Game 99, Mariners at Redsox
King Felix vs. John Lackey, 4:10 PDT.
After being swept aside by the 4th place team in the AL East, the M’s arrive in Boston to face a team with a wOBA of .354. The only Mariners with a wOBA that high are Dustin Ackley and Doug Fister.
As you all know, the M’s have lost 12 in a row, and I’m sure reactions to the streak differ from fan to fan. Jeff Sullivan says that losing 12 in a row has made each successive game more captivating – that a win wouldn’t just be a meaningless win in a lost season, it would feel like an accomplishment. Others may be secretly (or not so secretly) hoping that the streak continues; if the team isn’t going to win, the least it can do is lose grandly. While it might be hard for some to justify rooting against the Mariners, the line-ups they’ve trotted out must give even the die-hards pause. I’m not big on “true fan” debates; the pointless and often heated arguments wherein one group of baseball fans spews venom on another for enjoying the game in all the wrong ways. If you’re still here after the past two years, you’re a fan. If you think an epic losing streak is more likely to produce meaningful change in the future, great. If you want Felix to destroy and demoralize the Red Sox hitters because he’s Felix and they’re the Red Sox, yeah, that’d be nice too.
The M’s may find themselves in what’s going to have to pass as a decent match-up. No, I know, the Mariners are still playing, so I’m not going to push this too far, but the Red Sox are starting John Lackey, owner of a 4.71 FIP on the year and an RA near 7. Lackey’s fastball has gone from a solid pitch to a liability. He’s walking more lefties, and his walk rate against righties is a bit misleading: he’s already tied his career high in hit-by-pitches, with 9 of 12 coming against righties. That pushes his walk rate vs. righties from around 7.3% to 10.6%.
He’s using his slider more this year, and while it’s not as effective as it once was, it’s still been his best pitch in terms of generating whiffs. When the M’s faced him in late April, they ran out a lefty-heavy line-up, but he handled it fairly well, yielding 2 runs in 6 innings. In that contest, he threw a blizzard of curves to the M’s lefties, and while he gave up walks, that was about all he gave up. Of course, there’s not a lot whole lot to glean from a game in which Lackey faced Mike Saunders, Milton Bradley, Ryan Langerhans and Jack Wilson. Guys like Carp and Ackley can probably expect a steady diet of curves and change-ups, and the right handers will see quite a few sliders.
But if they can be patient, they’ll see Lackey’s fastball, which now has so little arm-side run that the Pitch FX algorithm classifies it as a cutter. Now, maybe it is and maybe it isn’t, but you’d think if he was intentionally throwing his FB this way he’d just, you know, stop. In the end, it doesn’t really matter. Whatever you call it, the 90mph thing that he throws hasn’t been good, and the M’s (especially the lefties) need to jump on it. Justin Smoak, if you’re still in there somewhere, give me a sign. Blink twice if you can understand me.
The line-up:
1: Ichiro?
2: Ryan
3: Ackley
4: Olivo
5: Kennedy
6: Smoak
7: Carp (LF)
8: Cust (DH)
9: Halman (CF)
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77 Responses to “Game 99, Mariners at Redsox”
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The sad thing is, I actually spent $200 on Extra Innings so I could watch this team.
Olivo is leading by example. Is anyone following?
After what we as fans have put up with lately, we deserve the #1 pick.
Baseball needs a draft lottery, and pick trading as well.
No, baseball needs a promotion/religation system like the EPL. That way the M’s can play with similar caliber organizations down at AAA or AA.
CARP!!!!!!!
The Fish delivers!
CARP!
I like Mike Carp, he just earned playing time for the rest of the season…
Haven’t we already learned that playing time is earned in batting practice, not during games?
LOL, that would be hilarious.
The 2012 draft isn’t even looking that great.
Ahahaha Carp
What is an EPL?
Crikey. I thought Cust had gotten all of that.
English Premier League (soccer)…worst team to finish the season gets relegated down to the league below it, and another team gets promoted to the EPL…
English Premier League. Technically, that’s just the top of the English soccer food chain and promotion/relegation predates the establishment of the EPL.
Outside of the World Cup, who cares about soccer?
At least we got a Fish Bomb, finally. I think I’m officially rooting for Carp.
It’s gotta be tough living with a last name like that, where one typing mistake and you become “excrement”.
Would they accept travel in bus around the country? Because there aren´t airplanes in second division in Barclays League
Welcome back Josh Lueke
He touched 97, good splitter, good location, good sign…
Lueke was impressive. And who would have though that we would have scored 4+ runs in 4 straight games, and yet lost all 4? I get so damn jelous whenever I see another team hit well against us. And looking at the Red Sox lineup just screams for a salary cap.
On a side not, what’s Brandon League doing these days?
Sigh. Thirteen.
Blake Beavan, you have any stopper fluid in you?
I wonder if in future years, M’s fans will just refer to this as “The Streak?”
Losing is bad enough, but losing notoriously is what really stinks. I gotta hear announcers gloat about it in disbelief while watching other games. At this point, I’d be so, so happy for a quiet, under-the-radar, build-for-the-future season.
The country practically isn’t big enough for a whole airport anyways.
Seriously, though, very few teams in the EPL actually fly. Portsmouth to Sunderland might be flight-worthy, but that is still WAY less miles than Seattle to Oakland.
I bet you it would take you just as long to jump on a bus and go nearly anywhere as compared to security and all the BS associated with getting on a plane.
Saving himself for his appearances in the NL central or AL east?
And Portsmouth isn’t even in the EPL anymore…they got
Marineredrelegated to the second division before last season.Well, apparently 67,052 cared enough to watch ManU defeat the Sounder’s C squad 7-0. But, you’re right no one cares.