Game 14, Mariners at Red Sox
8:05 AM. Radio only. I don’t think I’ll even be able to get this on MLB Extra Innings if I skipped out on work (not that I’d consider staying home from work to watch a Meche start, or anything. I’m totally happy with my job. No, really. Don’t send me job openings for program managers or anything.)
I understand that this bizarre start time is due to Patriot’s Day, which celebrates the April 19, 1775 Battle of Lexington and Concord. British Army troops were ordered to capture a strategic Dunkin’ Donuts franchise in Concord that was supplying colonial troops with delicious circular fried dough rations, hot coffee, and was a bastion of local outrageous accents.
The British were confronted by a small group of hardcore punk groups at Lexington, but their numbers were too small and they were forced to flee and nurse their anger. They were finally turned back at Concord by Minutemen and hassled by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and other ska bands, inflicting heavy casualties and emboldening future generations to do the running man free of the tyranny of Liam and Noel Gallagher.
Also the Boston Marathon is today. Sacrifice your knees while suffering excruciating pain masked by the conflict between your body’s fevered attempts to shut you down and your brain’s manic release of endorphins to mask the torture you’re going through. If you can run a seven minute mile, you should be running, not reading this. Unless you’re reading this just before the race starts.
After the game ends, the crowd is let out to the finish line, where they tell all the runners what a great game they missed, and relate the exploits of the beleoved hometown team.
Week 2
6-7. 6-7 after facing two really good teams in Cleveland and Boston. That’s not bad at all. It’s still early, and of course last year’s team hit 6-7 (and took three from KC to get there!), but this isn’t bad.
The good news is the offense has been vastly improved by some new players. Jojima’s the best hitter on the team right now. I don’t remember seeing Ibanez get those hits, but there they are. Jose Lopez is rewarding us faithful with some great power.
The bad news is the offense is much, much worse. Everett’s hitting .154 and looks horrible. Beltre looks like a worse version of last year’s Beltre, which I hadn’t thought possible. I’m not sure how many times I can say his approach is broken before I stop bothering. Ichiro’s off to a horrible start, and Ichiro makes the world turn.
Soriano’s been lights-out and the rest of the staff’s been. Not so good. Pineiro’s looked like good and bad versions of himself, sometimes in the same game.
Most worrisome, King Felix has been abdicating the throne, wandering the earth in peasant’s clothes, traveling incognito, walking the opposition and… man, that’s only two starts, but that is just ugly.
Aggressive base running is exciting and frequently quite dumb.
This team is strange to watch. I don’t know how else to say it. There’s a weird vibe.
I know, that’s the kind of insight you come to USSM for. Sorry.
Up this week: one last game in Boston, then a long homestand with Texas and Detroit (and Chicago, but that’s Week 3).
Game 13, Mariners at Red Sox
Doh. I wrote a game thread post and tried to queue it last night. Didn’t work, obviously.
Washburn v Beckett.
Game 12, Mariners at Red Sox
10:20? What kind of a game time is that? I like to get my sleep on the weekends, it’s much easier on the constitution (I learned that from the Beastie Boys).
FSN.
Pineiro v Wakefield… Junkballer v Knuckleballer. In Fenway. This should be amusing.
Game 11, Mariners at Red Sox
LHP Jamie Moyer, who hasn’t pitched well at Fenway Park in… I can’t remember the last time he had a really good start in Fenway, versus RHP Curt Schilling.
Fenway’s one of those parks I really figured they might move the rotation to try and skip Jamie. It’s not just the Red Sox fielding good offenses — he gets shellacked here. You might as well have Jeff Harris (were he here) go out and take one for the team or something.
The team’s 5-5! 5-5! Of course, they started off last year 5-5 too. But the guys we were hoping would have good seasons (Lopez & Co) are doing really well. Beltre’s hitting is still broken, which is driving me crazy, but whatever.
Moyer in Fenway. Yeaaaagh.
Pentland, hitting coach, coaching hitting
“It would be easy after the three or four games coming into this series for our hitters to press,†manager Mike Hargrove said. “But they’ve bought into the approach Jeff has preached, they’ve been patient at the plate and we’ve given ourselves baserunners.
“You increase your chances to score, you increase the scoring.â€Â
P/PA, 2006: 3.82, #8 in the ML. 2005 it was 3.74, 14th.
That’s actually fairly significant: the spread between worst and first over a season is .3 P/PA.
Also, it’s small sample size theater. And patience does not always mean success.
Awwww, woodja woodja woodja
Poor Bloomquist, not getting a lot of playing time. So sad.
“The hardest part of my day, every day, is to walk into the clubhouse and peek around the corner and see if my name is in the lineup,” Bloomquist said. “Everything else is easier than that.”
[snip]
“My job is to be ready, and I accept that,” Bloomquist said. “But it is difficult to stay sharp. So I do all the work I can and I wait. But you can do all the batting drills you want and spend all the time you want in the batting cage. The fact still is that when you get in the (batter’s) box, everything changes.”
Yeah. Those pitchers throw you curvy stuff! And fast stuff! It’s horrible!
Final in 14
The Inland Empire 66ers scored two runs in the bottom of the 14th to beat Lancaster 5-3 last night. After Josh Womack walked with one out, Erick Monzon homered to left for the game winner. IE’s bullpen combined for a line of 10 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 4 BB, and a whopping 15 strikeouts. Monzon was 4-for-7, Matt Tuiasosopo was 3-for-6, and Womack was 3-for-3 with three walks. Attendance was listed at 1,820 — I wonder how many stuck around until the end. If you did, here’s a USSM tip o’ the cap.
Game 10, Mariners at Indians
Happy Felix Day!
Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez, Grady Sizemore, and Jhonny Peralta anchor one of the best line-ups in baseball. The Indians can flat out hit. Even their bad hitters are not bad hitters.
But it doesn’t matter. King Felix is on the hill. The best hitters in baseball don’t stand a chance against the Royal Curveball when Felix has even mediocre command. Every night is a possible no hitter, and every batter is a potentially embarrassing strikeout.
Felix Day only comes around 30-35 times a year. Don’t take it for granted.
Long Live the King.
Caple on The King
In case you forgot it was Felix Day, and you know who you are, Jim Caple tosses us a Felix worship piece at ESPN. It’s typical Caple. The intro:
Now that Felix Hernandez is no longer a teenager (he turned 20 on Saturday), the Mariners will stop pampering their star prospect.
Oh, they’ll still only pitch him on Catholic feast days in months that have an R in them. And they’ll still sacrifice a rooster and bury a potato in the mound at midnight under a full moon before his starts. And they’ll make sure he is vaccinated against rubella, typhoid, tetanus, polio, whooping cough and dengue fever. And they’ll still make sure he sleeps in a hyperbaric chamber the night before a game, avoids direct sunlight the day of a game and wears ChapStick and 50-block sunscreen during the game. And they’ll still check the wind speed before game time to make sure it isn’t blowing more than 4.73 miles per hour from the north-northwest. And he’ll still eat only organic vegetables and wait at least wait one hour after eating a meal before stepping onto the field. And they’ll still have a Brinks crew drive him in from the bullpen for the first pitch and have a Cub Scout walk him back to the mound each inning. And they’ll still have a team doctor monitor his blood pressure between pitches and still pack him in a padded container between innings. And after the game, they’ll still have the team trainer and a Swiss masseuse rub down his right arm with Bengay, flaxseed oil, Brylcreem, Heinz 57, Neatsfoot oil, holy water and WD-40, wrap it with four rolls of duct tape and then store him in a wine cellar at a precise temperature of 55 degrees with a humidity level of exactly 79 percent. And after the season, they’ll once again seal him in carbonite and store him next to Han Solo for the winter.
Funny, fluffy, and Seattle-oriented? Check. Go Caple go.