Game 16, A’s at Mariners
The first place Mariners (!, 8-7) host the A’s. Harden pitches for Oakland, Franklin pitches for the Mariners. I’m sure tonight many fans will be surprised to find themselves handed a “KOMO 1000 News Mariners Window Cling” featuring the new Mariners slogan “What a Show!”
Tomorrow is Ichiro! bobblehead night. You should probably expect longer lines for that one.
TV: Fox Sports Northwest (“Where (region or team name) fans come first”), standard radio.
I have great hopes that this game will produce the finest comment thread of the day.
Interesting note: the M’s press notes today instructions for Jim Street: (“you, Jim Street, can register for the 2005 giveaway…”) I’m not sure if that’s intentional or not, but I did a double-take when I read it.
Rainiers: Rainiers host Sacramento (the “Riverrats” as Fairly called them last night) at 6:05. Andrew Lorraine starts against Jimmy Serrano. You can enjoy the fine broadcasting of Mike Curto on the internet or on KHHO 850.
Comments
170 Responses to “Game 16, A’s at Mariners”
Please, Choo.
Okay I’m starting to believe that there really is some sort of anti-offense curse on Franklin.
5 – 3 Indians in the 7th. So if all goes well, we’ll still be tied for first.
so the 8 runs in his first start were the sum total for the year?
Yeah, did anyone see the cut-away to Franklin as the M’s rally was coming up short in the 8th? He had his hand over his face, and he looked like he was about to cry. It really must be frustrating for him, actually. Yet again, he’ll have to answer the same questions in the clubhouse, and say, ‘well, I’m just trying to give my club a chance to win.’
Harden was dialed in and his counterparts followed suit, I tip my hat to them and say bring on Cleveland.
8-8 and a half game out, not blowing the doors off but certainly not sucking. I’ll take it in a heartbeat.
I feel sorry for Ryan Franklin maybe more than any other Seattle player. Madritsch, too, but, Ryan, I hope you know we appreciate it. We really do.
I promise Ryan Franklin would never lose a game if he gave up zero runs. Hearing what a tough life he has while playing in the majors and basically not being that great of a pitcher is getting boring.
I feel for Franklin, too. Just heard him interviewed on the post-game show, and man, he sounded frustrated.
Doyle: You can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him. 3-for-4 (so far) tonight … an even .500 on the season.
#154 hi msb 🙂
Ryan got one run in Chicago after he’d finished his 8 innings of work. As he was the only pitcher it presumable counts as “his” “support”. So that’s nine runs in 28.2 innings.
I’m just excited to see that Franklin is starting to have a nice GB/FB ratio. Tonight it was 15 to 8, and I believe this is the third start in row that he was at least slightly goundball prone. This is the only statistic that suggests Franklin can keep this up. I wish he would strike out more than two guys per nine, but what can you do. Also in an interview Franklin said he was leaning back during his delivery and the ball was getting up in the zone more. He said that he corrected it after the third, and that is when all the ground balls started coming.
I’ll bet Jeff Heaverlo is less than a week from being released.
Man, it’s always funny to read these after I get home from the game.
I must admit that I *was* pleasantly surprised to get a KOMO “What a Show” window cling.
I couldn’t decide, after watching the weird “single / 2-6” play in the 2nd, whether it was more “Bret Boone needs to learn how to run to second base,” or more “Jason Kendall is awesome”. It was a pretty nice stop by Ellis, and all things considered, it’s not surprising he overthrew slightly after getting out of that dig. JK’s play at first is just more support for the awesome-Kendall theory, of course.
Someone in the row behind me made a Moneyball joke when Charlie Thomas came up to bat for the first time — “look at that guy, 0 for 18 with a .217 OBP. I know Billy Beane tells those guys to learn to take a walk, but don’t you think he should tell them to learn to hit the ball, too?”
Duchscherer has too many redundant letters in his name.
Hmm, Kevin Millwood pitched in the LAA-CLE game today, so I guess he won’t be pitching here this weekend. Dang.
Grant (#162)– thanks for the Franklin interview quote. I note that the Kotsay homer was also in the third.
I continue to hold the view that Franklin can continue as a solid inning-eating starter with a low strikeout rate if and only if he can keep the ball in the park. I have been losing optimism on him due to the home runs in his last couple starts, but haven’t completely abandoned hope. If it’s something that he thinks he can correct, I don’t mind the team giving him a chance to find out (although I wouldn’t advise anyone to stake multi-millions on the possibility at this point).
(By the way, the above remarks on Franklin remaining decent with a low strikeout rate also apply to Thornton establishing himself in spite of a high walk rate. Of the three defense-independent categories of pitching performance– K’s, BB’s, and HR’s allowed– you can still survive in the majors if you’re bad in one of them, but only if you’re quite good in the other two.)
[deleted this and another duplicate posting]
Baek has a strained flexor bundle, the current “it” injury for pitchers. Expect him to miss a few turns. Tough luck for the reigning PCL pitcher of the week.
In other Rainiers news, Chris Snelling hit the snot out of the ball his first three times up tonight. Two base hits and a warning track shot to right-center. He also managed something I’ve never seen an outfielder do: play a double off of his butt. Smooth move, Chris – looks like DH is the position for you.
Good god man, not only did you mention the man’s name, but you did it *three* times. So much for the plan to keep him under the evil spirit radar I guess. 🙂
(matt, if all I did was confuse you, see here: http://ussmariner.com/?p=2446)
Matt is right…
Baek has a flexor bundle strain…
But the dude couldn’t even straighten his arm all the way open after the game Wednesday and still couldn’t do it on Thursday.
I’ll venture to guess he’ll miss 6 weeks.
Say hello to Jeff Harris. Again.