Game 155, Mariners at White Sox
RHP King Felix Hernandez vs. LHP Mark Buehrle, 10:25am on woooooosh! FOX. Ding.
King Felix makes his last start of the season, so let’s make it a good one, shall we? Meanwhile, the White Sox have fallen apart down the stretch and are all but eliminated from the playoff chase. Sadly, today’s lefty starter means no Doyle. Coupled with Bloomquist at SS… well, good luck today, Felix. Hey, Hargrove, isn’t Oswaldo Navarro on the club?
Dave’s quick note:
For the last time this year, Happy Felix Day.
King Felix has been at times frustrating and inconsistent, and while he may not have performed at a level we expected following his amazing debut last fall, today, he’s going to cap off one of the best seasons a 20-year-old pitcher has ever had. He stayed healthy, he improved as the year went on, and based on the things that a pitcher has significant control over, he’s been one of the best pitchers in the American League.
There’s not a pitcher alive I’d trade Felix for in a one-for-one swap. His future now is brighter than it was 12 months ago. For the last time in 2006, all hail the King, long live the King.
CF Ichiro!
3B Beltre
2B Lopez
LF Ibanez
1B Sexson
DH Perez
RF Morse
C Rivera
SS Bloomquist
#1 sign Ozzie Guillen and the White Sox have given up? Juan “.259 OBP” Uribe is hitting second.
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Two game posts?
Great minds think alike, apparently.
You have to remember that there isn’t a USSM office where the four of us sit around 24-7. I can’t lean back in my chair, look out of my corner office and say to Dave in the next office, “Hey, you want the game thread, or can I take it?”
Thought that would be pretty cool.
Where’s Derek? Doesn’t he usually do the game thread? (Well while he’s home)
Another sign the White Sox have given up? Guillen in the AP story: “I’m not looking at the scoreboard anymore.”
I was hoping for Navarro at SS, too. Hey Grover, day game after a night game, you know.
Actually, I think Hargrove might have the same dream that I do – a .500 season is remotely possible, especially since Ozzie has thrown in the towel, and it looks like the A’s will clinch this weekend, just before they come to Seattle on Monday.
Lopez hitting 3rd?
Nevermind, I don’t wanna know.
Well not even Hargrove can be stupid enough to bat Lopez 7th with the bottom three batters being Morse Rivera and Princess Willie. Plus Lopez is the only who hasn’t really struggled in the #3 hole.
Two game posts?
Okay with me. Gonna be a long, cold winter.
Breaking news: WFB is going to retire and take Fairly’s place this offseason.
Either WFB or Van Earl Wright.
Can we get a poll? I want to vote on something.
Finally a professional sport started on time!
Beltre!!
Way to move the runner over even if there are two outs.
I swear I have never seen a team that has put on such schizophrenic performances over the course of a season. One-third of the time they look a play-off team and one-third of the time they look like the ’62 Mets. The other third — not so much of either.
Nice RBI Perez.
I love morning games. It makes waking up a whole lot easier and funner.
Coach Owens = Corcoran’s apprentice
Anybody told him ‘multiple dates to the same prom’ will be on the final exam yet?
Sorry I didn’t know this thread was going to be so slow. I’ll try to keep the posts to a minimum for a while. Okay? Sorry about that.
You don’t want to intimidate them early. You ramp the difficulty up.
This Fox crew is driving me nuts already.
Can someone tell me what’s wrong with Buehrle? He’s always been one of my favorite pitchers because of the way he works fast and throws strikes and usually goes deep into games. This year his first three months were good as usual and then he completely unraveled.
22- Who is doing the game today?
is it Josh Lewin form the Rangers?
Dang, no-hitter gone already!
Wow King Felix hadn’t even pitched a ball before Thome.
That one wouldn’t have touched the warning track at Safeco with 40ft pole.
Efficient though — kill the no-hitter and the shut-out right there in the same inning.
C’mon Felix!
Damn but he seems to give up a lot of longballs.
My guess? Buehrle doesn’t have overpowering stuff and relies on batters putting the ball in play. He had a suspiciously low ERA last year, and maybe his luck has turned.
Or maybe he’s just pitching like crap. I don’t know.
28. Well it’s better than killing them both on the same pitch like what happened to Buehrle.
With Felix I’m only worried about pitch count because in the long run, anything he throws for a strike will be likely to induce an out.
It’s really strange to come back from Europe, where pickups are almost never seen and SUVs are extremely rare (less so in Spain) – to see 5 ads/break every M’s game for huge trucks that get 8 mpg.
JI I might go with the latter because there really was no change until last month when he gave up 34! earned runs in 26 innings, and his struggles have continued, albeit less so, this month.
34. Has shown the “Disappearing Hummer” one? The guy who’s on that commercial is really cool.
Rivera might as well retire.
Hooray for our 7,8,9 hitters!
Gameday is seriously screwy right now, can someone tell me the current game situation?
What’s happening? Gameday’s just gone crazy again.
What’s happening? Gameday’s just gone crazy again.
Whoops sorry about that.
Gameday is hilarious right now because of how wrong it is.
gameday took everything and doubled it it seems
Rivera walked to lead off the inning on an 11-pitch at bat.
Rivera was promptly picked off. Bloomquist followed with a flyout to leftfield and Ichiro struck out.
Yeah, Rivera got picked off, Bloomquist sucks balls and flew out and Ichiro struck out.
Gameday?
I’ve tried watching a game on gameday, never had the patience.
I advise spending 20 bucks for the MLB.com radio package– or if you’re feeling really spendy, get MLBtv or Extra Innings.
47. With less than 10 games left in the season? No way.
Was that Richie or Lopez?
49- Richie
Jose living through his gameday stats.
47. With less than 10 games left in the season? No way.
I’m think more like with 162 games left.
Oh, and,
SEXSON!
50. Richie!
50. Oh and thanks.
52- no problem.
Gameday also think Willie went yard. Seriously who runs this stuff??
54. Same people who run ESPN’s and Yahoo’s sport trackers I would guess because when one of them mess up they all mess up.
Any guesses on whether Jose will hit an actual home run (as opposed to a virtual one) again before the season ends?
55- It’s fixed, everything back to normal.
The 8th spot in the lineup should look like this…
“C” Rivera
58. Or “C” Waste Of Space.
There’s talk Ichiro wants to go back home? How thick must the crack smoke be in the Fox booth by now? Cheech-and-Chong thick?
Bloomquist’s average is about to go below .250 again.
No! don’t tell me Felix’s hurt!
Guess not.
Sez Fox broadcaster about Felix’ future: “[he'll have] better eating habits coming to the United States….”
I wonder what fast food outlets these guys frequent?
64. Probably just McDonalds, they have all over the world. And why would they think that? The U.S. is like the fattest country ever.
they hit the burger king drive through in their cool hummers…i hope the king does too, so he ends up like elvis…i mean..a..
Comments in this thread
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Coach Owens, 27
All other commentors, 37
66. That’s terrible!
Who here thinks Ichiro’s starting to decline?
Remember when you could guarantee Lopez getting a hit with RISP? Well not anymore.
Nice Ibanez!
Perez!
60
I have always had the utmost respect for Steve Lyons’ vast baseball intellect. And the other guy? Well, he’s very stern and judgemental and extremely loud– sort of like a fundamentalist baseball preacher
The White Sox look totally incompetent boobs. It’s apparant Guillen’s toungue-lashings haven’t done much to motivate them.
Wow. Hit parade!
Nice to see Perez finally hitting, even if I wouldn’t say it qualifies as “lefty-mashing” yet.
rrrrr
On his gameday picture Haeger really does look like a “Hag”
Fuck you espn, i check out the score and you show lopez getting his first hr in eons, i go to see if ussm has broken out the champagne and it turns out you just fucked up.
Way to kill the rally Waste Of Space.
74
According to ESPN, the real reason they are losing is because Carl Everett’s fiery presence is missing from their clubhouse… Everett for Thome straight up would have been win-win appearently.
So after today’s game, the Mariners have 1 more against the White Sox, 3 against Oakland, and 2 against the Rangers. If they can win today, they’ll have to go 5-2 in the remaining 7 games to get to .500, which’ll require at least one win against Oakland. I’m not sure how possible that is, but it’d sure be nice to get back to .500.
I really love Pierzynski’s Gameday photo, as it really captures the essence of the man–mean and stupid, like he’s about to hit you in the head with a full can of Bud Light.
Mariners so far this series: 27 runs and 36 hits.
83. Pierzynski wouldn’t do that unless your on another team. He’s supposedly really nice off the field.
85–I dunno, he kneed his own trainer in the balls when with the Giants.
Crede’s picture however looks like he had too much too drink.
So, are they going to call the game after this inning?
86 – But was it on the field or off?
It’s official!
Yay! Official!
89–About 3 feet above the field, I’d guess.
On the field soon after…
According to ESPN, the real reason they are losing is because Carl Everett’s fiery presence is missing from their clubhouse…
To repeat my comment from an earlier thread that was (rightly) deleted as off-topic, he obviously makes a huge difference. After all, we were 48-52 with him, now we’re 27-27 without him. The only thing I’ve noticed is the curse he seems to have left on our DH position, as we’ve played .500 even with Benuardo Perroussard hitting even worse than Everett did.
Heh.
Rain Delay! Woo! Bonus Baseball!
Maybe Howard will hit #60.
86. Well there’s an article on ESPN called “Who is the real A.J. Pierzynski?” by Wayne Drehs that I would link but you have to be an “Insider” to read it.
So was the game called? Or just a delay?
98. So far only a delay.
From what Dave and Rick are saying, they sound pretty sure this will be it, the infield is going to be unplayable when the rain stops.
97–All I know is I’ll never forgive him for being such a loathsome presence (and lousy player) on the Giants after the Giants gave up Nathan and Liriano to get him.
Wow, .500 suddenly seems to be within the realm of possibility! I’d consider this season to be a pretty big success if they can win 80+ games.
99,100
ok thanks guys.
I guess a bitter sweet end for Felix in 06, he gets the CG victory, but I think he could of gone 7 or 8 today.
These announcers make Valle and Rick sound like Vin Scully.
I would personally like to thank the umps for letting Felix get the final out in the 5th.
God how many times did they have to show that?
Once per Coach Owns comment today. So it’ll be shown a lot.
No really? I thought he had 2 RBIs but only 1 for the Marlins.
And Olivo referring to his Mariners roots by striking out with RISP.
The Dontrelle Willis Fox commercial is the coolest one.
Howard’s Homies? that’s real cute.
Man I wanted to see Howard’s 59th homer there.
Ugh. Brad Garret is really scary looking.
Philadelphia fans are really mean. I’m glad we’re not like that.
Why don’t they just call the game.
Another SUV commercial Derek.
Baek should take some control lessons from Lieber
Rollins has a great nickname: J-Roll.
This isn’t the first time I’ve felt the desire for killfile capability, but it’s the most acute.
119. Thanks for breaking my 11 comments in a row streak.
Borchard the white Carl Everett.
Dude, please cut it out.
122. Sorry.
It sounds as if the ballgame will resume at some point. So who pitches for the M’s in the bottom of the 6th? Do either Cruceta or Chick make an appearance? Or does Grover go with Pineiro once again?
124. Pineiro I bet.
124- Joel
Phillies missed a big chance there. I’m glad the Mariners aren’t that bad.
How does Olivo get 16 homeruns on their team and like 8 on the Mariners.
The prospects for the A’s series are kind of interesting. They’re playing the second-place Angels, and their magic number is 2, so they just have to win once this weekend to clinch the division. In that case, they’ll be more interested in setting up for the playoffs than worrying about the M’s. On the other hand, if they lose out, they’re going to come looking to punish Seattle (again).
Plus, Harden is scheduled to make his second start after coming back from the DL (I think the rotation puts him up on Monday, but I could be wrong). He was on some kind of pitch count limit on his last start, but he still managed to strike out 7 in 3 innings. Of course, he could regress, aggravate the elbow again, or just get held out as a precaution.
So this series is going to be really jekyll or hyde…
Yes the rain delay is just about over!
I know this was asked pretty far back in the thread, but here’s what happened to Mark Buehrle this year: (Sorry to go all ersatz Dave on you.)
2005: 5.9 K/G, 1.6 BB/G, 0.79 HR/G, 45.8 GB%, 7.7% HR/F, .290 BABIP
2006: 4.3 K/G, 2.0 BB/G, 1.54 HR/G, 44.9 GB%, 14.0% HR/F, .304 BABIP
The difference between Mark Buehrle 2005 (3.95 xFIP) and Mark Buehrle 2006 (4.86 xFIP) is the result of his K rate going from a league average level to a Pineiro-esque level, along with a slight regression in his walk rate. This has resulted in more balls in play, and most importantly, more flyballs in play, and his level of flyballs leaving the park has gone from a below-average to above-average rate. He’s been hurt slightly by the regression of Chicago’s defense, but the biggest difference is that he’s not striking anyone out anymore, and the flyballs he’s giving up are leaving the park a lot more often.
Rain Delay’s over. Hooray!
It’s hilarious to watch Hag lob the ball in there.
So Fox isn’t broadcasting the rest of the game?
134. Yes it is.
Not in my neck of the woods.
Fox is not broadcasting it in Spokane. Not yet anyway. And why is Betre out of the lineup?
I have the game on Fox.
Nice job giving up two runs O’Flaherty.
He had a little help from Navarro
O’Flaherty sucks, he really really sucks, O’Fla-her-ty SUCKS!
I finally turn on a M’s game for the first time in about a month just in time to see this Sox “rally.” Sheesh.
Well that was craptastic.
Did Navarro really pinch hit for Beltre? Can someone explain that one to me?
Yeah – does ANYONE know what happened to Beltre?
He’s fine.
Navarro is just getting at bats.
Is it so much to ask that he come in for Bloomquist instead?
I mean, we are actually trying to win this game, right?
Do you want Beltre getting injured on this field?
I’m perfectly fine with Willie at third and Navarro at short.
149
Perfectly fine? Did ya see how many runs that decision cost us today?
Also, Buehrle’s been out of the game. No Snelling?
I wish Princess Willie would fall and break his neck.
So? This game is not important.
It’s stupid enough that the umpires are making both teams play in these conditions. Jermaine Dye was just taken out because he slipped and fell. And I believe it was Perzinsky who fell rounding first base.
I’d much rather lose this game and have no regulars get injured, then win this game and watch Beltre tear a hamstring.
OK, I wasn’t thinking about the injury possibilities. Glad neither Snelling nor Beltre will get hurt this game. I take my outrage back. It doesn’t make me convinced it was the right call or done for the right reason, but at least there’s some caution here. If that’s what it is.
153. No that Cintron who slipped and fell rounding the bases.
Joel has the fire in his eyes. three outs are on the way!
Three outs may be on the way, but not without some runs first.
DFA Joel after the game. (Unless you can do it now.)
I didn’t say they wouldn’t score.
Pineiro’s contract is not a tough decision ESPECIALLY NOW!!!
Hey 156
Joel and fire in the same sentence?
Surely the way you use those terms is not like you did but as follows;
FIRE PINEIRO!
Raise your hand if you KNEW that was coming.
Hey it’s Pineiro’s song! He is a big disgrace.
its cool umps, you can call the game now.
were losing
“Hand raised”
Pineiro walks two.
No!
Somebody get to the mound and make sure Pineiro WALKS!
I hope the Sox just pile it on and win by 20. Just embarrass us badly.
*Chanting* GRAND SLAM, GRAND SLAM…
Why was he running on Ichiro? What an imbecile.
I’ve never hated anyone more than Pineiro.
I told ya 3 outs were on the way.
So it appears Joel’s change of arm angles just altered the geometry of his suck.
That’s the thing about Pineiro…I can’t really hate him. I just think it’s so sad how much he sucks. But good god, he is horrible, horrible, horrible.
Honestly who cares about the reslut. Felix was good and that’s really all that matters at this point. Felix was well on his way to 7 or 8 innings.
170. I guess you didn’t live through Ayala.
173- I’m the same way.
I almost feel sorry for him. What’s worse is he knows he sucks.
Ball game.
Erp. Missed the game entirely. Looks like Felix was great, the M’s did well, and then after a rain delay the bullpen sucked beyond redemption. Is that an accurate assessment? Looks like particularly shite pitching from O’Flaherty and Pineiro.
Nothing like a crap bullpen to make the game fun.
having missed that they got moved for Fox (and haha for Fox, with a rain delay) all I heard was the disasterous O’Flaherty unearned runs inning. So, Joel reminded everyone why he ended up in the bullpen this season, hmn? and Freddy tomorrow.
so, did the umps really wait too long to call the rain delay?
I wonder if they wouyld have called it after five if the White Sox had been eliminated from the playoff race, not that they have a chance worth talking about. Eh, probably not. I imagine that MLB wants teams to try to play the whole 9 innings if at all possible. They wouldn’t want those fans to think they might have to come to the park for a rainout or a short game; that might hurt ticket presales.
well, we’ve had previous experience of the umps messing things up this season by trying to get the game/innings in– viz JJ pitching in the pouring rain in NY
A.J. (See #s 85, 86, 89, 93, 97, and 101.) – It really hurts, really hurts–to get hit in the family jewels. I’m not sure if the trainer story is true or not, but I’d keep away from the victim for a while. I certainly wouldn’t ask him how it felt.
Would’ve liked to see Felix get a win, though, to end the season.
he may get one more chance– per Hargrove in today’s TNT:
“He only threw about 65 pitches, and he was throwing nice and easy,” Hargrove said. “If we give him one more, it would probably be for five, six innings – not nine. I’ll talk to Bill Bavasi and Rafael Chaves and we’ll come up with something. One thing about Felix pitching: He gives us the chance to win.”