Game 5, Red Sox at Mariners in Dingerville
Mike Leake vs. Eduardo Rodriguez, 6:10pm
The Mariners will finally send someone other than Marco Gonzales and Yusei Kikuchi to the hill today when Mike Leake takes the mound. He’ll look to put that…unfortunate start at T-Mobile against the Padres the other day behind him and keep the Red Sox in the yard.
Leake turned in yet another remarkably consistent season last year, although he ended up with a similar line despite remarkably variable game-by-game performances. And he did it despite some concerning declines in peripheral stats. 2018 marked the veteran sinkerballer’s lowest K% since 2013, and given the growth in Ks league wide, that pushes him further down vis a vis his peers. His velocity sunk as well, losing over a full MPH. All of this pushed his ground ball rate – you know, his calling card – below 50% for the first time since 2013 as well, and that pushed his HRs-allowed up; his HR/9 was as high as it’d been since 2012. A part of the problem was a decline in the effectiveness of Leake’s slider, his primary breaking ball against righties. That gave righties a bit of an advantage, which they hadn’t had before.
We haven’t seen a lot of variety in SPs thus far, but we’ve now seen most members of the M’s bullpen, and that’s meant an absolute blizzard of sliders. That’s kind of Cory Gearrin’s deal, but it’s interesting to see Matt Festa and Zac Rosscup follow suit. Of the new guys, the one who looked the most interesting was the one with the least MLB experience: Brendan Brennan. The Rule 5 guy (from the White Sox org) has a really interesting sinker with tons of armside run. It’s got Leake’s sink and Carson Smith’s/Cory Gearrin’s run, but it’s thrown harder than any of them at 95. His change didn’t really move all that differently, but at least it had a 9-10mph velo difference.
1: Haniger, RF
2: Santana, LF
3: Encarnacion, DH
4: Bruce, 1B
5: Beckham, SS
6: Healy, 3B
7: Murphy, C
8: Moore, 3B
9: Gordon, 2B
SP: Leake
So who’s the new C? That’s Tom Murphy, whom the M’s acquired from San Francisco last night in exchange for MiLB pitcher Jesus Ozoria. David Freitas has been optioned back to Tacoma. Murphy’s played a bit with Colorado over the past few years, and while he put up some decent power numbers early on in his MLB career, he’s had a problem with strikeouts. He’s out of options, and thus he’s was DFA’d by Colorado and then made available by SF.
Closer Hunter Strickland not only blew a save last night, but he blew out a lat muscle. He’ll hit the DL with a strained right latissimus dorsi.
The M’s lead all of baseball with 12 HRs, and while, sure, they’ve played more ball games, they’re still up 3 on their closest competitor (the Dodgers). Don’t know how long it’s going to last, but it’s fun to watch. I couldn’t really get too mad about last night’s tough loss, as the M’s have been fun to watch essentially the whole season. They were by no means the biggest acquisitions of the offseason, but Domingo Santana and Tim Beckham have been revelatory thus far.
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5 Responses to “Game 5, Red Sox at Mariners in Dingerville”
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6 innings of 2-run ball from Leake against the potent offense of Boston?
Yeah, I’ll take it.
I’m used to pitchers blowing games but guess we have a 3rd baseman who want to blow games. CMON!
You have got to be kidding me…
Thank you baseball Jesus, but seriously, I won’t be mad if we do not see Moore for a while.
It’s going to be a very loooong season. After last night and now this. Whew.