Game 140, Orioles at Mariners
LHP Erik Bedard v LHP Jamie Moyer. 7:05, FSN for TV. (Also, PCL playoff action)
With the Mariners pushing Moyer back and moving Franklin up so that Moyer could get another start at home, it sounds like the Mariners are, at least when opportunity allows, adopting the “home starter” idea Dave and I were kicking around back in July.
To update that post, Moyer continues to be a different pitcher at home:
Home: 2.73 ERA, 8-0, 95.2 IP, ~7 innings/start, 6 HR, 19 BB, 56K
Away: 6.73 ERA, 3-6, 70.2 IP, ~5 innings/start, 12 HR, 28 BB, 33K
No park effects, I know any split for a season is subject to wild variance, but even then — that’s crazy. Just the two things you can be sure he controls, walks and strikeouts, are far, far better at home than on the road.
Helping Moyer out tonight is Rafael Palmeiro. Once better known in Seattle for his Mariner-killing hitting, Palmeiro’s not even with the team. Coming back from his suspension, Palmeiro didn’t play, didn’t hit when he played, and lost his starting job before being told nicely that the team would prefer he not hang around, sending him home to rehab his right ankle and knee.
Purely on selfish terms, this is Mariner fans, because if anyone was going to go 12-12 with 8 home runs and four doubles in this series it was going to be that $#@$@#% (and @#%^^@ing @#$&@%er) Palmeiro. And that would turn his season around, he’d come back next year with the Orioles, tearing up Mariner pitchers for another year and driving us insane.
Instead Palmeiro has possibly easily been the greatest casualty of the steroid policy. He went from lauded hero for his tough talk denying steroid use to having people argue his career statistics should be nullified, and his Hall of Fame chances are badly wounded and hiding out in the woods hoping to fight another day.
While I think history will see this much differently, I would bet that a survey of HoF voters, perhaps given a quick update of Moyer’s achievements since turning into the ace of the 90s, wouldn’t pick Palmeiro over Jamie. Jamie appears that even if he’s reduced to hanging around Safeco exclusively, seems ageless, clean, with a long run of quiet dominance and impressive raw stats, while Palmeiro’s hitting stats are discounted by era and the drug test, his reputation and character impugned by the Congressional hearings, and it appears he might be done entirely.
Next year, Palmeiro might be back, of course, and Moyer retired, but tonight, only Moyer gets to step on the field. I feel a little guilt at taking delight in anyone’s downfall, but as a Mariner fan, it’s going to be so nice to see Jamie pitching at home and not having to face Palmeiro.
Comments
124 Responses to “Game 140, Orioles at Mariners”
Large strike zone.
Nice. One to go.
97 MPH.
Eddie looks hung over
Yes! Mariners win!
JJ does it!
There it is!
Game over.
I was away for a bit. What happened in the eighth that they’ve alluded to?
Well, I’ll wait to see what Hargrove has to say about the closer situation.
94. I suspect it might have to do with Eddie having pitched in the last four games (I think). Or his blowing the four run lead in the last game. Or that his shoulder has finally come apart.
108. Brain Roberts was trying to score the tying run on a base hit. He was thrown out by Ibanez on a close play where he may have touched the plate before Torrealba tagged him on the left shoulder. He and manager Sam Perlozzo argued, and Perlozzo was thrown out of the game for slapping the umpire’s mask during the argument.
Do we have a winning record in September?
111. Jamal Strong with the throw
Does anyone know if Bucky played in the Tacoma game tonight? How did he do?
5-3 in September. Yay(!)
Hargrove just said they decided Eddie had thrown a lot lately, and decided before the game he was sitting, ‘tho Eddie said he could go.
113. Oops. My bad.
2 runs on 10 hits? How did the Birds manage that?
Sounds exciting, but I’m probably glad I missed this game.
Re: Earlier speculation about un-merited Gold-Gloves.
How useless in the field was Bernie Williams when he won his?
In regards to the gold glove thing… Hideki Matsui quietly made only his first error of the season yesterday. Can you say underrated?
Where was everyone tonight? We showed, but there weren’t more than 15,000 in the park at first pitch. It probably climbed to near 25,000 by the third, but there a lot of empty seats in the lower deck to move down to.
Just read the thread and have but one thing to say – I should have known MarinerDan was a Coug. I bet Daaaaaan is too.
121 Dylan – I wasn’t there tonight but I noticed there was an insane amount of seats left, in all sections, for tonight’s game, for whatever reason. Same for Saturday. Yet, it looked like the Angels games next week had a lot more tickets sold.
There are plenty of awesome seats left for Sunday’s Felix outing as far as I can tell, too, as in like, less than 20 rows behind home plate awesome. I’ll be there in something like 12 rows behind home plate awesome. Maybe enough people already saw the Orioles, or don’t like Palmeiro anymore, or didn’t think the weather this weekend was going to be nice enough to justify sitting at Safeco in the cold, or whatever.
I will even get out the long underwear for Sunday.