Rainiers’ Playoff Series v. Sacramento Kicks Off Tonight
If a meaningless late-season game between the M’s and A’s just doesn’t get your pulse racing, how about a minor league playoff series between the M’s and A’s farm clubs? No? Really?
The Tacoma Rainiers start their PCL playoff series against Sacramento tonight at a windy Raley Field. As you’ve probably heard, the Rainiers home games in the playoffs will be played at Safeco Field with game 3 scheduled for Friday at 7pm; demolition at Cheney Stadium is already underway. The Rainiers currently have Andy Baldwin on the mound against Clayton Mortensen in game 1 (tune in on 850am or at www.tacomarainiers.com) – Baldwin was tagged for 3 runs in the first inning. Should they win the series, the Rainiers would face either Oklahoma City or Memphis for the PCL crown.
Both teams have avoided calling up key players from AAA this September – Justin Smoak would certainly be in Seattle if Tacoma’s season was over, and Michael Taylor and Mortensen would be in Oakland. But Oakland’s taken it a step further by demoting SP Vin Mazzaro just before the series started (and after the MLB rosters were expanded). This is a strange move, and it led the A’s beat reporter to ask if the move was for disciplinary reasons (hat tip Mike Curto). The A’s insist it was to allow Mazzaro to work on his ‘consistency’, but it’s still stunning to see a pitcher with a half-decent xFIP in the majors demoted AFTER rosters expand.
As the News Tribune’s preview notes here, this match-up is becoming pretty routine: the R’s and River Cats have met four times in the playoffs recently, including last year when Chris Carter almost single-handedly eliminated Tacoma. The Rainiers eliminated Sacramento in 2005 before losing to Nashville in the PCL championship series.
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Rainiers currently down 7-1 after a 4 run 2nd that featured errors from Matt Mangini and “LF” Mike Carp.
Game 1 was always something of a longshot with Sacto throwing their ace and Tacoma using Baldwin to make a spot start but this is still disappointing. The wind’s blowing out, but Greg Halman’s struck out twice.
Why Smoak is batting sixth and Halman second?
3-run blast by Halman, his 34th on the year, and now the score is 6-7 in the middle of the 4th inning. Rainiers are back in this thing. Go Rainiers!!!
This has been an absolutely wild game so far.
Heard Mike Curto say that the Mariners have a no beards policy for their minor league affiliates. That’s odd.
That Reckyer guy looks like a freaking Middle Linebacker.
8-8!!! New ballgame!
Tied after 7…come on Rainiers!
There are a couple of Northwest Transplants in Memphis eagarly awaiting your arrival for the PCL Championship Series!!!
BTW, Memphis won 7-5 in Game 1.
Brad Nelson breaks the tie in the top of the 9th! 10-8 Rainiers!!!
Rainiers WIN!!! 10-8!!!
Probably for the same reason Saunders bats seventh or eighth on the Mariners roster. One of the following:
1) They’re totally clueless.
2) They’re being absurdly protective of the people they think may be their future stars.
Although #2 flies in the face of putting Moore in the #5 hole tonight…
I like Halman in the 2-hole. Maybe not a great idea, but interesting because it increases the value of both Ackley and Halman. If Ackley gets on base, he’s going to have chances to run knowing that Halman’s going to see a ton of breaking balls. (Or Halman gets a fastball and crushes it.) Oddly enough, Ackley was caught stealing tonight. Curious to see if this lineup sticks. Smoak on base 6 times is nice.
That’s a really interesting idea. Until this moment I hadn’t thought about Ackley’s value as a basestealing threat. I see he’s now 10 for 13 on steal attempts (across AA and AAA this year). He probably won’t be able to keep up that kind of success rate in the majors (or even in a full season of AAA) but that certainly adds to his value, And finding some way to salvage something out of Halman’s complete inability to hit the bendy stuff is nice, too.