Game 78, Red Sox at Mariners
Erasmo Ramirez vs. Jake Peavy, 7:10 pm
That was some game last night, right?
This one will feature two guys who have not been what their respective teams expected them to be, though in Peavy’s case it’s more impactful. By whatever metric you care to look at, Peavy has not been good. His home run/fly ball percentage is the worst that it’s been since his sophomore season back in 2003 and his walks and K rates are in the same camp. He’s also lost a mile off his heater relative to last year, which is weird, because he’s using it more and hasn’t busted out the cutter nearly as often, if the pitch types are to be believed. Peavy has never been a pitcher with great stuff, so any loss of it is something that you can see the effects of. When, in addition to that, he doesn’t have good command, then things get rather bad for him. The Mariners have also hit him well in the past, when he was good and with the Padres or the White Sox. This looks like a winnable game for the Mariners which means that we could either win or lose the game.
A lot of lip service was played to the most recent start by Erasmo being the best. It is technically accurate in that he went six innings without a run and the last three starts have spanned scoreless 15.2 innings. But then this most recent outing against the Padres was the first in which he had more strikeouts than walks. By one. The Red Sox have the fourth best walk rate in the MLB. This could get aggravating in a hurry. Fortunately for Erasmo, the Red Sox rank 24th in isolated slugging as a team ahead of the Padres, Yankees, Rays, Mets, Cardinals, and Royals. Okay, some of those names seem like they belong there.
Some of us will likely be paying attention to the Taijuan Walker start in Tacoma tonight, just to figure out if he’s getting any closer. Others will be paying attention to it because Michael Saunders is hitting .529/.556/.941 (!) through his first four games there and our offense plainly looks a lot better with Condor in the lineup. One other consideration I would have is the whole Justin Smoak thing, beyond the fact that he’s been taking away at-bats from the previously red-hot Ji-Man Choi, which irks me. Smoak has been batting .217/.296/.391 down in Tacoma so far. The walks and power (sort of?) have been there, but he’s still striking out a bit and hits aren’t falling in for him regularly. Now that Logan Morrison is looking like he could be a solid lineup contributor, the question is what you do with first base once Smoak is ready. Play Smoak at first and keep with the defensive gains, leaving Morrison to DH, or play Morrison at first, take a hit on defense, and try to find an actual hitter to use at designated hitter instead of oh look here’s another lineup:
RF Endy Chavez
CF James Jones
2B Robinson Cano
3B Kyle Seager
1B Logan Morrison
C Mike Zunino
LF Dustin Ackley
SS Rad Miller
DH John Buck
D.J. Peterson, who was promoted to Jackson last night, and Gabriel Guerrero, who was not, have been named to the Futures Game. I will have stuff to say about both of them in the future myself, but NOT NOW.
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74 Responses to “Game 78, Red Sox at Mariners”
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Zunino >>> Olivo. And Zunino wont bite your ear off so that’s an added bonus.
The Mariners are a juggernaut.
I’m not just happy with Holt’s bomb, I’m even happier with Searer’s and Zunino’s.
Beimel hasn’t given up an HR yet in 23 innings. He’s got a career 7.6% hr/fb rate, and in 2007 gave up 1hrs in 67ip. Seems like it’s a true talent for him despite what xfip thinks.
Other than the A’s, everyone else is mediocre. So the Mariners have a chance to make the playoffs.
Ugh, Brad Miller keeps flashing some kind of competency at the plate, and then he strikes out a bunch, so frustrating.
No doubt, we are in this race. Wish the angels would cool off, but so enjoyable coming up the July and being relevant. Almost forgot what it felt like.
Imagine this team with Edgar as DH.
Leon, We were so spoiled in the late 90’s with this team, its just to bad we were never able to do much beyond winning the West.
So close LoMo! glad to see you having some good at bats.
Assuming things don’t blow up in the 9th, we just passed Oakland for fewest runs allowed in the AL… They got lit up by the Mets and lost 10-1 tonight.
EDIT:
Or whoops, my bad… Their 10 has already been added… So we’re 3 runs allowed behind them, at 267… Every other team has allowed over 300 runs already…
I wonder when is the last time the Mariners were 6 games over .500?
Cali-
My wife and I were just wondering that… Many many years, I would think?
Tip of the cap to these lovable hooligans.
20 runs, to just 5 allowed, in the first 2 games back home… That’s right, AT HOME! 20 runs in 2 games…
Six games over .500 for the first time since 2009.
Month of June – best team in baseball
Right on M’s!
To those wishing bad on Endy and Erasmo, well boo on you too!
Endy is hitting .296 at lead off, if you believe that matters.
His 2014 wRC+ is 103 leading off, -57 batting second, and -100 in the other seven positions (yes, very small sample sizes are involved).
I think Condor should lead off when he gets back, but I’m betting Endy continues to do so.
For what it’s worth, UZR has Endy as a neutral defender so far this year.
Any possibility the M’s could adapt the starter sequence so King can pitch against the A’s before the break?
The idea that Chavez should be on the team for five seconds longer than necessary is beyond absurd. He’s utterly useless, and has been useless for several years. That he’s put together a superficially decent month (edit–his June is not superficially decent; just a couple weeks. He’s crap) within his well-established and highly inadequate skill set isn’t useful information to anyone who understands the sport of baseball.
I wasn’t arguing that Endy should remain on the team – I was pointing out why he likely will, though.
My money is on Romero going down.
Calling anyone on the team currently “utterly useless” is beyond absurd. Replacement level? Sure… Easily replaceable? Sure. Poor reflection of this management’s roster building? Fine.
Utterly useless? Now THAT’s absurd, bordering on hyperbole.
MrZ…right on. I don’t understand some M fans. Data without a soul. Data on Star Trek showed more class.
Why isn’t Lomo hitting before Seager?
My “just kidding tag” was left off my post above.