Game 27, Rangers at Mariners
DMZ · May 5, 2009 at 12:40 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Matinee! Padilla vs Erik “The Interview” Bedard! 1:40pm! And my afternoon schedule has a bunch of meetings! Yay!
Dave adds: You know how I keep harping on the roster being too right-handed and how it’s costing us wins?
Padilla, career vs RHB: .241/.300/.370
Padilla, career vs LHB: .299/.381/.484
The Mariners are starting seven right-handed bats and two left-handed bats today.
Yea.
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Meetings where you can bring a wifi laptop, or the boring kind where you have to pay attention?
Or the boring kind where you can sit quietly with an unobtrusive earbud, so nobody knows what you’re doing until you suddenly jump and yell “swung on and belted!”
If you lean your head on your hand, the earbud becomes almost invisible…
This gem from Pravda is one reason that I check the headlines on the M’s site even if I don’t always read the articles. If the team’s mouthpiece is starting to talk this way, there’s hope after all:
“It could be jumping the gun just a little, but if there’s an opening in the Mariners’ starting rotation, recently promoted left-hander Jason Vargas just might move into that spot.
“I was really impressed with the fact that he wasn’t afraid of anything,” manager Don Wakamatsu said on Monday. “He pitched aggressively, challenged hitters and threw strikes. You’d like to be able to ease him into it, but we threw him into the fire.”
The heat has been turned up on right-hander Carlos Silva, who has been told to improve or lose his spot in the rotation. Silva, who is 1-2 with a 7.36 ERA this season after losing 15 of his final 16 decisions last season, is scheduled to start against the Royals on Wednesday.”
Somebody in yesterday’s game thread posted this quote from somewhere
He’s made this clear in multiple interviews with Drayer and Niehaus etc. The rope is short, the clock is ticking, the burger is getting cold.
Sorry, no insight. I just love the statement here.
TEXAS RANGERS SEATTLE MARINERS
Ian Kinsler – 2B Ichiro Suzuki – RF
Elvis Andrus – SS Jose Lopez – 2B
Michael Young – 3B Mike Sweeney – DH
Andruw Jones – LF Russell Branyan – 1B
Hank Blalock – DH Adrian Beltre – 3B
Marlon Byrd – CF Wladimir Balentien – LF
Nelson Cruz – RF Rob Johnson – C
Chris Davis – 1B Franklin Gutierrez – CF
Jarrod Saltalamacchia C Yuniesky Betancourt – “SS”
HA HA I just noticed the quotation marks around Yuni’s SS designation. (Got the lineups from Lookout Landing.)
During some games at Safeco, when the TV camera is looking at a LH batter in the box, there’s a guy in the background, in the M’s dugout, leaning against the fence. He doesn’t wear a cap, and it seems that is because he’s very proud of his dark, wavy hair. He also has facial hair. He seems to have no role on the team.
Who the heck is that guy?
Elmer: Team porn director.
Ah, Lauren, token cougar has arrived I see.
Lauren-
You’re still on illicit thought probation and not supposed to use the word “porn” again for at least another month. ‘Member? (That was funny though- especially the name Elmer, for some reason. Nice.)
Dudes. I’m only 34. Granted that’s older than most of the players, but I hardly think it puts me in cougar territory (which spans 110 degrees of latitude, from northern Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes, according to Wikipedia).
Oh my god, I bet that everyone who watches FSN pictures me as the menopausal Jack in the Box shake-drinking woman. (That commercial is pretty damn funny.)
Lauren = Cheetah (?)
Huh huh, he said “Member”.
I remember like it was yesterday. Bedard’s debut as a Mariner.
No no, he has no obvious task, remember? He’s obviously the producer!
*groan* Could that pun have been any more awful?
Wlad- catch that! (So close.)
It seems like the Rangers’ gameplan for these two games against Bedard and Felix was to swing early in the AB, because those pitches would probably be the most hittable they’d see. Maybe something Felix, Bedard and Adair will have to think about for their next outings?
Jay Buhner II is leading off, let’s go.
Fun with Fangraphs.
Top of the second, Rangers had a runner on second with 2 out, scoreless tie. M’s had a greater than 50% chance of winning at that point.
The runner on second has value, but the outs are more important.
I wonder that every time I watch a game. I’m glad someone else has noticed it.
M’s swinging away early again with absolutely no results. I feel like they get more patient as the game goes on, but the first few innings are always easy for the opposing pitcher. Eighteen pitches for Padilla in the first two innings.
I’m getting really tired of watching the Mariners make terrible opposing pitchers look like Cy Young candidates…. &$#@$%!!
Ugh. Dave N. just got Shigetoshi Hasegawa and Kazuhiro Sasaki messed up in the middle of a story. I love the guy but he is fading fast. (Was it last week he thought Nolan Ryan had 8 no-hitters?)
Because eight is so far off from the actual seven, and Lord knows how many one- and two-hitters he through. /sarcasm
There are times where I realize how old Niehaus is getting, but c’mon. He’s not nearly as far gone as you make him out to be.
It’s sad about Niehaus…he doesn’t recognize pitches anymore either. My seven-year-old yelled at the TV yesterday, “That was a curve, Dave!” after DN called it a change.
This is what you get when you throw an all RHB line-up at a pitcher who has a good sinker/slider. This is why the team has to add another LH bat or two. It isn’t optional.
Please, when Dave reminds me of Harry Caray, we’ll know he’s too old.
Griffey – - – inflamed colon? Shouldn’t eat at Ichiro’s house before games…
Lauren – I’m with you in regards to the guy Elmer asked about…
During the first series this year I almost asked who the 70′s porn star standing at the dugout rail was.*
*I didn’t ask because I thought maybe male porn stars were a taboo subject here… I have discovered otherwise.
Hark-
I’m sometimes on the ‘please retire, Dave’ bus too. Not because I don’t like him, but because I thought he could do no wrong for so long… It’s hard to hear my favorite voice from my childhood slowly lose his way. And ocassionally, honestly, he does make a call that makes me wonder if we’re watching the same game (a fastball inside is a curve on the outside corner, or “that ball is BELTED” to the shortstop on the edge of the grass, etc.).
I’ll love him always though. And he can stay as long as he wants, in my book. I’ll put up with it. (So I guess I’m not ON the bus, I just watch it pass and wonder sometimes…)
Is it a team rule that the opposing pitcher must be perfect after 3 innings?
Nice AB by Guti, spoiling Padilla’s bid for a 72-pitch complete game.
Well, I’m willing to cut Neihaus some slack on those things because it’s my understanding he does all those stories and stats and such without notes.
I heart me some Russell.
just wait until tomorrow!
MSB-
BUT! We miss Greineke in KC… *wipes brow* (6-0, 0.40 era, 3 complete games… UNREAL!)
Hooray, a baserunner!
Also, Gamecast reports that Padilla’s first pitch to Ichiro was 53 mph.
No more perfect game! Go Ichiro! with a four pitch walk.
(Anecdotal aside: where’s justjake? Look at Ichiro! take those pitches…)
Actually, I’ve always kind of pictured you as Kiki in the SNL cougar sketches.
The Jack in the Box commercials are really starting to get strange. Their real ad company is starting to parody the ad company parody they had a few years ago, wherein an exec was pitching a “Spice Girls” themed commercial — cut to Jack, looking disgusted as the guy in his suit can’t stop himself from dancing along with the video: “You’re so fired.”
Hey, anyone else watching on Gameday? Padilla threw a 53 mph pitch with a 25″ brk. Did it just slip out of his hands??? It was Ichiro’s first pitch taken.
JZALMAN… I think we missed that on TV. He must have just dropped the ball on the mound. (that’s about 25″) *laugh*
OK, if you want to ticked off at me, fine. Thanks to my Comcast DVR, here is the actual exchange.
DN: Time for our AFLAC trivia question, and here it is: “Mark Langston and Randy Johnson own the three longest scoreless innings streaks in club history, and the question is can you name the Mariners’ reliever who owns the club’s 4th-longest scoreless innings streak?”
Then Dave throws out a guess that it is a guy from the ’70s I’ve never heard of. (John Montague.) Then…
DN: But that’s not the correct answer, I am told. (To Blowers) Who are you thinking of?
MB: Shiggy
Then they talk about Shiggy for a bit, and that year he went to the All-Star game.
DN: You’re right. You know even though he wasn’t here that long I think he was the greatest reliever in Mariner history.
MB: Well, he gave them great flexibility, they’d pitch him long and short relief and sometimes bring him in to get left-handers out.
DN: “Daimajin.” Shigetoshi Hasegawa.
It was clear that by “the greatest reliever in Mariner history” he meant Kaz, then Blowers was talking about Shiggy, but then Dave made it clear he was THINKING about Kaz. That’s why I was taken aback.
(As far as the seven vs. eight no-hitters – I kind of assumed 7 no-hitters was a no-brainer, like Maris’ 61 or Aaron’s 755.)
Also, Mariners PLEASE GET A HIT. Thank you. At least Bedard is being studly in return.
Has anyone noticed Padilla has a no hitter going?, he says in a blatantly obvious jinx attempt.
Geoff’s piece today about how the M’s needed to get a homefield advantage made me wonder.
I’ve been under the impression for a while now that homefield advantage in baseball means nothing more than an advantage when the game comes down to the bottom of the 9th or later… or almost no advantage.
I can’t remember if I read this somewhere or I heard it from someone I trusted when I shouldn’t have.
Does anyone know any substantial evidence on whether or not homefield advantage matters in baseball?
No. Padilla unbuttoned his jersey and something like a 12-foot long tentacle came out. He threw the pitch with his tentacle. It was terrifying . . . and illegal. They asked him not to do it again and he agreed.
You know, the Indians have two former M’s second basemen, and Valabeuna is so far behind Asdrubal Cabrera he’s only been in two games so far this year. We know his defense is pretty good. It’s not like he has much of a bat, but he does swing it from the left….
LMFAO @ Blankenship…
That was brilliant.
And true JZalman… All of it, absolutely true!
Whoa. The Astros and the Nats are tied 10-10 after 10 in a rain delay.
How many different pitch types has Padilla thrown today? Geez.
I lived in West Palm Beach, Fla., in 2005, and thus saw Vargas pitch plenty with the Marlins in Miami and in Jupiter in spring training. No question, he has ability.
Meanwhile, one of these days the M’s are going to get no-hit. Isn’t this about the 8th time already this season an opposing pitcher has no-hit them thorugh four innings?
Home field advantage (btw, check out he link at the top for “Checking in on Seattle’s New Outfield” — it’s from April 10th, so it doesn’t have much data, but the graphic is cool… I’d love to see that updated).
On Gameday, just prior to Beltre’s AB it says: On-field Delay. At my desk here at work, all I can picture is Crazy Red running up to Beltre and humping his leg, Morganna style.
Fans texting in that 42% of them think Omar Vizquel will be a first ballot Hall of Famer– I love the guy, but seriously? Huh?
A HIT! The reverse jinx worked, nice job.
I voted C.
(Yes, I am one of the nerds who votes in these things.)
With a no-no in the 5th, that wasn’t worth an all-out effort by one of the outfielders?
I don’t have any experience as a baseball manager but it didn’t take too much research to find out that
Aubrey Huff is 5 for 6
Nick Markakis 3 for 5
Brian Roberts is 4 for 7
Victor Martinez is 2 for 3
David DeJesus is 2 for 3
Mike Jacobs is 2 for 2
and
Ryan Sweeney is 2 for 4
against Padilla this season.
They all bat LH or S.
Anyone have Wak or Z’s direct line or email address? I’d like to let them know why Padilla is looking like a frontrunner for the Cy Young award today.
I thought the home field advantage in baseball, compared to football or basketball, came from tailoring your team to your park’s unique characteristics. Otherwise, it’s just the usual home cooking (instead of living out of hotels) and fans cheering you instead of booing you.
So far this year, average W-L at home:
AL East: 7-5
AL Central: 7-6
AL West: 6-6
NL East: 5-6
NL Central: 6-6
NL West: 7-4
Joser-
Thanks for posting that… Seriously. Cool stuff.
Man, that Padilla is an ace if I ever seen one.
You’ve obviously never seen an ace then.
Best Ace I’ve ever seen.
Better Ace!
Great line on a commercial on FSN:
“Ability will never catch up with the demand for it!” – Confucius
I don’t recall Padilla ever being so unhittable. Is today Backwards Day?
He’s lefthanded. Any chance he bats left handed as well?
Scariest Ace.
Way to get on Gutz!
Joser -
Thanks!
If there was ever a time to play small ball, now would be that time.
Ken-
Yuni’s thinking (on the bench) “I don’t recall Padilla ever being so unhittable” too.
How does Yuni have an average of .295 when he’s such a hacker? I know average doesn’t reflect true hitting ability but he’s the second coming of Dave Kingman.
The only Mariner who walked yesterday was Yuni.
Padilla is unhittable.
Welcome to Bizarro World.
Seriously Yuni, that’s pathetic.
Best Ace with baseball-related name not associated with baseball: *picture of Ace of Base*
This is where we break out our secret weapon then. Shhhhh!!!! BUNT! OK, there I said it.
Wabbles-
That was mean– I’m not sure if it was mean to Yuni or Kingman, but it was mean to one of the two.
yuni saw three pitches, all out of the zone and swung at all of them. i hate yuni
Double steal time!
Paul-
You left out a chapter of Bizarro World:
Felix K’s 9, and gives up 6 runs…
Finally.
Our OTHER secret weapon… The error on an easy double play.
Pheeew. What was the error, o lucky tv watchers?
Nice! 1 run, 1 hit. Didn’t the m’s win a game with 1 hit back in the Mike Cameron days?
Interesting that according to fangraphs Runners on second and first with one out, for this inning is only .1% better (62.8) than a runner on 1st with no outs (62.7).
YAY. Errors.
Lauren-
Beautiful double play ball right to Kinsler at 2nd… Off the heel of the glove, dribbled into right field.
i heard on the radio, bounced off kinsler’s glove, and into shallow right.
one run on one hit so far – hahaha
OK that last play has to be another chapter out of Bizarro World. Imagine if that becomes the winning run.
Wow..we really wanted out of that inning.
Mike Sweeney needs to join Yuni on the bench. Why didn’t we just DH Wlad and put Chavez in LF?? Right now we have two guys who have no purpose on this team (Sweeney and Yuni) and another who is walking a mighty fine line (Griffey). I would rather see Clement up here and take ABs away from Sweeney.
Seriously. Can I get a fly ball? “The Catfish” is making us look silly today.
In Yuni’s 2 at bats today:
- 8 pitches.
- 8 strikes.
- 1 called strike.
- 5 pitches that would have been called balls.
- 2 pitches that might have been called balls.
(humble apologies for the double post)
blankenship –
Are you suggesting the Rangers might have scouts?
I wish someone would post what Yuni has done at the plate today…
So much for winning that one hit game….
Cruz would have been doing that in a Mariners uniform had we gone for Dave’s “Full Nelson Plan”.
Damn you Nelson Cruz!
oof, mariners have to bank on another Rangers error to get a run up on this team, haha
I know this deserves the AFLAC award for most obvious comment of the day, but man, the Mariners don’t have many hitters who know how to work the count.
Speaking of woeful M’s hitting, how did Dave Valle land a job at the MLB Network?
That HR is justified. In no way shape or form does this team deserve to win off of that silly error.
Brown Scott –
I’m pretty sure you were joking… but I didn’t really get the joke.
He’s 0-2 with a groundout and a strikeout.
Well, so much for that error-produced run being the winning run.
Thank goodness the baseball Gods are always fair and just.
I mean, after all, they gave us Bud Selig.
Here’s an idea–
Let’s win a game 6-2 sometime? Is that asking too much? Take a lead early, build it, never really be challenged. I’m not saying all the time, but just every so often for a little rehab to my mind/heart/emotions…
Please.
I was joking. Granted it was a pretty bad joke, but it was indeed a joke.
Geez. How many strikeouts does Bedard have and how many are swinging?
I think I can be considered a serious baseball fan. I love Nolan Ryan. I always watched his games when he was on the Game of the Week (dating myself). I know he had a ton of no-hitters. But I couldn’t have told you whether it was 7 or 8.
I could, however, tell the difference between Shigetoshi Hasegawa and Kazuhiro Sasaki. Anybody who thinks Dave has lost it, though, never heard Harry Caray his last few years. He was truly embarassing.
If the Rangers can’t field then somehow we deserve to lose? Or are baseball results solely determined by the turning of the karmic wheel? Should we fire Jack Z and his new fangled “statistics” and bring out Jobu and the fried chicken?
wabbles – 7 strikeouts, 5 swinging.
So…102 pitches for The Interview…he finished?
JESUS FUC*ING CHRIST ARE YOU KIDDING? hit and run and we STILL hit into a DP? We’ll be able to sleep a lot easier when we just come to terms with the fact that Beltre SUCKS. Of the last 5 games we have played, we deserve to lose this one the most by FAR.
It doesn’t hurt that Chris Davis is on the opposing team. Then again he did boink one out of the park yesterday but other than that he’s good for at least 2 or 3 K’s a game.
Beltre……………
They should consider bringing out the fried chicken regardless.
Bats, they are sick. I cannot hit curveball. Straightball I hit it very much. Curveball, bats are afraid. I ask Jobu to come, take fear from bats. I offer him cigar, rum. He will come.
Yargh.
Hats for bats.
I have always found the Burger King to be disturbing.
Mixing him with Star Trek didn’t help.
And how many GIDP do we have this game?
Uhmm… what the hell was that little didy?
Love the “Major League” references …
I watch that movie every year as part of my “Spring Training” to prepare for the season.
“Should we fire Jack Z and his new fangled “statistics†and bring out Jobu and the fried chicken?”
NOT before we get rid of Silva!
Silva (overheard)- “Fried Chicken?!?!”
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Way to hold on for once Rob!
Way to hang on Robbie!!
Johnson hung onto the ball!
Purty throw (Johnson with the scary “did I catch it” move out of the way, flailing arm tag).
ROBBY ROBS THEM!
yuni showed some nice range on that play–I can see he UZR plummeting even more this game. Nice throw by Wlad though.
HELL yes!!!
It’s amazing how many of us get to watch.
And yeah, Beltre’s next contract is going to be a lot lower…
And despite all this, we’re still tied! On to the ninth and beyooond!
…trying to channel Buzz Lightyear there. oh well
Yes . . . Yuni time.
We have made exactly one outfield out so far in this game, Beltre in the 2nd.
Also not to reign on the good results but if Lowe, Kelley, Aardsma–any of our all 95 mph+ fastball no command brigade is going to get blasted at some point unless they can start throwing secondary pitches for strikes. Lowe got lucky, he was throwing 96-99 and still got raked that inning. This is the major leagues and you have to pitch with a purpose, not just gas everyone.
Cunning (and considerate) the way Yuni set Ichiro! up for the walk off home run.
I didn’t imply they deserved to lose. I simply stated that they don’t deserve to win off of that silly error. I don’t care how they win but 1 hit against Padilla in the 8th inning of a ballgame isn’t going to cut it. I think it’s crystal clear why they’re struggling today. My comment was out of frustration for giving up the 1 run lead that they were lucky to have to begin with.
*Searches for an image of an Aardvark walking a tightrope*
Aardsma walked the bases full.
Does that mean they didn’t have enough clubhouse goodness before the game?
Hold onto your hats!
@ Dizzle: My apologies then.
PS – Whew!
Aardsma ERA is about to catch up with his FIP. He has no idea where any pitch is going.
Paul-
No it means Aardsma’s not angry at enough of his teammates.
both those pitchs could have been strikes
Then I demand every one of his teammates hang a picture of his hot sister in their locker. Pronto.
Wow. Way to wiggle out of that one. Great pitch.
BAM! Down the middle… K! Let’s win it…
Woooooooo big K! This team is giving me an ulcer. Please win it here!!!
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHe struck him out!
Kinsler swings and misses!
That must mean the M’s had good clubhouse rapport, and grit!
quite possibly the worst looking scoreless inning pitched this year by a Mariner pitcher but I will take it.
That line is just stupid:
Texas 1 11 1
Seattle 1 1 0
Not bad. I figured this was where Dave’s prediction would come true about the bullpen frustrating us with bases-loaded walks.
Defintiely Grit. They brought the grit today. The feel good, love-ya-bro grit! Now let’s win it.
First pitch to Ichiro looked waaay outside on Gameday . . .
please god..not extra innings again. My heart lacks the strength.
So I guess it’s time for the annual “Retire Niehaus” parade – sort of like Seafair, happens every year. Just not as much fun.
You’re all welcome to your own opinions. For me, I’d rather listen to Dave Niehaus call a game and get it wrong than listen to a whole bunch of other casters call it and get it right.
OK Jose, just imagine those other players are wearing A’s uniforms and do your game winning hit thing!
Adding to my Home Depot “to get” list:
1. Portable Defibrilator, in Mariner’s colors
2. Backup battery
Sweeney has the goofiest batting stance of all-time.
Other than Craig Counsell.
As I watch Sweeney hit, I can’t help but think that with such a thin bench, if one (or two!) of the players are hurt, the manager really can’t do anything during the game.
Who is Darren O’Day, and is he seriously getting guys out with an 86-mph fastball?
Lopez shouldn’t expect to see another two-strike pitch below the letters for the remainder of his career.
I think Griffey needs to sack up and hit. How can they send Sweeney up there against a RH sidearm dude? Our bench doesn’t apparently exist. I’d rather see Cedeno up there.
Hey! Let’s have some more innings!
To infinity and beyoooooond!
I can’t take this F’ing offense the whole year.
Oh, and…
3. A short stop like that Texas kid
OK, FSNW, enough with keeping the speed up forever. That’s vaguely interesting but if I’m trying to multitask, I’d like to see the count/outs more than how fast the last pitch was.
Sidearm, I guess that helps explain things.
Dave S actually advertised the games with the Royals by mentioning Bloomquist and Jose Guillen.
What the hell?
F’ing Aye… How do you spell “DL”?
That can’t be good…
what’s going on?
I’m listening on the radio, didn’t see what happened…I hope Kelley’s OK.
Kelly dropped to the ground after throwing a pitch. Something to do with his side.
Kelley went down on that last pitch with some sort of side injury. Maybe his hip or a lower rib.
I have to go pick up the toddler from daycare… then head home. Had to mow the lawn after the 9th on Sunday, then got to see 3 more innings when I was done, so who knows, maybe I’ll be back…
Hope Kelley’s okay.
We still carrying 12 pitchers? Check.
Our bullpen’s workload over the last week? 24 IP total, which includes a doubleheader, a 15 inning game, and Carlos Silva not making it out of the 4th in his last start. For crying out loud M’s, quit wasting roster spots.
Rangers pitching. Nine innings. One hit. Ugghhh.
Too much fried chicken?
I didn’t realize my other post had gone up.
Uhhh… go M’s?
Why did Kelley come out before throwing a pitch?
I’m at the game Kelley threw then collapsed…he was helpedd the field with his left arm supported. Looked like elbow problem.
UGH Not good.
How slow is Andrew Jones now if they are pinch running for him?
On his second to last pitch, he was acting like something wasn’t right. He was moving around, stepped off, shook his arm, stretched a little, the umpire actually came out from behind the plate at one point, presumably to see if he was OK.
Then he got back on the mound, threw a fairly slow pitch, and dropped like a stone.
On tv it looked like he was grabbing his thigh or hip, but who knows. I’m watching without sound, so I’m not sure if they said anything…
Hey, “The Killer B’s” are up in the bottom half.
Addendum: God damn it. Yuni finally gets to a ball in the hole but has no play for an out. 3-1.
so much for Stark. He’s throwing batting practice..even the two outs were hit hard it looked like.
If it IS an elbow, that is very bad. Hope it is a ribcage muscle or something.
I call hip.
We had a golden chance to put space between the Rangers and us, instead we crap all over ourselves and now have a .5 game to show for it.
And can we pick up a friggin bat?
Ugh.. Well, there goes that AL West lead..
Seriously, if something isn’t done to get this team scoring some runs, we’re screwed.
Even if we lose this, the M’s still have a half-game lead. Not that it feels like it.
…
God damn Denny Stark.
And that’s the game. Talk to you all tomorrow.
This game turned shitty pretty quickly.
Good grief . . .
Well, Stark’s not going on my Christmas card list.
Yuni needs to be traded tonight……and stark well he goes back to AAA…..if we had extra MR….
*double post*
At least it won’t be another 1 run game.
Branyan! What a stroke. The start of a six-run 10th?
(Please, baseball gods…please.)
Follow up: BELTRE!
Y’all didn’t expect ALL our scrap heap bargain buys to pay off, did you?
I’ll be so glad when Jack Z can finally stop making payments on a few diamond crusted turds so he can spread the money around equitably and build a REAL roster.
Well, Stark wasn’t Zduriencik’s bargain buy.
Now see, as I understand it, if we had strung together those doubles in the bottom of the ninth instead of the tenth, we would have won this game. ‘sigh’
Man on second. Nobody out. Tying run is in the dugout . . .
Sims just called our second string catcher “Bob” Johnson.
“Bob Johnson’s on deck.”
Didn’t say he was. But he IS off the scrap heap.
Zoinks, I guess there’s a reason (or a few) why Stark hadn’t pitched since 2004.
balentein’s first 5 pitches were balls, whiffed two of them. What a terrible at bat.
Yeah. TWO Tommy John’s.
True, and I didn’t mean to imply that all Zduriencik’s reclamation projects will work either. I expect nothing of Chad Cordero, let alone Jeff Zimmerman.
I love it. That’s what I’m going to call him from now on.
Gameday is calling Kelly’s injury an “injured chest.”
Sims said they are calling it a strained oblique for Kelley.
I’ll take that. As long as it’s not an elbow or shoulder.
That said, who the hell is running the core strengthening workouts??
Strained oblique. Well, that’s good as long as he doesn’t breathe it won’t hurt.
So what’s the point of bringing in your closer with 1 out and a 5 run lead?
(to face Rob Johnson???)
Darn. I was hoping it really was an injured chest. Obliques can be lingersome. And yes, I just coined the word “lingersome.”
Oh God, why is Gutierrez bunting with one out and down by five in the 10th? Who writes this script.
Also, dear Mike: send out a second batch of rally fries. We are desperately in need of a rally.
So we can all enjoy the classic closer-in-a-non-save-situation-meltdown. I hope.
should be bases loaded….
Excuse me, Mr. Umpire?
THOSE WERE ALL BALLS
Gutierrez just got boned by the ump. Twice. At this point in the game, he should have thrown his bat down and jawed with the blind plateswain. If he’s ejected, who cares, we lost.
wow, did gut just look at 3 consecutive strikes?
Looks like the umps strike zone got bigger this inning.
Does the ump’s strikezone look as inconsistent on TV as it does on Gameday?
Home plate umpiring has been god awful this year.
Yeah, I think the friggin ump just wants to go eat dinner…
Two Tommy John surgeries equal one retirement.
Freaking Yuni, man. 11 strikes today, all swinging, at least seven of which weren’t even strikes.
We need the guys in this lineup to be more patient. Get on base by any means necessary. And Yuni is definitely NOT helping there. I’d also like to see Ichiro take more pitches too. We are 2nd to LAST in MLB in walks.
Okay, tomorrow’s matchup has to be in violation of the Geneva Convention somehow.
Carlos Silva vs. Sir Sidney Ponson. Ugh. I think I’ll fire up Netflix streaming on the Xbox 360 tomorrow night.
So today and yesterday were the first two games I’ve seen at safeco…can someone tell me is the crowd always so passive? They never get loud for 2 strike counts hell they only got up twice in either game for 2 strike 2 out pitches…is this normal?
Axtell–
Yes. Perfectly normal.
I think the crowds lately have pretty low expectations.
No, it’s usually much better than it has been. I haven’t been so far this year, but both games I managed to get to last year (June? against the Tigers and Feierabend’s start against the Yankees in September) were much more active from a crowd perspective. Same was generally true when I’ve gone in previous years as well (tho it had been a few years… damn living on the other side of the state and being broke!).
Now we are a mere half a game ahead of the Rangers. At least we have the Royals to play. Oh wait, you say they aren’t the roll overs they’ve been the last few years? Shit.
Axtell — there are games at Safeco where there are loud, rowdy fans. They show up once or twice a year, and cheer for the Red Sox.
If Mariners fans want to be that in-your-face and passionate, they go home, boot up their computers, and post comments that get [moderated] here.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. And “lingersome” is a lovely coinage.
Also, remember: Griffey has verbiage in his contract relating to attendance. So if there’s anything wrong with the fans, it’s Griffey’s fault.
I’d be bringing in seismographs.
Don’t fake moderation tags, joser, or I’ll moderate you!
So,no left-handed bats, and now no bullpen.
I’m guessing the lead in the division is going away soon.
I don’t think there is a huge problem with the bullpen, I think it’s Denny Stark not really being a major league pitcher
So, losing hope already people? Still in 1st place. Missing Greinke & Meche in KC, and everybody will be rested for tomorrow evening.
Come on M’s fans, keep the faith. It’s still early. Let’s see another month or 2 from now.
Time to deep-six that 12th pitcher and sign Jim Edmonds to a contract for the remainder of the year. (Or Geoff Jenkins.) Can Edmonds play 1B? I’m sure he’s still a good outfielder.
Not losing hope. We were in that game until the very end, when we put in a guy who has yet to prove his abilities and he got bent over by one of the best offenses in the AL on a day when our bullpen was burned out and with multiple injuries.
I will start losing hope when we are regularly losing games we never had a chance to win.
Man, Pittman is brutal on Silva in the postgame. Hassleman suggested making him a setup guy, and Pittman said
“Carlos Silva in the seventh inning? That’s about the time you want to see his car peeling out of the parking lot.”
When does cedeno realstically become available to replace yuni? When does guti get moved to second in the lineup? When can we give beltre some time to figure out how to swing again?
Disheartening to hear that safeco fans aren’t more into it, and it wasn’t just 2 strike pitches. I wonder how the players feel when they go on the road and see the differences.
For the record:
Dave Kingman had a lifetime walks-to-strikeout ratio of 0.335 or 608 walks to 1816 strikeouts.
Yuni has a lifetime walks-to-strikeout ratio of 0.344 61 walks to 177 strikeouts.
So Yuni’s ratio is better than Kingman’s after all! (Although those stats don’t include today’s game, of course.)
Hopefully they feel like performing better.
Dave Kingman was there for his 28 bombs and .478 SLG% every year.
If Yuni could do that, I would overlook his lack of walks.
But.. he doesn’t.
Sorry, I was trying to use them like meta-quotes, sort of. Oh, nevermind.
Somebody asked about this in yesterday’s game thread, but I only found this today: Felix showing his appreciation to his defense. There’s your “clubhouse chemistry” (cue boom-waka-waka music).
The bullpen is shot and the last thing they needed was extra innings again today. Every game went at least into the bottom of the ninth in this home stand. The bottom line is with the offense struggling, the Mariners don’t match up well against a team that slugs the ball like the Rangers do. We can’t expect our pitchers to win every 1-0. 2-1 game.
Hopefully the bullpen can get some rest and Morrow will be back soon.
Morrow is out until Saturday at the earliest — 15 day DL retroactive to April 24.
Per Drayer, Kelley is probably not traveling with the team on the roadtrip, and Wakamatsu called his injury “devastating” to the bullpen.
I was at the game again today (Terrace Club seats are sweet!) and it would have been a very different game had Kelley performed as expected in that situation. His injury threw everything into flux…and this wasn’t Denny’s day.
However, I wanted to address the “what’s wrong with the M’s fans” meme.
How excited did you expect the crowd to be in this game? One hit and one run, unearned, until the game was out of reach.
The crowd around me sure lit up with Wlad’s throw to Rob Johnson (even if they didn’t put the replay up on the big screen to let most of the crowd know exactly what just happened.) But then, the M’s bats wasted that momentum and the crowd’s enthusiasm quite efficiently in their meager efforts at the plate in the bottom half of that inning.
Trust me, when the M’s give the fans something to cheer about…the fans react like good fans should.
On the other hand, this weird thing that self-critical M’s fans do, demanding that all of the fans respond, like sheep, in some pre-determined way to arbitrarily specific game conditions, rather than intuitively to the ebb and flow of the game–that’s barely better than the wave, in my opinion.
When you’ve got a powerhouse pitcher mowing down the opposing line-up, then, yeah…cheering for the punch out when he’s got two strikes and two outs on a batter makes sense…and M’s fans do respond to that, instinctively. Not JUST because there’s two strikes and two outs, but because there’s something worth cheering for happening.
The problem isn’t with M’s fans. It’s up to the M’s to actually give us something to cheer about.
This game, I think the fans cheered exactly as much as was deserved.
[nope]
Wait a minute, I wasn’t questioning anyone’s fandom, I simply said in to the point above that the M’s DID give us plenty to cheer about last night, in Bedard’s brilliant outing…but the lack of enthusiasm, especially in 2-strike counts as contrasted by other parks around the league, was especially disconcerting. I asked for feedback if that was the norm (as I’ve only been to 2 games there) and the general consensus it was, and wanted to know why the Seattle crowd is so passive.
No, you went into fans/not fans and what — specifically — a fan’s duty was. Them’s the rules.
In any case, moderation metacommentary doesn’t belong in comment threads. If you have a question about why your comment was deleted, send an email.