Game 161, Athletics at Mariners
Hisashi Iwakuma vs. Jharel Cotton, 6:10pm
It’s the second to last game of the year, and the M’s are still alive. That’s not bad. Hell, even a week ago, I wouldn’t have thought it possible. The M’s are favorites again with a reliable vet on the hill facing an A’s line-up that’s last in all of baseball in WAR thanks to poor performance in essentially every aspect of the game, from defense to baserunning to batting.
That said, this feels like a trap game. They’re facing a rookie pitcher who’s K rate doesn’t wow you, but who has a legitimate plus pitch in his change. You may have seen his name pop up in minor league game wraps here and there, but he was a Dodger draft pick, a kid out of the Virgin Islands who attended a US college, but never attracted a lot of attention. Even despite notching solid strikeout rates in the minors, he moved slowly through the Dodger system. That started to change in 2015, when he got off to a fast start repeating the Cal League and ended the year in the AAA bullpen. He took another big step forward this year, and was thus one of the big prospects the A’s got from LA when they traded Rich Hill and Josh Reddick.
He’s an undersized righty at 5’11”, and has just average velocity on his fastball at 92 mph or so. His big weapon has been his change, which depends entirely on his arm action. At 77mph, it often looks like a curve when he throws it (it’s slower than his actual curveball somehow), but batters can’t pick it up. Movement wise, it’s more akin to a splitter, though it’s got a bit less vertical movement than you’d imagine given its slow velocity. Cotton really sells it well, and while he’s only thrown it 93 times, batters have managed just a single, er, single off of it. Lefties are hitting a combined 1 for 32 off of Cotton, while righties have 13 hits including 3 HRs. He’s got a cutter he’ll throw to righties, and a curveball that’s his 4th pitch. Pretty early to tell on either, though his cutter’s had solid results thus far in terms of whiffs. This is a day to chuck the standard vs-RHP line-up out the window. Of course, I noted that Alcantara’d been better v. LHBs, and Cano and company ripped him up, so hey, maybe do some damage early and see about the dregs of the Oakland bullpen.
1: Aoki, LF
2: Smith, RF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Lind, 1B
7: Martin, CF
8: Zunino, C
9: Marte, SS
SP: Iwakuma
But…but that’s just the standard vs-RHP line-up.
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123 Responses to “Game 161, Athletics at Mariners”
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Catchers are a different breed… Sucre stays in the game.
Wow the site is clipping every 50 comments.
Can we just have one clean unstressfull inning please! cmon!
and….another A’s run
Man, my heart can’t take much more of this.
Aoki has four straight multi-hit games. Not a problem.
Now, Diaz for a THIRD inning on the other hand…
Weird, the 50-comment thing.
ugh i hate the Athletics honestly, they are like that annoying little brother that no one wants around but is always just there.
Speaking of horrible bullpen management…. damn.
Well, he only had like 7 or 8 pitches I think. Maybe, they should have walked Wendle there but after the 1st double someone should have at least been warming up.
Kyle Seager, it’s time for that 100th RBI.
so the season rests on Seagers shoulders….
Screw you, bullpen.
Oh, crud.
well fuck oakland… there I said it.
Damn, 15 seasons and counting.
I need much Scotch.
and ill just wither away at work, mad…. the one time we need the bullpen to come thru they cant effing do it!
As fans of this team we know the drill… there’s always next year.
Sigh.
Okay, guess I’m rooting for Toronto now.
Hopefully the Seahawks pull of a win tomorrow so that my weekend of sports doesnt totally suck, I mean that UW win yesterday was great though.
Felix looked totally crushed afterwards. He was that close to pitching the most meaningful game of his career.
Thank you Mariners for 161 games of meaningful baseball.