in the order than third now, but he's still an important cog to the offense, and if he's not getting on base, that's a problem. He's 3-for-31 so far in July. I guess he hasn't been the same since that stomach flu he suffered on the road trip that cost him a couple of starts. Surely he can't still be suffering from it, right? That was about two weeks ago. As long as this is less scary than the Carlos Guillen tuberculosis thing, that's good. I doubt stomach flu will spread through the team. It's not like in hockey, where you have to get really careful with the water bottles if someone on the team has the flu. A flu sweeping through a hockey team can put you on a good losing streak.
Vazquez. Hernandez. [it already happened].
[actual post Wed 14 Jul ~8:17p; due to extensive traveling, finished this piece the day after the All-Star Game.]
Let's be honest. Once the Cliff Lee deal went down in the hours before game time, this game became a complete afterthought. The only not directly involving the trade was who the Mariners were going to send to the mound to start in Cliff Lee's spot. Though they called up Luke French from Tacoma to take the vacated spot on the 25-man roster, they pulled David Pauley from the bullpen to make the start on two days' rest. He really didn't do badly at all. The offense, however, remained hapless long enough to where the bullpen eventually put the game out of reach.
-- the starting pitching will be addressed in the gameballs
-- the bullpen...not good. Chad Cordero lit the game ablaze with his performance in the sixth inning after taking over for David Pauley. He was charged with two runs, but came into the game with two runners aboard, and they scored as well, helping inflate the ERA of Pauley. Luke French then came in and mopped up the final three innings, giving up one run in the process.
-- the bullpen rest bulletin: Cordero and French threw in this game. Going into Saturday's game, Brian Sweeney and David Aardsma will have a day of rest, Brandon League and Garrett Olson will have two days of rest, and Sean White will have three days of rest.
-- the offense? They got nine hits, but they were pretty scattered. The Mariners ran into the real Phil Hughes this time around. He wasn't the aberration that got clobbered in the Bronx when the Mariners last faced him. Talk about scattering the hits, the Mariners got six hits off Hughes, and four of those hits were doubles. Still, the Mariners managed just the one run, which they didn't get until they were down by a margin of 5-0. Pathetic.
-- now, the Ichiro/Figgins stat. Ichiro was scoreless with two hits, and Figgins got a hit and scored one. The Mariners remain 11-6 when both players score, but are now 16-27 when both players get hits.
Gameballs
1) David Pauley
For an emergency start on two days' rest, he was great. Things didn't get out of control until he left the game, so his outing still looks good. It also looks better thanks to a Jose Lopez error, which made two of Pauley's three runs unearned.
2) Ichiro
The Mariners' leadoff hitter went 2-for-4 in the game, pushing him to 116-for-354 (.328) on the season. This leaves him on pace to finish the season with 219 hits. His first hit of the game with a single with Jack Wilson on first and one out in the third inning. His other hit was a leadoff single in the eighth, though the Yankees had pulled away by that point.
3) Rob Johnson
How often do you get zero passed balls, zero wild pitches, and two hits in the boxscore with Rob Johnson? Not too often, but that's what happened here. Of course, that doesn't mean this game added up to anything close to a win, but you take the positives were you can. Since it's been nine years since this team's made the playoffs, we've had ample time to get used to the little things in baseball since we can't seem to get accustomed to winning.
Goat
Franklin Gutierrez
From about June 4th to July 4th, he was on a pretty steady decline, but still getting some hits here and there. In that span, he dropped from a .294 average to a .277 average, hitting a not-good .247 in the month of June. In the last five games, he's completely hitless, going 0-for-19. That's a pretty good reason the offense is awful lately. Granted, he's batting lower in the order than third now, but he's still an important cog to the offense, and if he's not getting on base, that's a problem. He's 3-for-31 so far in July. I guess he hasn't been the same since that stomach flu he suffered on the road trip that cost him a couple of starts. Surely he can't still be suffering from it, right? That was about two weeks ago. As long as this is less scary than the Carlos Guillen tuberculosis thing, that's good. I doubt stomach flu will spread through the team. It's not like in hockey, where you have to get really careful with the water bottles if someone on the team has the flu. A flu sweeping through a hockey team can put you on a good losing streak.
Vazquez. Hernandez. [it already happened].
/ Click for main page
Thursday, July 08, 2010
GAME 85: YANKEES 3, MARINERS 1
[box]
[posted in full Fri ~8:45p]
There are three more games left in this series? Crap. That doesn't bode well for the Mariners, except that Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez will be throwing in the series, so maybe there's a chance at a win somewhere in there. As for the game, the Mariner offense wasn't really doing anything, the bullpen did what it has done lately, and ultimately it's a bad idea to try and take a 1-0 lead to the bank against the Yankees. Go figure.
-- the starting pitching will be discussed in the gameballs
-- Brian Sweeney came into the game with runners on first and second and nobody out in the eighth with the Mariners ahead 1-0. On his second pitch, Sweeney spiked a changeup a couple feet in front of the plate, and Bard blocked the ball, but the rebound control wasn't too good, as it got far enough away from him to allow Alex Rodriguez to advance from second to third base. Four pitches later, Posada grounded to Figgins to start a 4-6-3 double play, and Rodriguez scored on the play to tie the game at 1-1. Curtis Granderson singled to right before Sweeney got Brett Gardner to fly out to end the inning.
-- the bullpen rest bulletin: Sweeney and Aardsma threw in this game. Going into Friday's game, Brandon League, Garrett Olson, and Chad Cordero will have a day of rest, and Sean White and David Pauley will have two days of rest.
-- the Mariner offense got only five hits against Andy Pettitte, all of them singles. They managed to draw four walks against Pettitte as well, but Pettitte still got through eight innings on 107 pitches, so the walks didn't do much to rush up his pitch count and get into the Yankees' non-Rivera relievers. As for the inning of scoring, it was the sixth. Josh Wilson led off with a single, then Michael Saunders faked a bunt and drilled a single up the middle. Ichiro bunted, but Andy Pettitte made a last-ditch throw to first trying to get Ichiro and it went wide and toward the tarp in foul ground. Josh scored on the play, and Saunders and Ichiro went to third and second, respectively as the Mariners led 1-0, a lead that held up until the eighth inning.
-- the Mariners had nobody out in the sixth after they'd scored their run, so how did that sixth inning end, you ask? Again, runners were on second and third. Chone Figgins grounded out to third. Franklin Gutierrez was then intentionally walked to load the bases and set up the double play chance. Russell Branyan was then caught looking on a pitch he probably thought was off the plate inside. Jose Lopez then fouled off his first two pitches before whiffing on the third. To futility and beyond! As for other chances, in the first, Ichiro led off with an infield single and tried taking third on a Figgins single, but was thrown out. In the fourth, Figgins drew a leadoff walk, only to be erased from the basepaths on a Gutierrez double-play ball. In the seventh, Casey Kotchman drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second one out later when Josh was hit by a pitch. Saunders then whiffed, followed by an Ichiro groundout. In the eighth, Figgins drew another leadoff walk, but sat back and watched as the next three hitters were set down in order.
-- now, the Ichiro/Figgins stat: neither player scored a run, but Ichiro got two hits and Figgins had one. The Mariners remain 11-6 when both players score, but are now 16-26 when both collect hits.
Gameballs
1) Jason Vargas
He appeared to be back on track, and he got back on track against a really good hitting team. He gave up one run while scattering nine hits and two walks over seven innings of work. Obviously, any Mariner fan would take that outing any day of the week and many times on Sunday. Vargas wouldn't be better without having one of his three best outings of the season. He allowed only one extra-base hit, a double by Nick Swisher. The average per-start line for Vargas is 6 1/3 innings, 2.3 runs (2.2 earned), 5.9 hits, 1.7 walks, 4 strkeouts, 99 pitches (63 strikes), 5.5 groundouts, 9.2 flyouts. I know I didn't expect Vargas to be this good this season. I expected him to be maybe 80% as good as he's showing right now. Maybe most of the time he'd get into the sixth, but instead he's getting into the seventh on a regular basis. As far as the Mariners are concerned, I'd have to say the report card for Vargas is a bold-faced A. He's done everything and more that the Mariners could have asked of him.
2) Ichiro
The Mariners' leadoff hitter and rightfielder went 2-for-4 in the game, pushing him to 114-for-350 (.326) on the season. He is on pace to finish the season with 217 hits. He led off the first inning with an infield single and started the bunt play in the sixth where Andy Pettitte threw the ball down the line, allowing the Mariners to take the 1-0 lead. He has a 10-game hitting streak, going 12-for-44 (.273) over that span. Again, that's the hilarious thing about Ichiro -- he can have a ten-game hitting streak and lose points off his batting average. He's gone from .333 to .326 thanks to the streak. He had multi-hit games in the first and tenth games of the hitting streak. His last set of consecutive hitless games came on June 7th and 8th in Arlington. He was a .358 hitter going into those two games and a .347 hitter afterward. If there's one thing I remember not complaining about as much anymore, it's that Ichiro hasn't been thrown out on the basepaths as much. He was 6-for-10 on steal attempts in April, but is 16-for-19 since.
3) Chone Figgins
The Mariners' second baseman went 1-for-2 with two walks. He didn't steal any bases in this game. He is now a .235 hitter on the season. Considering he was hitting below .200 not very long ago, he's really picked up the pace. Sure, it's too little too late for the team, but he might as well lay a foundation to build upon since the Mariners have him locked up long-term. I thought earlier in the season that if the Mariners were desperate enough, there was nothing to lose in moving Jose Lopez back to second and Figgins to third. Eventually, Figgins started hitting. Now, with the season lost, I almost think if moving Lopez to second gets him hot offensively, I think it's a no-brainer. How could the offense possibly be worse if Lopez was moved back to second base? I never liked the idea of moving Lopez to third anyway. What a lost season. Sigh...
Goat
David Aardsma
There wasn't a lead for him to hold in this game, but he let the game slip away. What is it with closers getting into non-save situations and then sucking? This used to happen to Kazuhiro Sasaki as well. To Aardsma's credit, the game-breaking pitch to Alex Rodriguez was in on his hands and he just fought it off into rightfield. He walked Derek Jeter on four pitches with one out, then allowed a Swisher double to put two runners into scoring position. One out later is when Rodriguez singled to score both runners and put the game away. I'm pretty sure none of us expected Aardsma to be anywhere near as good as he was last year, but that doesn't make any of the growing pains easier to take. Aardsma has a 5.60 ERA, for goodness' sake. One of the KJR guys compared this year's bullpen to last year's Seahawk defense. The Seahawk offensive line was so atrocious, you almost didn't notice how awful the defense was. Similarly, the Mariner offense has been so bad, most of the time you don't realize the bullpen is awful as well.
Hughes.Lee Pauley. Friday night.
[posted in full Fri ~8:45p]
There are three more games left in this series? Crap. That doesn't bode well for the Mariners, except that Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez will be throwing in the series, so maybe there's a chance at a win somewhere in there. As for the game, the Mariner offense wasn't really doing anything, the bullpen did what it has done lately, and ultimately it's a bad idea to try and take a 1-0 lead to the bank against the Yankees. Go figure.
-- the starting pitching will be discussed in the gameballs
-- Brian Sweeney came into the game with runners on first and second and nobody out in the eighth with the Mariners ahead 1-0. On his second pitch, Sweeney spiked a changeup a couple feet in front of the plate, and Bard blocked the ball, but the rebound control wasn't too good, as it got far enough away from him to allow Alex Rodriguez to advance from second to third base. Four pitches later, Posada grounded to Figgins to start a 4-6-3 double play, and Rodriguez scored on the play to tie the game at 1-1. Curtis Granderson singled to right before Sweeney got Brett Gardner to fly out to end the inning.
-- the bullpen rest bulletin: Sweeney and Aardsma threw in this game. Going into Friday's game, Brandon League, Garrett Olson, and Chad Cordero will have a day of rest, and Sean White and David Pauley will have two days of rest.
-- the Mariner offense got only five hits against Andy Pettitte, all of them singles. They managed to draw four walks against Pettitte as well, but Pettitte still got through eight innings on 107 pitches, so the walks didn't do much to rush up his pitch count and get into the Yankees' non-Rivera relievers. As for the inning of scoring, it was the sixth. Josh Wilson led off with a single, then Michael Saunders faked a bunt and drilled a single up the middle. Ichiro bunted, but Andy Pettitte made a last-ditch throw to first trying to get Ichiro and it went wide and toward the tarp in foul ground. Josh scored on the play, and Saunders and Ichiro went to third and second, respectively as the Mariners led 1-0, a lead that held up until the eighth inning.
-- the Mariners had nobody out in the sixth after they'd scored their run, so how did that sixth inning end, you ask? Again, runners were on second and third. Chone Figgins grounded out to third. Franklin Gutierrez was then intentionally walked to load the bases and set up the double play chance. Russell Branyan was then caught looking on a pitch he probably thought was off the plate inside. Jose Lopez then fouled off his first two pitches before whiffing on the third. To futility and beyond! As for other chances, in the first, Ichiro led off with an infield single and tried taking third on a Figgins single, but was thrown out. In the fourth, Figgins drew a leadoff walk, only to be erased from the basepaths on a Gutierrez double-play ball. In the seventh, Casey Kotchman drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second one out later when Josh was hit by a pitch. Saunders then whiffed, followed by an Ichiro groundout. In the eighth, Figgins drew another leadoff walk, but sat back and watched as the next three hitters were set down in order.
-- now, the Ichiro/Figgins stat: neither player scored a run, but Ichiro got two hits and Figgins had one. The Mariners remain 11-6 when both players score, but are now 16-26 when both collect hits.
Gameballs
1) Jason Vargas
He appeared to be back on track, and he got back on track against a really good hitting team. He gave up one run while scattering nine hits and two walks over seven innings of work. Obviously, any Mariner fan would take that outing any day of the week and many times on Sunday. Vargas wouldn't be better without having one of his three best outings of the season. He allowed only one extra-base hit, a double by Nick Swisher. The average per-start line for Vargas is 6 1/3 innings, 2.3 runs (2.2 earned), 5.9 hits, 1.7 walks, 4 strkeouts, 99 pitches (63 strikes), 5.5 groundouts, 9.2 flyouts. I know I didn't expect Vargas to be this good this season. I expected him to be maybe 80% as good as he's showing right now. Maybe most of the time he'd get into the sixth, but instead he's getting into the seventh on a regular basis. As far as the Mariners are concerned, I'd have to say the report card for Vargas is a bold-faced A. He's done everything and more that the Mariners could have asked of him.
2) Ichiro
The Mariners' leadoff hitter and rightfielder went 2-for-4 in the game, pushing him to 114-for-350 (.326) on the season. He is on pace to finish the season with 217 hits. He led off the first inning with an infield single and started the bunt play in the sixth where Andy Pettitte threw the ball down the line, allowing the Mariners to take the 1-0 lead. He has a 10-game hitting streak, going 12-for-44 (.273) over that span. Again, that's the hilarious thing about Ichiro -- he can have a ten-game hitting streak and lose points off his batting average. He's gone from .333 to .326 thanks to the streak. He had multi-hit games in the first and tenth games of the hitting streak. His last set of consecutive hitless games came on June 7th and 8th in Arlington. He was a .358 hitter going into those two games and a .347 hitter afterward. If there's one thing I remember not complaining about as much anymore, it's that Ichiro hasn't been thrown out on the basepaths as much. He was 6-for-10 on steal attempts in April, but is 16-for-19 since.
3) Chone Figgins
The Mariners' second baseman went 1-for-2 with two walks. He didn't steal any bases in this game. He is now a .235 hitter on the season. Considering he was hitting below .200 not very long ago, he's really picked up the pace. Sure, it's too little too late for the team, but he might as well lay a foundation to build upon since the Mariners have him locked up long-term. I thought earlier in the season that if the Mariners were desperate enough, there was nothing to lose in moving Jose Lopez back to second and Figgins to third. Eventually, Figgins started hitting. Now, with the season lost, I almost think if moving Lopez to second gets him hot offensively, I think it's a no-brainer. How could the offense possibly be worse if Lopez was moved back to second base? I never liked the idea of moving Lopez to third anyway. What a lost season. Sigh...
Goat
David Aardsma
There wasn't a lead for him to hold in this game, but he let the game slip away. What is it with closers getting into non-save situations and then sucking? This used to happen to Kazuhiro Sasaki as well. To Aardsma's credit, the game-breaking pitch to Alex Rodriguez was in on his hands and he just fought it off into rightfield. He walked Derek Jeter on four pitches with one out, then allowed a Swisher double to put two runners into scoring position. One out later is when Rodriguez singled to score both runners and put the game away. I'm pretty sure none of us expected Aardsma to be anywhere near as good as he was last year, but that doesn't make any of the growing pains easier to take. Aardsma has a 5.60 ERA, for goodness' sake. One of the KJR guys compared this year's bullpen to last year's Seahawk defense. The Seahawk offensive line was so atrocious, you almost didn't notice how awful the defense was. Similarly, the Mariner offense has been so bad, most of the time you don't realize the bullpen is awful as well.
Hughes.
/ Click for main page
GAME 84: ROYALS 7, MARINERS 3
[box]
[posted in full ~9:25p...haha]
There's your dagger, folks. Now there can be no doubt that Cliff Lee gets traded, because this series drove the final nail into the Mariners' season. Though it didn't feature quite the monumental collapses as the watershed series at Comiskey did, this series has nearly the same impact because it erases all doubt and puts in perspective the week or so stretch of baseball where the Mariners kinda didn't look awful. In this series, they probably should have won all three games, but they came up empty. When you suck, it's one thing. When you're hanging in there but ultimately getting the same final result as when you sucked, that's quite another. Staying close in games for seven innings and losing by only one run doesn't get you a participation ribbon or anything.
-- the starting pitching will be discussed in the gameballs
-- the bullpen...Brian Sweeney was the first man out of the bullpen, and he gave up a leadoff double to Yuniesky Betancourt. Sweeney got a break when Chris Getz bunted but the ball bounced and hit him after he'd left the batters box, making it a batter's interference play and an out. Scott Podsednik moved Betancourt to third with a flyout, and a wild pitch scored Betancourt to cut the Mariners' lead to 3-2 before Sweeney got Kendall to fly out, ending the inning. Garrett Olson entered the eighth inning with the bases freshly cleared and the Mariners down 5-3. He got Wilson Betemit swinging for the first out of the inning before Mitch Maier clubbed a homer on a 2-2 pitch to put the Royals up 6-3. Betancourt doubled before Olson set down the final two hitters to end the inning. Chad Cordero threw the ninth. He got the first two Royals out before Billy Butler joined the home run parade to make it 7-3. Callaspo reached on a bad throw by Josh Wilson, but Betemit was caught looking to end the inning.
-- the bullpen rest bulletin: Sweeney, League, Olson, and Cordero threw in this game. Going into Thursday's game, Sean White and David Pauley will have a day of rest and David Aardsma will have two days of rest.
-- there was offense in this game for the Mariners, and thy name was Casey Kotchman. His solo shot in the third accounted for one Mariner run, and his two-run shot in the sixth accounted for the other two Mariner runs. Those two homers also accounted for two of the six total Mariner hits as well. The Mariners drew six walks, so they weren't completely without other baserunners.
-- the Mariners' biggest and most pivotal blown chance came in the seventh. With one out and a man on first (and the Mariners down 3-2), Ichiro grounded to short, but Betancourt messed up the double play by throwing wide of short and into rightfield, and Josh Wilson moved to third base. Chone Figgins then grounded out on the first freakin' pitch before Russell Branyan was intentionally walked to load the bases. Jose Lopez then grounded into on a 5-4 fielder's choice, which wasn't the first time in the game he'd ended a threatening inning. In the third, Ichiro legged out an infield single with one out. Figgins walked and Russell Branyan singled to load the bases. Lopez then broke his bat on a grounder back to the mound, which went for a 1-2-3 inning-ending double play. Ouch.
-- Ichiro went 1-for-5 in the game, pushing him to 112-for-346 (.324) on the season. He is now on pace to finish the win with 216 hits.
-- now, the Ichiro/Figgins stat. Ichiro got a hit and didn't score, while Figgins didn't score or get a hit. The Mariners remain 11-6 when both players score and 16-25 when both collect hits.
Gameballs
1) Casey Kotchman
Holy hell, what's gotten into this guy? He asked Don Wakamatsu for some playing time, and now Kotchman has raised his season from the dead. I didn't see Kotchman bouncing back like this -- definitely not with the power that he's shown lately. I would have expected maybe two singles, not two home runs that accounted for all the Mariners' scoring in the game. Obviously it's time to dispel the myth that the Mariners are a bunch of on-base guys that do situational hitting and move runners over and stuff. It's obvious they just sit back and wait for the long ball. Haha. They'd be even more screwed if this were actually the case. In his last five games, Kotchman has gone 9-for-18 with three home runs, six RBIs, and four walks. The five-game stretch has sent his numbetrs skyrocketing -- he's gone from .187 to a .215 batting average, a .267 to a .297 on-base percentage, and a .289 to a .356 slugging percentage. I guess what's unfortunate for Kotchman is that the All-Star break is coming up just in time to flag his momentum. Well, that and facing Yankee pitching the next four nights.
2) Doug Fister
To be honest, there weren't a lot of selectable players for the gameball on this night. This was Fister's third start coming back off the disabled list. He was all over the place with his control, but still only walked two and got through six innings, giving up six hits and no home runs despite leaving the ball up in the zone quite a lot. He gave up his only run in the first inning by walking Jason Kendall, who then went to third on a David DeJesus single and scored on a Billy Butler sacrifice fly. Fister then faced five batters each in the second and third innings before retiring nine of the final ten batters he faced. If you only had seen Fister's body of work since returning from the DL, you'd probably a pitcher like that would never lead the American League in ERA, but somehow he got there before he went on the disabled list. Hopefully he can get back to such crazy heights, though I'm not banking on it. Maybe this just means Jason Vargas is going to have a crazy-good stretch.
3) Russell Branyan
Again, the bar wasn't very high for gameballs. Branyan got a hit and drew a walk. In nine games with the Mariners, Branyan has gone 9-for-32 with three homers and nine RBIs. He's drawn three walks and struck out 12 times. I like power in my offense, and he's provided that in his thus-far short second tenure as a Mariner. In a way, it's too bad it took trading for Branyan again to light a fire under the arse of Kotchman, but whatever works. Ever wonder what happens to the Mariners during the first two months of the season if Figgins and Kotchman hit just .250 over that span? I wonder just how much less screwed this team would be right now. They wouldn't be a .500 team by any means, but could they be less than 10 games under .500? Well, that would be admitting that having those two guys hit with mediocrity would make the team seven games better. That's kind of a quantum leap. Anyway, hooray for moon shots.
Goat
Brandon League
I'm actually not so sure this was his worst game of the year. It was pretty close. He walked the first two hitters he faced, then Alberto Callaspo was up there to bunt but ultimately couldn't. He fouled the 3-1 pitch into the catcher's glove and the Royals took off the bunt with two strikes on the hitter. Callaspo then went yard, putting the Royals into a 5-3 lead. League was then pulled, and as his game ended, the game had ended as well. It was pretty much pointless for the game to keep going. Luckily this is when my internet connection got slogged, so I missed out on most of the remainder of the game, including the Ichiro replay review. At that point, though, the game was a foregone conclusion, so I wasn't too worried. It's weird -- every time I think this team is becoming watchable again, they put out a stretch like this. As for League, though, I guess it's bad that he's been pretty involved in the two most pivotal stretches of games for the Mariners this season, the series in Comiskey and the series we just saw.
Pettitte. Vargas. Tonight.
[posted in full ~9:25p...haha]
There's your dagger, folks. Now there can be no doubt that Cliff Lee gets traded, because this series drove the final nail into the Mariners' season. Though it didn't feature quite the monumental collapses as the watershed series at Comiskey did, this series has nearly the same impact because it erases all doubt and puts in perspective the week or so stretch of baseball where the Mariners kinda didn't look awful. In this series, they probably should have won all three games, but they came up empty. When you suck, it's one thing. When you're hanging in there but ultimately getting the same final result as when you sucked, that's quite another. Staying close in games for seven innings and losing by only one run doesn't get you a participation ribbon or anything.
-- the starting pitching will be discussed in the gameballs
-- the bullpen...Brian Sweeney was the first man out of the bullpen, and he gave up a leadoff double to Yuniesky Betancourt. Sweeney got a break when Chris Getz bunted but the ball bounced and hit him after he'd left the batters box, making it a batter's interference play and an out. Scott Podsednik moved Betancourt to third with a flyout, and a wild pitch scored Betancourt to cut the Mariners' lead to 3-2 before Sweeney got Kendall to fly out, ending the inning. Garrett Olson entered the eighth inning with the bases freshly cleared and the Mariners down 5-3. He got Wilson Betemit swinging for the first out of the inning before Mitch Maier clubbed a homer on a 2-2 pitch to put the Royals up 6-3. Betancourt doubled before Olson set down the final two hitters to end the inning. Chad Cordero threw the ninth. He got the first two Royals out before Billy Butler joined the home run parade to make it 7-3. Callaspo reached on a bad throw by Josh Wilson, but Betemit was caught looking to end the inning.
-- the bullpen rest bulletin: Sweeney, League, Olson, and Cordero threw in this game. Going into Thursday's game, Sean White and David Pauley will have a day of rest and David Aardsma will have two days of rest.
-- there was offense in this game for the Mariners, and thy name was Casey Kotchman. His solo shot in the third accounted for one Mariner run, and his two-run shot in the sixth accounted for the other two Mariner runs. Those two homers also accounted for two of the six total Mariner hits as well. The Mariners drew six walks, so they weren't completely without other baserunners.
-- the Mariners' biggest and most pivotal blown chance came in the seventh. With one out and a man on first (and the Mariners down 3-2), Ichiro grounded to short, but Betancourt messed up the double play by throwing wide of short and into rightfield, and Josh Wilson moved to third base. Chone Figgins then grounded out on the first freakin' pitch before Russell Branyan was intentionally walked to load the bases. Jose Lopez then grounded into on a 5-4 fielder's choice, which wasn't the first time in the game he'd ended a threatening inning. In the third, Ichiro legged out an infield single with one out. Figgins walked and Russell Branyan singled to load the bases. Lopez then broke his bat on a grounder back to the mound, which went for a 1-2-3 inning-ending double play. Ouch.
-- Ichiro went 1-for-5 in the game, pushing him to 112-for-346 (.324) on the season. He is now on pace to finish the win with 216 hits.
-- now, the Ichiro/Figgins stat. Ichiro got a hit and didn't score, while Figgins didn't score or get a hit. The Mariners remain 11-6 when both players score and 16-25 when both collect hits.
Gameballs
1) Casey Kotchman
Holy hell, what's gotten into this guy? He asked Don Wakamatsu for some playing time, and now Kotchman has raised his season from the dead. I didn't see Kotchman bouncing back like this -- definitely not with the power that he's shown lately. I would have expected maybe two singles, not two home runs that accounted for all the Mariners' scoring in the game. Obviously it's time to dispel the myth that the Mariners are a bunch of on-base guys that do situational hitting and move runners over and stuff. It's obvious they just sit back and wait for the long ball. Haha. They'd be even more screwed if this were actually the case. In his last five games, Kotchman has gone 9-for-18 with three home runs, six RBIs, and four walks. The five-game stretch has sent his numbetrs skyrocketing -- he's gone from .187 to a .215 batting average, a .267 to a .297 on-base percentage, and a .289 to a .356 slugging percentage. I guess what's unfortunate for Kotchman is that the All-Star break is coming up just in time to flag his momentum. Well, that and facing Yankee pitching the next four nights.
2) Doug Fister
To be honest, there weren't a lot of selectable players for the gameball on this night. This was Fister's third start coming back off the disabled list. He was all over the place with his control, but still only walked two and got through six innings, giving up six hits and no home runs despite leaving the ball up in the zone quite a lot. He gave up his only run in the first inning by walking Jason Kendall, who then went to third on a David DeJesus single and scored on a Billy Butler sacrifice fly. Fister then faced five batters each in the second and third innings before retiring nine of the final ten batters he faced. If you only had seen Fister's body of work since returning from the DL, you'd probably a pitcher like that would never lead the American League in ERA, but somehow he got there before he went on the disabled list. Hopefully he can get back to such crazy heights, though I'm not banking on it. Maybe this just means Jason Vargas is going to have a crazy-good stretch.
3) Russell Branyan
Again, the bar wasn't very high for gameballs. Branyan got a hit and drew a walk. In nine games with the Mariners, Branyan has gone 9-for-32 with three homers and nine RBIs. He's drawn three walks and struck out 12 times. I like power in my offense, and he's provided that in his thus-far short second tenure as a Mariner. In a way, it's too bad it took trading for Branyan again to light a fire under the arse of Kotchman, but whatever works. Ever wonder what happens to the Mariners during the first two months of the season if Figgins and Kotchman hit just .250 over that span? I wonder just how much less screwed this team would be right now. They wouldn't be a .500 team by any means, but could they be less than 10 games under .500? Well, that would be admitting that having those two guys hit with mediocrity would make the team seven games better. That's kind of a quantum leap. Anyway, hooray for moon shots.
Goat
Brandon League
I'm actually not so sure this was his worst game of the year. It was pretty close. He walked the first two hitters he faced, then Alberto Callaspo was up there to bunt but ultimately couldn't. He fouled the 3-1 pitch into the catcher's glove and the Royals took off the bunt with two strikes on the hitter. Callaspo then went yard, putting the Royals into a 5-3 lead. League was then pulled, and as his game ended, the game had ended as well. It was pretty much pointless for the game to keep going. Luckily this is when my internet connection got slogged, so I missed out on most of the remainder of the game, including the Ichiro replay review. At that point, though, the game was a foregone conclusion, so I wasn't too worried. It's weird -- every time I think this team is becoming watchable again, they put out a stretch like this. As for League, though, I guess it's bad that he's been pretty involved in the two most pivotal stretches of games for the Mariners this season, the series in Comiskey and the series we just saw.
Pettitte. Vargas. Tonight.
/ Click for main page
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
GAME 83: ROYALS 3, MARINERS 2
[box]
[posted in full ~7:22p, i.e., middle of the first. Guilty as charged, but it's harder to do this from the Monutain Time Zone.]
Come on. Did anyone expect a Mariner win out of a game where the Mariners are throwing Ryan Rowland-Smith up against Zack Greinke? Come on. Sure, Greinke hasn't resembled 2010 Greinke this season, but you could say the same for Ryan Rowland-Smith. Then the first Mariner out of the bullpen is Sean White? That's not exactly a recipe for winning. When was the last time anyone felt comfortable with Sean White on the mound? Needless to say, White doesn't always get the benefit of Jose Guillen coming up lame trying to beat out a double play. Anyway, this was a night where the starting pitching showed up, but the offense (and the bullpen to a lesser extent) did not.
-- the starting pitching will be discussed in the gameballs
-- the first man out of the bullpen will be discussed at the far end of the post. David Pauley threw the ninth inning and got through it without incident.
-- now, the offense. In the third, Michael Saunders legged out an infield single, then went to second on a bad throw by Mike Aviles. Saunders went to third on a groundout, then scored on a Jack Wilson suicide squeeze bunt to put the Mariners ahead 1-0. In the eighth, Jack got aboard with an infield single, then got to second when Ichiro drilled a single into rightfield. Jack stole third and scored when Chone Figgins hit a deep-enough fly ball to cut the Royals' lead to 3-2. That was it. That was the offense.
-- now, the blown offensive chances. In the first six innings, only in the third inning did the Mariners have a runner reach base with less than two outs. In the seventh, Jose Lopez singled with one out and went to second on a walk one out later, but that's where he stayed. In the eighth, with one run in, the Mariners had Ichiro on first with two out when Russell Branyan hit a double down the rightfield line that was immediately picked up by some late-teenage or early-20s dude who was totally ejected as a result. I'll stop well short of saying that cost the Mariners a tie game, but it still sucks. In the ninth, Casey Kotchman singled the other way with one out before Saunders and pinch hitter Ryan Langerhans both whiffed.
-- Ichiro's eighth inning hit kept his hitting streak going, and said streak is now at eight games. He went 1-for-4 in the game, pushing him to 111-for-341 (.326) on the season. He is on pace to fnish the season with 217 hits.
-- now, the Ichiro/Figgins stat. Ichiro got a hit, but Figgins didn't. Neither player scored. The Mariners remain 11-6 when both players score and 16-25 when both collect hits.
Gameballs
1) Ryan Rowland-Smith
Given how he's progressed over his last few starts, I don't think anyone could have expected much more out of the Aussie. Ryan Rowland-Smith allowed a leadoff single to David DeJesus in the eighth and was yanked with the Mariners behind 2-1. With how it's gone this year for Rowland-Smith, having him pitch into the eighth is a huge victory unto itself, though of course that doesn't necessarily translate into a W in the boxscore (definitely not with this team). He's thrown into the sixth inning or later in each of his last four starts and given up a total of ten runs over that span, though five were in one game. Still, that makes the three other starts look good. His average starting line this season: 5 1/3 innings, 3.9 runs (3.4 earned), 6.2 hits, 2.3 walks, 2 strikeouts, 88 pitches (55 strikes), 6 groundouts, 7.3 flyouts.
2) Jack Wilson
Luckily his stolen base (third) in the eighth inning turned out well since he came home on the sacrifice fly. If he'd been thrown out on that play, he'd have been raked over the coals for trying to take third base despite the fact that he wasn't the tying run at all, and Ichiro at first base was the guy that mattered. Anyway, Jack's suicide squeeze in the third inning gave the Mariners the early 1-0 lead. He also legged out the infield single that put him on base in the eighth inning. He ended up scoring the Mariners' 3-2 run. Jack Wilson sits with a .254 batting average, which is better than I thought he would be. Maybe he won't be so bad at the plate after all. It'd be good to get some return on investment from Jack since the Mariners have been playing with house money when it comes to Josh Wilson, who finally cooled down as of late.
3) Michael Saunders
The Mariners' young leftfielder went 1-for-3 in the game and drew a walk. He scored one of the two Mariner runs. He struck out twice, but saw 22 pitches over the course of his plate appearances, second to only Chone Figgins (24) in this game. Saunders' numbers are a bit hilarious. He's hitting .216, which is bad. His on-base percentage is .285, which is still better than that of Jose Lopez. His slugging percentage is .432, which is worse than only Russell Branyan out of everyone that appeared in the batters box wearing a Mariner uniform in the game. I'm wondering what to reasonably expect out of Saunders for the rest of the season. I'm of course hoping for 20 more homers and for him to hit .300. Haha. Yeah, it's not going to happen.
Goat
Sean White
Yeah, I'm tired of him. I have no confidence when this guy goes out there. I didn't mind bringing up Garrett Olson on the day in question, but White? I don't know. One of Jesus Colome and Kanekoa Texeira should be on this team right now, and it's probably Texeira. Why couldn't the Mariners have sent Sean White away to the Mets instead of Sean Green? I'd love to have his groundball friendliness in the bullpen. Don't get me wrong -- I'm not naive enough to believe that this year's bullpen was going to be anywhere good as it was last year, but I think getting Sean White off the 25-man roster is the easiest move for the Mariners to make right now.
Davies. Fister. Tonight.
[posted in full ~7:22p, i.e., middle of the first. Guilty as charged, but it's harder to do this from the Monutain Time Zone.]
Come on. Did anyone expect a Mariner win out of a game where the Mariners are throwing Ryan Rowland-Smith up against Zack Greinke? Come on. Sure, Greinke hasn't resembled 2010 Greinke this season, but you could say the same for Ryan Rowland-Smith. Then the first Mariner out of the bullpen is Sean White? That's not exactly a recipe for winning. When was the last time anyone felt comfortable with Sean White on the mound? Needless to say, White doesn't always get the benefit of Jose Guillen coming up lame trying to beat out a double play. Anyway, this was a night where the starting pitching showed up, but the offense (and the bullpen to a lesser extent) did not.
-- the starting pitching will be discussed in the gameballs
-- the first man out of the bullpen will be discussed at the far end of the post. David Pauley threw the ninth inning and got through it without incident.
-- now, the offense. In the third, Michael Saunders legged out an infield single, then went to second on a bad throw by Mike Aviles. Saunders went to third on a groundout, then scored on a Jack Wilson suicide squeeze bunt to put the Mariners ahead 1-0. In the eighth, Jack got aboard with an infield single, then got to second when Ichiro drilled a single into rightfield. Jack stole third and scored when Chone Figgins hit a deep-enough fly ball to cut the Royals' lead to 3-2. That was it. That was the offense.
-- now, the blown offensive chances. In the first six innings, only in the third inning did the Mariners have a runner reach base with less than two outs. In the seventh, Jose Lopez singled with one out and went to second on a walk one out later, but that's where he stayed. In the eighth, with one run in, the Mariners had Ichiro on first with two out when Russell Branyan hit a double down the rightfield line that was immediately picked up by some late-teenage or early-20s dude who was totally ejected as a result. I'll stop well short of saying that cost the Mariners a tie game, but it still sucks. In the ninth, Casey Kotchman singled the other way with one out before Saunders and pinch hitter Ryan Langerhans both whiffed.
-- Ichiro's eighth inning hit kept his hitting streak going, and said streak is now at eight games. He went 1-for-4 in the game, pushing him to 111-for-341 (.326) on the season. He is on pace to fnish the season with 217 hits.
-- now, the Ichiro/Figgins stat. Ichiro got a hit, but Figgins didn't. Neither player scored. The Mariners remain 11-6 when both players score and 16-25 when both collect hits.
Gameballs
1) Ryan Rowland-Smith
Given how he's progressed over his last few starts, I don't think anyone could have expected much more out of the Aussie. Ryan Rowland-Smith allowed a leadoff single to David DeJesus in the eighth and was yanked with the Mariners behind 2-1. With how it's gone this year for Rowland-Smith, having him pitch into the eighth is a huge victory unto itself, though of course that doesn't necessarily translate into a W in the boxscore (definitely not with this team). He's thrown into the sixth inning or later in each of his last four starts and given up a total of ten runs over that span, though five were in one game. Still, that makes the three other starts look good. His average starting line this season: 5 1/3 innings, 3.9 runs (3.4 earned), 6.2 hits, 2.3 walks, 2 strikeouts, 88 pitches (55 strikes), 6 groundouts, 7.3 flyouts.
2) Jack Wilson
Luckily his stolen base (third) in the eighth inning turned out well since he came home on the sacrifice fly. If he'd been thrown out on that play, he'd have been raked over the coals for trying to take third base despite the fact that he wasn't the tying run at all, and Ichiro at first base was the guy that mattered. Anyway, Jack's suicide squeeze in the third inning gave the Mariners the early 1-0 lead. He also legged out the infield single that put him on base in the eighth inning. He ended up scoring the Mariners' 3-2 run. Jack Wilson sits with a .254 batting average, which is better than I thought he would be. Maybe he won't be so bad at the plate after all. It'd be good to get some return on investment from Jack since the Mariners have been playing with house money when it comes to Josh Wilson, who finally cooled down as of late.
3) Michael Saunders
The Mariners' young leftfielder went 1-for-3 in the game and drew a walk. He scored one of the two Mariner runs. He struck out twice, but saw 22 pitches over the course of his plate appearances, second to only Chone Figgins (24) in this game. Saunders' numbers are a bit hilarious. He's hitting .216, which is bad. His on-base percentage is .285, which is still better than that of Jose Lopez. His slugging percentage is .432, which is worse than only Russell Branyan out of everyone that appeared in the batters box wearing a Mariner uniform in the game. I'm wondering what to reasonably expect out of Saunders for the rest of the season. I'm of course hoping for 20 more homers and for him to hit .300. Haha. Yeah, it's not going to happen.
Goat
Sean White
Yeah, I'm tired of him. I have no confidence when this guy goes out there. I didn't mind bringing up Garrett Olson on the day in question, but White? I don't know. One of Jesus Colome and Kanekoa Texeira should be on this team right now, and it's probably Texeira. Why couldn't the Mariners have sent Sean White away to the Mets instead of Sean Green? I'd love to have his groundball friendliness in the bullpen. Don't get me wrong -- I'm not naive enough to believe that this year's bullpen was going to be anywhere good as it was last year, but I think getting Sean White off the 25-man roster is the easiest move for the Mariners to make right now.
Davies. Fister. Tonight.
/ Click for main page
GAME 83: ROYALS 3, MARINERS 2
[box]
[post will probably be finished before the Wednesday game]
Come on. Did anyone expect a Mariner win out of a game where the Mariners are throwing Ryan Rowland-Smith up against Zack Greinke? Come on. Sure, Greinke hasn't resembled 2010 Greinke this season, but you could say the same for Ryan Rowland-Smith. Then the first Mariner out of the bullpen is Sean White? That's not exactly a recipe for winning. When was the last time anyone felt comfortable with Sean White on the mound? Needless to say, White doesn't always get the benefit of Jose Guillen coming up lame trying to beat out a double play. Anyway, this was a night where the starting pitching showed up, but the offense (and the bullpen to a lesser extent) did not.
-- the starting pitching will be discussed in the gameballs
-- the first man out of the bullpen will be discussed at the far end of the post. David Pauley threw the ninth inning and got through it without incident.
-- now, the offense. In the third, Michael Saunders legged out an infield single, then went to second on a bad throw by Mike Aviles. Saunders went to third on a groundout, then scored on a Jack Wilson suicide squeeze bunt to put the Mariners ahead 1-0. In the eighth, Jack got aboard with an infield single, then got to second when Ichiro drilled a single into rightfield. Jack stole third and scored when Chone Figgins hit a deep-enough fly ball to cut the Royals' lead to 3-2. That was it. That was the offense.
-- now, the blown offensive chances. In the first six innings, only in the third inning did the Mariners have a runner reach base with less than two outs. In the seventh, Jose Lopez singled with one out and went to second on a walk one out later, but that's where he stayed. In the eighth, with one run in, the Mariners had Ichiro on first with two out when Russell Branyan hit a double down the rightfield line that was immediately picked up by some late-teenage or early-20s dude who was totally ejected as a result. I'll stop well short of saying that cost the Mariners a tie game, but it still sucks. In the ninth, Casey Kotchman singled the other way with one out before Saunders and pinch hitter Ryan Langerhans both whiffed.
-- Ichiro's eighth inning hit kept his hitting streak going, and said streak is now at eight games. He went 1-for-4 in the game, pushing him to 111-for-341 (.326) on the season. He is on pace to fnish the season with 217 hits.
-- now, the Ichiro/Figgins stat. Ichiro got a hit, but Figgins didn't. Neither player scored. The Mariners remain 11-6 when both players score and 16-25 when both collect hits.
Gameballs
1) Ryan Rowland-Smith
2) Jack Wilson
3) Michael Saunders
Goat
Sean White
Davies. Fister. Tonight.
[post will probably be finished before the Wednesday game]
Come on. Did anyone expect a Mariner win out of a game where the Mariners are throwing Ryan Rowland-Smith up against Zack Greinke? Come on. Sure, Greinke hasn't resembled 2010 Greinke this season, but you could say the same for Ryan Rowland-Smith. Then the first Mariner out of the bullpen is Sean White? That's not exactly a recipe for winning. When was the last time anyone felt comfortable with Sean White on the mound? Needless to say, White doesn't always get the benefit of Jose Guillen coming up lame trying to beat out a double play. Anyway, this was a night where the starting pitching showed up, but the offense (and the bullpen to a lesser extent) did not.
-- the starting pitching will be discussed in the gameballs
-- the first man out of the bullpen will be discussed at the far end of the post. David Pauley threw the ninth inning and got through it without incident.
-- now, the offense. In the third, Michael Saunders legged out an infield single, then went to second on a bad throw by Mike Aviles. Saunders went to third on a groundout, then scored on a Jack Wilson suicide squeeze bunt to put the Mariners ahead 1-0. In the eighth, Jack got aboard with an infield single, then got to second when Ichiro drilled a single into rightfield. Jack stole third and scored when Chone Figgins hit a deep-enough fly ball to cut the Royals' lead to 3-2. That was it. That was the offense.
-- now, the blown offensive chances. In the first six innings, only in the third inning did the Mariners have a runner reach base with less than two outs. In the seventh, Jose Lopez singled with one out and went to second on a walk one out later, but that's where he stayed. In the eighth, with one run in, the Mariners had Ichiro on first with two out when Russell Branyan hit a double down the rightfield line that was immediately picked up by some late-teenage or early-20s dude who was totally ejected as a result. I'll stop well short of saying that cost the Mariners a tie game, but it still sucks. In the ninth, Casey Kotchman singled the other way with one out before Saunders and pinch hitter Ryan Langerhans both whiffed.
-- Ichiro's eighth inning hit kept his hitting streak going, and said streak is now at eight games. He went 1-for-4 in the game, pushing him to 111-for-341 (.326) on the season. He is on pace to fnish the season with 217 hits.
-- now, the Ichiro/Figgins stat. Ichiro got a hit, but Figgins didn't. Neither player scored. The Mariners remain 11-6 when both players score and 16-25 when both collect hits.
Gameballs
1) Ryan Rowland-Smith
2) Jack Wilson
3) Michael Saunders
Goat
Sean White
Davies. Fister. Tonight.
/ Click for main page
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
GAME 82: ROYALS 6, MARINERS 4 (10 INNINGS)
box]
Well, now the season seems to be repeating itself in more of a microcosmic fashion. Other than the Cliff Lee game on Sunday, the other two games in Detroit echoed the Mariners from earlier in the season. You know, the team with either anomalously bad starting pitching or anomalously bad hitting or both, then sometimes the bullpen would chip in and implode. Though there was some unclutch hitting for the Mariners, there was also an implosion for Brandon League, though he was probably due for one. That doesn't make it any less frustrating, especially since it screwed Felix Hernandez out of a win. The team continued its extra-inning futility, now running their record in such games to 1-8. Also, I never hated Yuniesky Betancourt when he was a Mariner. I didn't like how the new management benched him instead of just realizing what he does and keeping him in the lineup because I still don't think there was a better alternative on offense at the time. Anyway, Betancourt drove in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning.
-- the starting pitching will be discussed toward the end of the post, as will the first man out of the bullpen
-- Garrett Olson was the second man out of the bullpen. He came in with the game tied at 4-4 and with two runners on and one out and the game tied at 4-4. He got a flyout from Mike Aviles, then walked Mitch Maier to load the bases. Brian Sweeney then was summoned, and he got Yuniesky Betancourt to bounce into a fielder's choice to end the inning. David Aardsma came in for the ninth, trying to hold a 4-4 tie. Scott Podsednik bunted into no-man's-land between the mound and the first-base line, good for a single. Jason Kendall then bunted Podsednik over to second. Aardsma got a big whiff from David DeJesus. Billy Butler was intentionally walked, then Aardsma got Jose Guillen to line out to Ichiro to end the inning. Chad Cordero came in for the tenth. He walked Alberto Callaspo to lead off, but he was caught stealing second. Aviles then grounded out to short. It was all downhill from there. Maier then mashed a ball that got over Ichiro in rightcenter for a triple. Betancourt then singled Maier home on an 0-2 pitch to break the tie and put the Royals into a 5-4 lead. A wild pitch (Josh Bard...Rob Johnson was lifted for a pinch hitter) sent Betancourt to second, and Podsednik singled Betancourt home for the insurance run to make it 6-4. Podsednik was caught stealing second to end the inning.
-- the bullpen rest bulletin: League, Olson, Sweeney, Aardsma, and Cordero threw in this game. Going into Tuesday night's game, David Pauley will have two days of rest and Sean White will have three days of rest.
-- as for the offense, you'd like to hope four runs for this pitching-centric team is enough to win a game, and it should have been. In the first, Ichiro got aboard with an infield single and went to second when Brian Bannister made a bad throw trying to pick him off at first. One out later, Jose Lopez doubled Ichiro home to put the Mariners up 1-0. In the fifth, Michael Saunders led off with a double and went to third on an Ichiro groundout. Chone Figgins then singled the other way into left to score Saunders and give the Mariners a 2-1 lead. Figgins then came home on a Russell Branyan homer into the first couple rows in right to put the Mariners into a 4-1 lead. This should have been enough.
-- oh, was there a big blown chance. With the game tied at 4-4, Branyan walked to lead off the eighth. Lopez then bounced a ball over the wall in right for a double to move Branyan to third. Then the floodgates of futility opened. Franklin Gutierrez whiffed on a 1-2 pitch. Casey Kotchman was intentionally walked to load the bases and set up the double play. Milton Bradley came in to hit for Rob Johnson, but whiffed on a 2-2 pitch. Jack Wilson ended the inning by popping out weakly to Betancourt at short. In the tenth with the Mariners down 6-4, Lopez walked with one out and went to second on a two-out single by Kotchman. Bard whiffed to end the game.
-- Ichiro went 1-for-5 in the game, pushing him to 110-for-337 (.326) on the season. He is on pace to finish the season with 217 hits. He extended his hitting streak to seven games, but only Ichiro can have a hitting streak like this and lose points on his batting average. He's gone 8-for-31 during the streak to drop his average from .333 to .326.
-- now, the Ichiro/Figgins stat. Incredibly, they scored a run apiece and got one hit apiece. The Mariners are now 11-6 when both players score and 16-25 when both collect hits.
Gameballs
1) Felix Hernandez
He got royally screwed out of a win. He threw his least efficient game (in terms of pitches per inning) since in about a month, and that was in his last bad start where he gave up seven runs. Still, we've known for quite a while that Felix doesn't have to have his A-game to give this team a chance to win. He threw a first-pitch strike to only 11 of the 28 batters he faced, which probably didn't help in his pursuit to get into the ninth inning for his fifth straight game. In the fourth, a leadoff single by DeJesus and a one-out single by Guillen set the stage for Callaspo's sacrifice fly that tied the game at 1-1. In the sixth, Felix walked DeJesus with one out, then Butler doubled him home to cut the Mariners' lead to 4-2. That was all the Royals put on the board against Felix. He's thrown 42 2/3 innings over his last five starts. He and Cliff Lee have been saving this bullpen every time through the rotation over this last month, but it's a shame that the one time Felix needs the bullpen to pick him up, they let him down.
2) Jose Lopez
He doubled twice and drove in a run. The RBI came in the first inning, when Ichiro scored to give the Mariners the early 1-0 lead. He also hit the double in the eighth that put two runners in scoring position and set up what should have been the Mariners' go-ahead rally on the way to a victory. In his last three games, Lopez has gone 5-for-13 with three doubles, a walk, and two RBIs. This has bumped his batting average from .240 to .245, his on-base percentage from .271 to .277, and his slugging percentage from .329 to .340. Obviously, none of his numbers are good enough yet, and they probably never will be this year. Still, the Phillies are desperate to plug some of the holes left by injury, and I have to say I'm all for Lopez getting traded away, provided Jack Zduriencik seriously goes after some power hitting in the offseason. I don't think Lopez has completely lost his power as I think he'll get hot for a couple of weeks, but I just don't know when. Too bad it couldn't be in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline, so as to increase his value.
3) Russell Branyan
Another home run. I'll be damned. He's only been a Mariner for seven games, but the three homers have been fun. He's gone 7-for-24 and driven in nine runs, meaning he's averaging just over an RBI per game. The offense has badly needed something like that for a long time. Granted, he won't keep up that pace or he'd driven in 90 runs between now and the end of the season, and there are a billion factors or so which would work against such a feat taking place. It's weird since I like having him on the team, but I know that playing time could be going toward some young'uns in what really is a lost season. Still, I just think it's nice to be able to sit back and watch a game and know someone on the Mariners actually has a legitimate chance of hitting a homer every time he steps to the plate. The Mariners have needed the mere possibility of a sudden offensive jolt for most of the season, and now they have it, but it's too late, and that's too bad. We've believed big, but we've seen little out of this team.
Goat
Brandon League
I'm definitely not going to make excuses for this guy, but I think he was probably due for an outing like this. He came into the eighth with a 4-2 lead. Kendall and DeJesus started the inning with consecutive singles. Butler hit a deep fly ball to right, far enough to score Kendall and make it 4-3. Guillen then singled to move DeJesus to third. Callaspo then singled to score DeJesus and put Guillen on second, tying the score at 4-4. That's a big relief outing fail. His line looks like two runs on four hits in a third of an inning. League had gone eight outings without giving up an earned run. That run lasted about three weeks. He had some bad moments early in the season, and he definitely had one here, but I've grown to trust League a lot more as the season has worn on. Would I rather have Brandon Morrow walking a bunch of guys and throwing over 100 pitches in less than six innings? Well, I'd need the trade assets to have looked better for both sides, but League is one of the higher-echelon arms in the bullpen, especially with Mark Lowe gone.
Greinke. Rowland-Smith. Tonight.
Well, now the season seems to be repeating itself in more of a microcosmic fashion. Other than the Cliff Lee game on Sunday, the other two games in Detroit echoed the Mariners from earlier in the season. You know, the team with either anomalously bad starting pitching or anomalously bad hitting or both, then sometimes the bullpen would chip in and implode. Though there was some unclutch hitting for the Mariners, there was also an implosion for Brandon League, though he was probably due for one. That doesn't make it any less frustrating, especially since it screwed Felix Hernandez out of a win. The team continued its extra-inning futility, now running their record in such games to 1-8. Also, I never hated Yuniesky Betancourt when he was a Mariner. I didn't like how the new management benched him instead of just realizing what he does and keeping him in the lineup because I still don't think there was a better alternative on offense at the time. Anyway, Betancourt drove in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning.
-- the starting pitching will be discussed toward the end of the post, as will the first man out of the bullpen
-- Garrett Olson was the second man out of the bullpen. He came in with the game tied at 4-4 and with two runners on and one out and the game tied at 4-4. He got a flyout from Mike Aviles, then walked Mitch Maier to load the bases. Brian Sweeney then was summoned, and he got Yuniesky Betancourt to bounce into a fielder's choice to end the inning. David Aardsma came in for the ninth, trying to hold a 4-4 tie. Scott Podsednik bunted into no-man's-land between the mound and the first-base line, good for a single. Jason Kendall then bunted Podsednik over to second. Aardsma got a big whiff from David DeJesus. Billy Butler was intentionally walked, then Aardsma got Jose Guillen to line out to Ichiro to end the inning. Chad Cordero came in for the tenth. He walked Alberto Callaspo to lead off, but he was caught stealing second. Aviles then grounded out to short. It was all downhill from there. Maier then mashed a ball that got over Ichiro in rightcenter for a triple. Betancourt then singled Maier home on an 0-2 pitch to break the tie and put the Royals into a 5-4 lead. A wild pitch (Josh Bard...Rob Johnson was lifted for a pinch hitter) sent Betancourt to second, and Podsednik singled Betancourt home for the insurance run to make it 6-4. Podsednik was caught stealing second to end the inning.
-- the bullpen rest bulletin: League, Olson, Sweeney, Aardsma, and Cordero threw in this game. Going into Tuesday night's game, David Pauley will have two days of rest and Sean White will have three days of rest.
-- as for the offense, you'd like to hope four runs for this pitching-centric team is enough to win a game, and it should have been. In the first, Ichiro got aboard with an infield single and went to second when Brian Bannister made a bad throw trying to pick him off at first. One out later, Jose Lopez doubled Ichiro home to put the Mariners up 1-0. In the fifth, Michael Saunders led off with a double and went to third on an Ichiro groundout. Chone Figgins then singled the other way into left to score Saunders and give the Mariners a 2-1 lead. Figgins then came home on a Russell Branyan homer into the first couple rows in right to put the Mariners into a 4-1 lead. This should have been enough.
-- oh, was there a big blown chance. With the game tied at 4-4, Branyan walked to lead off the eighth. Lopez then bounced a ball over the wall in right for a double to move Branyan to third. Then the floodgates of futility opened. Franklin Gutierrez whiffed on a 1-2 pitch. Casey Kotchman was intentionally walked to load the bases and set up the double play. Milton Bradley came in to hit for Rob Johnson, but whiffed on a 2-2 pitch. Jack Wilson ended the inning by popping out weakly to Betancourt at short. In the tenth with the Mariners down 6-4, Lopez walked with one out and went to second on a two-out single by Kotchman. Bard whiffed to end the game.
-- Ichiro went 1-for-5 in the game, pushing him to 110-for-337 (.326) on the season. He is on pace to finish the season with 217 hits. He extended his hitting streak to seven games, but only Ichiro can have a hitting streak like this and lose points on his batting average. He's gone 8-for-31 during the streak to drop his average from .333 to .326.
-- now, the Ichiro/Figgins stat. Incredibly, they scored a run apiece and got one hit apiece. The Mariners are now 11-6 when both players score and 16-25 when both collect hits.
Gameballs
1) Felix Hernandez
He got royally screwed out of a win. He threw his least efficient game (in terms of pitches per inning) since in about a month, and that was in his last bad start where he gave up seven runs. Still, we've known for quite a while that Felix doesn't have to have his A-game to give this team a chance to win. He threw a first-pitch strike to only 11 of the 28 batters he faced, which probably didn't help in his pursuit to get into the ninth inning for his fifth straight game. In the fourth, a leadoff single by DeJesus and a one-out single by Guillen set the stage for Callaspo's sacrifice fly that tied the game at 1-1. In the sixth, Felix walked DeJesus with one out, then Butler doubled him home to cut the Mariners' lead to 4-2. That was all the Royals put on the board against Felix. He's thrown 42 2/3 innings over his last five starts. He and Cliff Lee have been saving this bullpen every time through the rotation over this last month, but it's a shame that the one time Felix needs the bullpen to pick him up, they let him down.
2) Jose Lopez
He doubled twice and drove in a run. The RBI came in the first inning, when Ichiro scored to give the Mariners the early 1-0 lead. He also hit the double in the eighth that put two runners in scoring position and set up what should have been the Mariners' go-ahead rally on the way to a victory. In his last three games, Lopez has gone 5-for-13 with three doubles, a walk, and two RBIs. This has bumped his batting average from .240 to .245, his on-base percentage from .271 to .277, and his slugging percentage from .329 to .340. Obviously, none of his numbers are good enough yet, and they probably never will be this year. Still, the Phillies are desperate to plug some of the holes left by injury, and I have to say I'm all for Lopez getting traded away, provided Jack Zduriencik seriously goes after some power hitting in the offseason. I don't think Lopez has completely lost his power as I think he'll get hot for a couple of weeks, but I just don't know when. Too bad it couldn't be in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline, so as to increase his value.
3) Russell Branyan
Another home run. I'll be damned. He's only been a Mariner for seven games, but the three homers have been fun. He's gone 7-for-24 and driven in nine runs, meaning he's averaging just over an RBI per game. The offense has badly needed something like that for a long time. Granted, he won't keep up that pace or he'd driven in 90 runs between now and the end of the season, and there are a billion factors or so which would work against such a feat taking place. It's weird since I like having him on the team, but I know that playing time could be going toward some young'uns in what really is a lost season. Still, I just think it's nice to be able to sit back and watch a game and know someone on the Mariners actually has a legitimate chance of hitting a homer every time he steps to the plate. The Mariners have needed the mere possibility of a sudden offensive jolt for most of the season, and now they have it, but it's too late, and that's too bad. We've believed big, but we've seen little out of this team.
Goat
Brandon League
I'm definitely not going to make excuses for this guy, but I think he was probably due for an outing like this. He came into the eighth with a 4-2 lead. Kendall and DeJesus started the inning with consecutive singles. Butler hit a deep fly ball to right, far enough to score Kendall and make it 4-3. Guillen then singled to move DeJesus to third. Callaspo then singled to score DeJesus and put Guillen on second, tying the score at 4-4. That's a big relief outing fail. His line looks like two runs on four hits in a third of an inning. League had gone eight outings without giving up an earned run. That run lasted about three weeks. He had some bad moments early in the season, and he definitely had one here, but I've grown to trust League a lot more as the season has worn on. Would I rather have Brandon Morrow walking a bunch of guys and throwing over 100 pitches in less than six innings? Well, I'd need the trade assets to have looked better for both sides, but League is one of the higher-echelon arms in the bullpen, especially with Mark Lowe gone.
Greinke. Rowland-Smith. Tonight.
/ Click for main page
Monday, July 05, 2010
GAME 81: MARINERS 8, TIGERS 1
[box]
Once again, Cliff Lee is good. Once again, Mariner pitching can do wonderful things, especially if the offense is scoring some runs. Unsurprisingly, eight runs is way more than enough for Cliff Lee, who needs to be traded around nowish. I've said this before -- for all the talk in the offseason about the Mariners were going to first-and-third other teams to death, the reason I hated trying to make the team that way is because it'd always take three or four hitters to score a run. Sometimes, you need power guys to bail you out, and that's exactly what happened in this game (except Casey Kotchman's not a power guy). I didn't want a lineup with just a bunch of slap-hitting on-base guys in it. I wanted balance. Optimally, one phase of the offense could pick up the other less hot phase of the offense, i.e., power bailing out cold slap hitters.
Anyway, this game marked the halfway point of the season, and the Mariners are 34-47, meaning of course that they're on pace to finish 68-94. Their 81-game record is three games better than that of the 2008 team, two better than the 2004 team, one worse than the 2005 team, seven worse than the 2006 team, eight worse than last year's team, 12 worse than the 2007 team, 14 worse than the 2000 team, 17 worse than the 2002 team, 19 worse than the 2003 team, and 26 worse than the 2001 team.
One big note heading into this post is that I finally noticed MLB.com (I'm pretty sure) seems to short the pitchers on flyout stats. I noticed in Cliff Lee's last start that the MLB.com boxscore doesn't really add up rationally when it came to seeing what Lee's groundouts, flyouts, and strikeouts didn't tabulate anywhere close to his innings pitched. The ESPN.com boxscore had a groundout-flyout total that was a lot more rational.
-- needless to say, the starting pitching will be addressed in the gameballs
-- Brandon League came in to mop up in the ninth. With one out, he gave up a Danny Worth double and a four-pitch walk to Austin Jackson before tightening the screws and getting the next two hitters to ground out and end the game. I'm not freaking out since League was protecting an 8-1 lead and not a 2-1 lead.
-- the Mariner bats exploded for eight runs and 15 hits, and every starter in the lineup but one managed to get at least a hit. Three hitters had two hits apiece, and two hitters got three hits apiece. Three of the 15 hits went for extra bases (one double, two home runs). The Mariners scored three times in the third inning, four times in the fifth, and once more in the eighth. Of the two-hit guys I don't have in the gameballs, Franklin Gutierrez and Jose Lopez both went 2-for-5 and drove in a run apiece. As for the three-hit guy I don't have in the gameballs, Chone Figgins went 3-for-4 in the game, walking once. Going into the game on May 28th, he was hitting .194. Since then, he's gone 38-for-128 (.297) to vault that awful .194 mark to a bad-but-not-awful mark of .239. If he goes into the All-Star break at .245, consider it a victory. Hopefully the break doesn't kill his momentum if that happens.
-- how did they score? In the third, Michael Saunders' speed turned a not-so-good bunt into a leadoff single. Ichiro did the fielder's choice thing to erase Saunders, then stole second before Figgins walked. Russell Branyan then clobbered the first pitch he saw to put the Mariners into a 3-1 lead, and that was all they needed. In the fifth, Figgins singled with one out, then went to third on a tagged Branyan single. One out later, Franklin Gutierrez singled Figgins across to make it 4-1, though he did get the advantage of a call on a borderline pitch low in the zone, much to the chagrin of Tiger pitcher Jeremy Bonderman of Pasco. Casey Kotchman also got a borderline pitch his was as well, and he drilled the next pitch just over the wall in rightfield to make it 7-1 (Bonderman and Laird were tossed after the third out). In the eighth, Rob Johnson led off with a single to chase Eddie Bonine. Saunders then drew a walk against Mark Schlereth's son. One out later, Figgins got aboard on an infield single to load the bases. One out later, Jose Lopez singled to score Johnson and make it 8-1, capping the scoring.
-- we only care so much about blown chances when the team wins 8-1, but they were still there. In the first, Figgins singled with one out, but Branyan did the inning-ending double play thing. In the second, Gutierrez singled with one out, then stole second and went to third when Gerald Laird made a bad throw to second. Kotchman walked, but then Josh Wilson and Rob Johnson both whiffed to end the inning. In the fourth, Kotchman led off with a single and watched the next three hitters go down in order. In the seventh, Lopez doubled with one out, then one out later, Kotchman was put aboard, but Josh Wilson grounded out to end the inning. In the ninth, Kotchman led off with a single, but met the same fate as in the fourth.
-- Ichiro went 1-for-5 in the game, pushing him to 109-for-332 (.328) on the season. He is on pace to finish the season with 218 hits.
-- now, the Ichiro/Figgins stat. Ichiro scored once and had a hit. Figgins had three hits and scored twice. The Mariners are now 11-5 when both players score and 16-24 when both collect hits.
Gameballs
1) Casey Kotchman
He needs to go in and try to lobby for more playing time more often. I don't know when he's going to have another game like this. He went 3-for-3 with two walks, driving in three runs. This pushed his battign average all the way up to .206. I'm not so sure he should be consistently slotted at sixth in the lineup as I think it's a little high for him, but whatever. I can't argue with the results in this game. I don't think the team's going to ride Kotchman's production to incredible heights or anything, but if he can just be a meaningful contributor to the machine, I'll settle for that considering how awfully he started at the plate this year, and .206 is still awful. If he stays hot, though, Branyan will have to be hurt or fall off the cliff at the plate (or Saunders will need a rest day) to get Milton Bradley any playing time. Who needs to watch Bradley flailing away in the low .200s when you can see Kotchman and Branyan not sucking horribly? I think I subscribe to the latter.
2) Cliff Lee
What is there left to say? About the only bad thing that happened in this game was that he had his streak snapped at three straight complete games. However, he struck out 11 for a season high. This was actually his least efficient start (in terms of pitches per inning) since June 2nd. His average per-start line this season: 8 innings, 2.4 runs (2.1 earned), 71 hits, 0.5 walks, 6.9 strikeouts, 110 pitches (79 strikes), 7.2 groundouts, 9.7 strikeouts. He averages 13.7 pitches per inning. Mathematically, that puts his 100th pitch somewhere in the eighth inning. The well-rested bullpen has Lee and Felix Hernandez to thank for that. When they're not well rested, they have Ryan Rowland-Smith to thank for that. The only run he gave up came in the first inning. Austin Jackson and Magglio Ordonez reached on infield singles. Miguel Cabrera then hit a one-out single to score Jackson, but Lee got outs with the next two hitters to end the inning. If Lee gets hurt or something before the Mariners can trade him, I'm going to be incredibly angry.
3) Russell Branyan
The trade to reacquire Branyan was a bit puzzling since the season was going (and still is) nowhere, but he's at least brought the long ball back into the Mariners' lexicon. All I know is that there were many times last year where I'd be watching a game where the offense was doing absolutely nothing and the Mariners had no chance to win, then Branyan would hit a homer out of nowhere. The power can quickly bail out your otherwise crap offense, and it's what the Mariners missed a lot early on in the season. I won't attempt to dig up statistical proof, but what if the Mariners had Branyan once he recovered from the injury and what if Cliff Lee was healthy from the beginning of the season? They still wouldn't be .500 right now, but I can't help but feel those two guys could have made the Mariners three to four wins better than they are currently. I must say I missed the majestic blasts that Branyan provided us last season. Of course, it's all good fun until his back explodes.
Goat
Josh Wilson
Going into the game on June 13th, Josh Wilson was hitting .307. Since then, he's gone 11-for-55 (.200) to sink his batting average like a rock down to its current .264. It actually didn't look too bad going into June 27th, when he still was at .286, but he's gone 0-for-14 in his last four games. After he got to .307, he went 0-for-14 over his following four games as well. The more he hits like this, the more likely we are to see Jack Wilson get to the plate and attempt to hit, so I hope Josh warms it back up soon. On the other hand, if he hits .264 for the rest of the season, is that really a bad thing? That's still quite a few notches above awful, and we've seen a lot of players this season get a lot of at-bats for long periods of time despite being awful. I think Josh would have to get down to about .240 before he starts getting benched on a consistent basis. Sadly, in relation to the rest of the team, .240 still wouldn't be all that bad. Rough year, this one.
Bannister. Hernandez. Tonight.
Once again, Cliff Lee is good. Once again, Mariner pitching can do wonderful things, especially if the offense is scoring some runs. Unsurprisingly, eight runs is way more than enough for Cliff Lee, who needs to be traded around nowish. I've said this before -- for all the talk in the offseason about the Mariners were going to first-and-third other teams to death, the reason I hated trying to make the team that way is because it'd always take three or four hitters to score a run. Sometimes, you need power guys to bail you out, and that's exactly what happened in this game (except Casey Kotchman's not a power guy). I didn't want a lineup with just a bunch of slap-hitting on-base guys in it. I wanted balance. Optimally, one phase of the offense could pick up the other less hot phase of the offense, i.e., power bailing out cold slap hitters.
Anyway, this game marked the halfway point of the season, and the Mariners are 34-47, meaning of course that they're on pace to finish 68-94. Their 81-game record is three games better than that of the 2008 team, two better than the 2004 team, one worse than the 2005 team, seven worse than the 2006 team, eight worse than last year's team, 12 worse than the 2007 team, 14 worse than the 2000 team, 17 worse than the 2002 team, 19 worse than the 2003 team, and 26 worse than the 2001 team.
One big note heading into this post is that I finally noticed MLB.com (I'm pretty sure) seems to short the pitchers on flyout stats. I noticed in Cliff Lee's last start that the MLB.com boxscore doesn't really add up rationally when it came to seeing what Lee's groundouts, flyouts, and strikeouts didn't tabulate anywhere close to his innings pitched. The ESPN.com boxscore had a groundout-flyout total that was a lot more rational.
-- needless to say, the starting pitching will be addressed in the gameballs
-- Brandon League came in to mop up in the ninth. With one out, he gave up a Danny Worth double and a four-pitch walk to Austin Jackson before tightening the screws and getting the next two hitters to ground out and end the game. I'm not freaking out since League was protecting an 8-1 lead and not a 2-1 lead.
-- the Mariner bats exploded for eight runs and 15 hits, and every starter in the lineup but one managed to get at least a hit. Three hitters had two hits apiece, and two hitters got three hits apiece. Three of the 15 hits went for extra bases (one double, two home runs). The Mariners scored three times in the third inning, four times in the fifth, and once more in the eighth. Of the two-hit guys I don't have in the gameballs, Franklin Gutierrez and Jose Lopez both went 2-for-5 and drove in a run apiece. As for the three-hit guy I don't have in the gameballs, Chone Figgins went 3-for-4 in the game, walking once. Going into the game on May 28th, he was hitting .194. Since then, he's gone 38-for-128 (.297) to vault that awful .194 mark to a bad-but-not-awful mark of .239. If he goes into the All-Star break at .245, consider it a victory. Hopefully the break doesn't kill his momentum if that happens.
-- how did they score? In the third, Michael Saunders' speed turned a not-so-good bunt into a leadoff single. Ichiro did the fielder's choice thing to erase Saunders, then stole second before Figgins walked. Russell Branyan then clobbered the first pitch he saw to put the Mariners into a 3-1 lead, and that was all they needed. In the fifth, Figgins singled with one out, then went to third on a tagged Branyan single. One out later, Franklin Gutierrez singled Figgins across to make it 4-1, though he did get the advantage of a call on a borderline pitch low in the zone, much to the chagrin of Tiger pitcher Jeremy Bonderman of Pasco. Casey Kotchman also got a borderline pitch his was as well, and he drilled the next pitch just over the wall in rightfield to make it 7-1 (Bonderman and Laird were tossed after the third out). In the eighth, Rob Johnson led off with a single to chase Eddie Bonine. Saunders then drew a walk against Mark Schlereth's son. One out later, Figgins got aboard on an infield single to load the bases. One out later, Jose Lopez singled to score Johnson and make it 8-1, capping the scoring.
-- we only care so much about blown chances when the team wins 8-1, but they were still there. In the first, Figgins singled with one out, but Branyan did the inning-ending double play thing. In the second, Gutierrez singled with one out, then stole second and went to third when Gerald Laird made a bad throw to second. Kotchman walked, but then Josh Wilson and Rob Johnson both whiffed to end the inning. In the fourth, Kotchman led off with a single and watched the next three hitters go down in order. In the seventh, Lopez doubled with one out, then one out later, Kotchman was put aboard, but Josh Wilson grounded out to end the inning. In the ninth, Kotchman led off with a single, but met the same fate as in the fourth.
-- Ichiro went 1-for-5 in the game, pushing him to 109-for-332 (.328) on the season. He is on pace to finish the season with 218 hits.
-- now, the Ichiro/Figgins stat. Ichiro scored once and had a hit. Figgins had three hits and scored twice. The Mariners are now 11-5 when both players score and 16-24 when both collect hits.
Gameballs
1) Casey Kotchman
He needs to go in and try to lobby for more playing time more often. I don't know when he's going to have another game like this. He went 3-for-3 with two walks, driving in three runs. This pushed his battign average all the way up to .206. I'm not so sure he should be consistently slotted at sixth in the lineup as I think it's a little high for him, but whatever. I can't argue with the results in this game. I don't think the team's going to ride Kotchman's production to incredible heights or anything, but if he can just be a meaningful contributor to the machine, I'll settle for that considering how awfully he started at the plate this year, and .206 is still awful. If he stays hot, though, Branyan will have to be hurt or fall off the cliff at the plate (or Saunders will need a rest day) to get Milton Bradley any playing time. Who needs to watch Bradley flailing away in the low .200s when you can see Kotchman and Branyan not sucking horribly? I think I subscribe to the latter.
2) Cliff Lee
What is there left to say? About the only bad thing that happened in this game was that he had his streak snapped at three straight complete games. However, he struck out 11 for a season high. This was actually his least efficient start (in terms of pitches per inning) since June 2nd. His average per-start line this season: 8 innings, 2.4 runs (2.1 earned), 71 hits, 0.5 walks, 6.9 strikeouts, 110 pitches (79 strikes), 7.2 groundouts, 9.7 strikeouts. He averages 13.7 pitches per inning. Mathematically, that puts his 100th pitch somewhere in the eighth inning. The well-rested bullpen has Lee and Felix Hernandez to thank for that. When they're not well rested, they have Ryan Rowland-Smith to thank for that. The only run he gave up came in the first inning. Austin Jackson and Magglio Ordonez reached on infield singles. Miguel Cabrera then hit a one-out single to score Jackson, but Lee got outs with the next two hitters to end the inning. If Lee gets hurt or something before the Mariners can trade him, I'm going to be incredibly angry.
3) Russell Branyan
The trade to reacquire Branyan was a bit puzzling since the season was going (and still is) nowhere, but he's at least brought the long ball back into the Mariners' lexicon. All I know is that there were many times last year where I'd be watching a game where the offense was doing absolutely nothing and the Mariners had no chance to win, then Branyan would hit a homer out of nowhere. The power can quickly bail out your otherwise crap offense, and it's what the Mariners missed a lot early on in the season. I won't attempt to dig up statistical proof, but what if the Mariners had Branyan once he recovered from the injury and what if Cliff Lee was healthy from the beginning of the season? They still wouldn't be .500 right now, but I can't help but feel those two guys could have made the Mariners three to four wins better than they are currently. I must say I missed the majestic blasts that Branyan provided us last season. Of course, it's all good fun until his back explodes.
Goat
Josh Wilson
Going into the game on June 13th, Josh Wilson was hitting .307. Since then, he's gone 11-for-55 (.200) to sink his batting average like a rock down to its current .264. It actually didn't look too bad going into June 27th, when he still was at .286, but he's gone 0-for-14 in his last four games. After he got to .307, he went 0-for-14 over his following four games as well. The more he hits like this, the more likely we are to see Jack Wilson get to the plate and attempt to hit, so I hope Josh warms it back up soon. On the other hand, if he hits .264 for the rest of the season, is that really a bad thing? That's still quite a few notches above awful, and we've seen a lot of players this season get a lot of at-bats for long periods of time despite being awful. I think Josh would have to get down to about .240 before he starts getting benched on a consistent basis. Sadly, in relation to the rest of the team, .240 still wouldn't be all that bad. Rough year, this one.
Bannister. Hernandez. Tonight.
/ Click for main page
Sunday, July 04, 2010
GAME 80: TIGERS 6, MARINERS 1
[box]
[actual post ~2:52p]
Hey, it's another game where the Mariners played more like they'd been playing for the bulk of the season. This time, it was Jason Vargas who fell victim to the big inning, leading to talk about the Mariners possibly shutting down Doug Fister and Vargas through the All-Star break. Ultimately, that would only be one start apiece, so it wouldn't be too much of a curtailing of their workload. I didn't see the game at all, so in a way, I made a somewhat right choice by going to Salt Lake City just for the fun of it. So while I parked the car at the capitol building and walked all over downtown for many hours and was nearly exhausted when I walked back to the car, the Mariners were busy doing nothing offensively. So if I had stayed home, I'd have lamented the fact that I didn't go and drive five-plus hours twice to go to Salt Lake City and see some sights. This ain't the Pat Gillick era, to say the least.
-- the starting pitching will be discussed toward the end of the post
-- the first man out of the bullpen will be one of the gameball entries. David Pauley was the final of three Mariner pitchers in the game, throwing the eighth inning. He gave up only a Brandon Inge leadoff double before setting down the next three Tiger hitters. I'm not even sure what to think about Chad Corder, David Pauley, and Brian Sweeney because they've barely gotten any appearances. Of course, that has a lot to do with the starting pitching stepping up, so that's a good problem to have.
-- what offense? Well, there was one run. Casey Kotchman doubled with one out, then moved over to third on a Josh Bard single. Michael Saunders did the infield single thing, and Kotchman scored on the play to cut the Tigers' lead to 6-1, capping the scoring.
-- as for blown chances, Milton Bradley walked with one out in the fourth, then Jose Lopez singled. Franklin Gutierrez then tapped back to the mound and Kotchman whiffed to end the inning (the game was still scoreless at that point). Lopez singled with one out in the sixth, and that's where he remained as Bradley whiffed and Lopez grounded out.
-- Ichiro went 1-for-4 in the game, pushing him to 108-for-327 (.330) on the season. He is on pace to finish the season with a mere 219 hits. I want 240 out of him, but I need at least 225. We want this guy to get to 3000 hits as quickly as possible, you know.
-- now, the Ichiro/Figgins stat. The two had a hit apiece in the game, but neither scored a run. The Mariners remain 10-5 when both players score, but are now 15-24 when both players get a hit.
Gameballs
1) Casey Kotchman
Apparently he very recently had some sort of long conversation with Don Wakamatsu whereupon he requested more playing time. So far, so good. He singled with two out and the bases empty in the second, whiffed with two on to end the fourth (actually a pretty pivotal at-bat since the Tigers scored two the next half-inning), doubled with one out and the bases empty in the seventh, and tapped back to the pitcher with a man on first to end the eighth. Not the most strategically placed hits, sure, but beggars couldn't be choosers in this game when it came to Mariner hits. The Mariners totalled seven hits, and Kotchman came away with two of them. Of course, this 2-for-4 day sent Kotchman's batting average soaring to .194. It would probably take a pretty incredible tear for Kotchman to finish .250. Not only would he have to go on a tear, he'd also have to get the playing time. Looks like he'll get the days where maybe they rest Russell Branyan's back by giving him the designated hitter slot.
2) Brian Sweeney
I said a week or so ago that if Ryan Rowland-Smith ended up sucking for a prolonged amount of time, Brian Sweeney would warrant himself a chance at the Aussie's spot in the rotation if he kept up with good appearances in long relief. In this outing, he gave up two hits, but he threw 2 2/3 shutout innings, but a good deal of those came after making sure two of Vargas' runners scored to make the latter's ERA inflate. Sweeney came into the game with the bases loaded and one out with the Tigers leading 4-0. He gave up a Carlos Guillen single to score Magglio Ordonez and make it 5-0 before he got groundouts from the final two hitters. The first of those groundouts, however, scored a run that made it 6-0. Sweeney then retired six of his final seven hitters over the next two innings, giving up only a two-out single to Ryan Raburn in the sixth. Turns out it won't be Rowland-Smith's suck that gets Sweeney a start -- it'll probably be if Wakamatsu and Rick Adair decide to shut down Doug Fister and Vargas through the All-Star break.
3) Michael Saunders
He's tall, he's from Victoria, BC, and he drove in the only Mariners' run of the game. Normally a fielding error on a 1-for-3 day would likely scvrub a guy from the gameball secton, if you ask me. Unfortunately, the bar was setting pretty low for the Seattle offense in the the game. Thus, 1-for-3 with a walk is more than adequate for a game of this much offensive suck. Saunders is now a .209 hitter, which means he guy himself a pretty good hole between a week after his initial hot spellafter the call-up, until right about now.
Goat
Jason Vargas
It's a given that the Mariners have to have the starting pitching holding their end of the bargain to win. Here, Vargas cruised early on, and then got into trouble in the fourth and fifth, ending up being tagged with all six Detroit runs, though two were given up by Brian Sweeney. There is talk about resting Vargas and Fister through to the All-Star break, and if that ends up holding, this would be Vargas' final start until after the All-Star break. That said, on a team with an awful offense, vargas has still managed to go 6-4 over the first half of the season.
Bonderman. Lee. Today.
[actual post ~2:52p]
Hey, it's another game where the Mariners played more like they'd been playing for the bulk of the season. This time, it was Jason Vargas who fell victim to the big inning, leading to talk about the Mariners possibly shutting down Doug Fister and Vargas through the All-Star break. Ultimately, that would only be one start apiece, so it wouldn't be too much of a curtailing of their workload. I didn't see the game at all, so in a way, I made a somewhat right choice by going to Salt Lake City just for the fun of it. So while I parked the car at the capitol building and walked all over downtown for many hours and was nearly exhausted when I walked back to the car, the Mariners were busy doing nothing offensively. So if I had stayed home, I'd have lamented the fact that I didn't go and drive five-plus hours twice to go to Salt Lake City and see some sights. This ain't the Pat Gillick era, to say the least.
-- the starting pitching will be discussed toward the end of the post
-- the first man out of the bullpen will be one of the gameball entries. David Pauley was the final of three Mariner pitchers in the game, throwing the eighth inning. He gave up only a Brandon Inge leadoff double before setting down the next three Tiger hitters. I'm not even sure what to think about Chad Corder, David Pauley, and Brian Sweeney because they've barely gotten any appearances. Of course, that has a lot to do with the starting pitching stepping up, so that's a good problem to have.
-- what offense? Well, there was one run. Casey Kotchman doubled with one out, then moved over to third on a Josh Bard single. Michael Saunders did the infield single thing, and Kotchman scored on the play to cut the Tigers' lead to 6-1, capping the scoring.
-- as for blown chances, Milton Bradley walked with one out in the fourth, then Jose Lopez singled. Franklin Gutierrez then tapped back to the mound and Kotchman whiffed to end the inning (the game was still scoreless at that point). Lopez singled with one out in the sixth, and that's where he remained as Bradley whiffed and Lopez grounded out.
-- Ichiro went 1-for-4 in the game, pushing him to 108-for-327 (.330) on the season. He is on pace to finish the season with a mere 219 hits. I want 240 out of him, but I need at least 225. We want this guy to get to 3000 hits as quickly as possible, you know.
-- now, the Ichiro/Figgins stat. The two had a hit apiece in the game, but neither scored a run. The Mariners remain 10-5 when both players score, but are now 15-24 when both players get a hit.
Gameballs
1) Casey Kotchman
Apparently he very recently had some sort of long conversation with Don Wakamatsu whereupon he requested more playing time. So far, so good. He singled with two out and the bases empty in the second, whiffed with two on to end the fourth (actually a pretty pivotal at-bat since the Tigers scored two the next half-inning), doubled with one out and the bases empty in the seventh, and tapped back to the pitcher with a man on first to end the eighth. Not the most strategically placed hits, sure, but beggars couldn't be choosers in this game when it came to Mariner hits. The Mariners totalled seven hits, and Kotchman came away with two of them. Of course, this 2-for-4 day sent Kotchman's batting average soaring to .194. It would probably take a pretty incredible tear for Kotchman to finish .250. Not only would he have to go on a tear, he'd also have to get the playing time. Looks like he'll get the days where maybe they rest Russell Branyan's back by giving him the designated hitter slot.
2) Brian Sweeney
I said a week or so ago that if Ryan Rowland-Smith ended up sucking for a prolonged amount of time, Brian Sweeney would warrant himself a chance at the Aussie's spot in the rotation if he kept up with good appearances in long relief. In this outing, he gave up two hits, but he threw 2 2/3 shutout innings, but a good deal of those came after making sure two of Vargas' runners scored to make the latter's ERA inflate. Sweeney came into the game with the bases loaded and one out with the Tigers leading 4-0. He gave up a Carlos Guillen single to score Magglio Ordonez and make it 5-0 before he got groundouts from the final two hitters. The first of those groundouts, however, scored a run that made it 6-0. Sweeney then retired six of his final seven hitters over the next two innings, giving up only a two-out single to Ryan Raburn in the sixth. Turns out it won't be Rowland-Smith's suck that gets Sweeney a start -- it'll probably be if Wakamatsu and Rick Adair decide to shut down Doug Fister and Vargas through the All-Star break.
3) Michael Saunders
He's tall, he's from Victoria, BC, and he drove in the only Mariners' run of the game. Normally a fielding error on a 1-for-3 day would likely scvrub a guy from the gameball secton, if you ask me. Unfortunately, the bar was setting pretty low for the Seattle offense in the the game. Thus, 1-for-3 with a walk is more than adequate for a game of this much offensive suck. Saunders is now a .209 hitter, which means he guy himself a pretty good hole between a week after his initial hot spellafter the call-up, until right about now.
Goat
Jason Vargas
It's a given that the Mariners have to have the starting pitching holding their end of the bargain to win. Here, Vargas cruised early on, and then got into trouble in the fourth and fifth, ending up being tagged with all six Detroit runs, though two were given up by Brian Sweeney. There is talk about resting Vargas and Fister through to the All-Star break, and if that ends up holding, this would be Vargas' final start until after the All-Star break. That said, on a team with an awful offense, vargas has still managed to go 6-4 over the first half of the season.
Bonderman. Lee. Today.
/ Click for main page
