Game 69, Mariners at Red Sox
Taijuan Walker vs. David Price, 10:35am
The Red Sox have been great thus far, which probably means David Price’s slow start’s gotten less, uh, attention than it otherwise would. The Sox offense really has covered a multitude of, if not sins, then disappointments. Carson Smith’s been hurt, and now languishes on the 60-day DL. Last year’s big FA targets, Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval, were disappointing, and Sandoval lost his job to an unheralded rookie, and is now on the DL himself. And Price, who inked a 7-year $217 million deal this offseason, is struggling a bit with home runs.
To be fair, he’s righted the ship a bit; his ERA’s fine in June after a disastrous April. But that doesn’t mean everything’s back to normal. Even in June, he’s given up 5 dingers despite facing fewer than 100 batters. His FIP was brilliant back in April, when Price was undone mostly by BABIP and sequencing. But as his ERA results have improved, his FIP has been dropping down to meet his ERA. Even now, his fielding independent stats are quite a bit better than his actual results, but it’s tough to know what to make of Price right now.
The same’s true of Tai Walker, of course, just without the pedigree, contract, or lengthy MLB career. Walker still looks maddeningly inconsistent – dominant in one start, and then hittable and unable to get out of big innings in the next. Walker’s been remarkably dinger-prone this year, but at least his actual runs allowed aren’t close to what FIP would expect. Still, this is a big game and a big stage, and after yesterday’s somewhat predictable loss (though Sampson pitched pretty well), the M’s could really use a game-stealing performance from Walker.
1: Marte, SS
2: Gutierrez, RF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Lee, 1B
6: Seager, 3B
7: Iannetta, C
8: Martin, CF
9: O’Malley, LF
SP: Walker
Go read Larry Stone’s great piece on Mel Stottlemeyer Sr. and Jr. on this Father’s Day. Just a little dusty over here, that’s all.
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27 Responses to “Game 69, Mariners at Red Sox”
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Sky Walker strikes out Big Papi!
Well, good thing that went foul, guys.
I guess the sun is causing problems for everyone… but still, the Mariners are lucky that misplayed pop-up last inning didn’t cost them a couple runs last inning.
It would be “so Mariners” for David Price to right his ship while facing them today.
Guti is The Man.
Hey Westy, or anyone else, do you know of a site (free) that has advanced stats on minor leaguers?
Ok Cruz… you can start hitting again please.
88 pitches through 5 innings for Walker, 65 for Price. This makes me nervous — they are going to have to get to Price.
Steve, I don’t know the answer. If it exists, someone like Marc or Jay probably knows. But I suspect most minor league parks don’t provide the infrastructure to support the collection of data for stuff like Pitch f/x, which would mean thing like zone swing % could not be calculated. OPS might be as good as it gets.
But again, that’s just a guess and may be completely wrong.
Thanks anyway.
Minor League Central had a lot of useful information, but they haven’t updated anything in a year. Statcorner gives you basic stats with a few bonuses, but not sufficient for a real good idea of what’s going on.
Nuno comes in,and will promptly give up the lead,but its fathers day time to go celebrate. I’ll stop by later to input my nightly complaints. Happy fathers day to you fathers.
Yes if your wondering I can see the future because I knew exactly what Nuno was gonna do :).
That didn’t take long.
Oh, crap.
Oh, thank goodness!
Ortiz runs as successfully as Edgar used to. No one expects it, so it works.
Leadoff triple and no runs — that was a break. Now for the Mariners to take advantage.
Dae-Ho Lee has been surprisingly effective on the defensive end. He may not be a gold glover, but he’s not the immovable brick I expected based on the early news coverage.
Perhaps Kimbrel will be tired after throwing 15 pitches yesterday.
That knuckle curve looks nasty.
Apparently not tired.
Huh. Blowers calls it a slider, but Pitch f/X calls it a knuckle curve. It sure drops a lot more than a typical slider.
Nope, Dennisss, not tired at all.
… and Wikipedia calls it a “power curve”. It’s nasty, whatever it is.
Good bye Chris Taylor, I feel like we hardly knew you.
Hello Zack Lee, let’s see what you can do for us.
Seems like a win-win trade.. Dodgers needed more infield bodies, mariners needed more long relievers/back end starters.
Chris Taylor seems like an ideal candidate for a “change of scenery” boost in performance. He seemed to have the yips whenever he got called up in Seattle.
Good luck in Los Angeles, kid!