Game 65, Padres at Mariners
Erasmo Ramirez vs. Edinson Volquez, 7:10pm
It wasn’t pretty in the early going, but Erasmo Ramirez got stretched out and settled into something like dominance in AAA, giving up 4 runs and 4 walks against 20 Ks in his final three starts (21 1/3 IP). More impressively, the right-hander maintained plus velocity deep into games, hitting 95 routinely in the 7th and even the 8th inning of his last start. Now he’s back with the M’s, taking Blake Beavan’s spot as the rotation’s control guy. Ramirez has pretty good stuff, but hasn’t been able to generate a lot of whiffs thus far in the bigs. The Padres weak line-up may help him with this problem, but it’ll also be interesting to see how well Ramirez keeps the ball down. He’d put up good GB% in the minors (and in his brief time in the M’s pen), but he was much closer to average in Tacoma.
Tonight also marks the 2012 debut of CF Franklin Gutierrez. The guy we once thought would be a cornerstone of the next M’s playoff contender now elicits grumbles as he moves Mike Saunders to LF. At this point it’s essentially impossible to imagine Gutierrez as a cornerstone of any team, contender or not. He’ll be 30 next year, and his body seems bound and determined to keep him off the baseball diamond (Doyle’s syndrome). A terrible hitter over the past two injury plagued seasons, Gutierrez needs to show something soon, which will be tough to do as the team manages his playing time and attempts to get Saunders and another lefty in the line-up against tough righties. This has been a real downer of a paragraph to write. Mike Saunders is better than we thought he’d be! Let’s end with that.
Opposing Erasmo is hard-throwing enigma Edinson Volquez. Sent to SD from Cincinnati, he’s used his park and an ability to miss bats to pitch around a 13% walk rate. Once you park adjust, his ERA really isn’t anything special (just as his Cincy ERAs weren’t as terrible as they seemed).
1: Ichiro (RF)
2: Ackley (2B)
3: Seager (3B)
4: Montero (C)
5: Smoak (1B)
6: Saunders (LF)
7: Jaso (DH)
9: Gutierrez (CF)
9: Kawasaki (SS)
SP: Ramirez
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129 Responses to “Game 65, Padres at Mariners”
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17,306 announced attendance? Most of ’em must’ve spent the game in the can, because there certainly weren’t that many in the stands…
I assume we are talking about two different things.
Yes – I didn’t see your post before posting mine… I was referring to attendance at tonight’s baseball game… sorry.
Guti’s OPS is 667, and that’s with a slugging percentage of 0.
Two runs in a home game! Are we allowed to do that? 😉
Too bad we gave up 6 huh?
OK, screw the “aggressive” hitting, let’s adopt the Billy Beane approach, and just GET ON BASE!!! It’s stunning how bad we are.
Kawasaki has only stranded 6 runners tonight….here’s hoping Ryan is back tomorrow…
Maybe ditch the DH, and just treat our worst batters like the pitcher in the NL…if we already expect the out from the start, it isn’t as frustrating?
A SLG % of Zero … With a single.
Huh!
It must be part of that new math craze. 1 base divided by ..,,
DH for our SS..
Mike, when I posted it his season was one out, one walk and one HBP.
His OPS is now 1.250 (.500 BA and SLG and .750 OBP)
Nothing quite like the performances of Kawasaki and Ramirez to make us pine for the good old days of Ryan and Beavan.
Sweet!
At least Ramirez pitched well for a few innings, where Beavan sucked from the warmup pitches on..
Oh, okay … Apologies. I thought you posted after his single.
Another called third strike……UGH!!!!
No problem. I tried to edit my post after the single, but someone else had posted so it wouldn’t take the edit.
Playing the Mariners: the cure for what ails you.
Ask Albert Pujols.
Ask the San Diego Padres.
JPMorgan is wondering if it can play the Mariners next.
Well another disappointing game….
Jesus. I know the crowds have been small, but why ANYBODY would pay money to watch this team play is beyond me.
True dat, but a guy can still “pine” can’t he?
Have we now averaged out our 21 run game so we can resume our usual lethargic level of approx 3.2 runs per game.
If firing hitting coaches had not already been done to death, would Chambliss still be here?
F*** me, swept by the Padres… And a 15 inning streak of being scoreless against them in the middle of the series.
I’ve never seen a baseball team afraid of its own ballpark before.
Inning after inning of deer in the headlights… For most of 3 days. (Okay, fawns mostly)
I love these guys, and I’m not a pessimistic person– but man this team can be horrible at times, without really much effort.
We’ve got a boat but nobody here knows how to row!?
I mean, how sad is it when random metaphors are more interesting than the product on the field?
Sad. (Sums it up)
I think the fences need to be brought in so they’re right at the edge of the infield dirt.
Time to option the whole team down to Tacoma. They aren’t ready for the bigs as a franchise.
Hit the ball, pussies! Is it the fences?? You’re not mashers anyway! If anything, the expansive OF at Safeco should HELP you find some gaps. Is it the batter’s eye? No. It’s black and it’s fine. You play most of your games there at night and there’s no glare. Is it the colder temps? Put on some long sleeves and get over it. Pack those raisins you call balls into your cups and HIT THE DAMN BALL!
You’re in the Tri-Cities too Mike? Maybe I’ll see you sometime at a Dust Devils game. I too am looking forward to seeing Everett come to town. They usually come here so early in the season that most of the draftees haven’t signed yet, so it’ll be cool to see Ard and Kivlehan and possibly Sanchez. I’ll be in the BBQ area making fun of the guys in the bullpen. haha
Wow, those random metaphors were a LOT MORE INTERESTING than last nights game. Well done Mr. Z.
At mid80’s righty: I am probably going to Monday nights game. I will be the one wearing a hat.
If you really did graduate from RHS in the early 90’s, I might already know who you are – so I will find you. But you may or may not see me coming.
@ Jephood: Thank you … your venting has actually made me feel better.
Not early 90s, mid 90s…96 to be exact. Shit, didn’t even notice that they’re playing Everett to start the season. I guess that means Sanchez will start tonight, which I won’t be able to make. I’m going to try to get to a couple of the games, though.
Oh, and I’ll be the one wearing a shirt.
I was umpiring quite a few JC and NAIA games in the mid 90’s, but would occasionally do a high school game. I might have umpired one of your teams games against Kamiakin. If you played with a LH 1B named Mortimer (played in Astros org for a while), then I probably did. It would have been at LaPierre field. I recall the game because it was close (two good HS teams) and it was one of the last high school games (if not the last) that I ever did.