Game 49, Orioles at Mariners
Dave · May 25, 2006 at 1:37 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Rodrigo Lopez, who has been terrible, against Gil Meche, the personification of terrible.
Good times!
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Is a) this on DirecTV anywhere? and/or b)is mlbtv completely screwed up on the audio for anyone else?
And Meche takes the lead in being terrible. Its his plan to stake claim to the term!
When did Brian Roberts get back? I thought his arm fell off again.
3 – Last night. I think.
Here we go again!
Rodrigo Lopez is already demonstrating how to pitch better than Meche.
Don’t pitch. See? Already better than Meche.
Were those doubles legit, or would a better defensive left fielder have gotten to them?
I also had heard than Gibbons wouldn’t play, today. Personal reasons.
On the bright side, I just won some money. Seeing two horrible pitchers, I put money down that someone would score in the first inning and low and behold there we go!
No, Gil, you don’t get to pitch to Cory Patterson every inning. Stop trying.
That half inning certainly could have been a hell of a lot worse…
Now we get to see THEIR sucky pitcher.
And now its time for Lopez to make his case. Meche didn’t set the bar too high.
27 pitches in the first inning???
#3,8– Roberts had a groin strain, off the DL yesterday ; Gibbons lost his mom on tuesday and is gone indefinitely
It is good to see Meche back to his regular form.
Except Gibbons is in this game right now.
1 – No DTV today.
Hey, don’t knock Gil Meche. He’s averaging 18 K/9 IP in this game! (Yes, heavy dose of sarcasm.)
Stop striking out looking Richie! At least go down swinging the lumber.
If Sexson swings, he might injure something and be out of the lineup for months … say, you’ve got a point.
I have to disagree with 20.
If Richie strikes out looking, that means he’s trusting his own judgement, which is what makes him a good hitter. It’s when he’s flailing at everything when he really sucks.
Striking out looking is a good sign for Richie.
His judgment hasn’t worked very well with balls and strikes all year. He is constantly feuding with umps.
Striking out looking is never a good sign.
Only 13 pitches that inning and 2 K’s
There’s no point swinging at pitches he can’t hit. He can’t hit those low pitches umps are calling strikes this year.
Wow. 2 more K’s for Meche. Perhaps I should mock him some more. He is giving Lopez a chance to show he is the better, uhh worse pitcher.
Well if they’re going to keep calling them strikes as you said, then he should at least swing to have half a chance.
a ha. “Manager Sam Perlozzo indicated that cleanup hitter Jay Gibbons would start Thursday after missing two games due to the death of his mother.”
That being said, perhaps the M’s batters will make Lopez look like Cy Young today.
Well, both Beltre and Sexson went out like lambs already, without getting a ball out of the infield. It’s good to know in this crazy world that some things remain the same. All is right with the world.
Good to see Beltre regressing to the Mendoza line, where life is comfortable. Add Beltre and Sexson’s numbers and they become good players (417/542/653).
This is looking like a copy of the 1st inning…
Same results as the 1st anyway… At this rate, Meche will go 5 inning, 3 runs, 10 K’s. Or maybe 5+ innings, 4 runs, 10 K’s.
6 Ks through 3 innings. Meche had his Special K this morning. 2 bowls for the doubles.
Mariners 3rd: not impressive.
Hey! Jimmy Carter is wearing a Mariners cap!
Right on.
Rodrigo Lopez: 3.0 IP, 35 pitches
Gil Meche: 3.0 IP, 60 pitches
Yech.
1 pitch, 1 out in the 4th for Meche! He… could… go… all… the… way…!
I need to be snarky more often. Gil Meche just had a nine-pitch inning.
Huh, that was pretty good. Only 9 pitches!
That is clasic Meche. Lots of pitches, not quite so many innings. Lets hope the bats come alive the second time through. And will Hargrove ever learn to move up his better hitters? It drives me nuts.
If the Royals lose today after blowing a 6-0 lead, they will be on pace for 36 wins this season.
But then Lopez had a 6 pitch inning.
just joined the fray from Hot Firenze. Go Ms
And then Crazy Carl had a 6-pitch at bat.
Beltrillo!
You didn’t happen to bring alongs the M’s bats from Firenze, did you?
I think the jury is in. Beltre is simply terrible.
Just joined in the fun. So, are we back to pointing our bats at the opposing pitcher and commanding him to do his Cy Young impersonation?
been 10 days since my last mariners game,and beltre is still swinging at everything. Some things never change i guess?
Anything else i should know from the last 7 or so games? I can’t believe we’re still “contenders”..
Making an out on one pitch is just an appalling failure to do your job as a hitter. At least make the guy work a bit.
And, in this case, simplicity is not a good thing.
47:
A’course i did..
Just my special treat for you,guys!
(Awwww..)
(glug glug)
Like what Tejada is doing to Meche, right now. Notice how Tejada doesn’t swing weakly and ground out on the first pitch. Instead, he makes the pitcher throw him something hittable.
1-7 with an ERA over 8. And Lopez is shutting down the M’s bats. If he were any better, it would be a perfect game.
gil meche,strike-o-matic?
is this for real or am i seeing things?
wow,this stuff is stronger than i expected..
I was just reading about how Josh Towers was outrighted to Syracuse yesterday. He was 1-8 with an ERA over 8. And yet someone just like him is treating us like wounded kittens.
Making an out on one pitch is just an appalling failure to do your job as a hitter. At least make the guy work a bit.
Oh come on now, isn’t that a bit of an overstatement? If you take the first pitch every time, the pitcher will throw you a first strike every time. If you get a pitch you like on the first pitch, you’ve got to swing at it.
And, of course, if you swing at it you’ll make an out more than half the time. Sometimes that just happens.
That is not a defense of Beltre, who is just awful. But your statement is just absurd.
I think we’re at least as good as plain-old-regular kittens.
Yeah, I just got out of a meeting to see Meche’s line. 99 pitches, 6 innings, 9 strikeouts, 1 walk, 4 hits… I’ll take that, even with the 2 runs. The Mariners should go find their bats or something.
Actually, it was Reed who grounded out on the 1st pitch. Beltre looked at 2 strikes, fouled one off and then swung and missed for strike 3.
The M’s need to trade Meche while he’s doing this high-wire act of throwing a ridiculous amount of pitches without giving up a ton of runs. But knowing the M’s, they will wait for his ERA to shoot back up over 5.00 before they trade him for the poor man’s Ramon Santiago.
I was about to say the same Deanna. Meche’s line is actually not bad, especially the lack of walks…he needed a short inning and got it… it’s the 5 automatic outs in the lineup that are killing the M’s today. Damn, this team’s offense sucks. Brutally.
Reed, while hitting better, hasn’t shown much of his ability to take a pitch recently. I guess he has been trying to ’swing his way out’ of his early hitting woes.
I was actually complaining about Reed with that, not Beltre. Beltre took 4 pitches to strike out that inning.
If it’s not a pitch you can hit out, don’t swing at the first one.
15 in a row. Phooey.
Sometimes a guy is just on. I think this is one of those days for Lopez.
Sleeping kittens might be the best way to put it. Right now, I wouldn’t mind it if Hargrove put Morse into the lineup (for Beltre). For goodness sake, shake things up a little bit. Running the same lineup out there just seems absurd. But that might be considered “managing.”
Gawd, we suck. The M’s have successfully lowered Rodrigo effin’ Lopez’s ERA by a run so far.
Lopez has 66 pitches through 6 innings. The M’s hitters are impatient.
What positives can we take from this game so far… hmmm… I know! With no base runners, we can’t hit into any double plays! Everyone hates hitting into double plays…
At this point, Willie is a better hitter than Beltre.
Willie? At this point, the Moose is a better hitter than Beltre.
[spell]
Not quite. Lopez was at 8.07 coming into the game. It’s only down to 7.31 so far.
Meche has been a positive. We just need a few runs from our sleeping, de-clawed, blind and indifferent kittens.
There’s no disputing that Meche is throwing pretty well, today. is efficiency could use some work, but 9 Ks against 1 BB through 6 innings is nice.
Just our luck, we’d trade Meche for Lopez, as he’s obviously well suited for Safeco.
I think we need to spike the Mariners’ gatorade with PCP or something. Get some life in there!
…indifferent kittens
Indifferent? I think they’re high.
71. Another positive: the game is so quick, the post-game traffic will be off the freeways before I drive home from work, if there actually is any post-game traffic.
There are too many darn Lopez’s in the game today (3). Anyway, make that 2 walks given up by Meche. And 10 K’s. Still very nice!
isn’t there some cliche about doing the same thing and expecting different results? Grover are you listening?
Jomija??
Its fifty games, and we have regulars who are hitting under .220! There is nothing that kick a player in the rear more than being benched. Guardado lost the closer position, why can’t Sexson or Beltre lose their starting job! Its like Hargrove isn’t even watching the games. He has his fantasy list and forgot his password, so he can’t change the damn lineup. Even back in the dark days of the 80’s there was hope that things would get better, but it seems like nothing is going to change right now. Arghh!!!!!
It’s a shame we have to pull Meche, now. He’s pitching really well.
How about this: “Lopez pitched 6 strong innings before running into trouble in the 7th…”
I think Meche is done for today. 115 pitches already over 7 IP. 4 H, 2 BB, 10K. That’s 2 quality starts in a row.
Splendid outing for Meche…anyhoo, between innings, looking ahead to the pitching matchups against the Twins. We get Liriano and Santana! Two lefties. That means a healthy dose of Mr. William Bloomquist in Center!
Liriano vs. Felix tomorrow night. Should be fun to watch (let’s hope).
yup,i’ve only sen a few innings,but i really liked meche’s pitching-his best game of the season,maybe? It must be frustrating to pitch this well and have kittens at the bat..
Well, at least the M’s are being more “patient”… they’re all taking strike 1 (looking) anyway…
Not only is Lopez making us look like a bunch of ninnies, Ichiro might have his streak broken.
And Lopez is on pace for a sub-100 pitch complete game shutout. The M’s bats hav eturned Rodrigo Lopez into Roy Halladay.
BTW, nice outing from Meche. He gave the team a good chance to win the game. I can’t wait for the Petagene PH for Reed in the next few innings. Perhaps Bloomquist can PH for Lopez while we are at it. I have never been this frustrated with the M’s, and I’ve followed them since the mid-80s.
2 down already?
Bo###cks!
Okay, here comes the tying tater.
I guess the M’s hitters got all tired out celebrating after their win last night… They DID win last night, didn’t they?
Ichiro’s hitting streak is in serious jeopardy…I thought you guys said early in this blog that Rodrigo Lopez was a worse pitcher than Gil Meche? A one-hitter?
Cancel that, Richie Sexson finally got a hit. It’s a TWO hitter.
Aaaack!
And Betancourt too
heyyyyy
Ok, now Everett walks and Beltre goes yard.
It could happen, right?
By the end of this game, Sexson might have brought his batting average above Beltre’s.
c’mon everett,you big lump,you..
I wonder what Lopez (the pitcher) is actually looking like out there… is this on MLB.tv?
close but no cigar..
[spell]
77 pitches through 7 for Rodrigo Lopez. That’s not a whole lot of patiences from the M’s hitters.
And still averaging 11 pitches per inning (that inning was exactly 11 pitches). I stand by the sub-100 pitch complete game prediction.
hmmmm..
and yes,the game is on mlbtv,orioles feed
-and i must say,as an aside that so far i really like the O’s commentators.Not as homely as some others out there(are you listening,Hawk and DJ??)
That wasn’t really close. Man we suck.
Retrosheet says Gil Meche’s best strikeout performance in one game was 11 in 6 innings on 5/21/2004, and his next best was 8 strikeouts. So today’s line is pretty damn good.
I even remember the 11-strikeout game because he gave up the two home runs and lost anyway when the Mariners got shut out, but that was back in the day when Safeway still gave out free Pepsi coupons when the M’s pitchers got 8 or more strikeouts… they discontinued that halfway through 2004.
Gaaaahhhh stupid Mariners bats.
Meche so far this season:
IP 59.1
GO/FO 1.10
K/9 7.43
K/BB 1.88
BB/9 3.94
Strikes/Pitch 0.60
HR/9 1.06
ERA 4.40
That’s… why, that’s not too bad! Is it?
Trade him now. Diamondbacks, are you paying attention?
Bizarro world today. Meche strikes out 11, R-Lop pitches a 2 hitter through 7.
Question time,guys..
Last game i saw was the Fruit’s debut against the Angels,where he pitched one hell of a game..
What happened to him this past few games?Is he still riding high,or..did he adapt tot the place??
Thanks..
Right now, mlb.com has Richie & Adrian BA tied @ .208
111: That BB/9 is a little high, and Meche is throwing way too many pitches, still.
Hopefully, he can build on innings 3-7 from today. The record shows that he was looking good in those innings. (I’m watching on Yahoo! Gamechannel, so I have no idea how he’s actually looked.)
This game has an eerie resemblance to May 10, day game vs. Devil Rays, coming off two nice wins, completely mesmerized, flail away haplessly, lose 1-0. The difference? That was Scott Kazmir.
Fruto was sent back down when they activated Mateo. I haven’t looked up how he’s doing in Tacoma (he is in Tacoma, right?)
118
thanks for the update..
..and ,is rodrigo lopez actually chewing on a paper cup??
hmmm…
Lopez hasn’t had a start this year where he gave up fewer than 4 runs.
I wish I could see Rodrigo Lopez eating his cup.
Call me crazy, but I go Petagine, Reed, Johjima in the 8th. Never happen, but…
come on,Ade..please??
I thought that said “…chewing on a paper clip” and it made my teeth hurt.
Grover seems to be turning into Bob Melvin. If we’re behind, the game is unwinnable. All he needs to do to complete the transformation is to protect all leads, no matter how wide, as if they are 1 run with the bases loaded.
so, do we chalk this up to Mazzone?
And Jeremy Reed draws our first walk of the game, with one out in the eighth inning.
Gah!
Come on Petagine!
A walk!!! Yippee!!!
Petagine is due. Well, due for some more at-bats…
If this were Mazzone’s doing, Lopez would have appeared at least vaguely competent against someone else already.
wtf would you replace your pitcher who is totally cruising?
And they bring in the closer…
Was he injured? There’s no way they had someone warming in the pen already – he’s under 90 pitches, throwing a 2 hitter, and he just allowed his first walk.
Mazzone is yanking his man who has given up 2 hits with 88 pitches and is bringing in a Lefty. Interesting.
…and now we can counter with our Righty with Sock off the bench!
Chris Ray is a righty according to MLB gameday.
bo##ocks!
not our day then..
Strike that. I meant righthander.
Was Petangine’s liner hit hard?
Boy, say what you want about lack of opportunity, but Petagine certainly hasn’t made the most of his since week one.
Is this why he has never really caught on? Cast in the role of pinch hitter, he never gets a rhythm going in the show, goes elsewhere and gets regular at-bats and tears the cover off the ball?
go,yuni,go…
I’m befuddled as to why they pulled Lopez. This should be interesting.
unkrusty, how is Petagine supposed to make the most of it when getting one at-bat a week?
In his defense, Petagine was hot and then we didn’t use him much…
Why have I come to view Guardado much the same way I used to view Thornton?
And unjustifiably so, apparently.
Eddie has been pretty good lately!
And Guardado comes in to protect a 2 run non-lead.
Eddie G’s ERA just fell below 5 for the first time this year.
9th inning miracle time. Ichiro continuing streak would be a good start to the inning…
145: Eddie just got out of the inning on nine pitches. That’s good.
This is a great spot to use him. It’s still a close game, but you’re behind. It’s not a super-high-leverage spot, but Eddie still has value if used well. It also gives him a chance to work out his issues. This is good.
OK, top of the order, two hitting streaks on the line. Time to do it.
151. I am afraid after couple more of these games, Hargrove will put Eddie G back to the closer spot.
rally caps,anyone??
Rats.
oh well, it was 18 games of fun. Not bad…unless we get Extras!
And the streak ends at seventeen.
..maybe not…
I wonder what it would take to make Hargrove realise that a player is really struggling at the plate. Reed has better power numbers than both Beltre and Sexson, and who gets platooned? Or is do they have pictures of Hargrove that Bobby Ayala had of Pinella?
unkrusty, how is Petagine supposed to make the most of it when getting one at-bat a week?
I guess that was kind of part of my point. How do we know about this guy with such limited opportunity? However, even in the limited opportunities he hasn’t had much success, and because each of his opportunities has been pretty high profile (always baserunners on when he bats), he seems like a greater failure than he really is.
hey, I just noticed on ESPN that J Lopez is batting and J Lopez is catching
151: That’s a good thing, assuming he earned it. That means the Mariners are carrying four lights-out relievers instead of three.
Soriano, Putz and Sherrill have all been terrific this year. Extra bullpen arms aren’t a problem. Then we have a strength to trade from, and one that teams value at the deadline.
Actually that’s wrong Hernadez is catching, so they don’t have a DH now.
Hm, anyone know what is happening with the game? GameCast is stuck on Ball 1 to Jose.
*sigh*
So is MLB Gameday. Maybe a fight broke out in the M’s dugout.
lights out..
well,what a lousy game from our offfense..
better luck next time??
Happy trails to y’all,until we meet again! I’m taking a friend from Pittsburgh to see the local Fiorentina baseball team on saturday.
Heck,they cannot be that much worse than the pirates,can they??
(heh)
I’m spending next week in Toronto, so I bought tickets to 3 Red Sox games.
Somehow, I’m not expecting a 2 hit shutout by either team.
The M’s just got beat by John Halama and Rodrigo Lopez in the same series…
and now off to see Santana.
Petagine, 18 ABs in 17 games, and had 6 days off before his appearance on tuesday.
re Petagine, can anyone say Greg Colbrunn? Oh wait, he got hurt before we really had a chance to (mis)use him, right?
The Mariners are absolute death to bench players – unless you’re WFB. Why anyone would willingly sign here as a back-up is beyond me.
Greg Colbrunn
Quentin McCracken
Roberto Petagine
Matt Lawton
Dave Hansen
All of these guys were signed, talked up by management, and then left to rot by Melvin or Hargrove.
It’s not like we don’t like guys with that skill set. We run Carl out there every day.
Actually, the M’s have been giving playing time to many bench players in recent years – only their names were Speizio, Cirillo, Aurilia, Valdez, Bocachica, Olivo, Bloomquist…
Off Topic: [deleted, off-topic]
Came home looking forward to a nice Tivoed game to watch and sure enough: no broadcast. Then the MLB archive feed broke in the first inning. Rather than fool with it I peeked to see the outcome — and what an inspired choice that turned out to be! Even with fast forward I could have wasted an hour and a half of my life on tedious mediocrity ending in a loss but was saved at the last minute. Thank you television and MLB gods.
Eddie Guapo had a good day, came in and threw strikes. He’s approaching marketability. Don’t close him again, just polish him up a little.
Julio Mateo is a perfectly adequate reliever for set-up innings when his arm is sound. He overwhelms no one, and shouldn’t be overused, but 25 teams in the majors at least could use a guy like him. Nobody _wants_ to trade for a guy like that, it’s just that when they have him he’s useful enough that his number keeps getting called out of the pen. Still can’t trade him for what he’s worth, unless as part of a package.
Gil Meche has always had good stuff, borderline location. With a few games where he’s had good location, we see what his package could be. He’s still pitch inefficient, still struggles early. Awhile back, Dave made a throw-away comparison for Meche which, to me, remains excellent: Brett Tomko. Tomko actually _had_ a number of games like the last two we’ve just seen from Meche, both here, and in SF. 2-4 games a year like that. The rest of the time, he was a frozen rope vendor. So I’m all for moving Meche in a deal. There are plenty of teams which need starting pitching. Last year, when Gil was doing his “My arm hurts . . . I think. At least, it hurts when I think” routine, of course he was untradeable. Now, it’s a different question. They only thing I ask is, this time trade for an established, big league player. I’ve had enough of prospects imploding in clouds of dust for now.