Game 35, Mariners at Pirates
King Felix vs. AJ Burnett, 9:35am
Happy Felix Morning!
The M’s ace faces off against the Pirates unlikely reclamation-project-turned-ace in AJ Burnett. Burnett famously slumped through three seasons in New York, but a return to the national league seems to have energized him. He posted a 3 WAR season last year at age 35, and is off to a fast start this year (he’s at 1.2 WAR through 40+ IP). Sure, you can adjust for quality of batters faced and the overall league quality, but the man has 57 strikeouts in his 42 innings and a FIP in the low 2’s. He’s still the same pitcher he’s always been – a four-seam and two-seam fastball and a big curveball. He’ll throw in the rare change-up, but primarily, he’s a a fastball/curveball guy, just as he was when he was coming up with the Marlins years ago.
He’s a bit above average in generating ground balls too, which is a bit concerning. The M’s seem to be struggling against ground-ball pitchers this year, as they demonstrated last night in flailing against spot-starter Jeanmar Gomez. This is most likely just noise, but it’ll be interesting to see if it persists.
Line-up:
1: Saunders, CF
2: Bay, LF
3: Seager, 3B
4: Morales, 1B
5: Ackley, 2B
6: Montero, C
7: Chavez, RF
8: Andino, SS
9: Felix Hernandez
Go Felix!
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46 Responses to “Game 35, Mariners at Pirates”
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Stupid Eastern Time Zone
Stupid moving Felix a day ahead in the rotation when I was planning to come up from Portland to see him pitch on Friday… please rain, a lot.
Almost forgot about that Felix salami a few years back. Miss Dave’s voice.
Felix should be batting 8th… or maybe 6th.
Sadly, that’s very true. It’s getting very depressing seeing our shortstop situation day in and day out.
Excited this game fell on a day where I get to watch! But seriously why haven’t we put out our best lineup on back to back days considering Monday and Thursday are both off days?
Because Wedge is a complete moron. At one point yesterday he burned three freaking bench players to replace Ryan in one at bat.
Good to see Bay in there, again, despite a tougher RHP on the mound. I actually thought we’d see Ibanez, though, so I guess it could be worse.
That will conclude the sweep. This ballgame is OVAAAH!
I’m watching the game from a Pittsburgh broadcast. Really funny listening to them gab about how the odds/statistics show that a teams chances of winning are significantly higher when they score first.
They fail to recognize that Felix often gives up a run or two early, then settles down and destroys everyone.
“They fail to recognize that Felix often gives up a run or two early, then settles down and destroys everyone.”
Which would totally matter if this team could actually score a few runs…
And the burning of 3 bench players was the best part of the game
Hahaha, yes, sadly it was. Maybe I was confused, but why the hell didn’t they use Morales there? He’s the best hitter on the bench in that game and he is a switch hitter, so changing pitchers wouldn’t have burned him.
Felix is going to the the only pitcher in baseball history to have thrown a perfect game and have been the loser of a perfect game, further cementing his greatness.
Which would totally matter if this team could actually score a few runs…
They could score just two runs and our chances would be decent.
Didn’t Pedro Martinez do that already? Throw a perfect game and lose I mean.
Shit, probably. I am paying as much attention to research as the Mariners are paying attention to scoring runs.
Pedro threw 9 innings of perfect ball in 95, but the Expos couldn’t score. They scored in the 10 of the 10th, and Pedro came in the pitch the bottom but gave up a base hit. Closer came in and finished it to get him the win.
Damn, Seager. Gotta cash-in on pitches like that.
What a pathetic display by Seager and Morales.
Saunders has walked twice so far, with no hits. Wedge will probably bench him for not being aggressive enough.
/snark
JESUS!!
Hahahah Blowers is Nostradamus!
Monty! Nice to see him do that off a Righty (even if it’s on Burnett’s 100th pitch!).
Montero!!
That’s THREE times now. Clearly he’s not swinging the bat enough.
Loving Saunders game today
Yeah, Felix has sucked though.
Great jump and diving grab by Chavez.
I can’t believe that Marte beat that out without relying on the head-first dive into first base.
Wish I could’ve seen that… I’m having to rely on Rizz’s descriptive powers, so I’m hearing everything the Mariners do through rose-colored earbuds.
Montero bobbled the ball like usual and wasn’t even going to throw but Marte fell down. We got very lucky.
Well he didn’t fall but he stumbled and tried to go back
Hurry up and master AAA, Zunino.
Actually looked to me like Montero handled it smoothly, clutched on the throw to second when Marte stopped in the middle of the basepaths and then Montero threw to first instead after Marte committed back. Good play.
Does that go down as a CS for Montero? It would be his first on the season.
Yeah it goes down as a CS. So I guess his only one is when the runner stops running
It’s listed in the box score as a CS.
I’ve really been enjoying hearing the opponents broadcasters lately. I thought we had it bad with Sims.
“Chavez, always a threat to go”.
Right, especially in the ninth and with two outs.
Why wouldn’t you pinch hit for Andino there? You’ve got Morse and Smoak wasting away on the bench.
Sure is nice to have a starting pitcher so good that a solo home run, a walk, and some wild pitches is enough support to potentially win a game.
I think Montero wanted to win based on that interview.
Congrats Montero: 1 HR, 1 CS, O PB
Can Felix please clone himself. I’m certain the M’s would pay double.
Prefer M’s best pitchers (2 of 5) pitch against division foes as much as possible. Depending when the days off come, difficult to make a 5-man vs 4-man rotation adjustment.
I had hoped the Ms would use Maurer today, and save Felix for Oakland.
After the Oakland series, and then a day off, it will be nine straight road games with no days off. Both King and Kuma will pitch at NYY, King at Cleve, and Kuma at LAA.
Then with a day off, both King and Kuma can pitch against Texas at Safeco (Sat-Sun). Is this likely? Trying to decide to travel to Seattle for Memorial Day weekend.
They are being smart with Maurer, he’s been better lately, but he has never pitched more than 137 innings as a pro. So they should skip him when they can.
Its a long season, and they shouldn’t overwork him even if he is good enough to pitch at this level.
Kazinski…Maurer is playing better recently? Last game versus Baltimore 4ER in 41P. That’s not improving. That’s why he is being held out, not just to save his arm. The ‘bottom’ three-fifths of the rotation have less than 50% quality starts. Maurer (6.07) is on a limited pitch count but should be proceeding with his development in AAA. Limited innings from Maurer places too much pressure on the M’s bull pen. And there is too much unreliability in the bullpen already. I cannot see what the M’s saw in Joe Saunders (6.15). And why it was thought Beavan (8.27) would magically become something he was not. Then the emergency signing of Harang (7.30) did not pan out. Who thought it would?
Well understood the M’s have to manage what you’ve got. My point is the Ms should not be in this position. The M’s front office did a miserable job in the off-season filling out the rotation.
And the M’s have been touting how deep their pitching was in the farm system. Well with Hultzen out and Paxton not doing as well as hoped. Without the King and Kuma, the M’s pitching is nothing to be touting.