Game 79, Mariners at Athletics

marc w · July 2, 2015 at 5:27 pm · Filed Under Mariners 

Roenis Elias vs. Scott Kazmir, 7:05pm

The M’s head north to Oakland, the final stop on their road trip. Man, it feels better today after back to back shutouts than it did a few days earlier.

I will never get over the fact that Scott Kazmir is pitching effectively in the majors after bombing out with the Angels, then struggling to break 82, then recovering essentially all of the velo he had when he broke into baseball with the Devil Rays. Kazmir came up with a good fastball and a big slurvey slider. Death against lefties, he’s faced strongly right-handed line-ups since 2005-6. But since his stunning renaissance with Cleveland, he’s done very well against righties too. He’s now got a good change-up – it gets whiffs on almost 40% of swings – and with his sinker and cutter, he’s able to get more ground balls. He’ll never be a true ground-ball hurler, not with a four-seam fastball with 10-11″ of rise, but he’s done a very good job of limiting HRs. Sure, his home park helps with that, but so does his more-than-respectable K rate against opposite-handed hitters.

All of that said, he’s still got some platoon splits. He’s been tough on righties, but Cruz, Jackson and Trumbo need to step up here.

1: Jackson, CF
2: Cano, 2B
3: Cruz, DH
4: Seager, 3B
5: Gutierrez, LF
6: Trumbo, RF
7: Morrison, 1B
8: Zunino, C
9: Taylor, SS
SP: Elias

To be clear, McClendon says that Miller is still the starter, but that Taylor will get the odd start against tough lefties like Kazmir.

Tacoma beat Las Vegas 4-2 last night behind another great start from Forrest Snow. Chris Taylor walked and singled in two PAs before being pulled from the game, putting all of today’s roster moves into play. Stephen Landazuri starts tonight at Cheney.

Jackson got shut out by Mobile 8-0. Edwin Diaz pitched poorly. Moises Hernandez will try to do better tonight. I should mention that erstwhile Generals manager Jim Horner left to take a job at Washington State University, and Roy Howell, the fill-in last year in Tacoma, will see out the 2015 campaign.

Bakersfield was beated soundly by Modesto, 8-1. Eddie Campbell went 3 1/3 giving up 5 runs, and that was essentially that. Dan Altavilla starts tonight against Modesto’s Antonio Senzatela, who struck out 11 in a win against Bakersfield in early May.

Clinton lost a slugfest 12-10 to Peoria. Patrick Peterson leads them into today’s opening game of a series with Kane County.

Everett lost to Tri-Cities 7-1 as Lane Ratliff gave up 5 runs and 2 HRs in 4 2/3 IP. Tri-Cities is generally a tough place to homer, but winds can change that. Tonight, Andrew Moore gets the start against the DustDevils’ Brett Kennedy.

Comments

19 Responses to “Game 79, Mariners at Athletics”

  1. Westside guy on July 2nd, 2015 7:26 pm

    Argh, it looks like “bad” Elias has decided to show up today.

  2. jak924 on July 2nd, 2015 7:35 pm

    Elias is about to punch his bus ticket to Tacoma.

  3. jak924 on July 2nd, 2015 7:35 pm

    Elias is about to punch his bus ticket to Tacoma.

  4. Westside guy on July 2nd, 2015 7:41 pm

    Fortunately inning 2 went better for him.

  5. Dennisss on July 2nd, 2015 8:18 pm

    A hit! A baserunner!

  6. Westside guy on July 2nd, 2015 8:20 pm

    Man, Trumbo looks terrible.

  7. Dennisss on July 2nd, 2015 8:32 pm

    Trumbo is continuing the Mariner tradition of fine outfielders, like Rickie Weeks, Jason Bay, Trayvon Robinson, Eric Thames, Chris Denorfia…

  8. Bremerton guy on July 2nd, 2015 8:38 pm

    Denisss: each and every one a Jack Z. product.

  9. Dennisss on July 2nd, 2015 8:47 pm

    Yeah, Bremerton, I understand that GM’S are going to have hits and misses, but the last time this team put together a serviceable outfield was maybe 2010, when Ichiro and Gutierrez were both playing well. Jack has had a long time to try to put something together.

  10. Westside guy on July 2nd, 2015 8:51 pm

    Glad I got MLB.tv for 50% off (Father’s Day special), since with any given Mariners’ game I’ve chosen to watch it seems only the opposing team seems to be playing well. 😛

    (I didn’t watch the SD games – maybe it’s me!)

  11. Grayfox3d on July 2nd, 2015 9:10 pm

    Way to come off that San Diego series and look competent out there tonight guys!!! *sarcasm off*

  12. Longgeorge1 on July 2nd, 2015 9:20 pm

    0 runs; 2 hits and all the posts are about poor pitching and defense. I must not understand this game.

  13. Westside guy on July 2nd, 2015 9:22 pm

    Yeah my Trumbo comment must have been about his defense, apparently. It couldn’t have been about how awful he looked at the plate a few moments before…

    If you saw inning 1, you’d understand my comments regarding how Elias looked. He did seem to turn it around after that, at least for a while.

  14. Longgeorge1 on July 2nd, 2015 9:24 pm

    The trouble with Trumbo at the plate is he just blends in with the rest of the lineup

  15. Westside guy on July 2nd, 2015 9:26 pm

    Haha, maybe it’s a social thing – he’s kind of shy and just wants to blend in with the crowd!

    Don’t be afraid to stand out, Mark!

  16. Westside guy on July 2nd, 2015 9:31 pm

    I’m still glad Guti is back, and has managed to stay healthy for a few games! He’s still great!

  17. dc24 on July 2nd, 2015 9:32 pm

    Well to Elias’s credit the double in the first inning was off a pitch that would have hit a left-handed batter, or come really close to hitting one. He did work himself into trouble by walking Zobrist after getting ahead 1-2 and allowing Butler to hit the double. The homer to Semien came after he went 2-0 on a pitch that could have made the count 1-1. Even the run Tom gave up came after a pitch that should have made the count 1-1 or 1-2 and instead it was 2-0 or 2-1. Drastically changes an AB and Kazmir got some pitches off the edges of both sides of the plate. However, don’t know how much of a difference it would have made. Offense has to get better, but man Trumbo looks lost up there. He tried to pull a Phegley and hit two pitches in the opposite batter’s box, but couldn’t do it haha.

  18. msfanmike on July 3rd, 2015 12:09 pm

    In even less positive news, top prospect (Alex Jackson) was designated as the “beer batter” for last nights game against the tri-city dust devils. As far as reduced priced beers were concerned, he did great by striking out three times. Then the tri-city fans remembered that this is also Mariner country and felt a little less good, but a little more buzzed.

    So far, in the first two games of this series, Jackson is 0-7 with 6 K’s and two walks. He could still probably put up as equally of a competitive at bat as Mark Trumbo.

  19. mrakbaseball on July 3rd, 2015 1:07 pm

    Yes, again, player development, thy name is the Seattle Mariners!

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