I've come to an amazing conclusion. When Jeff asked me to come in off the bench and pinch-blog a few games for him, he wasn't doing me a favor or trying to be nice. He was actually trying to make me go insane SITTING HOME AND WATCHING THE ANGELS ARRRRGGGGHHHHH.
Biggest contribution: Raul Ibanez, +5.4%
Biggest Suckfest: Richie Sexson, -13.2%
Most Important At Bat: Sexson, Broussard, and Johjima in the top of the 7th
Most Important Pitch: Mike Napoli's home run
Total Contribution by hitters: -46.8%
Total Contribution by pitchers: -3.2%
(Actually, my graph isn't far off.)
You know, this was not only an incredibly annoying game to lose, especially with our best pitcher on the mound, but it was an incredibly BORING game to lose. I was trying to think of some moments of the game that particularly captivated me, but I really couldn't come up with much. Infact, I taped the game since I was spending so much time watching the Koshien quarterfinals instead (ganbare Komadai!), and my housemate got home and I watched most of the game over again with him, and we both agreed: that was a dead boring game.
Interesting things that happened:
- Beltre's homer-not-a-homer-stupid-fan-interference in the 9th
- Beltre's nice snag of a Vladdy Liner (tm)
- Willie Bloomquist batted leadoff against someone who was so capable of owning him that they might as well have shrinkwrapped him and put a "Clearance" tag on his head
- Mark Lowe's new haircut, apparently given to him by JJ Putz
- Chris Snelling started a game, AND did really well at the plate and in the field
- Eric O'Flaherty, who suffers afflictions of being both young and left-handed, was actually permitted to pitch one and a third innings
That's seriously about all I can think of. Maybe I'm just blocking the game out of my head, or maybe it really was just that damn boring.
I have Jered Weaver on my fantasy team, so by the third time Bloomquist was up, I was cheering for him to strike him out. "Yeah! Go Willie! Nice strikeout! My fantasy team thanks you!" See, there's always silver lining.
The Beltre "ground rule double" in the 9th was pretty weird, but I guess we're used to stuff like that by now. What was funniest to me was the part where they actually escorted the baseball-snagging guy out of the park, with his son following him, like "Dad, why do we have to go home early?" "Shut up, kid, I got you a home run ball." "But it wasn't a home run..."
On the other hand, in the Koshien high school tournament semi-finals, Komadai beat Chiben, and Waseda beat Kagoshima, so tomorrow we get to see if Saitoh and Tanaka can stand another consecutive day of throwing a few hundred pitches before their arms fall off. Should be fun, by which I mean frightening. Game starts at 9pm PDT, and we'll see if Komadai can tie a record by winning for their third consecutive year.
And speaking of records, Jered Weaver tied Whitey Ford for most wins at the start of a career by an AL Rookie by raising his record to 9-0 with tonight's win. Whitey Ford won his first 9 decisions as a rookie in 1950, which is 56 years ago, and Jered Weaver wears number 56.
The Mariners, on the other hand, set a more ignominious record by losing their 18th consecutive game to a division rival. The record formerly belonged to the Detroit Tigers, through the 1996 and 1997 seasons.
Tomorrow night, J-Rod The Washburninator faces off against his former teammate John Lackey. These days, Lackey's name probably ends up getting associated more with beating up Jason Kendall rather than with quietly being one of the best pitchers in the American League. However, if you look at his splits, he's been TERRIBLE against the Mariners this year, at least in terms of fielding-dependent stats; a 9.77 ERA, with 25 hits in 15.2 innings. His fielding-independent stats are mostly craptacular due to the 4 HR he gave up, but the 4 walks and 12 strikeouts aren't bad. Washburn, on the other hand, has been reasonably good against the Angels no matter how you split it; a 3.38 ERA with 2 walks and 11 strikeouts in 18.2 innings pitched.
So, tomorrow's game could be more interesting than it may seem on the surface. Or, we could just be destined to lose again. At least today we only lost one game to the Angels, rather than two games to the Royals. On the other hand, I'm sure if it was possible to lose two games while only playing one, we would have found a way to do it.