Game 108, Mariners at Yankees

marc w · August 3, 2012 at 3:35 pm · Filed Under Mariners 

Kevin Millwood vs. CC Sabathia, 4:05pm

The M’s take the field tonight fighting for their 8th consecutive win overall and their 7th consecutive win against a lefty starter. CC Sabathia’s not throwing 95+ fastballs anymore, but he’s still a very effective pitcher – Fangraphs credits him with 3 WAR so far in 2012 while bbref gives him 2. One slight change he’s made in recent years is that he’s throwing his slider a lot more against right-handed batters. He still throws his change-up, but he throws the slider slightly more. Against lefties, he’s got an almost Josh Kinney-esque pattern of 52% sliders to 48% fastballs. This hasn’t really changed his platoon splits in any meaningful way – while they bounce around from year to year, he’s neither vulnerable against righties nor dominant against them.

Casper Wells gets a start in CF with Mike Saunders held out due to leg stiffness. That means that Eric Thames gets a start against a tough lefty; his MLB splits aren’t all that pretty, but it’s worth noting that Thames has all of 123 plate appearances against southpaws in his career. Of course, he had huge splits in his MiLB career too, so being labeling him/using him as a platoon player isn’t something the Blue Jays did out of spite.
1: Ackley
2: Wells (CF)
3: Seager
4: Montero (DH)
5: Carp
6: Olivo (c)
7: Thames (RF)
8: Robinson (LF)
9: Ryan
SP: Millwood

Victor Sanchez takes the hill for Everett tonight as the AquaSox host Salem-Keizer – that’s pretty obviously the most noteworthy game in the system tonight. Or at least, it would be if it weren’t for the fact that the Pulaski Mariners are battling the Princeton Rays in the 23rd inning right now. The game began last night and was suspended after 18 innings. Over an hour into the game today, and still no one’s scored.
The Rainiers are in action this evening at Cheney Stadium as Hector Noesi attempts to get his ERA back under 10. Yesterday’s loss to Oklahoma City marked the first time the Rainiers skipped Danny Hultzen’s spot in the rotation, using Andrew Carraway instead.
In Jackson, Matt Fox makes his second start since his rehab ended (notable that he went to AA instead of rejoining the Rainiers; Fox did not exactly light up the PCL this season).

Comments

109 Responses to “Game 108, Mariners at Yankees”

  1. NorahW on August 3rd, 2012 9:11 pm

    Yes they were. Sorry about that.

  2. msfanmike on August 3rd, 2012 9:17 pm

    Norah: my comment was in regard to the link that mid-80’s posted.

  3. nvn8vbryce on August 4th, 2012 2:48 am

    Our little community here might benefit from a sociologist chiming in regarding the group/team dynamic.
    I know I would like to hear from one, anyway.
    Is there a social scientist in the house – willing to chime in regarding some of the above ^ dialogue?

    Well, considering that I’m working on a masters’ in Criminal Justice, I think I have the necessary koalafications to say that an analysis of this group is irrelephant to the conversation and that some of the passive aggressiveness of certain members of our community is giraffing me crazy. Alpaca my things and let minnow if the memes are too much… 🙂

  4. samregens on August 4th, 2012 3:47 am

    The few Ichiro haters need to get a life.

    We’ve been fortunate with having some relatively easy opponents.

    And the haters completely ignore that a seriously underperforming central member of the lineup (Smoak) was sent down at the same time Ichiro was traded, and Smoak’s replacement has been hitting around .400 during the winning streak.

    I don’t agree with it, but I’d understand if they were trying to claim that Smoak was dragging down the team. But when Ichiro’s replacements have performed much worse?

    Jeez.

  5. eponymous coward on August 4th, 2012 3:58 am

    The haters completely ignore that a seriously underperforming central member of the lineup (Smoak) was sent down at the same time Ichiro was traded, and Smoak’s replacement has been hitting around .400 during the winning streak.

    Yes, but this is the one last chance to make fundamental attribution error with regards to Ichiro and the Mariners, so the haters don’t want to blow that chance.

  6. ivan on August 4th, 2012 8:20 am

    FWIW, California League and all that, new M’s farmhand Leon Landry hit for the cycle last night and drove in 4 runs for High Desert.

  7. Westside guy on August 4th, 2012 9:41 am

    nvn8vbryce, that post bordered on the criminal. 😀

    You should slip a few of those into a legal brief sometime.

  8. Westside guy on August 4th, 2012 9:49 am

    We won seven games in a row. Michael Saunders played in all seven. Then, last night, Wedge left Saunders out of the line-up – and we got soundly beaten.

    It’s pretty obvious Michael Saunders has been carrying this team.

  9. msfanmike on August 4th, 2012 10:14 am

    Nicely done, Bryce … Nicely done.

    Saunders … Key … Ruh ro! It’s hard to be a complementary player and a key player, simultaneously – but we do have quite a few of those.

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