Game 92, Red Sox at Mariners

marc w · July 11, 2013 at 12:15 pm · Filed Under Mariners 

Erasmo Ramirez vs. Ryan Dempster, 12:40pm

Early game today for getaway day. This series was looking so good a few innings into the game on Tuesday. Oh well.

The M’s are bringing up Erasmo Ramirez to start today’s game, as we expected. Because they DFA’d Jeremy Bonderman, the M’s still have an open spot, and it’s looking like they’ll let Lucas Luetge stick around until Stephen Pryor’s done with his rehab, which should be soon. That’s good news, because, as expected, the M’s sent down Carter Capps following last night’s game. Pryor pitched a simulated game yesterday, so he’s obviously getting close. Capps clearly has some mechanical things to work on, but I figure we’ll see him again at some point this year.

Ryan Dempster’s a familiar face, and though his walk rate’s slipped this year, he’s still capable of getting strikeouts and whiffs thanks to a pair of breaking balls. He throws an 90mph fastball and backs it up with a slider and a splitter that functions a lot like a change. Like Doubront last night, Dempster doesn’t limit the slider to righties and the split to lefties; he’ll throw any pitch to any hitter. To me, the split’s his best pitch, as it generates quite a few whiffs, and while his slider can miss bats, he’s hung quite a few of them. Since the start of 2012, he’s given up 15 homers on sliders. The split’s also helped him to post even or even reverse splits in recent years, and he’s struck out a higher percentage of lefties than righties over his (long) career. Like just about any pitcher, he likes to pitch away, and gets hurt when he misses his spots and leaves a pitch middle-in.

Erasmo Ramirez tantalized with a brilliant 2012 season, but missed several months with forearm tightness/elbow pain. Just when we thought it was all but inevitable he’d have to have TJ surgery, he was back in Tacoma, mowing down PCL line-ups. In recent starts, he’s been a lot less exciting, yielding more runs on a lot more walks. But his velocity appears to be back, and at least *some* of those struggles may have been because the M’s wanted him to work on certain things. In his most recent start, a rather ugly game in Salt Lake in which he walked six in 5+ innings, he used his change-up sparingly, if at all. It may have been because he wasn’t commanding it, but he wasn’t commanding much of anything on the night. It wouldn’t be the first time a pitcher in the minors has had specific instruction to focus on a particular pitch – Danny Hultzen’s thrown fewer change-ups at times than I’m sure he’d like to in AAA so the M’s can assess the progress of his slider. Ramirez’s change was stunningly good in 2012, and getting a pitcher who can pitch to righties and lefties and get whiffs from both is a boon to the M’s rotation.

Line-up:
1: Miller, 2B
2: Chavez, RF
3: Ibanez, LF
4: Morales, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Smoak, 1B
7: Zunino, C
8: Saunders, CF
9: Ryan, SS
SP: Erasmoooooo

Chance Ruffin looks like he’s headed up to AAA Tacoma to take Erasmo’s spot in the rotation. The reliever-turned-starter has had an up and down season in AA – he started off well, limiting runs despite not many Ks, but he may be tiring. That wouldn’t be a big shock given that he hasn’t started since early in his college career.

Nick Franklin was pulled from yesterday’s game in the 7th due to knee pain, and he’ll sit out today’s game as well. I know, I know: at the time, it was 9-0, so there was no point in keeping him out there, but this lingering injury’s annoying because there’s at least a chance that Franklin would be feeling better if he was pulled from the game when it happened. Instead of icing it to reduce swelling, Wedge ran him out there, thinking that it was a good test of character and a chance to get experience playing through pain. Great.

Comments

94 Responses to “Game 92, Red Sox at Mariners”

  1. Section329 on July 11th, 2013 2:17 pm

    Jon Shea tweets that LH Matt Moore is replacing Yu in the all star game.

  2. msfanmike on July 11th, 2013 2:18 pm

    Endy coming out. Leg. Ackley now?

  3. msfanmike on July 11th, 2013 2:21 pm

    I think Ruffin is still getting special treatment because he was a trade chip (or chippee) – and that is just a sad fact of how this regime works. And, most others as well. There is no such thing as equal treatment for all

  4. Eastside Suds on July 11th, 2013 2:21 pm

    I am pretty sure there aren’t more than a couple of teams that have missed this badly…OVER and OVER again.

    Never mind trading away Mike Hampton, Carlos Guillen, Brian Fuentes, Shin Soo-Choo, Omar Visquel, Tino Martinez, George Sherrill, Derek Lowe for NOTHING!!

    I can’t even bring myself to type the worst of all time (In fact….voted the worst in the modern era by Sports Illustrated a year ago) so sad

  5. Section329 on July 11th, 2013 2:23 pm

    And Delabar won the vote:)

  6. Eastside Suds on July 11th, 2013 2:24 pm

    Forever for hard core Mariner’s fans, Heathcliff Fu*^ing Slocum will be an enduring punchline. LOL

  7. msfanmike on July 11th, 2013 2:25 pm

    Ackley kinda cruised into home in 4th gear – on a play ghat looked like it might be pretty close. He has a real good innate sense on the base paths. I really hope we get a chance to see a lot more of it. Either that, or 5th gear is on the Frits.

  8. djw on July 11th, 2013 2:26 pm

    Smoak’s unlucky today.

  9. msfanmike on July 11th, 2013 2:26 pm

    Smoak hit a bullet and Pedroia short hopped it.

    Nice play – you little bastard.

  10. Eastside Suds on July 11th, 2013 2:26 pm

    Smoak is seeing the ball REALLY well right now

  11. JasonJ on July 11th, 2013 2:34 pm

    Wonder if Willis is chewing them out for throwing a strike on 0-2 to Pedroia.

  12. msfanmike on July 11th, 2013 2:36 pm

    Wedge is doing everything he can to get Erasmo through 5, but things aren’t trending favorably in that direction.

  13. msfanmike on July 11th, 2013 2:38 pm

    If ever there was a time for a DP wish to be granted – please let now be that time.

  14. pgreyy on July 11th, 2013 2:38 pm

    Is ROOT specifically not showing Raul throw the ball in from the outfield?

  15. MrZDevotee on July 11th, 2013 2:39 pm

    So, I feel like a horrible horrible person saying this, dumb, ignorant, I can’t believe I’m even considering the idea…

    BUT!

    Has Smoak possibly turned a corner? He’s not flailing AND he’s walking. Both signs of somehow improving his pitch recognition. He’s been one of the best guys getting on base on this team the past couple weeks.

    And it’s PRE-All-Star break, and NOT against September call ups…

    Whatever he injured he should have injured a long time ago, as it’s tied to his vision and reflexes evidently.

    WTF?

    There will need to be some serious rebuilding of my mental idea of him if he becomes a major league, everyday caliber player somehow.

    Weird.

  16. jephdood on July 11th, 2013 2:39 pm

    Control issues.

  17. Eastside Suds on July 11th, 2013 2:39 pm

    Tough debut for any hurler against this lineup. He has good stuff. I’d rather watch him pitch than Harang/Saunders/Beavan any day of the week.

  18. pgreyy on July 11th, 2013 2:40 pm

    Nope.

  19. Eastside Suds on July 11th, 2013 2:42 pm

    They only cut away from Raul when there is a play being made.

  20. msfanmike on July 11th, 2013 2:43 pm

    Man, I would have left him in for one more batter. He just threw 93 on the black to the previous hitter. One more batter Wedge.

    Whatever.

    Anyway, tough work to have to face Boston in his first game back, but if it had been Bonderman pitching today – with these results – us fans would have probably been complaining the whole way.

  21. MrZDevotee on July 11th, 2013 2:44 pm

    Also noticed this series– with all this scoring– that the M’s sucking at OBP has unnaturally helped hold their batting average down.

    Why?

    We don’t (or haven’t) hit very many Sac Flies because we don’t get as many guys on base as most teams.

    Those type of fly balls, on a team that gets on base better, translate to a certain amount of “help” to the team batting average– because they’re non-AB’s for most teams, and simply outs for the M’s.

    Pretty obvious. But for some reason seeing Boston get sac flies made it stand out to me.

    It’s nice to have lots of guys on base recently. Good things happen when runners make it around the infield– who knew?

  22. msfanmike on July 11th, 2013 2:45 pm

    Yay Wedge!

    Yay Furbush!

  23. MrZDevotee on July 11th, 2013 2:46 pm

    That’s actually a classic Lou Piniella move– taking out your struggling pitcher before he’s on the line for a loss.

    No win, sure, but also, leaves him hungry. “Knowing” he could have got out of that and notched a win. As opposed to (dinger)- “F_ck!”

    And then take him out.

    Good move for a change by Wedge, for a young pitcher, in my eyes. (Not expected, but still…)

  24. JasonJ on July 11th, 2013 2:46 pm

    Again with the throwing of a strike on an 0-2 count. What is it with these guys?

  25. Eastside Suds on July 11th, 2013 2:47 pm

    Why are we throwing so many strikes on 0-2 counts. Absolutely inexcusable. Very poor baseball. Zenino has to take some of that blame.

  26. msfanmike on July 11th, 2013 2:48 pm

    Fuck off Wedge.

  27. pgreyy on July 11th, 2013 3:08 pm

    Angie, Angie, Angie…

  28. naviomelo on July 11th, 2013 3:09 pm

    Do Red Sox games attract the Times commentors to USSM?

  29. jephdood on July 11th, 2013 3:36 pm

    Win or lose, I just want all these poser Sawx fans outta here.

  30. Bremerton guy on July 11th, 2013 3:39 pm

    Good for Steve Delabar and all of that, but … Eric Thames? Really? Add that to the list of ridiculousness.

  31. GhostofMarinersPast on July 11th, 2013 3:52 pm

    Sooo…..what about this….we ship some combo of Ibanez/morales/Wilhelmsen/Perez to these here bosox for Will Middlebrooks? Could that be an option? Middlebrooks seems to have fallen out of favor with Boston due to the emergence of Iglesias and the looming shadow of Xander Bogaerts. We could stick him in a corner OF spot and cycle him in at 3rd when Seager needs a break. Am I crazy or could this work?

  32. jephdood on July 11th, 2013 4:19 pm

    Here’s where Tom gives up a run or two. Hope I’m wrong…

  33. Breadbaker on July 11th, 2013 4:31 pm

    We don’t have a good track record trading with the Blue Jays.

  34. jephdood on July 11th, 2013 4:32 pm

    *sigh* And there you have it.

  35. jephdood on July 11th, 2013 4:33 pm

    Fell in love too much again with that f’in curveball.

  36. Breadbaker on July 11th, 2013 4:33 pm

    I think the Wedge needs to put his “intentional walk” tool back into the tool bag and let it stay there.

  37. jephdood on July 11th, 2013 4:38 pm

    Too nice a day to sit here and watch the M’s draw their last breath.

  38. MrZDevotee on July 11th, 2013 4:40 pm

    jep-
    This is all your fault… You owe everyone a beer. *sigh*

    Tommy, what’s happening…

    It’s like everyone we might have unloaded over the break realizes it and doesn’t wanna go– so they’ve sucked the last few times out…

    Iwakuma
    Harang
    Perez
    Morse is hurt
    Wilhelmsen (got good again, but now regressing)

    (Meanwhile, grandpa Ibanez chugs along…)

  39. pgreyy on July 11th, 2013 4:46 pm

    …and that’s how that was.

  40. jephdood on July 11th, 2013 5:25 pm

    Score 30 runs in the series and lose 3/4. Wow.

  41. Puffy on July 11th, 2013 6:58 pm

    ————–
    Sooo…..what about this….we ship some combo of Ibanez/morales/Wilhelmsen/Perez to these here bosox for Will Middlebrooks? Could that be an option? Middlebrooks seems to have fallen out of favor with Boston due to the emergence of Iglesias and the looming shadow of Xander Bogaerts. We could stick him in a corner OF spot and cycle him in at 3rd when Seager needs a break. Am I crazy or could this work?
    ————–

    You are crazy. Middlebrooks has battled some injuries this year. I don’t think the Red Sox are ready to give up on him, much less trade him for a collection of journeymen, half-season rentals, and designated hitters.

  42. Puffy on July 11th, 2013 7:03 pm

    The Red Sox could legitimately have interest in Perez, but aren’t likely to give significant prospects. They have a surplus in the minors at 3B/SS, OF, and SP.

    Minor league chips are likely to include Owens, Barnes, Brentz, Marerro, Almanzar, De La Cruz and other lower level lottery tickets.

  43. SeattleSlew on July 11th, 2013 9:40 pm

    Has anyone noticed that earlier in the year Angie Mentink used to deepen her voice, as if to sound more manly, and now she speaks more normally?

    Either way I find her extremely annoying. If the M’s were winning more often I probably wouldn’t care as much but the lack of quality management and anchors make it really hard to watch this team.

    I might start leaving the TV on mute and listen to the game on radio.

  44. PitchersRule on July 12th, 2013 12:54 am

    Erasmo I suppose will be given more opps as he has just returned. But I say he is possibly a good, maybe very good, reliever. All the hype from here and Lookout Landing going into this season–just more wishful thinking, based on way too small a sample set… hope I’m wrong but also hope we don’t need another slow iffy bunch a poundings like we got with Aaron (“gotta go”) Harang and Safeco Joe (maybe ok) Saunders. And please–I agree with comments from a Jeff Sullivan FansGraph chat here–dump Wilhelmson as closer! He doth suck too much.

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