Game 24, Rangers at Mariners
Brandon Maurer vs. Matt Harrison, 1:10pm
Back when Maurer first came up, I thought he reminded me a bit of Harrison in terms of pitch movement and repertoire. To be sure, Maurer was much more of a fastball/slider guy (sometimes moving towards a slider/fastball guy), and obviously Maurer’s a righty and Harrison’s not. Then there’s the fact that Harrison’s had some MLB success while Maurer’s…shown flashes, or something. Today, they’ll face off against each other – Maurer getting a second start after an extremely encouraging game in Miami, while Harrison makes his first start of the year after back surgery.
Harrison pitched in spring training, but his velocity was down significantly from prior years – around 90-91 from 93 or so (though the Rangers think he made some progress towards the end of the spring). He’s made a rehab start or two, but even there, it’s not clear his velocity’s all the way back.
Harrison uses a sinker, a four-seamer, a good change, and a curve and occasional cutter. He’s faced mostly righties in his Texas career, as he’s got fairly standard platoon splits – this is part of the reason why he hasn’t thrown as many cutter/curves. The M’s can actually throw out quite a few right-handed bats right now, but they’re still not hitting lefties terribly well. Some of this may be due to the quality of the lefties they’ve faced, and some of it is just luck. In fact, the M’s biggest problem on offense has been their production against right-handed pitchers. Against lefties, the M’s haven’t been great, and they’ve not hit for power, but they clear the low bar of a .300 OBP. Against righties, the M’s *have* hit for power, but that’s about the only semi-positive thing you can say about them.
1: Saunders, CF
2: Romero, RF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Hart, DH
5: Smoak, 1B
6: Gillespie, LF
7: Seager, 3B
8: Buck, C
9: Bloomquist, SS
SP: Maurer
Maurer’s emergence was sorely needed, as the M’s pitching depth has taken a big hit. But Hisashi Iwakuma’s getting closer to returning too – he’s starting today for Tacoma as they take on Las Vegas at Cashman Field. Steven Landazuri, who’s had a very good start for AA Jackson, takes the hill against Mobile, and top prospect Edwin Diaz starts for Clinton against Cedar Rapids.
The Rangers think they’ve solved Felix Hernandez. That nasty inning last night was the 3rd or 4th time they’ve BABIP’d him to death, so I’m not sure that’s quite the same as figuring a guy out, but the results have been solid. There’s something to be said for making lots of contact against a swing-and-miss pitcher. It’s interesting that it’s the banter between Felix and Adrian Beltre that the Rangers point to as evidence of their ability to get in Felix’s head and get him off his game. I wonder if the M’s would ask him to stop doing it, and, if they did ask, what he’d say. (Hat Tip: Bob Dutton)
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76 Responses to “Game 24, Rangers at Mariners”
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Hahaha, love what Sims just said:
“Now if we can just get Rodney in here without having to reach for the defibrillator, we’re fine!”
It will be the most Mariner thing if Rodney comes in and loses it in the 9th.
Seager says, ” what slump?”
Willie, WHAT were you swinging at?
Can’t watch the ninth. Think I’ll go mow the lawn. Much less stress than watching Fernando torture us
Seager should be sent down to AAA to work on things.
Here comes the drama
YEAH!!
Whew…..maybe he’s straightened it out. Just pump the zone baby!
Had the good Rodney today.
Fun when the Marinerx are able to score runs. Even if it is mostly one hitter.
Great win M’s!
Well, less drama than last time, and I’ll take the series win…
Fernando Rodney, lights out, good night.
Eastside, you must be in the rain shadow today – like Seattle was. Down here, 40 miles SSE of the stadium… it’s been way too wet to even think about mowing.
But, in any case, no defibrillator was needed today!
No, I’m in Spokane…hence, Eastside. Dodging the storms over here as usual this time of year.
Good to see Seager get going the last four games, getting home runs against less than quality pitching (besides Lewis). Thank goodness for playing Texas teams at home. Still doesn’t come close to making up for sucking for almost an entire month.
Haha, all this time I’ve been assuming “Eastside” meant Bellevue or Kirkland (east of Lake Washington). Typical Westside bias. 😀
Wow! When I stopped watching the game (and went shopping) it was 5-0 Texas and the Mariners had not reached base. I come home and my son tells me they won – what? With Cano and Hart in the lineup, this year’s team is a bit more fun to watch.
I missed most of the game too – how did Saunders look in centerfield. Not to stir pot too much but was there huge difference between Almonte and Saunders abilities as a centerfielder?
Casey,
I say go ahead and stir the pot. If Dave Cameron with his pull-no-punches style were still commenting on this site, he would tell us (I bet) that Abe Almonte is not a major league player. Almonte is the one regular I really hate to see in the lineup every day. He just isn’t good.
Saunders looked fine in the field, but there wasn’t much to challenge him. The other two corners looked pretty bad on a couple very routine plays – both muffed dribbling ground balls.
At bat – I hope Almonte was watching Condor because Abe doesn’t seem to know there’s such a thing as a “walk”.
It will be interesting to see Tuesday’s lineup – we may have more insight into McLendon’s thought process.
Nice to see the winning rally put together by Smoak, Ackley and Seager. Also, not bad seeing the Astros take the series from the mighty A’s! That rookie pitcher really shut them down, maybe the M’s really aren’t so bad after all.
Ut-Oh,
Somebody distract Dave Cameron today so he doesn’t see this quote from Skipper McClendon:
“This is a results-oriented game. We can talk about all the stats and you can put a spin on stats… all of it, all of it’s [crap]. It’s all about winning the game. If you win the game, everything’s fine.”
one of the things I just don’t know about McClendon is whether he values his lead-off hitter getting two walks or whether he thinks Saunders had another horse bleep game.
I’m not a McLendon fan; however it’s always possible that his intent in this case is to build up his players with positives. Talking about their statistics right now would not accomplish that, while talking about taking two of three from Texas would.
Tangentially… I’m also curious about the exact thing Casey mentioned. Saunders got on base 50% of the time he went to bat. We all would say that’s good… but some old school guys would say “see, he didn’t get any hits – that’s not getting it done”. So which is Mac?
Having been with Pittsburgh awhile, during awfulness, I would hope McLendon sees getting on base in any way, shape, or form as “good baseball”. He had some guys in Pittsburgh whose best bet to get on base was probably to lean out over the plate as much as possible, and just close their eyes, with some preemptive Ibuprofen taken before the game.