Sunday, October 04, 2009
GAME 162: MARINERS 4, RANGERS 3
So it ends. Felix Hernandez looked dialed in at times and slightly wild at others, but he got his 19th win nonetheless. His start wasn't drop-dead awesome, but in a way that enabled Don Wakamatsu to pull him in the top of the seventh and get a raucous standing ovation. Still, the moment everyone was waiting for was what could have been Ken Griffey Jr.'s final at-bat as a Major Leaguer. After he'd been robbed earlier in the game on a single past the pitcher's mound, Griffey tagged a pitch into the same spot, but came out roses this time, singling into centerfield. The crowd erupted, Wakamatsu lifted him for a pinch-runner (Michael Saunders), and the long ovation began. He hugged everyone in the dugout, came out for a curtain call, and was visibly emotional. It's a totally small beans comparison, but I remember the night I drove around after my final Legion game when I was 18, and I cried knowing it was the end of organized baseball for me. That's not the only reason I think Griffey's done, though -- I think it was hard enough for him to leave his family behind in Florida this season that I don't think he could possibly do it again.
The final win of the season and fifth in six tries raised the Mariners' record to 85-77 at the season's end. This record is three wins worse than the 2007 record, but seven better than that of 2006, 16 better than that of 2005, 22 better than that of 2004, and 24 better than that of last year. Eighty-five wins is also six worse than the 2000 record, eight worse than the 2002 and 2003 records, and 31 worse than the 2001 record. Records of other new-millennium Mariner teams when netting win number 85: 85-66 in 2000, 85-33 in 2001, 85-64 in 2002, 85-62 in 2003, 63-99 in 2004, 69-93 in 2005, 78-84 in 2006, 85-74 in 2007, and 61-101 last year.
Seattle hitting went 8-for-31 on the night, walking once and striking out eight times. They also went 3-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranded five runners in all. Franklin Gutierrez had two hits and Josh Wilson had three hits as the only multi-hit Mariners. Gutierrez and Jose Lopez doubled to account for the entire Mariners' extra-base hit output. Only Josh Wilson and Rob Johnson out of the Mariner starters didn't strike out. Ichiro went 1-for-3 with a walk, meaning he got aboard twice. The Mariners' leadoff hitter finished with 225 hits on the season, a hit total surpassed only by Ichiro's 2001, 2004, and 2007 seasons. Ichiro finished with a .352 batting average. Supposing he would have gotten 64 at-bats over the 16 games he missed, and extrapolating his .352 average over those 64 at-bats, Ichiro could have ended up with around 22 more hits. Add that up to his actual total this year and you end up with 247 hits, a hit total which would have only been surpassed by his crazy record-breaking 2004 season. Also, the .352 average is better than every year other than Ichiro's 2004. What people may not have realized is that Ichiro slugged .465, his best mark yet in the Majors. I won't give Jose Lopez half a paragraph of space, but he finished with 25 home runs and 96 RBIs, which is still a very solid season, no matter how short of 100 RBIs it is.
Mariner pitching had a very good day. The starting pitcher will be covered below. Randy Messenger came into the game with two out in the seventh inning and the bases empty. Craig Gentry lined out to left, and the inning was over. Messenger threw two strikes out of four pitches, retiring the only hitter he faced. Despite having a one-run lead in the eighth, Don Wakamatsu decided to go to the well again and see if Miguel Batista could hold a one-run lead for the second straight game. To start the eighth, Batista promptly fell behind 2-0 on leadoff hitter Esteban German, but got him to pop out to short. Julio Borbon bunted himself aboard as Jose Lopez did a barehand charge (or he "died" on a do-or-die grounder) and came up empty. The threat was quickly put out when Borbon was gunned down at second base (I thought he was safe after I saw the replays) and Elvis Andrus lined out to Ichiro on the next pitch. Against the odds, Batista did okay. He gave up a hit in his scoreless inning, throwing seven strikes out of 10 pitches. After a night off, David Aardsma had good results. He got David Murphy to ground out. Hank Blalock saw an 0-2 count but it fell full before he grounded out to second. Ian Kinsler saw an 0-2 count break even, but Aardsma mowed him down with a fastball to end the game and the season. Incredibly, Aardsma notched 38 saves despite not becoming the Mariners' closer until mid-May.
Gameballs
1) Franklin Gutierrez
A 2-for-4 day capped off a great season for the Mariners' latest man to carry the torch of awesome Seattle centerfielding. He struck out on three pitches in the first inning before his day got better. In the third, with runners on the corners and one out, he lofted a fly ball to shallow right on which Craig Gentry had to dive to make the play, but the ball shorthopped into his glove, enabling Josh Wilson to score from third and for Ichiro to move to third. Anyway, that put the Mariners on the board and in the lead at 1-0. In the fifth, with runners on first and second with two out, Gutierrez drove a ball to rightcenter and bounced it over the fence for a double to score Josh Wilson and put the Mariners in the lead again at 2-1. In the seventh with a runner on second, Gutierrez flew out to end the inning. With that, Gutierrez ended the 2009 season hitting .283 with 18 home runs and 70 RBIs. While putting Russell Branyan in the number-two slot in the lineup was one of the master strokes of Don Wakamatsu's rookie season as a manager, I felt he went with it about two or three weeks longer than he should have. It became apparent to me who the real number-two hitter in the lineup should be. Gutierrez also finished with an on-base percentage of .339 and a slugging mark of .425.
2) Felix Hernandez
Naturally, I hope this won the guy the Cy Young Award. CC Sabathia got tagged in his final start, Zack Greinke lost his final start, and Felix didn't quite weave a masterpiece, but he was still very good. He allowed a two-out double to David Murphy in the first, but that didn't add up to trouble. Hernandez set down 10 straight hitters until Josh Wilson muffed an Ian Kinsler grounder to lead off the fifth inning. Chris Davis got aboard with an infield single to move Kinsler to second, Taylor Teagarden bunted the runners over, and a Gentry groundout to short (fielded cleanly this time) scored Kinsler to tie it at 1-1 before Hernandez got the final out. Hernandez had retired six straight hitters before walking Hank Blalock to start the seventh. Kinsler doubled him over to third, then Davis groudned out to score Blalock and move Kinsler to third, making it 4-2. A Teagarden groundout then scored Kinsler to empty the bases and chase Felix from the game. I thought there would be nothing to lose by leaving Hernandez in the game to finish out the seventh, but pulling him then and there would have gotten a well-deserved standing ovation from the crowd. That's what Wakamatsu did, and the ovation was what Felix got. Hernandez gave up three runs (two earned) on three hits, walking one and striking out six over 6 2/3 innings of work. He got nine groundouts and five flyouts, threw 72 strikes out of 107 pitches, and faced 25 hitters to get 20 outs.
3) Josh Wilson
The one strike against him was the error that led to the first run (unearned) with which Felix Hernandez was charged. I won't lie, there was another hard grounder that went off of him that was scored as a base hit, though I thought that was another error. That would have made the Hernandez line a lot more spectacular if he'd only given up two hits instead of three. Anyway, Josh Wilson went 3-for-3 on the final day of the season and scored two of the Mariners' four runs. In the third, he singled with one out and the bases empty, and later scored on a Gutierrez single to open the scoring at 1-0. In the fifth, he singled with one out and the bases empty and came around to score on the Gutierrez ground-rule double to put the Mariners back into the lead at 2-1. Lastly, he singled to lead off the seventh inning but the Mariners failed to add him as an insurance run, settling instead for a 4-3 lead. Luckily, that held up to the finish. The FSN broadcast remarked that maybe Josh Wilson and Rob Johnson have a future with this team, and to that I say this -- if those two guys are still on this team next year and they're everyday players, this team won't be improving on an 85-win season. Again, it's all speculation without knowing the plethora of things Jack Zduriencik could do to this roster.
Goat
Adrian Beltre
An 0-for-4 day wraps up his worst and most painful season as a big-leaguer. He finished hitting .265 with eight home runs and 44 RBIs with an on-base percentage of .304 and a slugging mark of .379. He played in 111 games as a Mariner this season, though it almost seems like he was out way longer. He definitely suffered injuries that would have felled lesser players into playing way less than 111 games. The .265 batting average and the .304 on-base mark are still better than his 2005 numbers (.255 and .303), which I guess reminds us of just how bad that 2005 season was. Of course, Red will be bummed, but we'll all miss the charging barehand play on the swinging bunts down the third-base line. I guess if there's anything for which the other 24 guys in the clubhouse will remember him, it's that he played a couple days longer than expected before he went in to have the bone chips removed from his left shoulder, and also that he finished out an extra-inning game after taking a baseball to the testicle. I really wish it could have worked out here for Beltre and I wish he didn't have to be on three of the four crappiest Mariner teams of the new millennium.
So it ends. Maybe these pieces will return in April. Maybe not. I have no clue, but if anyone read these, I hope you found a modicum of enjoyment.
The final win of the season and fifth in six tries raised the Mariners' record to 85-77 at the season's end. This record is three wins worse than the 2007 record, but seven better than that of 2006, 16 better than that of 2005, 22 better than that of 2004, and 24 better than that of last year. Eighty-five wins is also six worse than the 2000 record, eight worse than the 2002 and 2003 records, and 31 worse than the 2001 record. Records of other new-millennium Mariner teams when netting win number 85: 85-66 in 2000, 85-33 in 2001, 85-64 in 2002, 85-62 in 2003, 63-99 in 2004, 69-93 in 2005, 78-84 in 2006, 85-74 in 2007, and 61-101 last year.
Seattle hitting went 8-for-31 on the night, walking once and striking out eight times. They also went 3-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranded five runners in all. Franklin Gutierrez had two hits and Josh Wilson had three hits as the only multi-hit Mariners. Gutierrez and Jose Lopez doubled to account for the entire Mariners' extra-base hit output. Only Josh Wilson and Rob Johnson out of the Mariner starters didn't strike out. Ichiro went 1-for-3 with a walk, meaning he got aboard twice. The Mariners' leadoff hitter finished with 225 hits on the season, a hit total surpassed only by Ichiro's 2001, 2004, and 2007 seasons. Ichiro finished with a .352 batting average. Supposing he would have gotten 64 at-bats over the 16 games he missed, and extrapolating his .352 average over those 64 at-bats, Ichiro could have ended up with around 22 more hits. Add that up to his actual total this year and you end up with 247 hits, a hit total which would have only been surpassed by his crazy record-breaking 2004 season. Also, the .352 average is better than every year other than Ichiro's 2004. What people may not have realized is that Ichiro slugged .465, his best mark yet in the Majors. I won't give Jose Lopez half a paragraph of space, but he finished with 25 home runs and 96 RBIs, which is still a very solid season, no matter how short of 100 RBIs it is.
Mariner pitching had a very good day. The starting pitcher will be covered below. Randy Messenger came into the game with two out in the seventh inning and the bases empty. Craig Gentry lined out to left, and the inning was over. Messenger threw two strikes out of four pitches, retiring the only hitter he faced. Despite having a one-run lead in the eighth, Don Wakamatsu decided to go to the well again and see if Miguel Batista could hold a one-run lead for the second straight game. To start the eighth, Batista promptly fell behind 2-0 on leadoff hitter Esteban German, but got him to pop out to short. Julio Borbon bunted himself aboard as Jose Lopez did a barehand charge (or he "died" on a do-or-die grounder) and came up empty. The threat was quickly put out when Borbon was gunned down at second base (I thought he was safe after I saw the replays) and Elvis Andrus lined out to Ichiro on the next pitch. Against the odds, Batista did okay. He gave up a hit in his scoreless inning, throwing seven strikes out of 10 pitches. After a night off, David Aardsma had good results. He got David Murphy to ground out. Hank Blalock saw an 0-2 count but it fell full before he grounded out to second. Ian Kinsler saw an 0-2 count break even, but Aardsma mowed him down with a fastball to end the game and the season. Incredibly, Aardsma notched 38 saves despite not becoming the Mariners' closer until mid-May.
Gameballs
1) Franklin Gutierrez
A 2-for-4 day capped off a great season for the Mariners' latest man to carry the torch of awesome Seattle centerfielding. He struck out on three pitches in the first inning before his day got better. In the third, with runners on the corners and one out, he lofted a fly ball to shallow right on which Craig Gentry had to dive to make the play, but the ball shorthopped into his glove, enabling Josh Wilson to score from third and for Ichiro to move to third. Anyway, that put the Mariners on the board and in the lead at 1-0. In the fifth, with runners on first and second with two out, Gutierrez drove a ball to rightcenter and bounced it over the fence for a double to score Josh Wilson and put the Mariners in the lead again at 2-1. In the seventh with a runner on second, Gutierrez flew out to end the inning. With that, Gutierrez ended the 2009 season hitting .283 with 18 home runs and 70 RBIs. While putting Russell Branyan in the number-two slot in the lineup was one of the master strokes of Don Wakamatsu's rookie season as a manager, I felt he went with it about two or three weeks longer than he should have. It became apparent to me who the real number-two hitter in the lineup should be. Gutierrez also finished with an on-base percentage of .339 and a slugging mark of .425.
2) Felix Hernandez
Naturally, I hope this won the guy the Cy Young Award. CC Sabathia got tagged in his final start, Zack Greinke lost his final start, and Felix didn't quite weave a masterpiece, but he was still very good. He allowed a two-out double to David Murphy in the first, but that didn't add up to trouble. Hernandez set down 10 straight hitters until Josh Wilson muffed an Ian Kinsler grounder to lead off the fifth inning. Chris Davis got aboard with an infield single to move Kinsler to second, Taylor Teagarden bunted the runners over, and a Gentry groundout to short (fielded cleanly this time) scored Kinsler to tie it at 1-1 before Hernandez got the final out. Hernandez had retired six straight hitters before walking Hank Blalock to start the seventh. Kinsler doubled him over to third, then Davis groudned out to score Blalock and move Kinsler to third, making it 4-2. A Teagarden groundout then scored Kinsler to empty the bases and chase Felix from the game. I thought there would be nothing to lose by leaving Hernandez in the game to finish out the seventh, but pulling him then and there would have gotten a well-deserved standing ovation from the crowd. That's what Wakamatsu did, and the ovation was what Felix got. Hernandez gave up three runs (two earned) on three hits, walking one and striking out six over 6 2/3 innings of work. He got nine groundouts and five flyouts, threw 72 strikes out of 107 pitches, and faced 25 hitters to get 20 outs.
3) Josh Wilson
The one strike against him was the error that led to the first run (unearned) with which Felix Hernandez was charged. I won't lie, there was another hard grounder that went off of him that was scored as a base hit, though I thought that was another error. That would have made the Hernandez line a lot more spectacular if he'd only given up two hits instead of three. Anyway, Josh Wilson went 3-for-3 on the final day of the season and scored two of the Mariners' four runs. In the third, he singled with one out and the bases empty, and later scored on a Gutierrez single to open the scoring at 1-0. In the fifth, he singled with one out and the bases empty and came around to score on the Gutierrez ground-rule double to put the Mariners back into the lead at 2-1. Lastly, he singled to lead off the seventh inning but the Mariners failed to add him as an insurance run, settling instead for a 4-3 lead. Luckily, that held up to the finish. The FSN broadcast remarked that maybe Josh Wilson and Rob Johnson have a future with this team, and to that I say this -- if those two guys are still on this team next year and they're everyday players, this team won't be improving on an 85-win season. Again, it's all speculation without knowing the plethora of things Jack Zduriencik could do to this roster.
Goat
Adrian Beltre
An 0-for-4 day wraps up his worst and most painful season as a big-leaguer. He finished hitting .265 with eight home runs and 44 RBIs with an on-base percentage of .304 and a slugging mark of .379. He played in 111 games as a Mariner this season, though it almost seems like he was out way longer. He definitely suffered injuries that would have felled lesser players into playing way less than 111 games. The .265 batting average and the .304 on-base mark are still better than his 2005 numbers (.255 and .303), which I guess reminds us of just how bad that 2005 season was. Of course, Red will be bummed, but we'll all miss the charging barehand play on the swinging bunts down the third-base line. I guess if there's anything for which the other 24 guys in the clubhouse will remember him, it's that he played a couple days longer than expected before he went in to have the bone chips removed from his left shoulder, and also that he finished out an extra-inning game after taking a baseball to the testicle. I really wish it could have worked out here for Beltre and I wish he didn't have to be on three of the four crappiest Mariner teams of the new millennium.
So it ends. Maybe these pieces will return in April. Maybe not. I have no clue, but if anyone read these, I hope you found a modicum of enjoyment.
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GAME 161: MARINERS 2, RANGERS 1
Thanks to a good start by a certain Australian guy (not Austrian...Jim Carrey might say "G'day, mate!" to an Austrian), the Mariners were able to even up the series heading into the final game with Felix Hernandez on the mound. The Mariners tallied single runs in the fourth and fifth innings and held on for the 2-1 win. They were completely awful with runners in scoring position, stranded too many runners, and Don Wakamatsu decided not to go with David Aardsma in the ninth inning because he'd already worked in the previous two games. With Mark Lowe having been a bit shaky lately, who Wakamatsu chose to close was a surprise unto itself. I know if I was sitting there watching the game, I'd probably have been dumbfounded, but after it was all over, I'd probably be laughing with glee wondering how the Mariners just got away with it. It's a one-game lightning-in-a-bottle, I guess. Or as Spider-Man says when he appears on Family Guy, everybody gets one.
The Mariners' fourth win in five games pushed their record to 84-77 after 161 games. This pace is three wins worse than 2007, but seven wins better than 2006, 15 better than 2005, 21 better than 2004, and 24 better than last year. Eighty-four wins is also six worse than 2000, eight worse than 2003, nine worse than 2002, and 32 worse than 2001. Records of other new-millennium Mariner teams when getting the 84th win: 84-66 in 2000, 84-33 in 2001, 84-58 in 2002, 84-62 in 2003, 63-99 in 2004, 69-93 in 2005, 78-84 in 2006, 84-74 in 2007, and 61-101 last year.
Seattle hitting went a combined 10-for-33 in the game, walking twice and striking out six times. They also went an awful 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 runners in all. Josh Wilson had two hits and Ichiro had three hits as the only multi-hit Mariners. Ken Griffey Jr. went 1-for-3 with a walk, so he got aboard twice. Adrian Beltre, Josh Wilson, and Jose Lopez all doubled, and Griffey homered to round out the Mariners' extra-base hit output. Griffey's homer was the 630th of his career. If he came back next year and somehow hit 31 homers to pass Willie Mays, I would probably soil myself.
Griffey has 19 homers on the season with 57 RBIs as a part-time designated hitter. Also, Franklin Gutierrez drove in his 68th run of the season to go with 18 home runs, a .282 batting average, and incredible all-galaxy defense.
Mariner pitching had a great night, as one might expect if they gave up only one run. The starting pitcher will be covered below. The bullpen finished it out with 2 1/3 scoreless innings. Shawn Kelley entered the game with a runner on third and two out in the seventh inning. Kelley promptly walked Ian Kinsler, but then got Michael Young to fly out on the first pitch. Kelley threw two strikes out of six pitches. Garrett Olson gave up a one-out single to Marlon Byrd, but got Chris Davis to line into a double play to end the inning. Olson gave up a hit and didn't strike out or walk anyone. He threw six strikes out of nine pitches, got a groundout and a flyout, and faced three hitters to get three outs. The closer will be covered below.
Gameballs
1) Ichiro
Make it three more hits for the Mariners' leadoff hitter, making it 224 on the season. Of his nine seasons in the Major Leagues, only three have surpassed 224 hits. Again, Ichiro has done this despite missing 16 games this season. Ichiro is a .352 hitter going into the final day of the season, and if that holds up, it'll be his second-best season in terms of batting average, with only 2004 being better. I'm really wishing he could have had 16 extra games. One of Ichiro's streaks that will get broken, however, is the streak of seasons where he's scored 100 runs or more. He'll need to score 13 runs in the final game to keep that streak alive, so basically, that streak is broken. It's amazing to think that since the Gillick era ended, this year's team was the second-best team Ichiro's been on, yet it's with this year's team that Ichiro sees the run-scoring streak broken. It's just nuts knowing that this ballclub has managed to win 84 games despite having such an anemic offense. As we all know, the runs-scored stat says even more about the team than it does Ichiro.
2) Ryan Rowland-Smith
The Aussie made 15 starts at the big-league level this year with 14 coming after his most recent call-up, a week before the trading deadline. He completed at least seven innings in eight of his starts this season. Only his first start back in April and his first start in the month of August saw him not finish at least five innings. Rowland-Smith averaged 6 1/3 innings per start, though if you throw out the anomalous start in April, he averaged 6 2/3 innings per start. Overall, Rowland-Smith's average game saw 2.87 runs (2.67 earned), 5.8 hits, 1.8 walks, 3.5 strikeouts, 6.9 groundouts, 8.8 flyouts, and 100.1 pitches (64.3 strikes). I didn't expect much out of the Aussie when they recalled him in July, but he's been a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately for the Mariners, I think slotting him as a number-two starter behind Felix Hernandez next year is asking way too much from him because I think he's a number-three starter at best. Again, this is where Jack Zduriencik comes in and gets something unexpectedly awesome off the trade market or waiver wire that turns out awesomely. Rowland-Smith in this particular start gave up a run on six hits, walking two and striking out four in 6 2/3 innings. He got eight groundouts and eight flyouts, threw 64 strikes out of 104 pitches, and faced 27 hitters to get 20 outs.
3) Miguel Batista
Why is this guy getting the number-three gameball when Josh Wilson got two hits and probably had his last good game as a Mariner? Well, who the hell holds a 2-1 lead going into the ninth inning and brings in Batista to close it out? On this night, apparently Don Wakamatsu was that guy. Very unexpectedly, what we then saw out of Batista was a 1-2-3 inning. He sandwiched an Elvis Andrus groundout between two swinging strikeouts (Andruw Jones and Taylor Teagarden) to end the game. Since his Roberto Clemente award nomination and this game are probably his only shining moments of the year (okay, maybe I'll give you that murder novel he wrote and released), I'd be remiss not to at least give him the number-three gameball on his way out the door. I'm not sure if the obvious answer to the question is "winning," but why weren't there many engaging personalities with the Mariners after the Gillick era ended? It's like there's no connection like we had with the guys like we did with Edgar Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr., Jay Buhner, Dan Wilson, Jamie Moyer, Randy Johnson, etc. When I know Miguel Batista's going to go, I'm like, "meh," like 90% of the Mariners' existence from 2004 to the present day has been completely faceless.
Goat
Kenji Johjima
It's probably not the worst day Johjima ever had as a Mariner, but it wasn't one of the best. He went 0-for-4, has a number five next to his name in the LOB column, and stranded three runners in the game with two out. What's the anatomy of a day of suck for Johjima? He was caught looking with the bases empty and one out in the second. He grounded out for the first out in the fourth inning, moving Beltre from second to third. He flew out on the second pitch with the bases loaded to end the fifth inning. Lastly, he popped out to the shortstop to end the seventh inning with Jose Lopez still standing on second after a leadoff double. It's a really good thing the Mariners won this game, because that 2-for-17 stat with runners in scoring position is a really damning stat, though the 10 runners stranded is a damning stat as well. Come to think of it, how does your team still win despite posting numbers like that? Thank goodness for the pitching in this game. The Aussie and three guys out of the bullpen won this game for the Mariners.
One final 2009 kick at the can for Felix.
The Mariners' fourth win in five games pushed their record to 84-77 after 161 games. This pace is three wins worse than 2007, but seven wins better than 2006, 15 better than 2005, 21 better than 2004, and 24 better than last year. Eighty-four wins is also six worse than 2000, eight worse than 2003, nine worse than 2002, and 32 worse than 2001. Records of other new-millennium Mariner teams when getting the 84th win: 84-66 in 2000, 84-33 in 2001, 84-58 in 2002, 84-62 in 2003, 63-99 in 2004, 69-93 in 2005, 78-84 in 2006, 84-74 in 2007, and 61-101 last year.
Seattle hitting went a combined 10-for-33 in the game, walking twice and striking out six times. They also went an awful 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 runners in all. Josh Wilson had two hits and Ichiro had three hits as the only multi-hit Mariners. Ken Griffey Jr. went 1-for-3 with a walk, so he got aboard twice. Adrian Beltre, Josh Wilson, and Jose Lopez all doubled, and Griffey homered to round out the Mariners' extra-base hit output. Griffey's homer was the 630th of his career. If he came back next year and somehow hit 31 homers to pass Willie Mays, I would probably soil myself.
Griffey has 19 homers on the season with 57 RBIs as a part-time designated hitter. Also, Franklin Gutierrez drove in his 68th run of the season to go with 18 home runs, a .282 batting average, and incredible all-galaxy defense.
Mariner pitching had a great night, as one might expect if they gave up only one run. The starting pitcher will be covered below. The bullpen finished it out with 2 1/3 scoreless innings. Shawn Kelley entered the game with a runner on third and two out in the seventh inning. Kelley promptly walked Ian Kinsler, but then got Michael Young to fly out on the first pitch. Kelley threw two strikes out of six pitches. Garrett Olson gave up a one-out single to Marlon Byrd, but got Chris Davis to line into a double play to end the inning. Olson gave up a hit and didn't strike out or walk anyone. He threw six strikes out of nine pitches, got a groundout and a flyout, and faced three hitters to get three outs. The closer will be covered below.
Gameballs
1) Ichiro
Make it three more hits for the Mariners' leadoff hitter, making it 224 on the season. Of his nine seasons in the Major Leagues, only three have surpassed 224 hits. Again, Ichiro has done this despite missing 16 games this season. Ichiro is a .352 hitter going into the final day of the season, and if that holds up, it'll be his second-best season in terms of batting average, with only 2004 being better. I'm really wishing he could have had 16 extra games. One of Ichiro's streaks that will get broken, however, is the streak of seasons where he's scored 100 runs or more. He'll need to score 13 runs in the final game to keep that streak alive, so basically, that streak is broken. It's amazing to think that since the Gillick era ended, this year's team was the second-best team Ichiro's been on, yet it's with this year's team that Ichiro sees the run-scoring streak broken. It's just nuts knowing that this ballclub has managed to win 84 games despite having such an anemic offense. As we all know, the runs-scored stat says even more about the team than it does Ichiro.
2) Ryan Rowland-Smith
The Aussie made 15 starts at the big-league level this year with 14 coming after his most recent call-up, a week before the trading deadline. He completed at least seven innings in eight of his starts this season. Only his first start back in April and his first start in the month of August saw him not finish at least five innings. Rowland-Smith averaged 6 1/3 innings per start, though if you throw out the anomalous start in April, he averaged 6 2/3 innings per start. Overall, Rowland-Smith's average game saw 2.87 runs (2.67 earned), 5.8 hits, 1.8 walks, 3.5 strikeouts, 6.9 groundouts, 8.8 flyouts, and 100.1 pitches (64.3 strikes). I didn't expect much out of the Aussie when they recalled him in July, but he's been a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately for the Mariners, I think slotting him as a number-two starter behind Felix Hernandez next year is asking way too much from him because I think he's a number-three starter at best. Again, this is where Jack Zduriencik comes in and gets something unexpectedly awesome off the trade market or waiver wire that turns out awesomely. Rowland-Smith in this particular start gave up a run on six hits, walking two and striking out four in 6 2/3 innings. He got eight groundouts and eight flyouts, threw 64 strikes out of 104 pitches, and faced 27 hitters to get 20 outs.
3) Miguel Batista
Why is this guy getting the number-three gameball when Josh Wilson got two hits and probably had his last good game as a Mariner? Well, who the hell holds a 2-1 lead going into the ninth inning and brings in Batista to close it out? On this night, apparently Don Wakamatsu was that guy. Very unexpectedly, what we then saw out of Batista was a 1-2-3 inning. He sandwiched an Elvis Andrus groundout between two swinging strikeouts (Andruw Jones and Taylor Teagarden) to end the game. Since his Roberto Clemente award nomination and this game are probably his only shining moments of the year (okay, maybe I'll give you that murder novel he wrote and released), I'd be remiss not to at least give him the number-three gameball on his way out the door. I'm not sure if the obvious answer to the question is "winning," but why weren't there many engaging personalities with the Mariners after the Gillick era ended? It's like there's no connection like we had with the guys like we did with Edgar Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr., Jay Buhner, Dan Wilson, Jamie Moyer, Randy Johnson, etc. When I know Miguel Batista's going to go, I'm like, "meh," like 90% of the Mariners' existence from 2004 to the present day has been completely faceless.
Goat
Kenji Johjima
It's probably not the worst day Johjima ever had as a Mariner, but it wasn't one of the best. He went 0-for-4, has a number five next to his name in the LOB column, and stranded three runners in the game with two out. What's the anatomy of a day of suck for Johjima? He was caught looking with the bases empty and one out in the second. He grounded out for the first out in the fourth inning, moving Beltre from second to third. He flew out on the second pitch with the bases loaded to end the fifth inning. Lastly, he popped out to the shortstop to end the seventh inning with Jose Lopez still standing on second after a leadoff double. It's a really good thing the Mariners won this game, because that 2-for-17 stat with runners in scoring position is a really damning stat, though the 10 runners stranded is a damning stat as well. Come to think of it, how does your team still win despite posting numbers like that? Thank goodness for the pitching in this game. The Aussie and three guys out of the bullpen won this game for the Mariners.
One final 2009 kick at the can for Felix.
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Saturday, October 03, 2009
GAME 160: RANGERS 7, MARINERS 4
Should I be glad I didn't see this game? I guess I have to admit I saw the last few outs of the game on replay. At that point, though, it appears I was only 10 minutes late if I wanted to watch the game get away from the Mariners. In short, the Mariners fell behind 3-0, erased that deficit and jumped into a 4-3 lead, then frittered away that lead and more over the eighth and ninth innings. Since Ian Snell didn't light the world on fire with his start, Ken Griffey Jr. didn't smack another home run, and Ichiro didn't get any hits, it appears the one positive storyline of this game is that it was the best one in Mike Carp's young Major League career. Not that we were expecting the Mariners to pull it off, but they had to sweep this series for a share of second place in the division. This loss guaranteed a third-place finish for the Mariners. Considering a 101-loss season just a year ago, I think any Mariner fan would have taken a third-place finish without even knowing what the record might be. The fact that it's 83 wins so far is just a bonus.
The loss dropped the Mariners' record to 83-77 after 160 games. This pace is three games worse than the 2007 team, but it's also seven better than the 2006 team, 14 better than the 2005 team, 20 better than the 2004 team, and 24 better than last year. Records of other new-millennium Mariner teams when losing their 77th: 91-71 in 2000, 116-464 in 2001, 93-69 in 2002 and 2003, 46-77 in 2004, 57-77 in 2005, 69-77 in 2006, 88-74 in 2007, and 46-77 last year.
Seattle hitting went 9-for-35 on the night, walking once and striking out 10 times (this despite Bill Hall not being in the lineup). The team went 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded five runners in all. Jose Lopez and Adrian Beltre had two hits apiece while Mike Carp had three hits for the Mariners' multi-hit hitters. Franklin Gutierrez, Josh Wilson, and Beltre doubled for the Mariners' extra-base hit output. Ichiro went hitless, so that couldn't have been very exciting. Griffey didn't pop another three-run homer or even get a hit, so that couldn't have been very exciting either. Actually, if you take those multi-hit Mariners and add up their total, that leaves exactly two hits for the other six hitters in the lineup, and those two other hits are the doubles I already mentioned. As for the litany of strikeouts, every starter that wasn't Carp struck out at least once. Ranger pitchers Brandon McCarthy, Dustin Nippert, CJ Wilson, and Frank Francisco combined for the 10 strikeouts.
It was a sketchy night for the Mariner arms. Ian Snell had a start that was pretty much what you'd expect out of him, at least given his Mariner tenure. He walked people, as usual, and didn't get overly deep into the game, but didn't get tattooed. His first jam was in the second inning. He walked Andruw Jones with one out, then Taylor Teagarden ground-rule doubled to put both runners into scoring position. An Omar Vizquel groundout put the Rangers on the board, and Julio Borbon singled to make it 2-0 before Snell managed to get out of the inning. Snell was touched up again in the third. David Murphy walked to lead off, then Marlon Byrd singled to move Murphy to second. Ian Kinsler bunted the runners over before strikeout artist Chris Davis singled to push Murphy across and move Byrd to third to make it 3-0. Snell got Jones to bounce into a double play to end the inning. Snell pretty much cruised through his final three innings of work. Snell gave up three runs on nine hits, walking three and striking out three in six innings of work. He got six groundouts and nine flyouts, threw 61 strikes out of 100 pitches, and faced 29 hitters to get 18 outs.
Don Wakamatsu decided to empty out the bullpen in this one. Miguel Batista was the first man out of the pen, and he started the seventh. He got a Muprhy groundout, gave up a Byrd single, and got a lineout from Kinsler. Batista threw six strikes out of eight pitches. Garrett Olson then wild-pitched Byrd to second before getting Davis to ground out for the final out of the inning. Olson threw four strikes out of seven pitches. Mark Lowe started the eighth inning. Jones greeted him with a ringing double before Lowe struck out Teagarden. Lowe then walked pinch-hitter Elvis Andrus, but then got Borbon to line out. Unfortunately, the lineup turned over, and Michael Young singled home pinch-runner Esteban German to tie the game at 4-4 and chase Lowe. Lowe gave up a run on two hits, walking one and striking out one in 2/3 inning. He threw 13 strikes out of 21 pitches and faced five hitters to get two outs. Jason Vargas got the final otu of the inning without incident on three pitches. David Aardsma will be covered below. Randy Messenger was greeted with an Andrus double that scored the Rangers' final two runs and set fire to David Aardsma's ERA. Messenger gave up no runs on a hit in 1/3 inning, got a flyout, and threw four strikes out of six pitches.
Gameballs
1) Mike Carp
The Friday night crowd of 27899 was a lot better than what the Mariners were drawing for the Oakland series, so quite a few more people got to witness Mike Carp's best game as a big leaguer. He hit a two-out single in the second to start off the night, hit a two-run single with one out in the fourth to tie the game at 3-3, then legged out an infield single to lead off the six inning before being lifted for Mike Sweeney in the eighth, who promptly struck out looking with Beltre on third base. Carp has three two-hit games as a big leaguer -- June 21st against Arizona, September 3rd at Oakland, and September 15th against the White Sox. His only big-league home run came on September 16th against the White Sox. With seven walks and nine strikeouts, Carp is the anti-Bill Hall. The thing about all this is that the Mariners have all these guys like Carp, Saunders, and Matt Tuiasosopo, and other guys like Jack Hannahan and Bill Hall, and I really have no idea where they're going to fit in because thanks to the nature of Jack Zduriencik, we really don't know how this roster's going to look by the time spring training rolls around.
2) Adrian Beltre
There's no way Beltre was going to homer in consecutive games, but he turned in another 2-for-4 night. Don't look now, but Beltre has had four straight 2-for-4 games, making it an 8-for-16 tear with two doubles and a home run (.813 slugging percentage). I hope Beltre's biggest fan, Red, has been enjoying this, because Beltre's so freakin' gone after this season. I'll really miss his defense, and I just wish it could have worked out better for him here. Of course, I wish the Mariner teams around him could have been better too. Of the five years Beltre has been here in Seattle, three of the teams have been pretty crappy. Still, you could say the same kind of thing for Raul Ibanez and Ichiro, to a lesser extent. You'd have to raise the criteria to "playoff appearances" when you talk about Ichiro, though, and realize the guy hasn't been to the playoffs since his first year on American shores, which is beyond sad. What the hell happened to this team? I can't help but think at least one or two of the Mariners' teams from 1995 to 2003 should have gone to the World Series.
3) Jose Lopez
The Mariners' second baseman went 2-for-4 in the game with an RBI, his 94th of the season. I'd been holding out hope that Lopez might get to 100 RBI, seeing as to how it's probably the best individual single-season milestone left for anyone on this Mariner club. Lopez was sitting at 92 RBIs after the end of the Tampa Bay series on September 23rd. He then went six games without driving in a run, pretty much torpedoing his campaign for the century mark. That said, though, I'd decided quite a while ago that I'd be more than happy if Lopez turned in a 95-RBI season, and he just needs to accidentally drive in a single run over the final two games to accomplish that feat. That six-game RBI drought sunk his 100-RBI thing, but it made Franklin Gutierrez' pursuit if 20 home runs a bit more likely, though that appears to be shelved now unless Gutierrez pops homers in consecutive games to end his fabulous season. Lopez whiffed to end the first inning, legged out an infield single with Gutierrez on second in the fourth, singled Josh Wilson home from third in the fifth to give the Mariners a 4-3 lead, then popped out to lead off the eighth.
Goat
David Aardsma
He lit the match and got a flame going before Randy Messenger threw a giant bottle of lighter fluid onto the fire. Aardsma fell into the trap that for some reason exists with closers. You would think someone with the mentality of a closer could preserve a tie, but there are times where it goes awry. We used to see the same thing with Kazuhiro Sasaki. The sad thing about all this is that Aardsma got the first two hitters out. Then came singles by Davis, German, and Teagarden, and the Rangers had themselves a 5-4 lead. Wakamatsu came out with the hook. Thanks to Messenger letting both of his runners come across, Aardsma's line looks terrible. He's in the books as having given up three runs on three hits in 2/3 inning, walking and striking out none. He got a groundout and a flyout, faced five hitters to get two out, and threw 11 strikes out of 17 pitches. It's not a blown save (Lowe blew his 10th in the eighth inning), but it does drop his record to 3-6 on the season. Part of me was hoping Aardsma would get to 40 saves because this will probably be the best season of his life, but the team let off the gas a bit after mid-July.
The Aussie gets one final kick at the can for the year tonight, one hour earlier.
The loss dropped the Mariners' record to 83-77 after 160 games. This pace is three games worse than the 2007 team, but it's also seven better than the 2006 team, 14 better than the 2005 team, 20 better than the 2004 team, and 24 better than last year. Records of other new-millennium Mariner teams when losing their 77th: 91-71 in 2000, 116-464 in 2001, 93-69 in 2002 and 2003, 46-77 in 2004, 57-77 in 2005, 69-77 in 2006, 88-74 in 2007, and 46-77 last year.
Seattle hitting went 9-for-35 on the night, walking once and striking out 10 times (this despite Bill Hall not being in the lineup). The team went 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded five runners in all. Jose Lopez and Adrian Beltre had two hits apiece while Mike Carp had three hits for the Mariners' multi-hit hitters. Franklin Gutierrez, Josh Wilson, and Beltre doubled for the Mariners' extra-base hit output. Ichiro went hitless, so that couldn't have been very exciting. Griffey didn't pop another three-run homer or even get a hit, so that couldn't have been very exciting either. Actually, if you take those multi-hit Mariners and add up their total, that leaves exactly two hits for the other six hitters in the lineup, and those two other hits are the doubles I already mentioned. As for the litany of strikeouts, every starter that wasn't Carp struck out at least once. Ranger pitchers Brandon McCarthy, Dustin Nippert, CJ Wilson, and Frank Francisco combined for the 10 strikeouts.
It was a sketchy night for the Mariner arms. Ian Snell had a start that was pretty much what you'd expect out of him, at least given his Mariner tenure. He walked people, as usual, and didn't get overly deep into the game, but didn't get tattooed. His first jam was in the second inning. He walked Andruw Jones with one out, then Taylor Teagarden ground-rule doubled to put both runners into scoring position. An Omar Vizquel groundout put the Rangers on the board, and Julio Borbon singled to make it 2-0 before Snell managed to get out of the inning. Snell was touched up again in the third. David Murphy walked to lead off, then Marlon Byrd singled to move Murphy to second. Ian Kinsler bunted the runners over before strikeout artist Chris Davis singled to push Murphy across and move Byrd to third to make it 3-0. Snell got Jones to bounce into a double play to end the inning. Snell pretty much cruised through his final three innings of work. Snell gave up three runs on nine hits, walking three and striking out three in six innings of work. He got six groundouts and nine flyouts, threw 61 strikes out of 100 pitches, and faced 29 hitters to get 18 outs.
Don Wakamatsu decided to empty out the bullpen in this one. Miguel Batista was the first man out of the pen, and he started the seventh. He got a Muprhy groundout, gave up a Byrd single, and got a lineout from Kinsler. Batista threw six strikes out of eight pitches. Garrett Olson then wild-pitched Byrd to second before getting Davis to ground out for the final out of the inning. Olson threw four strikes out of seven pitches. Mark Lowe started the eighth inning. Jones greeted him with a ringing double before Lowe struck out Teagarden. Lowe then walked pinch-hitter Elvis Andrus, but then got Borbon to line out. Unfortunately, the lineup turned over, and Michael Young singled home pinch-runner Esteban German to tie the game at 4-4 and chase Lowe. Lowe gave up a run on two hits, walking one and striking out one in 2/3 inning. He threw 13 strikes out of 21 pitches and faced five hitters to get two outs. Jason Vargas got the final otu of the inning without incident on three pitches. David Aardsma will be covered below. Randy Messenger was greeted with an Andrus double that scored the Rangers' final two runs and set fire to David Aardsma's ERA. Messenger gave up no runs on a hit in 1/3 inning, got a flyout, and threw four strikes out of six pitches.
Gameballs
1) Mike Carp
The Friday night crowd of 27899 was a lot better than what the Mariners were drawing for the Oakland series, so quite a few more people got to witness Mike Carp's best game as a big leaguer. He hit a two-out single in the second to start off the night, hit a two-run single with one out in the fourth to tie the game at 3-3, then legged out an infield single to lead off the six inning before being lifted for Mike Sweeney in the eighth, who promptly struck out looking with Beltre on third base. Carp has three two-hit games as a big leaguer -- June 21st against Arizona, September 3rd at Oakland, and September 15th against the White Sox. His only big-league home run came on September 16th against the White Sox. With seven walks and nine strikeouts, Carp is the anti-Bill Hall. The thing about all this is that the Mariners have all these guys like Carp, Saunders, and Matt Tuiasosopo, and other guys like Jack Hannahan and Bill Hall, and I really have no idea where they're going to fit in because thanks to the nature of Jack Zduriencik, we really don't know how this roster's going to look by the time spring training rolls around.
2) Adrian Beltre
There's no way Beltre was going to homer in consecutive games, but he turned in another 2-for-4 night. Don't look now, but Beltre has had four straight 2-for-4 games, making it an 8-for-16 tear with two doubles and a home run (.813 slugging percentage). I hope Beltre's biggest fan, Red, has been enjoying this, because Beltre's so freakin' gone after this season. I'll really miss his defense, and I just wish it could have worked out better for him here. Of course, I wish the Mariner teams around him could have been better too. Of the five years Beltre has been here in Seattle, three of the teams have been pretty crappy. Still, you could say the same kind of thing for Raul Ibanez and Ichiro, to a lesser extent. You'd have to raise the criteria to "playoff appearances" when you talk about Ichiro, though, and realize the guy hasn't been to the playoffs since his first year on American shores, which is beyond sad. What the hell happened to this team? I can't help but think at least one or two of the Mariners' teams from 1995 to 2003 should have gone to the World Series.
3) Jose Lopez
The Mariners' second baseman went 2-for-4 in the game with an RBI, his 94th of the season. I'd been holding out hope that Lopez might get to 100 RBI, seeing as to how it's probably the best individual single-season milestone left for anyone on this Mariner club. Lopez was sitting at 92 RBIs after the end of the Tampa Bay series on September 23rd. He then went six games without driving in a run, pretty much torpedoing his campaign for the century mark. That said, though, I'd decided quite a while ago that I'd be more than happy if Lopez turned in a 95-RBI season, and he just needs to accidentally drive in a single run over the final two games to accomplish that feat. That six-game RBI drought sunk his 100-RBI thing, but it made Franklin Gutierrez' pursuit if 20 home runs a bit more likely, though that appears to be shelved now unless Gutierrez pops homers in consecutive games to end his fabulous season. Lopez whiffed to end the first inning, legged out an infield single with Gutierrez on second in the fourth, singled Josh Wilson home from third in the fifth to give the Mariners a 4-3 lead, then popped out to lead off the eighth.
Goat
David Aardsma
He lit the match and got a flame going before Randy Messenger threw a giant bottle of lighter fluid onto the fire. Aardsma fell into the trap that for some reason exists with closers. You would think someone with the mentality of a closer could preserve a tie, but there are times where it goes awry. We used to see the same thing with Kazuhiro Sasaki. The sad thing about all this is that Aardsma got the first two hitters out. Then came singles by Davis, German, and Teagarden, and the Rangers had themselves a 5-4 lead. Wakamatsu came out with the hook. Thanks to Messenger letting both of his runners come across, Aardsma's line looks terrible. He's in the books as having given up three runs on three hits in 2/3 inning, walking and striking out none. He got a groundout and a flyout, faced five hitters to get two out, and threw 11 strikes out of 17 pitches. It's not a blown save (Lowe blew his 10th in the eighth inning), but it does drop his record to 3-6 on the season. Part of me was hoping Aardsma would get to 40 saves because this will probably be the best season of his life, but the team let off the gas a bit after mid-July.
The Aussie gets one final kick at the can for the year tonight, one hour earlier.
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Friday, October 02, 2009
GAME 158: MARINERS 4, ATHLETICS 2
I caught most of this on the replay broadcast due to Canucks/Flames opening night. The Iron Fister turned in a great start, as since the Mariners got their third straight great start, it means a three-game winning streak for the Mariners. The Mariners could run the table and finish with 86 wins, but for now, they have 83 wins, which is still a 21-game improvement over last season, which is monumental. Also, the ballgame was over before the hockey game was over, so it was a nice quick game and quick pace by Fister. It also helped that all of the pitchers in the game only combined to walk two hitters. That's pretty rare. Pinpoint control by everyone involved. Rare happenings in this game included an Adrian Beltre home run and the first big-league stolen base for Adam Moore. Honestly, I thought Moore was very out on his stolen-base attempt, and you could see the look of surprise on the Oakland middle infielders' faces when he was called safe. All told, it's always good when the Mariners can sweep Oakland because they're still Oakland, no matter how bad they are.
The Mariners' third straight win upped their record to 83-76 after 159 games. This pace is two games worse than the 2007 pace, but seven better than 2006, 15 better than 2005, 21 better than 2004, and 25 better than last year. Eighty-three wins is also six worse than 2000, seven worse than 2003, nine worse than 2002, and 31 worse than 2001. Other new-millennium Mariner teams' records at win number 83: 83-66 in 2000, 83-31 in 2001, 83-58 in 2002, 83-62 in 2003, 63-99 in 2004, 69-93 in 2005, 78-84 in 2006, 83-71 in 2007, and 61-101 last year.
Seattle hitting went 8-for-31 on the night, walking once and striking out seven times. They also went 2-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded four runners in all. Ichiro and Adrian Beltre got two hits apiece as the only multi-hit Mariners. Franklin Gutierrez doubled and Beltre homered for the Mariners' only extra-base hits. Bill Hall, Adam Moore, and Josh Wilson struck out twice apiece.
Mariner pitching again had a pretty good night. The starting pitcher will be covered below. Mark Lowe came in for the eighth inning and allowed only a two-out single to Rajai Davis, a ball that barely eluded Josh Wilson at short. Lowe allowed one hit and struck out one in his shutout inning of work, getting two flyouts along the way. He threw eight strikes out of 10 pitches and faced four hitters to get three outs. David Aardsma had another imperfect outing but still nailed down the save. Jack Cust greeted Aardsma by homering into the visitors' bullpen near the camera well in left, cutting the Mariners' lead to 4-2. From there, though, it was fairly smooth sailing. Daric Barton grounded out and Mark Ellis flew out. Aardsma fell behind 2-0 and 3-1 on Eric Patterson, but came back to make him swing at strike three. Aardsma gave up a run on one hit, walking none and striking out one. He threw 13 strikes out of 21 pitches and faced four hitters to get three outs.
Gameballs
1) Doug Fister
The Mariners have won three straight, and while part of it's probably a function of the Mariners facing a horrid team such as the Oakland Athletics, it's also because the Mariners have gotten three great starts in a row from their starting pitchers. The Iron Fister kept this going, cruising through seven innings. Hilariously, his only walk was the first hitter of the game, Adam Kennedy, who fouled off the first pitch and took the next four for balls. Davis was the next hitter, and he grounded into a double play to end the threat. In the second, Cust singled to lead off and went to third on a two-out Patterson single, but Fister got the final out without incident. Kurt Suzuki tripled to lead off the fourth and came home on Barton's one-out double to tie the score at 1-1. Fister retired the final seven hitters he faced. He gave up a run on five hits in seven innings, walking one and striking out four. He got seven groundouts and 10 flyouts, throwing 70 strikes out of 107 pitches, and facing 26 hitters to get 21 outs. I guess we have to ask ourselves how many people out of Fister, Jason Vargas, Garrett Olson, and Luke French we want to see as starters for the Mariners next season.
2) Adrian Beltre
Anyone watching this game more than likely saw Beltre's last home run as a Mariner. What a horrific season this has been for the guy. He missed over a month (July), then another three weeks for Testiclegate. He had a single and a home run in this game, but you know what kind of year it's been for Beltre if the homer was only his eighth of the season. I guess the scary thing could be who would replace Beltre at third base next year, but really anything is speculation until at least the end of the winter meetings, since Jack Zduriencik is Jack Zduriencik. To me, it seems there's no one suitable on the roster right now to be an everyday leftfielder or an everyday third baseman next year. Truth is, Beltre might be really cheap next year, but even if the Mariners wanted to bring him back, I don't think Beltre would want to come back. The one man that would be the most sore about this would be Beltre's biggest fan, Red. You know, the fan with the red hair, Beltre jersey, and the three-foot picture of Beltre's head on a stick? Surely you do.
3) Ichiro
Though he had two singles that probably weren't as eventful as Mike Sweeney's two-run single, it's still Ichiro, and it's still two hits. The two hits were Ichiro's 220th and 221st of the season. With three games remaining in the season, Ichiro is a .352 hitter with 221 hits on the season, this despite missing 16 games. Playing the hypothetical game, if you extrapolated Ichiro's .352 average over the 64 at-bats he won't get, he could have 23 more hits, which would put him at 244 hits right now. Even 221 hits is a better mark than Ichiro's hit totals in 2002, 2003, 2005, and last year. Four more hits this season out of Ichiro would have him eclipse his 2006 hit total as well. As you might guess, the extrapolated hit total (248) would be better than every season other than the crazy 262-hit record-breaking season. That's not a surprise, since Ichiro was on such a torrid pace at times this season. Still, with Ichiro and Franklin Gutierrez cemented in center and right, the Mariners have to have a bat with pop in leftfield.
Goat
Bill Hall
...and unless this guy hits .275 and shows 30-homer pop, I don't want Hall to be the guy in leftfield. What he he proven so far? He's an athlete who can play multiple positions, and the Mariners seem to be big fans of that. He has the potential for pop and can really hit the ball hard. What he's really good at, though, is striking out. He struck out 13 times in August and 32 times in September. Add two more in this game, and he's struck out 45 times as a Mariner. By comparison, he walked six times in August and 10 times in September. He's struck out 45 times in 117 at-bats, in other words, 38.5% of the time. It's one thing if he's Adam Dunn, Mark Reynolds, or even Mike Cameron. I guess I'll chalk it up to league adjustment, but if it's not that, I'm not sure I can put up with a full year of Bill Hall. Again, though, we don't even really know what kind of role Hall might play next year for at least a few months. I just need to see Hall hit at least .270 if he's going to strike out as much as he's done so far as a Mariner.
Can't you Snell that Snell?
The Mariners' third straight win upped their record to 83-76 after 159 games. This pace is two games worse than the 2007 pace, but seven better than 2006, 15 better than 2005, 21 better than 2004, and 25 better than last year. Eighty-three wins is also six worse than 2000, seven worse than 2003, nine worse than 2002, and 31 worse than 2001. Other new-millennium Mariner teams' records at win number 83: 83-66 in 2000, 83-31 in 2001, 83-58 in 2002, 83-62 in 2003, 63-99 in 2004, 69-93 in 2005, 78-84 in 2006, 83-71 in 2007, and 61-101 last year.
Seattle hitting went 8-for-31 on the night, walking once and striking out seven times. They also went 2-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded four runners in all. Ichiro and Adrian Beltre got two hits apiece as the only multi-hit Mariners. Franklin Gutierrez doubled and Beltre homered for the Mariners' only extra-base hits. Bill Hall, Adam Moore, and Josh Wilson struck out twice apiece.
Mariner pitching again had a pretty good night. The starting pitcher will be covered below. Mark Lowe came in for the eighth inning and allowed only a two-out single to Rajai Davis, a ball that barely eluded Josh Wilson at short. Lowe allowed one hit and struck out one in his shutout inning of work, getting two flyouts along the way. He threw eight strikes out of 10 pitches and faced four hitters to get three outs. David Aardsma had another imperfect outing but still nailed down the save. Jack Cust greeted Aardsma by homering into the visitors' bullpen near the camera well in left, cutting the Mariners' lead to 4-2. From there, though, it was fairly smooth sailing. Daric Barton grounded out and Mark Ellis flew out. Aardsma fell behind 2-0 and 3-1 on Eric Patterson, but came back to make him swing at strike three. Aardsma gave up a run on one hit, walking none and striking out one. He threw 13 strikes out of 21 pitches and faced four hitters to get three outs.
Gameballs
1) Doug Fister
The Mariners have won three straight, and while part of it's probably a function of the Mariners facing a horrid team such as the Oakland Athletics, it's also because the Mariners have gotten three great starts in a row from their starting pitchers. The Iron Fister kept this going, cruising through seven innings. Hilariously, his only walk was the first hitter of the game, Adam Kennedy, who fouled off the first pitch and took the next four for balls. Davis was the next hitter, and he grounded into a double play to end the threat. In the second, Cust singled to lead off and went to third on a two-out Patterson single, but Fister got the final out without incident. Kurt Suzuki tripled to lead off the fourth and came home on Barton's one-out double to tie the score at 1-1. Fister retired the final seven hitters he faced. He gave up a run on five hits in seven innings, walking one and striking out four. He got seven groundouts and 10 flyouts, throwing 70 strikes out of 107 pitches, and facing 26 hitters to get 21 outs. I guess we have to ask ourselves how many people out of Fister, Jason Vargas, Garrett Olson, and Luke French we want to see as starters for the Mariners next season.
2) Adrian Beltre
Anyone watching this game more than likely saw Beltre's last home run as a Mariner. What a horrific season this has been for the guy. He missed over a month (July), then another three weeks for Testiclegate. He had a single and a home run in this game, but you know what kind of year it's been for Beltre if the homer was only his eighth of the season. I guess the scary thing could be who would replace Beltre at third base next year, but really anything is speculation until at least the end of the winter meetings, since Jack Zduriencik is Jack Zduriencik. To me, it seems there's no one suitable on the roster right now to be an everyday leftfielder or an everyday third baseman next year. Truth is, Beltre might be really cheap next year, but even if the Mariners wanted to bring him back, I don't think Beltre would want to come back. The one man that would be the most sore about this would be Beltre's biggest fan, Red. You know, the fan with the red hair, Beltre jersey, and the three-foot picture of Beltre's head on a stick? Surely you do.
3) Ichiro
Though he had two singles that probably weren't as eventful as Mike Sweeney's two-run single, it's still Ichiro, and it's still two hits. The two hits were Ichiro's 220th and 221st of the season. With three games remaining in the season, Ichiro is a .352 hitter with 221 hits on the season, this despite missing 16 games. Playing the hypothetical game, if you extrapolated Ichiro's .352 average over the 64 at-bats he won't get, he could have 23 more hits, which would put him at 244 hits right now. Even 221 hits is a better mark than Ichiro's hit totals in 2002, 2003, 2005, and last year. Four more hits this season out of Ichiro would have him eclipse his 2006 hit total as well. As you might guess, the extrapolated hit total (248) would be better than every season other than the crazy 262-hit record-breaking season. That's not a surprise, since Ichiro was on such a torrid pace at times this season. Still, with Ichiro and Franklin Gutierrez cemented in center and right, the Mariners have to have a bat with pop in leftfield.
Goat
Bill Hall
...and unless this guy hits .275 and shows 30-homer pop, I don't want Hall to be the guy in leftfield. What he he proven so far? He's an athlete who can play multiple positions, and the Mariners seem to be big fans of that. He has the potential for pop and can really hit the ball hard. What he's really good at, though, is striking out. He struck out 13 times in August and 32 times in September. Add two more in this game, and he's struck out 45 times as a Mariner. By comparison, he walked six times in August and 10 times in September. He's struck out 45 times in 117 at-bats, in other words, 38.5% of the time. It's one thing if he's Adam Dunn, Mark Reynolds, or even Mike Cameron. I guess I'll chalk it up to league adjustment, but if it's not that, I'm not sure I can put up with a full year of Bill Hall. Again, though, we don't even really know what kind of role Hall might play next year for at least a few months. I just need to see Hall hit at least .270 if he's going to strike out as much as he's done so far as a Mariner.
Can't you Snell that Snell?
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Thursday, October 01, 2009
GAME 158: MARINERS 7, ATHLETICS 0
The game was out of doubt pretty early on, but the big picture didn't change -- this win guaranteed a winning season for the Mariners. Yes, 2009 is a winning season, just one year after a completely unwatchable Mariner team lost 101 games. I expected maybe the mid-70s in the win column, maybe an incremental improvement on last year, but to have a winning season? Given what the Mariners have gone through since the end of the Pat Gillick era, I won't be scoffing at any winning seasons for a while. At least not until the expectations rise again and we're not content with just playoff appearances, but that's probably at least three years away. Also, in probably his final homestand, Ken Griffey Jr. hit a three-run homer for the second straight game, this one putting the Mariners on the board with a 3-0 lead in the first inning. The Mariners led 4-0 after the first inning and 6-0 after the second inning, and the game was pretty much in cruise control. I don't have the attendance numbers within reach, but just looking at the pre-game pan shots of the crowd, it was looking pretty sparse out there. Hopefully the weekend is different.
This win pushed the Mariners' record to 82-76 after 158 games. This is two wins worse than the 2007 team's pace at this point, but it's also six better than 2006, 15 better than 2005, 20 better than 2004, and 24 better than last year. Eighty-two wins is also seven worse than 2000, eight worse than 2003, 10 worse than 2002, and 31 worse than 2001. Other Mariner teams' records when winning their 82nd game: 82-66 in 2000, 82-31 in 2001, 82-58 in 2002, 82-59 in 2003, 63-99 in 2004, 69-93 in 2005, 78-84 in 2006, 82-71 in 2007, and 61-101 last year.
Seattle hitting went 12-for-36 on the night, walking once and striking out 10 times. They also went 5-for-13 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven runners in all. Multi-hit games were turned in by Ichiro, Franklin Gutierrez, Adrian Beltre, and Michael Saunders. Jack Hannahan and Jose Lopez both doubled, Ichiro and Saunders both tripled, and Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Moore both homered. Lopez's double was his 40th of the season to go with his 25 home runs. Moore's homer was his first as a big leaguer. Griffey's three-run homer (his second in back-to-back nights) was the big blow in the first inning, allowing Morrow to cruise. Lopez, Griffey, Moore, and Josh Wilson struck out twice each.
The Mariner arms had a good night, as one might guess since Oakland was shut out. The starting pitcher will be covered below. Shawn Kelley threw the ninth inning and successfully protected a 7-0 lead. He gave up only a two-out single to Landon Powell, the only Oakland hit of the game that reached the outfield. Kelley got a flyout from Adam Kennedy to lead off before striking out Rajai Davis and Jack Cust. Kelley threw 12 strikes out of 20 pitches and faced four hitters to get three outs.
Gameballs
1) Brandon Morrow
There were moments in this game where I was reminded of the broken-up perfect game Morrow threw against the Yankees. It was apparent pretty early on that Morrow was dealing and had great command of all of his pitches, and he was throwing just enough breaking stuff. As the game went on, I started realizing things like -- hey, has he given up a hit yet? Has he walked anybody yet? The only hit Morrow gave up was on a one-out roller up the middle by Rajai Davis. Josh Wilson made a really nice play to plug up the hole and throw quickly to first, and only the breakneck speed of Davis kept it from being eight no-hit innings for Morrow. Other than that, it was seven incredible innings and one slightly cumbersome one. The eighth inning finally saw Morrow lose the radar as he allowed consecutive walks with two out before getting a flyout to mercifully end the inning. If not for the two walks, we're probably looking at a complete-game shutout for Morrow. Nonetheless, he retired the first 10 Oakland hitters, then retired the next 13 after the Davis single. This easily is in the top three of all of Morrow's big-league starts. Morrow gave up one hit in eight shutout innings, walking two and striking out a career-high nine. He got five groundouts and 10 flyouts, threw 70 strikes out of 105 pitches, and faced 27 hitters to get 24 outs.
2) Franklin Gutierrez
The injury to Russell Branyan has opened up the number-two spot in the lineup to the more obvious choice to fill that role, and it's Gutierrez. This game saw him go 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. He scored two runs and struck out once. The RBI was his 67th of the season to go with 18 home runs and a .282 batting average. This guy has been nothing short of awesome this year, surpassing even my most optimistic expectations. I was the guy that would be content with him hitting .240 if he was playing that kind of defense out in centerfield. Instead, we see that kind of defense along with a .282 hitter with 18 homers and 67 RBIs. The future is so bright I have to wear shades or something, except this is for optimism and not a nuclear winter like in the musical reference. Gutierrez moved Ichiro to second with a nobody-out single in the first. He singled again in the second with nobody out, but that scored Ichiro from third to make it 5-0. Gutierrez walked with two out and Michael Saunders on third base in the third inning.
3) Michael Saunders
This kid just cannot buy a home run. I don't think he'll be hitting one this season. He's got four games left to do it, but he probably won't be playing all four of those games (more like two). It's been 114 at-bats, and he'd be hard-pressed to get any closer than he did with the hit that went for a triple -- it was a well-struck line drive that needed about one more foot of vertical to clear the rightfield wall. He came very very close. Instead, it banked off the wall and got away from rightfielder Travis Buck, and Saunders sprinted all the way to third since he has crazy speed. Saunders' other hit was a one-out single in the eighth inning. Don Wakamatsu has given Saunders a good deal of playing time since the call-up before the deadline, and it appears he's being groomed to be the everyday leftfielder for years to come, but is that a good thing? The Mariners are sacrificing enough power hitting with their rightfielder, so can they really afford that in left? There's a chance Jose Lopez will be the only carryover power hitter on next year's team. I guess it's up to Jack Zduriencik to uncover some more power somewhere on the wires.
Goat
Josh Wilson
He made the nice play and nearly preserved Brandon Morrow's then-perfect game, but Rajai Davis proved to be just too quick of a runner. That's the good news, but the reason Wilson is here is because he was the only hitless Mariner on the night (not counting Kenji Johjima, who was hitless, but also got hit above the body armor above the left elbow). I still think this guy's played himself onto a Major League roster for next year and could probably play 80-90 games or something. He's a .201 hitter on the year, which is bad, but I can't count the number of times where I say to myself, "how did Ronny Cedeno get any playing time over this guy?" In the big scheme of things, though, he shouldn't be a Mariner next year because he can't hit consistently. Thus, with Josh Wilson and Rob Johnson, for me it's a big "thanks, but no thanks" when I think about their relation to the Mariners' plans for next season. Josh Wilson hopefully will be supplanted by a healthy Jack Wilson that can actually hit (unless they move him too), and Johnson saw Adam Moore hit an opposite-field homer in this game, so he's basically screwed.
The Iron Fister will end the series against Oakland.
This win pushed the Mariners' record to 82-76 after 158 games. This is two wins worse than the 2007 team's pace at this point, but it's also six better than 2006, 15 better than 2005, 20 better than 2004, and 24 better than last year. Eighty-two wins is also seven worse than 2000, eight worse than 2003, 10 worse than 2002, and 31 worse than 2001. Other Mariner teams' records when winning their 82nd game: 82-66 in 2000, 82-31 in 2001, 82-58 in 2002, 82-59 in 2003, 63-99 in 2004, 69-93 in 2005, 78-84 in 2006, 82-71 in 2007, and 61-101 last year.
Seattle hitting went 12-for-36 on the night, walking once and striking out 10 times. They also went 5-for-13 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven runners in all. Multi-hit games were turned in by Ichiro, Franklin Gutierrez, Adrian Beltre, and Michael Saunders. Jack Hannahan and Jose Lopez both doubled, Ichiro and Saunders both tripled, and Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Moore both homered. Lopez's double was his 40th of the season to go with his 25 home runs. Moore's homer was his first as a big leaguer. Griffey's three-run homer (his second in back-to-back nights) was the big blow in the first inning, allowing Morrow to cruise. Lopez, Griffey, Moore, and Josh Wilson struck out twice each.
The Mariner arms had a good night, as one might guess since Oakland was shut out. The starting pitcher will be covered below. Shawn Kelley threw the ninth inning and successfully protected a 7-0 lead. He gave up only a two-out single to Landon Powell, the only Oakland hit of the game that reached the outfield. Kelley got a flyout from Adam Kennedy to lead off before striking out Rajai Davis and Jack Cust. Kelley threw 12 strikes out of 20 pitches and faced four hitters to get three outs.
Gameballs
1) Brandon Morrow
There were moments in this game where I was reminded of the broken-up perfect game Morrow threw against the Yankees. It was apparent pretty early on that Morrow was dealing and had great command of all of his pitches, and he was throwing just enough breaking stuff. As the game went on, I started realizing things like -- hey, has he given up a hit yet? Has he walked anybody yet? The only hit Morrow gave up was on a one-out roller up the middle by Rajai Davis. Josh Wilson made a really nice play to plug up the hole and throw quickly to first, and only the breakneck speed of Davis kept it from being eight no-hit innings for Morrow. Other than that, it was seven incredible innings and one slightly cumbersome one. The eighth inning finally saw Morrow lose the radar as he allowed consecutive walks with two out before getting a flyout to mercifully end the inning. If not for the two walks, we're probably looking at a complete-game shutout for Morrow. Nonetheless, he retired the first 10 Oakland hitters, then retired the next 13 after the Davis single. This easily is in the top three of all of Morrow's big-league starts. Morrow gave up one hit in eight shutout innings, walking two and striking out a career-high nine. He got five groundouts and 10 flyouts, threw 70 strikes out of 105 pitches, and faced 27 hitters to get 24 outs.
2) Franklin Gutierrez
The injury to Russell Branyan has opened up the number-two spot in the lineup to the more obvious choice to fill that role, and it's Gutierrez. This game saw him go 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. He scored two runs and struck out once. The RBI was his 67th of the season to go with 18 home runs and a .282 batting average. This guy has been nothing short of awesome this year, surpassing even my most optimistic expectations. I was the guy that would be content with him hitting .240 if he was playing that kind of defense out in centerfield. Instead, we see that kind of defense along with a .282 hitter with 18 homers and 67 RBIs. The future is so bright I have to wear shades or something, except this is for optimism and not a nuclear winter like in the musical reference. Gutierrez moved Ichiro to second with a nobody-out single in the first. He singled again in the second with nobody out, but that scored Ichiro from third to make it 5-0. Gutierrez walked with two out and Michael Saunders on third base in the third inning.
3) Michael Saunders
This kid just cannot buy a home run. I don't think he'll be hitting one this season. He's got four games left to do it, but he probably won't be playing all four of those games (more like two). It's been 114 at-bats, and he'd be hard-pressed to get any closer than he did with the hit that went for a triple -- it was a well-struck line drive that needed about one more foot of vertical to clear the rightfield wall. He came very very close. Instead, it banked off the wall and got away from rightfielder Travis Buck, and Saunders sprinted all the way to third since he has crazy speed. Saunders' other hit was a one-out single in the eighth inning. Don Wakamatsu has given Saunders a good deal of playing time since the call-up before the deadline, and it appears he's being groomed to be the everyday leftfielder for years to come, but is that a good thing? The Mariners are sacrificing enough power hitting with their rightfielder, so can they really afford that in left? There's a chance Jose Lopez will be the only carryover power hitter on next year's team. I guess it's up to Jack Zduriencik to uncover some more power somewhere on the wires.
Goat
Josh Wilson
He made the nice play and nearly preserved Brandon Morrow's then-perfect game, but Rajai Davis proved to be just too quick of a runner. That's the good news, but the reason Wilson is here is because he was the only hitless Mariner on the night (not counting Kenji Johjima, who was hitless, but also got hit above the body armor above the left elbow). I still think this guy's played himself onto a Major League roster for next year and could probably play 80-90 games or something. He's a .201 hitter on the year, which is bad, but I can't count the number of times where I say to myself, "how did Ronny Cedeno get any playing time over this guy?" In the big scheme of things, though, he shouldn't be a Mariner next year because he can't hit consistently. Thus, with Josh Wilson and Rob Johnson, for me it's a big "thanks, but no thanks" when I think about their relation to the Mariners' plans for next season. Josh Wilson hopefully will be supplanted by a healthy Jack Wilson that can actually hit (unless they move him too), and Johnson saw Adam Moore hit an opposite-field homer in this game, so he's basically screwed.
The Iron Fister will end the series against Oakland.
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Wednesday, September 30, 2009
GAME 157: MARINERS 6, ATHLETICS 4
The Mariners snapped a three-game losing streak thanks to this win, but really, it was just another fun chance to watch Felix Hernandez pitch. He's awesome, and we know this, but we know what kind of year it's been for him when he can fight through not having his grade-A stuff and still throw into the eighth inning. It's incredible. When Felix first came up, Mariner fans were brimming with anticipation and hoped Felix would get incrementally better. He had a bit of growing pains, sure, and we patiently waited for Felix to turn the corner, and this year he finally did. The crowd at the game looked sparse, and the factors for this are many -- school's very much in session, the weather was a bit inclement and cold, etc. Today may have been the first time since April that I decided it was long-pants cold. Of course, the weather doesn't matter to Felix, who will defiantly wear his long sleeves no matter how hot the weather. Again pertaining to the crowd, it appears the larger crowds must be waiting for the weekend before people will want to see what could be their final glimpse of Ken Griffey Jr.
This win pushed the Mariners' record to 81-76 after 157 games, guaranteeing this won't be a losing season. The record at this point is two games worse than the 2007 team, but five better than 2006, 14 better than 2005, 20 better than 2004, and 23 better than last year. Eighty-one wins is also seven wins worse than 2000, nine worse than 2003, 10 worse than 2002, and 31 worse than 2001. Records of other Mariner teams when winning their 81st game: 81-66 in 2000, 81-31 in 2001, 81-57 in 2002 and 2003, 63-99 in 2004, 69-93 in 2005, 78-84 in 2006, 81-70 in 2007, and 61-101 last year.
Seattle hitting went a combined 9-for-32 on the night, walking twice and striking out five times. They went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranded six runners in all. Adrian Beltre and Josh Wilson had two hits apiece as the only multi-hit Mariners, and they both doubled. Bill Hall also doubled, and Ken Griffey Jr. homered to account for the rest of the Mariners' extra-base hits. Ichiro picked up his 217th hit of the season with five games remaining in the season. Despite missing 16 games this season, Ichiro has already surpassed his hit totals from 2002, 2003, 2005, and last year. If he collects more than seven hits over the final five games, Ichiro can also eclipse his 224-hit season from 2006. Again, this is despite missing 16 games due to injury. He's at .351 on the season, which roughly matches his .351 season in 2007 and is below only his crazy 2004 season when he finished with a .372 mark. Jose Lopez is still sitting at 92 RBIs after another RBI-less night, his sixth straight. I thought after Ichiro got his milestone that Lopez getting to 100 RBIs would be the final attainable individual Mariner goal, but now it seems a more likely scenario would involve Franklin Gutierrez popping two more home runs and finishing with a 20-homer season.
The Mariner arms had a fairly decent night. The starter and the closer will be covered below. Mark Lowe came into the eighth inning with the bases loaded and two out and the Mariners ahead 6-2. Lowe got Cliff Pennington to go down swinging to end the threat. Lowe four pitches, all strikes, to the only hitter he faced. This snapped Lowe's two-outing crappy streak.
Gameballs
1) Felix Hernandez
Like I mentioned in the intro paragraph, Felix has absolutely turned a corner this season. If there's only one fact to support that statement, it's that he can struggle for an inning or two, yet when you look at the boxscore a few hours later, there he is with a start of seven or more innings and two or three runs or less. I guess I'm putting him here at the number-one gameball, which I wouldn't normally do if he's walking four hitters in a game like he did here. It started oddly enough as Felix threw a 1-2-3 first inning, then hti Kurt Suzuki with a pitch to lead off the second inning, then the next hitter walked. A strikeout and a double play ended that threat. A one-out Jack Cust walk in the fourth came around to score after a wild pitch pushed him to second, a groundout pushed him to third, then a Mark Ellis single pushed Cust across with the tying run at 1-1. Eric Patterson then singled, and the throw to third was late, so that made it two in scoring position with two out, but a foul pop ended that. Felix had seet down eight straight before Patterson singled with one out in the seventh. Pennington then singled to make it two on with one out, but Felix got the next two hitters out. Finally, Felix allowed consecutive singles to lead off the eighth. A grounder resulted in an out and runners at the corners, then Daric Barton's fly ball scored Travis Buck to make it 6-2. Felix hit Ellis with a pitch, then walked Patterson to load the bases and earn a trip to the showers. It used to be a five-inning start when Felix struggled this badly, but these days he's into the eighth. Felix gave up two runs on seven hits, walking four and striking out four in 7 2/3 innings of work. He got 11 groundouts and eight flyouts, threw 69 strikes out of 120 pitches, and faced 35 hitters to get 23 outs.
2) Ken Griffey Jr.
There's five games remaining after this game, and it appears there's a little bit more memory-making juice left in that bat of his. With two runners aboard and one out in the fifth inning, Griffey jumped all over Trevor Cahill's first pitch and sent it into the rightfield stands to make it a 5-1 lead for the Mariners. He also drew a leadoff four-pitch walk in the second inning, was pushed to third on a double by Beltre, and scored on a Bill Hall groundout for the first run of the game. Griffey struck out with runners on the corners to end the third inning, then struck out with the bases empty and one out in the seventh. He had time off from August 28th to September 2nd, and while I'm sure his knee was swelling and stuff, the rest probably was given to rest him up for the final stretch. Somehow I get the feeling we won't be seeing a lot of Mike Sweeney at all on this final homestand. The .214 hitter this season will definitely get the applause, though I'm hoping his cohort in clubhouse cohesiveness (and .283 hitter) will get some pinch-hit love.
3) Adrian Beltre
The Mariners' third baseman went 2-for-4 with a double and drilled the ball on the two hits he had. It almost made me harken back to other times in the Beltre era in Seattle. Sadly, while hopefully none of us were stupid enough to think Beltre had to have a 48-homer season to fulfill the contract he signed back in the winter after the 2004 season, it's really too bad we never saw a 30-homer season or even a 100-RBI season. In fact, we pretty much saw exactly what he was doing before the monster 2004 season, except with a small uptick in home runs. In 2007, he homered 26 times and finished tantalizingly close to the century mark with 99 RBIs. He doubled Griffey to third base with nobody out in the second inning and Hall's RBI groundout (that scored Griffey) pushed him to third. He led off the fourth with a groundout before following up Griffey's homer with a groundout in the fifth. He also singled with two out in the seventh. Beltre's rounding out what so far is a .209 month of September, which obviously is awful. After the first major injury he had this season, he hit .390 (with little power) for a little over a week in August. He came from Testiclegate, but it appears his bat didn't.
Goat
David Aardsma
This was a fairly classic case of a closer coming into something other than a save situation and making it a bit muddy. You know it's bad when the manager comes out to the mound instead of the pitching coach when something's going awry on the mound. Adam Kennedy got aboard when he fouled off an 0-2 pitch, but his bat hit Rob Johnson's glove during the swing, so he was awarded first base on catcher's interference. That's definitely not on Aardsma, but what came thereafter was. Aardsma walked Rajai Davis on four pitches and one out later gave up a Kurt Suzuki single that drove home both of the runners to make it 6-4. Luckily this is when Aardsma clamped down, getting a pop fly from Jack Cust and a flyout from Daric Barton. I'm hoping we get to see some vintage 2009 Aardsma a couple times in the final five games of the season to cap off an amazing year for the guy. The great thing to me is that he pitched well enough to force Brandon Morrow out of the closer's role and out of the bullpen. Our reward is more than likely seeing Morrow walk five guys in six innings tonight, but hopefully it'll be better next year.
It'll be one final appearance for Brandon Morrow this season.
This win pushed the Mariners' record to 81-76 after 157 games, guaranteeing this won't be a losing season. The record at this point is two games worse than the 2007 team, but five better than 2006, 14 better than 2005, 20 better than 2004, and 23 better than last year. Eighty-one wins is also seven wins worse than 2000, nine worse than 2003, 10 worse than 2002, and 31 worse than 2001. Records of other Mariner teams when winning their 81st game: 81-66 in 2000, 81-31 in 2001, 81-57 in 2002 and 2003, 63-99 in 2004, 69-93 in 2005, 78-84 in 2006, 81-70 in 2007, and 61-101 last year.
Seattle hitting went a combined 9-for-32 on the night, walking twice and striking out five times. They went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranded six runners in all. Adrian Beltre and Josh Wilson had two hits apiece as the only multi-hit Mariners, and they both doubled. Bill Hall also doubled, and Ken Griffey Jr. homered to account for the rest of the Mariners' extra-base hits. Ichiro picked up his 217th hit of the season with five games remaining in the season. Despite missing 16 games this season, Ichiro has already surpassed his hit totals from 2002, 2003, 2005, and last year. If he collects more than seven hits over the final five games, Ichiro can also eclipse his 224-hit season from 2006. Again, this is despite missing 16 games due to injury. He's at .351 on the season, which roughly matches his .351 season in 2007 and is below only his crazy 2004 season when he finished with a .372 mark. Jose Lopez is still sitting at 92 RBIs after another RBI-less night, his sixth straight. I thought after Ichiro got his milestone that Lopez getting to 100 RBIs would be the final attainable individual Mariner goal, but now it seems a more likely scenario would involve Franklin Gutierrez popping two more home runs and finishing with a 20-homer season.
The Mariner arms had a fairly decent night. The starter and the closer will be covered below. Mark Lowe came into the eighth inning with the bases loaded and two out and the Mariners ahead 6-2. Lowe got Cliff Pennington to go down swinging to end the threat. Lowe four pitches, all strikes, to the only hitter he faced. This snapped Lowe's two-outing crappy streak.
Gameballs
1) Felix Hernandez
Like I mentioned in the intro paragraph, Felix has absolutely turned a corner this season. If there's only one fact to support that statement, it's that he can struggle for an inning or two, yet when you look at the boxscore a few hours later, there he is with a start of seven or more innings and two or three runs or less. I guess I'm putting him here at the number-one gameball, which I wouldn't normally do if he's walking four hitters in a game like he did here. It started oddly enough as Felix threw a 1-2-3 first inning, then hti Kurt Suzuki with a pitch to lead off the second inning, then the next hitter walked. A strikeout and a double play ended that threat. A one-out Jack Cust walk in the fourth came around to score after a wild pitch pushed him to second, a groundout pushed him to third, then a Mark Ellis single pushed Cust across with the tying run at 1-1. Eric Patterson then singled, and the throw to third was late, so that made it two in scoring position with two out, but a foul pop ended that. Felix had seet down eight straight before Patterson singled with one out in the seventh. Pennington then singled to make it two on with one out, but Felix got the next two hitters out. Finally, Felix allowed consecutive singles to lead off the eighth. A grounder resulted in an out and runners at the corners, then Daric Barton's fly ball scored Travis Buck to make it 6-2. Felix hit Ellis with a pitch, then walked Patterson to load the bases and earn a trip to the showers. It used to be a five-inning start when Felix struggled this badly, but these days he's into the eighth. Felix gave up two runs on seven hits, walking four and striking out four in 7 2/3 innings of work. He got 11 groundouts and eight flyouts, threw 69 strikes out of 120 pitches, and faced 35 hitters to get 23 outs.
2) Ken Griffey Jr.
There's five games remaining after this game, and it appears there's a little bit more memory-making juice left in that bat of his. With two runners aboard and one out in the fifth inning, Griffey jumped all over Trevor Cahill's first pitch and sent it into the rightfield stands to make it a 5-1 lead for the Mariners. He also drew a leadoff four-pitch walk in the second inning, was pushed to third on a double by Beltre, and scored on a Bill Hall groundout for the first run of the game. Griffey struck out with runners on the corners to end the third inning, then struck out with the bases empty and one out in the seventh. He had time off from August 28th to September 2nd, and while I'm sure his knee was swelling and stuff, the rest probably was given to rest him up for the final stretch. Somehow I get the feeling we won't be seeing a lot of Mike Sweeney at all on this final homestand. The .214 hitter this season will definitely get the applause, though I'm hoping his cohort in clubhouse cohesiveness (and .283 hitter) will get some pinch-hit love.
3) Adrian Beltre
The Mariners' third baseman went 2-for-4 with a double and drilled the ball on the two hits he had. It almost made me harken back to other times in the Beltre era in Seattle. Sadly, while hopefully none of us were stupid enough to think Beltre had to have a 48-homer season to fulfill the contract he signed back in the winter after the 2004 season, it's really too bad we never saw a 30-homer season or even a 100-RBI season. In fact, we pretty much saw exactly what he was doing before the monster 2004 season, except with a small uptick in home runs. In 2007, he homered 26 times and finished tantalizingly close to the century mark with 99 RBIs. He doubled Griffey to third base with nobody out in the second inning and Hall's RBI groundout (that scored Griffey) pushed him to third. He led off the fourth with a groundout before following up Griffey's homer with a groundout in the fifth. He also singled with two out in the seventh. Beltre's rounding out what so far is a .209 month of September, which obviously is awful. After the first major injury he had this season, he hit .390 (with little power) for a little over a week in August. He came from Testiclegate, but it appears his bat didn't.
Goat
David Aardsma
This was a fairly classic case of a closer coming into something other than a save situation and making it a bit muddy. You know it's bad when the manager comes out to the mound instead of the pitching coach when something's going awry on the mound. Adam Kennedy got aboard when he fouled off an 0-2 pitch, but his bat hit Rob Johnson's glove during the swing, so he was awarded first base on catcher's interference. That's definitely not on Aardsma, but what came thereafter was. Aardsma walked Rajai Davis on four pitches and one out later gave up a Kurt Suzuki single that drove home both of the runners to make it 6-4. Luckily this is when Aardsma clamped down, getting a pop fly from Jack Cust and a flyout from Daric Barton. I'm hoping we get to see some vintage 2009 Aardsma a couple times in the final five games of the season to cap off an amazing year for the guy. The great thing to me is that he pitched well enough to force Brandon Morrow out of the closer's role and out of the bullpen. Our reward is more than likely seeing Morrow walk five guys in six innings tonight, but hopefully it'll be better next year.
It'll be one final appearance for Brandon Morrow this season.
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Sunday, September 27, 2009
GAME 156: BLUE JAYS 5, MARINERS 4
Well, make it three straight losses and four of five. After the awesome Felix Hernandez start in the first game of the series in Toronto, the Mariners dropped the final three. The first of the losses was just a plain ol' domination by Roy Halladay, so that was a bit understandable, but having a lead in the eighth inning and nailing down that lead has been a hallmark of Mariner pitching this entire year, and the bullpen has not been able to exhibit that over the last couple days. A 4-2 lead in the eighth turned into a tie game on Saturday afternoon and a 4-3 lead turned into a 5-4 hole in the eighth inning today. You can also add to that an eighth-inning Mark Lowe implosion that led to a 5-4 defeat in Tampa Bay on Wednesday. You know I'll always say that the season started feeling weird when Major League Baseball ordered the Spartan helmets out of the bullpen. Really, though, only so much matters when the Mariners have basically been playing for pride for the last two months.
That may sound bad, but it's a lot better compared to last year at this same time.
The Mariners' fourth loss in five games sent their record to 80-76 after 156 games. This pace is three games worse than 2007, but five better than 2006, 13 better than 2005, 20 better than 2004, and 23 better than last year. Eighty wins is also seven wins worse than 2000, nine worse than 2003, 10 worse than 2002, and 31 worse than 2001. Records of other Mariner teams when losing their 76th: 91-71 in 2000, 116-46 in 2001, 93-69 in 2002 and 2003, 45-76 in 2004, 56-76 in 2005, 69-76 in 2006, 88-74 in 2007, and 46-76 last year.
Seattle hitting went a combined 7-for-34 in the game, walking twice and striking out seven times. Kenji Johjima was the only Mariner with multiple hits, getting two. The Mariners' only extra-base hits were four solo shots, hit by Johjima, Matt Tuiasosopo, Franklin Gutierrez, and Mike Sweeney. Ichiro, Adrian Beltre, Bill Hall, and Josh Wilson all went hitless. Ichiro's hitless game made it his first back-to-back hitless games in a verrrrry long time (I don't have the info on me right now, and I type these things offline). Hall struck out twice and has piled up 45 strikeouts (and eight walks) as a Mariner to go with 15 hits, two home runs, 10 RBIs, a .236 average, and a .345 slugging percentage. Again, that's 45 strikeouts for Hall out of 110 at-bats as a Mariner. I knew he liked to get his strikeout on, but this is a bit ridiculous. I also thought Hall might come around a bit with the bat, but it hasn't happened as he's in a 2-for-22 slump over the last eight games.
As for the Mariner arms, there were seven pretty good innings and one really bad one. Both pitchers ended up in the entries below, so this paragraph is pretty easy for me.
Gameballs
1) Kenji Johjima
He hasn't had this much playing time since May, when he appeared in 18 games. Johjima has appeared in 17 games in September and the Mariners have six left to play. More importantly for Johjima, he's rebounded from an awful .191 August with a .292 September. Johjima has also doubled five times and homered twice, making for a .583 slugging percentage for September. His last two games have seen him go 4-for-7 with two doubles and a homer. By the way, in this game he went 2-for-3 with a solo shot that put the Mariners on the board at 1-0 in the fifth inning. As for his other at-bats, he singled with two out in the second, walked with two out to push Beltre to second in the sixth, and flew out to right to end the eighth. I'm beginning to think Johjima's getting more playing time because of a combination of the brass thinking that they should get their money's worth out of him, that Rob Johnson's a bit nicked up, and that they've soured on Johnson as a catcher. I don't hate Rob Johnson, but I don't want to see him catching for this team next year. Unless he proves he can hit .240, he shouldn't have a future with this team. Of course, now I have to be pissed off at Johjima's ridiculous contract extension because he's holding back Adam Moore instead of Jeff Clement. I'll have a lot of time in the offseason to do that.
2) Matt Tuiasosopo
It's always a good day when you hit your first big-league home run. His homer was the second of three Mariner solo shots off Brian Tallet in the fifth inning. I'm glad he got this out of the way in his sixth game this season. This of course means Tuiasosopo has one more home run than Michael Saunders, and Saunders had played consistently for nearly six weeks, though he had 11 days off before playing consistently over the last week. That's 110 at-bats for Saunders and no home runs. Anyway, Tuiasosopo is 5-for-19 (.263) with a double and an RBI in six games at the big-league level this season. He played second base in this game with Jose Lopez playing first, though he's listed as a third baseman on his stats page. Thus, the Mariners have some options next year on the infield. Probably the only sure thing is that Jack Wilson plays short since he's got so much money sunk into him and that Jose Lopez will play second or first. I think Tuiasosopo's best shot with the team is probably at third base since Beltre's going to walk and playing Jack Hannahan at third base isn't very future-oriented for this team. I feel bad for Tuiasosopo breaking north with the team and sitting the bench for two weeks before being sent down and not playing until the 17th, but I think Tuiasosopo will spend at least half the season in Tacoma again, but he'll get called up earlier. Really, though, who knows? We're dealing with Jack Zduriencik here, and he could work all sorts of magic in the offseason and there could still be a lot of turnover.
3) Ryan Rowland-Smith
He goes into the books as having thrown seven-plus innings, but it's the plus that's the devil in the details. It's really too bad. He set down the first nine hitters he faced, had a one-hitter through five innings, and had a two-hitter through six innings. The Blue Jays finally touched him up in the seventh. Vernon Wells hit a one-out single, and Randy Ruiz rang a double to move Wells to third. A sufficiently deep Rod Barajas fly ball made it 3-1, and a Kevin Millar single made it 3-2. Rowland-Smith had thrown 104 pitches at the end of seven innings (if my count-back using the ESPN.com play-by-play is right) and came back to the mound to start the eighth inning after Mike Sweeney added an insurance run with a leadoff homer in the top half of the inning. John McDonald led off the bottom half with a double, followed by a Jose Bautista single to drive home the run, making it a 4-3 game. Aaron Hill walked to push Bautista to second, and Don Wakamatsu had seen enough. Unfortunately, Mark Lowe was coming off two horrible outings, Shawn Kelley gave up the winning homer the night before, and David Aardsma apparently had a bit of a sore neck (Brian Tallet should have had one after the fifth inning), so Wakamatsu went with Miguel Batista. That'll be covered below. Rowland-Smith gave up five runs on seven hits in seven-plus innings, walking one and striking out three. He got two groundouts and 16 flyouts (and yet Tallet was the one giving up four homers), faced 29 hitters to get 21 outs, and threw 74 strikes out of 114 pitches.
Goat
Miguel Batista
What's hilarious about this is that I've given the goat to a guy who shows up in the boxscore as having thrown an inning of two-hit shutout ball. Of course, the reason he's here is because he came into the game with two runners on and they both scored, putting the Blue Jays in the lead and setting fire to Ryan Rowland-Smith's ERA and tagging him with the loss. Not that Batista doesn't come away with anything bad -- he was tagged for his fourth blown save of the year, though that doesn't really mean much since he's not the closer anyway and hasn't done so in a while. If you look at his game-by-game log, you'll notice that Batista hasn't given up runs in the last five outings, though that does include this one. This means he's probably due to suck more until he gives up some runs. Another thing that can be picked out of the game log is that Batista had a 1.69 ERA over his eight appearances in August, giving up only two runs in 10 2/3 innings. Of course, the same game log I'm looking at doesn't have a little column for inherited runners scored, so...yeah.
A Felix night on Tuesday. I need it. You need it. We need it.
That may sound bad, but it's a lot better compared to last year at this same time.
The Mariners' fourth loss in five games sent their record to 80-76 after 156 games. This pace is three games worse than 2007, but five better than 2006, 13 better than 2005, 20 better than 2004, and 23 better than last year. Eighty wins is also seven wins worse than 2000, nine worse than 2003, 10 worse than 2002, and 31 worse than 2001. Records of other Mariner teams when losing their 76th: 91-71 in 2000, 116-46 in 2001, 93-69 in 2002 and 2003, 45-76 in 2004, 56-76 in 2005, 69-76 in 2006, 88-74 in 2007, and 46-76 last year.
Seattle hitting went a combined 7-for-34 in the game, walking twice and striking out seven times. Kenji Johjima was the only Mariner with multiple hits, getting two. The Mariners' only extra-base hits were four solo shots, hit by Johjima, Matt Tuiasosopo, Franklin Gutierrez, and Mike Sweeney. Ichiro, Adrian Beltre, Bill Hall, and Josh Wilson all went hitless. Ichiro's hitless game made it his first back-to-back hitless games in a verrrrry long time (I don't have the info on me right now, and I type these things offline). Hall struck out twice and has piled up 45 strikeouts (and eight walks) as a Mariner to go with 15 hits, two home runs, 10 RBIs, a .236 average, and a .345 slugging percentage. Again, that's 45 strikeouts for Hall out of 110 at-bats as a Mariner. I knew he liked to get his strikeout on, but this is a bit ridiculous. I also thought Hall might come around a bit with the bat, but it hasn't happened as he's in a 2-for-22 slump over the last eight games.
As for the Mariner arms, there were seven pretty good innings and one really bad one. Both pitchers ended up in the entries below, so this paragraph is pretty easy for me.
Gameballs
1) Kenji Johjima
He hasn't had this much playing time since May, when he appeared in 18 games. Johjima has appeared in 17 games in September and the Mariners have six left to play. More importantly for Johjima, he's rebounded from an awful .191 August with a .292 September. Johjima has also doubled five times and homered twice, making for a .583 slugging percentage for September. His last two games have seen him go 4-for-7 with two doubles and a homer. By the way, in this game he went 2-for-3 with a solo shot that put the Mariners on the board at 1-0 in the fifth inning. As for his other at-bats, he singled with two out in the second, walked with two out to push Beltre to second in the sixth, and flew out to right to end the eighth. I'm beginning to think Johjima's getting more playing time because of a combination of the brass thinking that they should get their money's worth out of him, that Rob Johnson's a bit nicked up, and that they've soured on Johnson as a catcher. I don't hate Rob Johnson, but I don't want to see him catching for this team next year. Unless he proves he can hit .240, he shouldn't have a future with this team. Of course, now I have to be pissed off at Johjima's ridiculous contract extension because he's holding back Adam Moore instead of Jeff Clement. I'll have a lot of time in the offseason to do that.
2) Matt Tuiasosopo
It's always a good day when you hit your first big-league home run. His homer was the second of three Mariner solo shots off Brian Tallet in the fifth inning. I'm glad he got this out of the way in his sixth game this season. This of course means Tuiasosopo has one more home run than Michael Saunders, and Saunders had played consistently for nearly six weeks, though he had 11 days off before playing consistently over the last week. That's 110 at-bats for Saunders and no home runs. Anyway, Tuiasosopo is 5-for-19 (.263) with a double and an RBI in six games at the big-league level this season. He played second base in this game with Jose Lopez playing first, though he's listed as a third baseman on his stats page. Thus, the Mariners have some options next year on the infield. Probably the only sure thing is that Jack Wilson plays short since he's got so much money sunk into him and that Jose Lopez will play second or first. I think Tuiasosopo's best shot with the team is probably at third base since Beltre's going to walk and playing Jack Hannahan at third base isn't very future-oriented for this team. I feel bad for Tuiasosopo breaking north with the team and sitting the bench for two weeks before being sent down and not playing until the 17th, but I think Tuiasosopo will spend at least half the season in Tacoma again, but he'll get called up earlier. Really, though, who knows? We're dealing with Jack Zduriencik here, and he could work all sorts of magic in the offseason and there could still be a lot of turnover.
3) Ryan Rowland-Smith
He goes into the books as having thrown seven-plus innings, but it's the plus that's the devil in the details. It's really too bad. He set down the first nine hitters he faced, had a one-hitter through five innings, and had a two-hitter through six innings. The Blue Jays finally touched him up in the seventh. Vernon Wells hit a one-out single, and Randy Ruiz rang a double to move Wells to third. A sufficiently deep Rod Barajas fly ball made it 3-1, and a Kevin Millar single made it 3-2. Rowland-Smith had thrown 104 pitches at the end of seven innings (if my count-back using the ESPN.com play-by-play is right) and came back to the mound to start the eighth inning after Mike Sweeney added an insurance run with a leadoff homer in the top half of the inning. John McDonald led off the bottom half with a double, followed by a Jose Bautista single to drive home the run, making it a 4-3 game. Aaron Hill walked to push Bautista to second, and Don Wakamatsu had seen enough. Unfortunately, Mark Lowe was coming off two horrible outings, Shawn Kelley gave up the winning homer the night before, and David Aardsma apparently had a bit of a sore neck (Brian Tallet should have had one after the fifth inning), so Wakamatsu went with Miguel Batista. That'll be covered below. Rowland-Smith gave up five runs on seven hits in seven-plus innings, walking one and striking out three. He got two groundouts and 16 flyouts (and yet Tallet was the one giving up four homers), faced 29 hitters to get 21 outs, and threw 74 strikes out of 114 pitches.
Goat
Miguel Batista
What's hilarious about this is that I've given the goat to a guy who shows up in the boxscore as having thrown an inning of two-hit shutout ball. Of course, the reason he's here is because he came into the game with two runners on and they both scored, putting the Blue Jays in the lead and setting fire to Ryan Rowland-Smith's ERA and tagging him with the loss. Not that Batista doesn't come away with anything bad -- he was tagged for his fourth blown save of the year, though that doesn't really mean much since he's not the closer anyway and hasn't done so in a while. If you look at his game-by-game log, you'll notice that Batista hasn't given up runs in the last five outings, though that does include this one. This means he's probably due to suck more until he gives up some runs. Another thing that can be picked out of the game log is that Batista had a 1.69 ERA over his eight appearances in August, giving up only two runs in 10 2/3 innings. Of course, the same game log I'm looking at doesn't have a little column for inherited runners scored, so...yeah.
A Felix night on Tuesday. I need it. You need it. We need it.
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Saturday, September 26, 2009
GAME 155: BLUE JAYS 5, MARINERS 4 (10 INNINGS)
This game was a real nutty one. Ian Snell went 6 2/3 innings and lost, Snell lost a routine toss from Josh Wilson in the lights, Vernon Wells was in position to field a line drive and lost it in the lights, and Ichiro was tossed. Throw Adam Moore's first Major League RBI into the mix, and the game was full of stuff you definitely don't see every day. Though the boxscore doesn't necessarily bear it out, the Mariners had tons of opportunities to widen their lead before the Blue Jays tied it in the eighth. The Mariners had won eight of 12 going into Friday's loss, but maybe the fatigue is finally catching up with the team. Of course, we don't want to see the team just show up and go through the motions and play out the string, but since they've been out of the playoff race for nearly two months, it's all about playing for pride now. I wished they could have matched the 2007 win total of 88, but this loss nixes that possibility. Even if they lost every game for the rest of the season, an 80-82 record would still give them a 19-game improvement on last year, and that's still phenomenal. Anyway, the Mariners would really have to bone things to not finish over .500, so this looks like a 20-plus-win improvement.
The Mariners' third loss in their last four games dropped their season record to 80-75 after 155 games. This record is two games worse than the 2007 pace, but five better than the 2006 pace, 13 better than 2005, 20 better than 2004, and 23 better than last year. Eighty wins is also six wins worse than 2000, nine worse than 2002 and 2003, and 30 worse than 2001. Other new-millennium Mariner teams' records when losing their 75th game: 91-71 in 2000, 116-46 in 2001, 93-69 in 2002 and 2003, 45-75 in 2004, 55-75 in 2005, 68-75 in 2006, 88-74 in 2007, and 46-75 last year.
Seattle hitting went a combined 13-for-39 on the day, walking twice and striking out nine times. They went 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 runners in all. Franklin Gutierrez and Adam Moore both doubled for the Mariners' only extra-base hits. Mike Sweeney, Matt Tuiasosopo, and Moore had two hits apiece while Gutierrez and Jose Lopez had three hits apiece. Bill Hall struck out three times on an 0-for-4 day because that's what he does. Ichiro was 0-for-3 when he got tossed by home plate umpire Brian Runge after drawing a line in the dirt with his bat. Ichiro has 216 hits on the season and is on pace to finish with 227 hits.
The Mariner arms had a checkered night. The starting pitching (good) will be covered below, as will the following pitcher, Mark Lowe. Garrett Olson came into the game with the runner on first and two out. He walked his first hitter on four pitches before getting a groundout to end the inning. Olson threw 1/3 inning of shutout ball, walking one of the two hitters he faced, and throwing two strikes out of seven pitches. Shawn Kelley threw a 1-2-3 ninth, which was good. In the 10th, Kelley started Lind off 3-0 before getting a gimmie strike. Kelley's next pitch was sent well over the leftfield wall to end the game. Kelley gave up a run on a hit in one-plus innings of work, throwing nine strikes out of 15 pitches, getting a groundout and two flyouts, and facing four hitters to get three outs.
Gameballs
1) Ian Snell
For having his deepest outing as a Mariner, he could get the gameball for that alone. Snell walked two hitters, which ties for his lowest amount of walks in a Mariner start. After 11 starts as a Mariner, Snell has walked 36 hitters and struck out 34 hitters. That's an awful ratio, and we know that. Hopefully Snell can work on righting that brutal ratio with a full spring training. The phrase "full spring training" also has us brimming with anticipation to see what the Mariners' trade deadline acquisitions and call-ups can do next year. Still, the walks are a pretty good reason why Snell doesn't get deeper into his starts on a regular basis. Snell gives up about five hits a start (5 1/3 innings), which isn't necessarily bad, but he also averages a little over three walks a start. That's just too many baserunners to be allowing in short an amount of time. In this game, though, the seven strikeouts more than exceeded his previous Mariner best of four. Snell gave up two runs (one earned) on five hits in 6 2/3 innings, walking two and striking out seven. He got four groundouts and nine flyouts, faced 27 hitters to get 20 outs, and threw 67 strikes out of 106 pitches. He also had rotten luck because of that error where he lost a toss in the lights, and it's too bad every run mattered in this game.
2) Jose Lopez
Only the cruelty of baseball could make it possible for Lopez have three hits while batting third in the lineup and manage not to drive in any runs. The Mariners' second baseman is sitting at 92 RBIs on the season with seven games remaining. I think around the end of last month (he ended August with 79 RBIs) I said Lopez should be an absolute lock for 90 RBIs, that he'd have been more than solid with 95 RBIs, and that it'd be completely awesome if he managed to get a 100-RBI season out of all of this. Like I said, though, he needs eight RBIs in the final seven games, which wouldn't be so hard if Lopez hadn't gone RBI-less in the last four games. Lopez singled with a man on first and one out in the first, but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. Lopez then whiffed with Gutierrez on second and nobody out in the fourth. Lopez then singled with a man on first with two out in the fifth and singled with a man on first and one out in the seventh. He led off the ninth with a flyout, though that was hardly an RBI-ready situation. I'd like to see him get 100 RBIs because I think that's the last milestone for any individual Mariner remaining this season.
3) Franklin Gutierrez
The Mariners' centerfielder mainly functioned as the guy that got on base ahead of Jose Lopez in this game. He singled with one out in the first, doubled to lead off the fourth, walked with one out in the fifth (Adam Moore scored the Mariners' 2-0 run on a wild pitch in his at-bat), singled with one out in the seventh, and grounded into a double play to end the eighth. That last part is the main reason he's the number-three gameball instead of the first. A 3-for-4 day with a double and a walk is a pretty good day, and I know it's bad for me to wish Gutierrez would have had a four-hit day, but a hit instead of a double-play ball there might mean a Mariner win. All told, this has been an amazing season for Gutierrez, who is hitting .283 on the season. His decline at the plate (if any) has been very slow, as he hit .252 in August and is hitting .274 in September. After flirting some with .300, Gutierrez spent much of the second half of the season in the .290s, and it wasn't until a couple weeks ago that he dipped below .280 for a while. Still, this is way more than I expected out of him, this soon.
Goat
Mark Lowe
Looks like the Mariners' ace setup man has been up to some stuff while I was out of state. His last three appearances have all been save opportunities. He converted in the first game of the series in Tampa Bay, but flubbed the chance the next day. After having the first two games of the Toronto series off, Lowe still didn't fare very well at all. He came into the game with runners on the corners and two out in the seventh and caught Jose Bautista looking at a 2-2 pitch. The eighth didn't go so well for Lowe. He gave up a ringing leadoff double to Aaron Hill and then Adam Lind crushed a home run to tie the game. After getting a Wells groundout, Lowe gave up a single and got Lyle Overbay to line out before being pulled. Lowe gave up two runs on three hits in one inning, walking none and striking out one. He threw 10 strikes out of 15 pitches and faced six hitters to get three outs. In his game log, the last time Lowe had a two-game stretch like this, he gave up two runs on three hits in 1 2/3 innings against the Yankees on August 14th and four days later gave up four runs (two earned) on three hits in 1/3 inning in Detroit.
I guess it's the Aussie tomorrow.
The Mariners' third loss in their last four games dropped their season record to 80-75 after 155 games. This record is two games worse than the 2007 pace, but five better than the 2006 pace, 13 better than 2005, 20 better than 2004, and 23 better than last year. Eighty wins is also six wins worse than 2000, nine worse than 2002 and 2003, and 30 worse than 2001. Other new-millennium Mariner teams' records when losing their 75th game: 91-71 in 2000, 116-46 in 2001, 93-69 in 2002 and 2003, 45-75 in 2004, 55-75 in 2005, 68-75 in 2006, 88-74 in 2007, and 46-75 last year.
Seattle hitting went a combined 13-for-39 on the day, walking twice and striking out nine times. They went 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 runners in all. Franklin Gutierrez and Adam Moore both doubled for the Mariners' only extra-base hits. Mike Sweeney, Matt Tuiasosopo, and Moore had two hits apiece while Gutierrez and Jose Lopez had three hits apiece. Bill Hall struck out three times on an 0-for-4 day because that's what he does. Ichiro was 0-for-3 when he got tossed by home plate umpire Brian Runge after drawing a line in the dirt with his bat. Ichiro has 216 hits on the season and is on pace to finish with 227 hits.
The Mariner arms had a checkered night. The starting pitching (good) will be covered below, as will the following pitcher, Mark Lowe. Garrett Olson came into the game with the runner on first and two out. He walked his first hitter on four pitches before getting a groundout to end the inning. Olson threw 1/3 inning of shutout ball, walking one of the two hitters he faced, and throwing two strikes out of seven pitches. Shawn Kelley threw a 1-2-3 ninth, which was good. In the 10th, Kelley started Lind off 3-0 before getting a gimmie strike. Kelley's next pitch was sent well over the leftfield wall to end the game. Kelley gave up a run on a hit in one-plus innings of work, throwing nine strikes out of 15 pitches, getting a groundout and two flyouts, and facing four hitters to get three outs.
Gameballs
1) Ian Snell
For having his deepest outing as a Mariner, he could get the gameball for that alone. Snell walked two hitters, which ties for his lowest amount of walks in a Mariner start. After 11 starts as a Mariner, Snell has walked 36 hitters and struck out 34 hitters. That's an awful ratio, and we know that. Hopefully Snell can work on righting that brutal ratio with a full spring training. The phrase "full spring training" also has us brimming with anticipation to see what the Mariners' trade deadline acquisitions and call-ups can do next year. Still, the walks are a pretty good reason why Snell doesn't get deeper into his starts on a regular basis. Snell gives up about five hits a start (5 1/3 innings), which isn't necessarily bad, but he also averages a little over three walks a start. That's just too many baserunners to be allowing in short an amount of time. In this game, though, the seven strikeouts more than exceeded his previous Mariner best of four. Snell gave up two runs (one earned) on five hits in 6 2/3 innings, walking two and striking out seven. He got four groundouts and nine flyouts, faced 27 hitters to get 20 outs, and threw 67 strikes out of 106 pitches. He also had rotten luck because of that error where he lost a toss in the lights, and it's too bad every run mattered in this game.
2) Jose Lopez
Only the cruelty of baseball could make it possible for Lopez have three hits while batting third in the lineup and manage not to drive in any runs. The Mariners' second baseman is sitting at 92 RBIs on the season with seven games remaining. I think around the end of last month (he ended August with 79 RBIs) I said Lopez should be an absolute lock for 90 RBIs, that he'd have been more than solid with 95 RBIs, and that it'd be completely awesome if he managed to get a 100-RBI season out of all of this. Like I said, though, he needs eight RBIs in the final seven games, which wouldn't be so hard if Lopez hadn't gone RBI-less in the last four games. Lopez singled with a man on first and one out in the first, but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. Lopez then whiffed with Gutierrez on second and nobody out in the fourth. Lopez then singled with a man on first with two out in the fifth and singled with a man on first and one out in the seventh. He led off the ninth with a flyout, though that was hardly an RBI-ready situation. I'd like to see him get 100 RBIs because I think that's the last milestone for any individual Mariner remaining this season.
3) Franklin Gutierrez
The Mariners' centerfielder mainly functioned as the guy that got on base ahead of Jose Lopez in this game. He singled with one out in the first, doubled to lead off the fourth, walked with one out in the fifth (Adam Moore scored the Mariners' 2-0 run on a wild pitch in his at-bat), singled with one out in the seventh, and grounded into a double play to end the eighth. That last part is the main reason he's the number-three gameball instead of the first. A 3-for-4 day with a double and a walk is a pretty good day, and I know it's bad for me to wish Gutierrez would have had a four-hit day, but a hit instead of a double-play ball there might mean a Mariner win. All told, this has been an amazing season for Gutierrez, who is hitting .283 on the season. His decline at the plate (if any) has been very slow, as he hit .252 in August and is hitting .274 in September. After flirting some with .300, Gutierrez spent much of the second half of the season in the .290s, and it wasn't until a couple weeks ago that he dipped below .280 for a while. Still, this is way more than I expected out of him, this soon.
Goat
Mark Lowe
Looks like the Mariners' ace setup man has been up to some stuff while I was out of state. His last three appearances have all been save opportunities. He converted in the first game of the series in Tampa Bay, but flubbed the chance the next day. After having the first two games of the Toronto series off, Lowe still didn't fare very well at all. He came into the game with runners on the corners and two out in the seventh and caught Jose Bautista looking at a 2-2 pitch. The eighth didn't go so well for Lowe. He gave up a ringing leadoff double to Aaron Hill and then Adam Lind crushed a home run to tie the game. After getting a Wells groundout, Lowe gave up a single and got Lyle Overbay to line out before being pulled. Lowe gave up two runs on three hits in one inning, walking none and striking out one. He threw 10 strikes out of 15 pitches and faced six hitters to get three outs. In his game log, the last time Lowe had a two-game stretch like this, he gave up two runs on three hits in 1 2/3 innings against the Yankees on August 14th and four days later gave up four runs (two earned) on three hits in 1/3 inning in Detroit.
I guess it's the Aussie tomorrow.
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Monday, September 14, 2009
GAME 144: MARINERS 5, RANGERS 0
[note -- due to an upcoming out-of-state journey, this is probably the last piece until the final week of the season.]
I came home after watching the Seahawk game at a friend's house and was very surprised to see that this game was being played live on FSN. I had to originally convince myself that it wasn't a replay of the first game of the doubleheader or something, but once I saw the sky was dark and Felix Hernandez was throwing, then it was given away. Thus, I can actually comment on this game without completely BS'ing the whole thing. Hooray! Other than the pitching awesomeness, the obvious other story in this thing was Ichiro's 200th hit of the season, leapfrogging him past Wee Willie Keller and making him the only hitter in Major League history to attain 200 hits in nine consecutive seasons. It's beyond incredible. Major League Baseball would argue that it's Beyond Baseball. It should come as no surprise that the hit was as a completely nondescript infield single that was a slow roller to short on which Elvis Andrus had no play. It was good that it happened, and maybe now Ichiro can snap out of his slump since he only went 1-for-5 in this game. He only went 4-for-14 (.286) in this Texas series, for goodness' sake.
The Mariners' second win in three games vaulted their record to 74-70 after 144 games. This pace is two wins worse than the 2007 pace, but five better than 2006, 11 better than 2005, 17 better than last year, and 20 wins better than 2004. Seventy-four wins is also four worse than 2000, eight worse than 2003, 10 worse than 2002, and 30 worse than 2001. Other new-millennium Mariner teams' records when getting their 74th win: 74-62 in 2000, 74-29 in 2001, 74-47 in 2002, 74-48 in 2003, 63-99 in 2004, 69-93 in 2005, 74-79 in 2006, 74-62 in 2007, and 61-101 last year.
Seattle hitting went a combined 8-for-35 in the game, walking four and striking out five. They were also 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven runners in all. The only multi-hit Mariner was Franklin Gutierrez, who went 2-for-4 with a walk. The two hitless Mariners were Mike Sweeney and Rob Johnson (surprise). Five of the Mariners' eight hits went for extra bases. Doubles were hit by Jose Lopez, Josh Wilson, and Gutierrez. Bill Hall hit a long drive to the wall and got a friendly carom away from rightfielder Nelson Cruz that enabled him to get a triple out of it. Also, Adrian Beltre homered and there was subsequent dancing in the streets.
Mariner pitching did just fine. The starting pitching will be addressed below. Mark Lowe came into the game and threw the eighth inning. He gave up only a two-out single to Julio Borbon. Lowe gave up one hit in one inning, walking none and striking out one. He got two groundouts and a strikeout, faced four hitters to get three outs, and threw six strikes out of eight pitches. David Aardsma then threw the ninth in his first appearance since September 3rd since the Mariners had sucked so badly in the meantime. Aardsma shook off the rust, getting two flyouts to start the inning and allowing only a David Murphy two-out single before ending it with an exclamation point by striking out Cruz. Aardsma gave up one hit in one inning, walking none and striking out one. he got two flyouts and a strikeout, faced four hitters to get three outs, and threw 10 strikes out of 15 pitches.
Gameballs
1) Felix Hernandez
The Mariners' ace was the only starting pitcher this weekend to really throw on schedule, if you don't count the few hours this game was pushed before finally being played. I'm not necessarily saying that played a part in him throwing seven shutout innings, but it couldn't have hurt. This turned out to be a pretty vintage Felix start. Unfortunately, Julio Borbon led off all Ranger hitting with a single, breaking up the perfect game right away. Borbon ended up on third with one out in the first inning, but Felix struck out the next two hitters to end the inning. The third inning came about nearly the same way -- Taylro Teagarden doubled to lead off, was moved to third on a groundout, and stayed there as Borbon grounded out to first and Elvis Andrus was caught looking to end the inning. Hernandez set down the next nine hitters before Borbon singled with one out in the sixth. A timely double-play ball bailed Felix out of having two on with one out. In the seventh, Felix walked Nelson Cruz with two out, which was his only walk of the game. Felix gave up four hits in seven shutout innings, walking one and striking out five. He got 11 groundouts and five flyouts, threw 65 strikes out of 109 pitches, and faced 25 hitters to get 21 outs.
2) Franklin Gutierrez
In mid-August, the Mariners' centerfielder was hitting so well that going hitless in consecutive games (where he didn't suffer injury in one of them) was a pretty big deal because it hadn't happened since mid-June. Unfortunately, that was the beginning of five groups of consecutive-game hitting stretches. He went hitless on August 12th-13th, August 18th-20th, August 22nd-23rd, August 30th-31st, and September 9th-10th. It's a good way to drop .020 off a batting average in a month span this time of year. He went from .300 on August 11th to .280 on September 10th by going 24-for-111 (.216) at the plate. He was the only Mariner with multiple hits in this game, however, singling with one out in the first inning and scoring the first Mariner run on a Jose Lopez double, and bouncing a double over the wall in centerfield to lead off the fifth. He scored the Mariners' fourth run of the game later that inning went Adrian Beltre homered. Gutierrez right now is a .278 hitter and if he got four at-bats in each of the remaining 18 games, he'd need to finish with 169 hits, i.e., go 32-for-72 (.444) the rest of the way. It could happen, but I highly doubt it. Nonetheless, it's been a very successful season for Gutierrez.
3) Adrian Beltre
The Mariners' third baseman didn't stop the presses in the first game of the doubleheader by going for multiple hits, but he did do it in the second game of the doubleheader. How? He hit a home run. I couldn't believe my eyes, really. The sail sailed over the wall and I couldn't even remember the last time he'd hit a home run, just that it had been a long time. What adds to such memory failure is that Beltre has had an injury-riddled and horrible season as well, so when I learned that the home run was only Beltre's sixth of the season, well, that's even bad for a substandard version of Beltre. Anyway, the home run was Beltre's first since June 16th in San Diego, which is a long time on the calendar as well as just his log. He went 30 games without hitting a home run. This was a guy that coming off three straight 25-homer seasons and drove in 99 runs two years ago. Of course, knowing Beltre, he could have untold injuries aside from the testicle, so there could be reasons why he's hitting .264 when he manages to get on the field at all. He should have been a hockey player.
Goat
Rob Johnson
He caught the second half of the doubleheader, so his playing time was pretty much a given. This was also a Felix Hernandez start, so again, his playing time was pretty much a given. He went 0-for-4 with the number five in the LOB column in the boxscore. He tried to bunt for a base hit with Josh Wilson on second and one out in the second inning, but ended up hitting a fly ball that pushed the runner to third. In the fourth, he grounded out to third with a runner on second and one out (bonus points if you saw the botched double play right before that). In the sixth, Johnson grounded into a double play to end the inning. In the eighth, the Mariners had runners on first and second with two out, but Johnson grounded back to the mound to end the inning. I guess the day could have been worse for Johnson. He's a .217 hitter. He's gotten 249 at-bats this season, and I don't know about you, but I've seen all I need to see out of Rob Johnson to know I don't want the guy catching for the Mariners this year. That's why I welcomed the news of Adam Moore being called up to the big club. Even when I complained about Dan Wilson's hitting back in the day, he would still hit .230 or .240 as opposed to .217...sheesh.
Can Ian Snell win for the fifth time in six starts tomorrow? He'll have to beat the Chief.
I came home after watching the Seahawk game at a friend's house and was very surprised to see that this game was being played live on FSN. I had to originally convince myself that it wasn't a replay of the first game of the doubleheader or something, but once I saw the sky was dark and Felix Hernandez was throwing, then it was given away. Thus, I can actually comment on this game without completely BS'ing the whole thing. Hooray! Other than the pitching awesomeness, the obvious other story in this thing was Ichiro's 200th hit of the season, leapfrogging him past Wee Willie Keller and making him the only hitter in Major League history to attain 200 hits in nine consecutive seasons. It's beyond incredible. Major League Baseball would argue that it's Beyond Baseball. It should come as no surprise that the hit was as a completely nondescript infield single that was a slow roller to short on which Elvis Andrus had no play. It was good that it happened, and maybe now Ichiro can snap out of his slump since he only went 1-for-5 in this game. He only went 4-for-14 (.286) in this Texas series, for goodness' sake.
The Mariners' second win in three games vaulted their record to 74-70 after 144 games. This pace is two wins worse than the 2007 pace, but five better than 2006, 11 better than 2005, 17 better than last year, and 20 wins better than 2004. Seventy-four wins is also four worse than 2000, eight worse than 2003, 10 worse than 2002, and 30 worse than 2001. Other new-millennium Mariner teams' records when getting their 74th win: 74-62 in 2000, 74-29 in 2001, 74-47 in 2002, 74-48 in 2003, 63-99 in 2004, 69-93 in 2005, 74-79 in 2006, 74-62 in 2007, and 61-101 last year.
Seattle hitting went a combined 8-for-35 in the game, walking four and striking out five. They were also 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven runners in all. The only multi-hit Mariner was Franklin Gutierrez, who went 2-for-4 with a walk. The two hitless Mariners were Mike Sweeney and Rob Johnson (surprise). Five of the Mariners' eight hits went for extra bases. Doubles were hit by Jose Lopez, Josh Wilson, and Gutierrez. Bill Hall hit a long drive to the wall and got a friendly carom away from rightfielder Nelson Cruz that enabled him to get a triple out of it. Also, Adrian Beltre homered and there was subsequent dancing in the streets.
Mariner pitching did just fine. The starting pitching will be addressed below. Mark Lowe came into the game and threw the eighth inning. He gave up only a two-out single to Julio Borbon. Lowe gave up one hit in one inning, walking none and striking out one. He got two groundouts and a strikeout, faced four hitters to get three outs, and threw six strikes out of eight pitches. David Aardsma then threw the ninth in his first appearance since September 3rd since the Mariners had sucked so badly in the meantime. Aardsma shook off the rust, getting two flyouts to start the inning and allowing only a David Murphy two-out single before ending it with an exclamation point by striking out Cruz. Aardsma gave up one hit in one inning, walking none and striking out one. he got two flyouts and a strikeout, faced four hitters to get three outs, and threw 10 strikes out of 15 pitches.
Gameballs
1) Felix Hernandez
The Mariners' ace was the only starting pitcher this weekend to really throw on schedule, if you don't count the few hours this game was pushed before finally being played. I'm not necessarily saying that played a part in him throwing seven shutout innings, but it couldn't have hurt. This turned out to be a pretty vintage Felix start. Unfortunately, Julio Borbon led off all Ranger hitting with a single, breaking up the perfect game right away. Borbon ended up on third with one out in the first inning, but Felix struck out the next two hitters to end the inning. The third inning came about nearly the same way -- Taylro Teagarden doubled to lead off, was moved to third on a groundout, and stayed there as Borbon grounded out to first and Elvis Andrus was caught looking to end the inning. Hernandez set down the next nine hitters before Borbon singled with one out in the sixth. A timely double-play ball bailed Felix out of having two on with one out. In the seventh, Felix walked Nelson Cruz with two out, which was his only walk of the game. Felix gave up four hits in seven shutout innings, walking one and striking out five. He got 11 groundouts and five flyouts, threw 65 strikes out of 109 pitches, and faced 25 hitters to get 21 outs.
2) Franklin Gutierrez
In mid-August, the Mariners' centerfielder was hitting so well that going hitless in consecutive games (where he didn't suffer injury in one of them) was a pretty big deal because it hadn't happened since mid-June. Unfortunately, that was the beginning of five groups of consecutive-game hitting stretches. He went hitless on August 12th-13th, August 18th-20th, August 22nd-23rd, August 30th-31st, and September 9th-10th. It's a good way to drop .020 off a batting average in a month span this time of year. He went from .300 on August 11th to .280 on September 10th by going 24-for-111 (.216) at the plate. He was the only Mariner with multiple hits in this game, however, singling with one out in the first inning and scoring the first Mariner run on a Jose Lopez double, and bouncing a double over the wall in centerfield to lead off the fifth. He scored the Mariners' fourth run of the game later that inning went Adrian Beltre homered. Gutierrez right now is a .278 hitter and if he got four at-bats in each of the remaining 18 games, he'd need to finish with 169 hits, i.e., go 32-for-72 (.444) the rest of the way. It could happen, but I highly doubt it. Nonetheless, it's been a very successful season for Gutierrez.
3) Adrian Beltre
The Mariners' third baseman didn't stop the presses in the first game of the doubleheader by going for multiple hits, but he did do it in the second game of the doubleheader. How? He hit a home run. I couldn't believe my eyes, really. The sail sailed over the wall and I couldn't even remember the last time he'd hit a home run, just that it had been a long time. What adds to such memory failure is that Beltre has had an injury-riddled and horrible season as well, so when I learned that the home run was only Beltre's sixth of the season, well, that's even bad for a substandard version of Beltre. Anyway, the home run was Beltre's first since June 16th in San Diego, which is a long time on the calendar as well as just his log. He went 30 games without hitting a home run. This was a guy that coming off three straight 25-homer seasons and drove in 99 runs two years ago. Of course, knowing Beltre, he could have untold injuries aside from the testicle, so there could be reasons why he's hitting .264 when he manages to get on the field at all. He should have been a hockey player.
Goat
Rob Johnson
He caught the second half of the doubleheader, so his playing time was pretty much a given. This was also a Felix Hernandez start, so again, his playing time was pretty much a given. He went 0-for-4 with the number five in the LOB column in the boxscore. He tried to bunt for a base hit with Josh Wilson on second and one out in the second inning, but ended up hitting a fly ball that pushed the runner to third. In the fourth, he grounded out to third with a runner on second and one out (bonus points if you saw the botched double play right before that). In the sixth, Johnson grounded into a double play to end the inning. In the eighth, the Mariners had runners on first and second with two out, but Johnson grounded back to the mound to end the inning. I guess the day could have been worse for Johnson. He's a .217 hitter. He's gotten 249 at-bats this season, and I don't know about you, but I've seen all I need to see out of Rob Johnson to know I don't want the guy catching for the Mariners this year. That's why I welcomed the news of Adam Moore being called up to the big club. Even when I complained about Dan Wilson's hitting back in the day, he would still hit .230 or .240 as opposed to .217...sheesh.
Can Ian Snell win for the fifth time in six starts tomorrow? He'll have to beat the Chief.
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GAME 143: RANGERS 7, MARINERS 2
There's a big possibility this may be the series that I've watched the least throughout this entire Mariner season. I attended a friend's birthday thing on Saturday, which I would have done anyway, but I also thought there was no way they'd actually play a game on Saturday, but they did. Fast-forward to these Sunday games, and I won't lie to you, opening week for the Seahawks is pretty much a must-watch, so that's what I did. Little did I know, however, that I was only missing a chunk of the first game of the doubleheader as opposed to the entire second game of the doubleheader. Instead of a 10:35am Pacific start time, rain held back the start by a shade over four and a half hours. That enabled me to watch a very bad Broncos/Browns game without missing any Mariner action. As for this game itself, Mister Fister was blistered by Ranger bats, and the Mariner bats were riddled with bullets coming from a Tommy gun wielded by a Tommy Hunter.
The Mariners' sixth loss in seven games dropped their record to 73-70 after 143 games. That pace is two wins worse than the 2007 team, but five better than 2006, 11 better than 2005, 17 better than last year, and 20 better than 2004. Seventy-three wins is also five worse than 2000, nine worse than 2003, 11 worse than 2002, and 30 worse than 2001. Other new-millennium Mariner teams' records when losing their 70th: 89-70 in 2000, 116-46 in 2001, 93-69 in 2002 and 2003, 41-70 in 2004, 53-70 in 2005, 63-70 in 2006, 78-70 in 2007, and 44-70 last year.
Seattle hitting went a combined 6-for-33 (bad) in the game, walking once and striking out three times. They were also 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded five runners in all. Adrian Beltre had two of the Mariners' six hits as the only Mariner with multiple hits in the game. Ichiro doubled for the Mariners' only extra-base hit of the night. Franklin Gutierrez, Jose Lopez, and Kenji Johjima each went 0-for-4.
It was a bit of a sketchy game for Mariner pitching. The starting pitcher will be covered below. Jason Vargas entered the game in the fifth inning with two out, a man on first, and one run across the plate in the inning (David Murphy solo shot that made it 5-1). He caught Chris Davis looking to end the fifth. In the sixth, a leadoff double eventually came around to score and make it 6-1. In the seventh, Nelson Cruz homered with two out to give the Rangers a 7-1 lead. Vargas threw a 1-2-3 eighth inning to end his outing. He gave up two runs on two hits in 3 1/3 innings, walking none and striking out two. He got three groundouts and five flyouts, threw 28 of 42 pitches for strikes, and faced 12 hitters to get 10 outs.
Gameballs
1) Ichiro
In a game that really wasn't eventful for Mariner hitting as a whole, Ichiro had the most eventful hit. His two-out double in the third inning scored Ryan Langerhans from first to cut the Rangers' lead to 2-1 at that point. The hit was also his 199th of the season, placing him just one short of 200 hits and nine straight 200-hit seasons. Really the only thing you could complain about is that Ichiro's hit pace has slowed tremendously compared to his pace for most of this season. That's a bit nit-picky, though. Ichiro is Ichiro, but when he's hitting under .300 for a long stretch of time, it sinks his season average a bit (obviously), but it makes you wonder if there's something wrong with him. I just hope this isn't the beginning of a span where Ichiro is prone to muscle pulls and intestinal things and misses a dozen or so games every year. Unfortunately for him, the legend he's built for himself is so incredibly ridiculous that now we hold him to a pretty lofty and probably unfair standard. Then again, he does have that contract to justify the standard. By the way, 199 hits leaves him on pace ti finish with about 229 hits.
2) Adrian Beltre
The Mariners' third baseman went 2-for-4 with an RBI, good for his second straight multi-hit game. His game log for this month ramps up -- he goes from a hit every three games to a hit every other game to a couple of multi-hit games. He's still hitting all of .167 (7-for-42) for September, so it's not really stop-the-presses time yet for Beltre. What's really nuts is that when Beltre came back from injury in August and played nine games before Testiclegate, he went 16-for-41 (.390). Granted, his only power hitting during that entire stretch consisted of two doubles, but it really helped at least having those hits. Five of those nine games were multi-hit games for Beltre, and he had a three-hit game and a four-hit game in there. I feel pretty bad about the way Beltre's final season in Seattle went. I don't think I feel badly enough about it to re-sign him again, but I just wish he'd had way better luck with injuries and thus had a fair shake on his way out the door. Then again, if somehow he wants to sign for one year and $5 million to build his stock back up, I'm not sure I'd be against it. Yeah, it's not happening.
3) Jack Hannahan
Playing time for the Man With the Blatantly Irish Name was far from plentiful in the first half of September, but this game marked his second straight start at first base, so now the playing time is raining like mana from heaven. Sure, there were two other one-hit guys that weren't Ichiro that I could have written about here, but I chose Hannahan because I'm not truly sure how many more times I'll get to write a Hannahan paragraph for the rest of the year. What is a number-three gameball day for Hannahan? He hit a leadoff single in the fifth and was forced out on a ground ball by Kenji Johjima. As for the outs he made, he lined out to centerfield to end the second inning, flew out to center with the bases empty and one out in the seventh, and whiffed with a runner on first and one out in the ninth and a 7-2 deficit. Somehow I don't think Hannahan's outs figured too much into the final outcome of this game. But hey, he's 3-for-8 in his last two games, which is beyond insane. It's his first hitting streak since August 28th-29th.
Goat
Doug Fister
Without seeing the game, this looks in the boxscore like it's the Iron Fister's worst start out of his seven big-league starts with the Mariners. He only walked one hitter, but the one thing that convinced me to throw him into the goat slot here had to be the 10 hits he allowed in only 4 2/3 innings. The Rangers had him solved. Also, a ratio of six groundouts to seven flyouts might be pretty good for some other pitchers, but I want to see that ratio break the other way, especially when you're facing the Texas Rangers in Arlington. Two of the 10 hits he gave up were home runs, though they were both solo shots. In other words, it's a good thing Fister only walked one hitter in those 4 2/3 innings. Unsurprisingly, Fister gave up at least a hit in every inning, though I guess some credit has to be given to him in that his hitter friendliness in the game never got out of control and snowballed into the big inning. It's pretty surprising to see 10 hits in his line and not have the big inning. Fister gave up five runs on 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings of work, walking one and striking out one. He threw 65 strikes out of 101 pitches and faced 25 hitters to get 14 outs.
It was a Felix nightcap to end the rain-drenched series in Arlington.
The Mariners' sixth loss in seven games dropped their record to 73-70 after 143 games. That pace is two wins worse than the 2007 team, but five better than 2006, 11 better than 2005, 17 better than last year, and 20 better than 2004. Seventy-three wins is also five worse than 2000, nine worse than 2003, 11 worse than 2002, and 30 worse than 2001. Other new-millennium Mariner teams' records when losing their 70th: 89-70 in 2000, 116-46 in 2001, 93-69 in 2002 and 2003, 41-70 in 2004, 53-70 in 2005, 63-70 in 2006, 78-70 in 2007, and 44-70 last year.
Seattle hitting went a combined 6-for-33 (bad) in the game, walking once and striking out three times. They were also 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded five runners in all. Adrian Beltre had two of the Mariners' six hits as the only Mariner with multiple hits in the game. Ichiro doubled for the Mariners' only extra-base hit of the night. Franklin Gutierrez, Jose Lopez, and Kenji Johjima each went 0-for-4.
It was a bit of a sketchy game for Mariner pitching. The starting pitcher will be covered below. Jason Vargas entered the game in the fifth inning with two out, a man on first, and one run across the plate in the inning (David Murphy solo shot that made it 5-1). He caught Chris Davis looking to end the fifth. In the sixth, a leadoff double eventually came around to score and make it 6-1. In the seventh, Nelson Cruz homered with two out to give the Rangers a 7-1 lead. Vargas threw a 1-2-3 eighth inning to end his outing. He gave up two runs on two hits in 3 1/3 innings, walking none and striking out two. He got three groundouts and five flyouts, threw 28 of 42 pitches for strikes, and faced 12 hitters to get 10 outs.
Gameballs
1) Ichiro
In a game that really wasn't eventful for Mariner hitting as a whole, Ichiro had the most eventful hit. His two-out double in the third inning scored Ryan Langerhans from first to cut the Rangers' lead to 2-1 at that point. The hit was also his 199th of the season, placing him just one short of 200 hits and nine straight 200-hit seasons. Really the only thing you could complain about is that Ichiro's hit pace has slowed tremendously compared to his pace for most of this season. That's a bit nit-picky, though. Ichiro is Ichiro, but when he's hitting under .300 for a long stretch of time, it sinks his season average a bit (obviously), but it makes you wonder if there's something wrong with him. I just hope this isn't the beginning of a span where Ichiro is prone to muscle pulls and intestinal things and misses a dozen or so games every year. Unfortunately for him, the legend he's built for himself is so incredibly ridiculous that now we hold him to a pretty lofty and probably unfair standard. Then again, he does have that contract to justify the standard. By the way, 199 hits leaves him on pace ti finish with about 229 hits.
2) Adrian Beltre
The Mariners' third baseman went 2-for-4 with an RBI, good for his second straight multi-hit game. His game log for this month ramps up -- he goes from a hit every three games to a hit every other game to a couple of multi-hit games. He's still hitting all of .167 (7-for-42) for September, so it's not really stop-the-presses time yet for Beltre. What's really nuts is that when Beltre came back from injury in August and played nine games before Testiclegate, he went 16-for-41 (.390). Granted, his only power hitting during that entire stretch consisted of two doubles, but it really helped at least having those hits. Five of those nine games were multi-hit games for Beltre, and he had a three-hit game and a four-hit game in there. I feel pretty bad about the way Beltre's final season in Seattle went. I don't think I feel badly enough about it to re-sign him again, but I just wish he'd had way better luck with injuries and thus had a fair shake on his way out the door. Then again, if somehow he wants to sign for one year and $5 million to build his stock back up, I'm not sure I'd be against it. Yeah, it's not happening.
3) Jack Hannahan
Playing time for the Man With the Blatantly Irish Name was far from plentiful in the first half of September, but this game marked his second straight start at first base, so now the playing time is raining like mana from heaven. Sure, there were two other one-hit guys that weren't Ichiro that I could have written about here, but I chose Hannahan because I'm not truly sure how many more times I'll get to write a Hannahan paragraph for the rest of the year. What is a number-three gameball day for Hannahan? He hit a leadoff single in the fifth and was forced out on a ground ball by Kenji Johjima. As for the outs he made, he lined out to centerfield to end the second inning, flew out to center with the bases empty and one out in the seventh, and whiffed with a runner on first and one out in the ninth and a 7-2 deficit. Somehow I don't think Hannahan's outs figured too much into the final outcome of this game. But hey, he's 3-for-8 in his last two games, which is beyond insane. It's his first hitting streak since August 28th-29th.
Goat
Doug Fister
Without seeing the game, this looks in the boxscore like it's the Iron Fister's worst start out of his seven big-league starts with the Mariners. He only walked one hitter, but the one thing that convinced me to throw him into the goat slot here had to be the 10 hits he allowed in only 4 2/3 innings. The Rangers had him solved. Also, a ratio of six groundouts to seven flyouts might be pretty good for some other pitchers, but I want to see that ratio break the other way, especially when you're facing the Texas Rangers in Arlington. Two of the 10 hits he gave up were home runs, though they were both solo shots. In other words, it's a good thing Fister only walked one hitter in those 4 2/3 innings. Unsurprisingly, Fister gave up at least a hit in every inning, though I guess some credit has to be given to him in that his hitter friendliness in the game never got out of control and snowballed into the big inning. It's pretty surprising to see 10 hits in his line and not have the big inning. Fister gave up five runs on 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings of work, walking one and striking out one. He threw 65 strikes out of 101 pitches and faced 25 hitters to get 14 outs.
It was a Felix nightcap to end the rain-drenched series in Arlington.
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Sunday, September 13, 2009
GAME 142: MARINERS 8, RANGERS 3
I won't lie. I was celebrating the birthday of a friend on this night, and all I've seen for visual of this game was KING-5's highlight reel, and that was about two plays' worth of footage. To be honest, I'm surprised they got this game in the books with the way it was sounding. I tuned in less than 30 minutes before game time, and though there were some pitchers throwing in the outfield grass, the tarp was still laid out on the infield. Let's see if they get the doubleheader in tomorrow. Again, I won't lie about it -- I'm watching the Seahawks tomorrow. Absolutely. What did I miss in this game? It appears I missed Morrow getting his first win in a long while and Ken Griffey Jr. actually doing something at the plate, which he hasn't done in a while. Brandon Morrow, after waiting through the rains of Friday, finally got to make his return to the Major Leagues as a starter. Unfortunately for Tacoma, that meant they had to start Andrew Baldwin on Friday night, and the final score of that game was pretty horrendous. Another odd thing about this game is that it was called with two runners on and nobody out in the bottom of the ninth and things would have been dicey for Randy Messenger.
The win snapped the Mariners' five-game losing streak, raising their record to 73-69 after 142 games. This record is two games off the 2007 pace, but five better than 2006, 12 better than 2005, 17 better than last year, and 20 better than 2004. Seventy-three wins is also four wins worse than 2000, nine worse than 2003, 11 worse than 2002, and 29 worse than 2001. Other new-millennium Mariner teams' records when netting win number 73: 73-62 in 2000, 73-29 in 2001, 73-46 in 2002, 73-47 in 2003, 63-99 in 2004, 69-93 in 2005, 73-79 in 2006, 73-53 in 2007, and 61-101 last year.
Seattle hitting went a splendid 15-for-41 on the night, walking six times and striking out six times as well. They were 5-for-22 with runners in scoring position and stranded 12 runners in all. No Mariner hitter went hitless in this game. The only Mariners that didn't get at least two hits were Franklin Gutierrez, Jose Lopez, Bill Hall, and Rob Johnson. Lopez drew two walks to help his cause, and Johnson walked once. Six of the Mariners' 15 hits went for extra bases. Ichiro, Gutierrez, Jack Hannahan, and Griffey (twice) hit doubles while Ichiro also chipped in with the only Mariner home run of the game. Griffey, Gutierrez, and Hannahan each drove in two runs. Despite his game-breaking two-run double, Gutierrez still stranded three runners in scoring position with two out and has a number seven under his name in the left-on-base column.
When Mariner pitching only gives up six hits and one home run in Arlington, it's a good night. Brandon Morrow came away from the game with decent results. He threw a 1-2-3 first inning before Marlon Byrd singled to lead off the second. Morrow then set down the next three hitters. Morrow had some trouble in the third. He walked Chris Davis to lead off, then Julio Borbon homered one out later to cut the Mariners' lead to 3-2. Ian Kinsler doubled with two out, but was stranded. Morrow allowed another leadoff walk in the fourth, but he got a double-play ball to quell the threat. Davis nearly homered to lead off the fifth, but the original home run call was overturned by video review. Davis scored two outs later on a groundout to cut the Mariners' lead to 5-3. Elvis Andrus legged out an infield single, and that was the final hit that Morrow allowed. Morrow gave up three runs on five hits, walking two and striking out one. He got seven groundouts and seven flyouts, threw 45 strikes out of 80 pitches, and faced 21 hitters to get 15 outs.
As for the bullpen, they were asked to handle leads of 5-3, 7-3, and 8-3 as the Mariners played add-on, which is a rarity. Shawn Kelley threw a 1-2-3 sixth inning, getting a lineout, flyout, and foul pop. His line shows up only as one inning thrown, then zeroes across the board in every category. He threw nine strikes out of 15 pitches. Mark Lowe threw the seventh and eighth innings and dominated. He struck out the first two hitters in each inning. An Esteban German groundout ended the seventh, and an Ian Kinsler foul pop ended the eighth. Lowe got one groundout and one flyout, threw 16 strikes out of 24 pitches, and retired all six hitters he faced. Randy Messenger threw what was played of the ninth inning, allowing a Byrd single and a Nelson Cruz grounder that Jack Wilson couldn't field. Jack Wilson was tagged with an error as a result, though the wire article tells me the ground conditions where deteriorating at that point. The game was then rain-delayed once again before mercifully being called.
Gameballs
1) Ken Griffey Jr.
I've been saying this year that Griffey has had some terrible stretches, but then he slips in that one game every once in a while that lets you know he's still capable of not being a black hole in the lineup. This was one of those games. It was his first multi-hit game since August 23rd, and his first three-hit game since August 1st. His hit in Thursday's game in Anaheim snapped a six-game hitless streak, going 0-for-15, though he only started three times in that stretch. What was the anatomy of the awesome (3-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs) night for Griffey? With Ichiro on second base and two out, Griffey singled to plate Ichiro and open the scoring. With Jose Lopez on first, Griffey doubled to the wall in centerfield, bringing Lopez all the way around to score and make it 3-0 for the Mariners. He drew a four-pitch walk to lead off the seventh and scored on a Jack Hannahan double that expanded the Mariners' lead to 7-3. In the eighth, Lopez once again was on first, though with nobody out this time, and Griffey doubled again, but not well enough to score Lopez, who scored when Beltre singled four pitches later.
2) Ichiro
He got two hits to snap out of his 1-for-17 slump that went back to his final three at-bats in Oakland on September 6th. In other words, he has slumped ever since collecting his 2000th Major League hit. According to the AP wire article, Ichiro isn't speaking to the media until after he gets his 200th hit of the season. I think he's having trouble filtering out the distractions, though it doesn't help that the media contingent has expanded a bit lately. He ended up with a 2-for-5 game with an RBI and an intentional walk. Anyway, Ichiro doubled to lead off the game and homered to lead off the third inning. He then went hitless the rest of way, which included three at-bats and an intentional walk. He's still on pace to finish with around 230 hits. The Mariners have 20 games remaining in their season. I still have to say that Ichiro's intestinal thing and the calf thing have me worried a bit about whether Ichiro can keep playing over 155 games a season like he had in every Major League season prior to this one. Maybe he doesn't get 200 hits next year, though that would obviously be due to injury and not because he barely hit .300.
3) Jack Hannahan
The only guy on this team getting less playing time than Ryan Langerhans right now is Jack Hannahan. He had made three appearances this month, all as a pinch runner. He hadn't gotten a plate appearance since August 31st. As a result, he brushed off the cobwebs and went 2-for-4 in this game with a double and two RBIs. He singled with the bases empty and one out in the first. He led off the fourth with a walk and scored on the Gutierrez double that expanded the Mariners' lead to 5-2. He grounded out to end the fifth, then doubled with the bases loaded and nobody out in the seventh, driving in Griffey and Beltre to give the Mariners a 7-3 lead. He balanced out the karma by grounding into an inning-ending double play in the eighth. It's safe to say the only reason Hannahan and Langerhans are still on this team is because it's September and the rosters are expanded. Chris Woodward and Chris Shelton might as well be in the dugout right now because they'd be getting as much playing time as Langerhans and Hannahan.
Goat
Bill Hall
This is incredibly rare -- usually I get the game where the whole team sucks and I have a lot of trouble picking the three gameballs. Instead, the whole team was pretty good in this game and it was really hard picking the goat. The only thing I get as much as the bad game where I have to scrape to get three gameballs is the game where the goat is just incredibly obvious. Usually a game like this one would have eight guys in the lineup tearing things up, then Hall would be the guy that struck out four times and go hitless or something. Not so in this game. Hall singled with two runners on and loaded the bases in the seventh inning, setting it up for the Hannahan double. Thus, Hall was far from worthless in this game. He's hitting .278 this month, which is pretty good considering he's had some trouble at the plate since coming to the Mariners. Maybe it's league adjustment or whatever. Sometimes it seems to me that the Mariners are the only team where guys come over from the National League and have a significant league adjustment time, whether it's Adrian Beltre, Jeff Cirillo, Hall, Jack Wilson, whatever. Maybe you can throw Kevin Mitchell and Eric Anthony in there.
Iron Fister and Felix in the doubleheader today.
The win snapped the Mariners' five-game losing streak, raising their record to 73-69 after 142 games. This record is two games off the 2007 pace, but five better than 2006, 12 better than 2005, 17 better than last year, and 20 better than 2004. Seventy-three wins is also four wins worse than 2000, nine worse than 2003, 11 worse than 2002, and 29 worse than 2001. Other new-millennium Mariner teams' records when netting win number 73: 73-62 in 2000, 73-29 in 2001, 73-46 in 2002, 73-47 in 2003, 63-99 in 2004, 69-93 in 2005, 73-79 in 2006, 73-53 in 2007, and 61-101 last year.
Seattle hitting went a splendid 15-for-41 on the night, walking six times and striking out six times as well. They were 5-for-22 with runners in scoring position and stranded 12 runners in all. No Mariner hitter went hitless in this game. The only Mariners that didn't get at least two hits were Franklin Gutierrez, Jose Lopez, Bill Hall, and Rob Johnson. Lopez drew two walks to help his cause, and Johnson walked once. Six of the Mariners' 15 hits went for extra bases. Ichiro, Gutierrez, Jack Hannahan, and Griffey (twice) hit doubles while Ichiro also chipped in with the only Mariner home run of the game. Griffey, Gutierrez, and Hannahan each drove in two runs. Despite his game-breaking two-run double, Gutierrez still stranded three runners in scoring position with two out and has a number seven under his name in the left-on-base column.
When Mariner pitching only gives up six hits and one home run in Arlington, it's a good night. Brandon Morrow came away from the game with decent results. He threw a 1-2-3 first inning before Marlon Byrd singled to lead off the second. Morrow then set down the next three hitters. Morrow had some trouble in the third. He walked Chris Davis to lead off, then Julio Borbon homered one out later to cut the Mariners' lead to 3-2. Ian Kinsler doubled with two out, but was stranded. Morrow allowed another leadoff walk in the fourth, but he got a double-play ball to quell the threat. Davis nearly homered to lead off the fifth, but the original home run call was overturned by video review. Davis scored two outs later on a groundout to cut the Mariners' lead to 5-3. Elvis Andrus legged out an infield single, and that was the final hit that Morrow allowed. Morrow gave up three runs on five hits, walking two and striking out one. He got seven groundouts and seven flyouts, threw 45 strikes out of 80 pitches, and faced 21 hitters to get 15 outs.
As for the bullpen, they were asked to handle leads of 5-3, 7-3, and 8-3 as the Mariners played add-on, which is a rarity. Shawn Kelley threw a 1-2-3 sixth inning, getting a lineout, flyout, and foul pop. His line shows up only as one inning thrown, then zeroes across the board in every category. He threw nine strikes out of 15 pitches. Mark Lowe threw the seventh and eighth innings and dominated. He struck out the first two hitters in each inning. An Esteban German groundout ended the seventh, and an Ian Kinsler foul pop ended the eighth. Lowe got one groundout and one flyout, threw 16 strikes out of 24 pitches, and retired all six hitters he faced. Randy Messenger threw what was played of the ninth inning, allowing a Byrd single and a Nelson Cruz grounder that Jack Wilson couldn't field. Jack Wilson was tagged with an error as a result, though the wire article tells me the ground conditions where deteriorating at that point. The game was then rain-delayed once again before mercifully being called.
Gameballs
1) Ken Griffey Jr.
I've been saying this year that Griffey has had some terrible stretches, but then he slips in that one game every once in a while that lets you know he's still capable of not being a black hole in the lineup. This was one of those games. It was his first multi-hit game since August 23rd, and his first three-hit game since August 1st. His hit in Thursday's game in Anaheim snapped a six-game hitless streak, going 0-for-15, though he only started three times in that stretch. What was the anatomy of the awesome (3-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs) night for Griffey? With Ichiro on second base and two out, Griffey singled to plate Ichiro and open the scoring. With Jose Lopez on first, Griffey doubled to the wall in centerfield, bringing Lopez all the way around to score and make it 3-0 for the Mariners. He drew a four-pitch walk to lead off the seventh and scored on a Jack Hannahan double that expanded the Mariners' lead to 7-3. In the eighth, Lopez once again was on first, though with nobody out this time, and Griffey doubled again, but not well enough to score Lopez, who scored when Beltre singled four pitches later.
2) Ichiro
He got two hits to snap out of his 1-for-17 slump that went back to his final three at-bats in Oakland on September 6th. In other words, he has slumped ever since collecting his 2000th Major League hit. According to the AP wire article, Ichiro isn't speaking to the media until after he gets his 200th hit of the season. I think he's having trouble filtering out the distractions, though it doesn't help that the media contingent has expanded a bit lately. He ended up with a 2-for-5 game with an RBI and an intentional walk. Anyway, Ichiro doubled to lead off the game and homered to lead off the third inning. He then went hitless the rest of way, which included three at-bats and an intentional walk. He's still on pace to finish with around 230 hits. The Mariners have 20 games remaining in their season. I still have to say that Ichiro's intestinal thing and the calf thing have me worried a bit about whether Ichiro can keep playing over 155 games a season like he had in every Major League season prior to this one. Maybe he doesn't get 200 hits next year, though that would obviously be due to injury and not because he barely hit .300.
3) Jack Hannahan
The only guy on this team getting less playing time than Ryan Langerhans right now is Jack Hannahan. He had made three appearances this month, all as a pinch runner. He hadn't gotten a plate appearance since August 31st. As a result, he brushed off the cobwebs and went 2-for-4 in this game with a double and two RBIs. He singled with the bases empty and one out in the first. He led off the fourth with a walk and scored on the Gutierrez double that expanded the Mariners' lead to 5-2. He grounded out to end the fifth, then doubled with the bases loaded and nobody out in the seventh, driving in Griffey and Beltre to give the Mariners a 7-3 lead. He balanced out the karma by grounding into an inning-ending double play in the eighth. It's safe to say the only reason Hannahan and Langerhans are still on this team is because it's September and the rosters are expanded. Chris Woodward and Chris Shelton might as well be in the dugout right now because they'd be getting as much playing time as Langerhans and Hannahan.
Goat
Bill Hall
This is incredibly rare -- usually I get the game where the whole team sucks and I have a lot of trouble picking the three gameballs. Instead, the whole team was pretty good in this game and it was really hard picking the goat. The only thing I get as much as the bad game where I have to scrape to get three gameballs is the game where the goat is just incredibly obvious. Usually a game like this one would have eight guys in the lineup tearing things up, then Hall would be the guy that struck out four times and go hitless or something. Not so in this game. Hall singled with two runners on and loaded the bases in the seventh inning, setting it up for the Hannahan double. Thus, Hall was far from worthless in this game. He's hitting .278 this month, which is pretty good considering he's had some trouble at the plate since coming to the Mariners. Maybe it's league adjustment or whatever. Sometimes it seems to me that the Mariners are the only team where guys come over from the National League and have a significant league adjustment time, whether it's Adrian Beltre, Jeff Cirillo, Hall, Jack Wilson, whatever. Maybe you can throw Kevin Mitchell and Eric Anthony in there.
Iron Fister and Felix in the doubleheader today.
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Thursday, September 10, 2009
GAME 141: ANGELS 3, MARINERS 0
If it's clear the Mariners aren't going to win a game, it's a lot easier to stomach when the game elapses in a flash. I'm normally not a big fan of John Lackey, but he's the man to thank tonight for a game that lasted two hours and two minutes. That's not to say Ryan Rowland-Smith isn't a fast worker as well, but Lackey's utter dominance of the Mariners made for a quick game. The bad news is that the Mariners have more than negated that four-game winning streak they had by following it up immediately with a five-game (and counting) losing streak. Wouldn't you know it, the man on the mound tomorrow for the Mariners is Brandon Morrow, who will return to the site of his closing nightmare earlier this season. Whether the Mariners lose a sixth straight will lie in the hands of Morrow. Notice how I have to elaborate on the next game since this game was completely uneventful for the Mariners? By the way, this five-game losing streak is the Mariners' second-longest losing streak of the season. The longest was a six-game losing streak that landed them at 15-16 in mid-May.
The Mariners' fifth straight loss dropped their record to 72-69 after 141 games. This record at this point in the schedule is three games worse than that of the 2007 team, but four better than 2006, 11 better than 2005, 17 better than last year, and 20 better than 2004. Seventy-two wins is also four worse than 2000, 10 worse than 2003, 11 worse than 2002, and 29 worse than 2001. Other new-millennium Mariner teams' records when losing their 69th game: 86-69 in 2000, 116-46 in 2001, 93-69 in 2002, 90-69 in 2003, 40-69 in 2004, 52-69 in 2005, 57-69 in 2006, 78-69 in 2007, and 41-69 last year.
Seattle hitting went a combined 5-for-29 on the night, walking once and striking out seven times. They also went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and stranded four runners in all. The Mariners went 0-for-19 in the three-game series with runners in scoring position. The only multi-hit Mariner on the night was Bill Hall, who went 3-for-3. Three of the Mariners' five hits were doubles hit by Hall, Ken Griffey Jr., and Kenji Johjima. The top third of the Mariners' lineup (Ichiro, Franklin Gutierrez, Jose Lopez) went a combined, 0-for-10 with a walk and three strikeouts. Lopez and Mike Carp grounded into double plays.
The Mariner arms had a much better night, but once again were on the wrong side of the margin of error. The starting pitcher will be covered below. Shawn Kelley threw the eighth inning with the Angels leading 3-0, which held up as the final score. Kelley got flyouts from Vladimir guerrero and Torii Hunter, then got Juan Rivera to whiff and end the inning. Kelley threw 10 strikes out of 17 pitches in his 1-2-3 eighth.
Gameballs
1) Bill Hall
At least someone in the Mariner lineup had a pretty good night. Hall had gone 1-for-16 with 11 strikeouts in the last four games and had a five-game strikeout streak going into this game (3-for-20 with a double). It's time to start dancing in the streets, because the strikeout streak is now over. Hall started hsi night with a double to centerfield with two out in the second inning. Of course, since the double came with two out, there was no chance in hell of him coming around to score. Hall then led off the fifth with a single, which seemed promising. Unfortunately, Carp grounded into a double play two pitches later. As karma would have it, Johjima doubled right after that. In the seventh, Hall singled once again with two out. Again, he didn't come around to score, but this time it was of his own doing as he was caught stealing second, though Dave Sims and Mike Blowers didn't necessarily agree with the call at second base. Hall is now hitting 17-for-66 (.258) as a Mariner with six doubles and a home run (slugging .394).
2) Ryan Rowland-Smith
It's a shame that the Aussie has to pitch for a team where he can get the loss for the night just by throwing one bad pitch. On the other hand, Rowland-Smith was far from unhittable, giving up 10 hits over his seven innings of work. Still, something has to be said for being able to scatter those 10 hits and only give up three runs. Rowland-Smith only gave up two infield singles through the first three innings. Through the first 3 2/3 innings, Rowland-Smith had only given up the two infield singles and a walk. Guerrero's two-out single to left in the fourth was the Angels' first hit of the game that reached the outfield. Four pitches later, Hunter blasted off into the rockery beyond the centerfield wall and the Angels, as some of us were probably thinking at the time, had all the runs they would need. The Aussie allowed a single and an infield single in the fifth and had to pitch his way out of a two-on, two-out situation. In teh seventh, Howie Kendrick doubled with one out and eventually scored from third on an Erick Aybar double to cap the scoring. Rowland-Smith gave up three runs on 10 hits in seven innings, walking one and striking out five. He got 12 groundouts to four flyouts (very nice), threw 70 strikes out of 106 pitches, and faced 30 hitters to get 21 outs.
3) Kenji Johjima
It's time to stop the presses -- Johjima has extra-base hits in consecutive games, something he hasn't done since May 12th and May 13th. The Mariners' backup catcher has gone 6-for-18 (.333) this month with a double, two home runs (slugging .722), and four RBIs. Johjima has appeared in eight of the Mariners' nine games this month and has started in six. He's not really grabbing the reins of the newfound playing time like Josh Wilson did when Jack Wilson hit the shelf, but he hasn't been awful in his last 10 games, over which he has gone 9-for-25 with a double, two home runs (slugging .640), and five RBIs. Morrow, Doug Fister, and Felix Hernandez throw the next three games, and I'm guessing Johjima will only be out there for one of them, unless Rob Johnson's got nagging injuries or something. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to think that Johnson will be catching Felix's next start, because the earth would fall off its axis if Johjima caught Felix again. Then again, I'm not really going to complain if Johnson catching means Felix does awesome.
Goat
Ichiro
The middle game of this series saw the Mariners' leadoff hitter get one hit to stave off hitless consecutive games, which would be a heathen happening for sure. The bad thing is that Ichiro is now hitless in two of his last three games thanks to his 0-for-4 night. In case you're wondering, I've gone through Ichiro's game-by-game logs for this season looking to see if he's sandwiched a one-hit game with two hitless games. The answer is no. Thus, you could draw the conclusion that Ichiro is in the middle of his worst slump of the season. The worst part isn't necessarily just the bare bones (i.e., he isn't hitting), and it's not that he's struck out in six straight games -- his longest such streak of the season -- or that he's struck out seven times in the last six games. The worst part is that Ichiro's looking really awful on some of these strikeouts lately. He swung at a third strike in the dirt tonight that was blocked by Jeff Mathis, and Dave Niehaus wondered aloud why Ichiro wouldn't at least try to leg out to first base and at least make Mathis make that throw. Of course, maybe that's the wisdom of Ichiro. Maybe he already knew the Mariners weren't winning that game.
Tonight is for the Morrow.
The Mariners' fifth straight loss dropped their record to 72-69 after 141 games. This record at this point in the schedule is three games worse than that of the 2007 team, but four better than 2006, 11 better than 2005, 17 better than last year, and 20 better than 2004. Seventy-two wins is also four worse than 2000, 10 worse than 2003, 11 worse than 2002, and 29 worse than 2001. Other new-millennium Mariner teams' records when losing their 69th game: 86-69 in 2000, 116-46 in 2001, 93-69 in 2002, 90-69 in 2003, 40-69 in 2004, 52-69 in 2005, 57-69 in 2006, 78-69 in 2007, and 41-69 last year.
Seattle hitting went a combined 5-for-29 on the night, walking once and striking out seven times. They also went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and stranded four runners in all. The Mariners went 0-for-19 in the three-game series with runners in scoring position. The only multi-hit Mariner on the night was Bill Hall, who went 3-for-3. Three of the Mariners' five hits were doubles hit by Hall, Ken Griffey Jr., and Kenji Johjima. The top third of the Mariners' lineup (Ichiro, Franklin Gutierrez, Jose Lopez) went a combined, 0-for-10 with a walk and three strikeouts. Lopez and Mike Carp grounded into double plays.
The Mariner arms had a much better night, but once again were on the wrong side of the margin of error. The starting pitcher will be covered below. Shawn Kelley threw the eighth inning with the Angels leading 3-0, which held up as the final score. Kelley got flyouts from Vladimir guerrero and Torii Hunter, then got Juan Rivera to whiff and end the inning. Kelley threw 10 strikes out of 17 pitches in his 1-2-3 eighth.
Gameballs
1) Bill Hall
At least someone in the Mariner lineup had a pretty good night. Hall had gone 1-for-16 with 11 strikeouts in the last four games and had a five-game strikeout streak going into this game (3-for-20 with a double). It's time to start dancing in the streets, because the strikeout streak is now over. Hall started hsi night with a double to centerfield with two out in the second inning. Of course, since the double came with two out, there was no chance in hell of him coming around to score. Hall then led off the fifth with a single, which seemed promising. Unfortunately, Carp grounded into a double play two pitches later. As karma would have it, Johjima doubled right after that. In the seventh, Hall singled once again with two out. Again, he didn't come around to score, but this time it was of his own doing as he was caught stealing second, though Dave Sims and Mike Blowers didn't necessarily agree with the call at second base. Hall is now hitting 17-for-66 (.258) as a Mariner with six doubles and a home run (slugging .394).
2) Ryan Rowland-Smith
It's a shame that the Aussie has to pitch for a team where he can get the loss for the night just by throwing one bad pitch. On the other hand, Rowland-Smith was far from unhittable, giving up 10 hits over his seven innings of work. Still, something has to be said for being able to scatter those 10 hits and only give up three runs. Rowland-Smith only gave up two infield singles through the first three innings. Through the first 3 2/3 innings, Rowland-Smith had only given up the two infield singles and a walk. Guerrero's two-out single to left in the fourth was the Angels' first hit of the game that reached the outfield. Four pitches later, Hunter blasted off into the rockery beyond the centerfield wall and the Angels, as some of us were probably thinking at the time, had all the runs they would need. The Aussie allowed a single and an infield single in the fifth and had to pitch his way out of a two-on, two-out situation. In teh seventh, Howie Kendrick doubled with one out and eventually scored from third on an Erick Aybar double to cap the scoring. Rowland-Smith gave up three runs on 10 hits in seven innings, walking one and striking out five. He got 12 groundouts to four flyouts (very nice), threw 70 strikes out of 106 pitches, and faced 30 hitters to get 21 outs.
3) Kenji Johjima
It's time to stop the presses -- Johjima has extra-base hits in consecutive games, something he hasn't done since May 12th and May 13th. The Mariners' backup catcher has gone 6-for-18 (.333) this month with a double, two home runs (slugging .722), and four RBIs. Johjima has appeared in eight of the Mariners' nine games this month and has started in six. He's not really grabbing the reins of the newfound playing time like Josh Wilson did when Jack Wilson hit the shelf, but he hasn't been awful in his last 10 games, over which he has gone 9-for-25 with a double, two home runs (slugging .640), and five RBIs. Morrow, Doug Fister, and Felix Hernandez throw the next three games, and I'm guessing Johjima will only be out there for one of them, unless Rob Johnson's got nagging injuries or something. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to think that Johnson will be catching Felix's next start, because the earth would fall off its axis if Johjima caught Felix again. Then again, I'm not really going to complain if Johnson catching means Felix does awesome.
Goat
Ichiro
The middle game of this series saw the Mariners' leadoff hitter get one hit to stave off hitless consecutive games, which would be a heathen happening for sure. The bad thing is that Ichiro is now hitless in two of his last three games thanks to his 0-for-4 night. In case you're wondering, I've gone through Ichiro's game-by-game logs for this season looking to see if he's sandwiched a one-hit game with two hitless games. The answer is no. Thus, you could draw the conclusion that Ichiro is in the middle of his worst slump of the season. The worst part isn't necessarily just the bare bones (i.e., he isn't hitting), and it's not that he's struck out in six straight games -- his longest such streak of the season -- or that he's struck out seven times in the last six games. The worst part is that Ichiro's looking really awful on some of these strikeouts lately. He swung at a third strike in the dirt tonight that was blocked by Jeff Mathis, and Dave Niehaus wondered aloud why Ichiro wouldn't at least try to leg out to first base and at least make Mathis make that throw. Of course, maybe that's the wisdom of Ichiro. Maybe he already knew the Mariners weren't winning that game.
Tonight is for the Morrow.