Game 56, Twins at Mariners
Blackburn vs the Sometimes New, Sometimes Improved, Frequently Frustrating Jarrod Washburn. 1:10
Sooo the M’s…
RF-L Ichiro!
1B-L Branyan
3B-R Beltre
DH-L Griffey
2B-R Lopez
SS-R Cedeno
LF-L Chavez
C-R Quiroz
CF-R Gutierrez
By way of contrast, here’s the Twins —
CF-L Span
DH-L Mauer
1B-L Morneau
3B-R Crede
RF-R Cuddyer
SS-R Harris
C-R Redmond
LF-R Young
2B-S Casilla
I always hope when I see D Young in the lineup for the Twins it’ll be Dmitri Young, because that would be hilarious.
Anyway, it’s surprising that the Twins are going to stack the lineup so heavily with lefties against a starter. Usually teams seek out ways to get the platoon advantage from the start, and are only held back by the need to look out for relievers later. Here the Twins either think their lefties will be immune to Washburn’s charm, or don’t care.
I wonder which it is.
Mike Sweeney is on mic for FOX today, they showed a clip of him asking Edgar for a personalized bat.
The ballplayer with the highest Scrabble value gets a hit.
This blog is never going to live down that gay porn game thread, is it, joser?
What the hell happened now? It’s so frustrating to not hear the game…whatever it is, they got out of it again.
Pitching change, Wak’s learning the fine art of the mid-inning pitching change to set up the platoon advantage.
No. But it’s all Lauren’s fault.
Nah. Fox is dictating it so they can cram in more erectile dysfunction ads.
I think that was good bullpen management exploiting the weakness of the Twins’ lineup noted by Derek in his post.
Clearly we must “pitch” because they can’t say we “field” after giving the “stat” that we have the most errors, and that after all is the only known fielding stat.
Ichiro!
Selfish leadoff infield single the Ichiro.
Wow. Of course.
Okay, that was cool announcing.
I say it again: Ichiro!
nice clutch hitting Griff!
Ichiro gets 3 selfish hits. Drives in a selfish run, and scores the other selfish one. What a showboat.
What was? The whole “where Griffey ranks on the all-time doubles list” right before he hits a double?
Jamie Burke we need you…
What’s with Sweeney trying to take off Griffey’s clothes? lol
Why was Sweeney pulling up Griffey’s shirt at the end of the game?
Your 2009 Seattle Mariners: We won’t contend, so we find other ways to make games exciting
We’re on our way to being the world coinflip champions.
I suspect you can buy the game used “Marineros” jerseys on the M’s websites right now, and a game-used Griffey jersey in a game where he hit a game-winning double on national TV ain’t gonna be cheap.
So isn’t this way better than last year? Sure our offense sucks but the pitching keeps us in most games. It makes for fun games to watch. It’s like watching The Perils Of Pauline. And you know what? With the right moves (bring up some offensive help from Tacoma) this team could contend sooner rather than later.
Oh and Wash sure helped his rade value today. All in all a good win.
8 runs allowed in the last 5 games? Wow.
We’re now the worst team in baseball at run creation and the #4 team in baseball at run prevention.
The whole thing with Sweeney and Griffey makes it look ilke Sweeney is that annoying guy at the office who stops by your cubicle and won’t stop talking to you*. Is that what people mean by veteran presence?
*FYI, if you are in an office and you don’t know that guy…well then as the old saying goes…it is probably you.
Is this the first time he’s had a left-handed reliever come in?
Just wondering: Why is it O.K. to pull MORROW in the interests of winning the game (and not being concerned about his youthful ego), but it wasn’t O.K. to pull Balentien yesterday, because of concern for his youthful ego?
(They’ll both be 25 next month.)
It has nothing to do with player egos, but with a FO, manager & coaching staff who first saw all these players in spring, and want to know what they have (or don’t have) Apparently, they still aren’t/were’t sure what Balentien will actually do as a player.
Because the game ends and Griffey already has his shirttails out and his hat swapped back. He always has. Sweeney was just helping this time …
rumor has it that Mrs. Nicole Jones is expecting, so the tight sweaters may be temporarily retired.
The cases aren’t comparable. For one thing, pulling a struggling righthander so as to put in a lefty to face a lefty is what all managers do and all relievers expect. It’s not notable in any sense (apart from the fact that we haven’t had any lefthanded relievers until now).
Second, as I pointed out in the game post for yesterday, putting in Endy for defense in the eighth would mean that if he pinch hit Griffey in the ninth (hopefully in a tie game), he wouldn’t have Endy (or really anyone else) to pinch run if Griffey got on base. Just because a choice in 20:20 hindsight looks bad doesn’t mean that it is bad. But it wasn’t some unthinking nondecision made with perfect knowledge that two balls would be available for misplay.
rumor has it that Mrs. Nicole Jones is expecting, so the tight sweaters may be temporarily retired.
Ah. When she was at the desk a few games back, I thought she looked a little baby bump-y.
You know, I’m about as happy with this team as I expected to be in the offseason. The USSM folks were projecting about 78 wins, and I considered a .500 season to be very tough but within reach. That’s still the case, and it’s still a remarkable 20 win swing from last year. Considering the draft is still to come, we’ve had a lot of exciting, nailbiting one-run games, and Gutierrez at least makes flyball pitchers like Washburn something to look forward to rather than dread… that’s pretty darn good. It’s rather nice to feel like this team is on the upswing with potential and a plan, rather than aimlessly circling the drain without a prayer or a clue.
I wouldn’t be so sure. The producers will just sit her behind a desk and, if her physiology follows the usual course, the low-cut sweaters will be strained all the more as her assets prepare for their real duties.
If anyone hadn’t noticed and would like to watch, North Carolina is playing on ESPN right now. They’re up 7-0, thanks in part to a three run homer by Ackley.