Game 62, Mariners at Cubs
After last night’s game, the M’s could really use an innings-eating performance from… Miguel Batista? Uh oh. Making this even worse: tomorrow is Jeff Weaver, also not known for working deep into games. It makes me wish for Ryan Franklin who, for all his faults, could always be sent out to the mound in these situations with instructions to go nine innings and could pull it off: pacing himself, giving up runs as he went but taking one for the team.
Anyway, yeah — Batista v Marshall.
John Hickey’s blog entry over at the PI notes that the M’s didn’t make a roster move for reinforcements and brings up the specter of Julio Mateo, pitching in Tacoma.
So the bullpen:
Jason Davis (threw last night)
Sean Green (threw last night, and the 11th)
Brandon Morrow (threw last night, and the 11th)
Eric O’Flaherty (threw last night, and the 11th)
JJ Putz (threw last night, and the 10th)
Jake Woods (ding ding ding ding ding!)
I’m betting one of the “keys to the game” will be the need to go deep in the game and save the bullpen.
This game was lost when Guillen did not get the job done driving in Ichiro from third in the top of the first, or when Yuni bounced the ball to Sexson to keep the Cubs rally alive. If either player came through, we are no worse than tied. Oh well, you can’t win them all.
This is the yang to the ying of the cubs not being able to score with the basses loaded yesterday. But we have Weaver going tomorrow.
Basses, Idiot.
“Lead Paint: Delicious But Deadly”
Someone on the postgame called to ask why Mateo hadn’t come up yet, based on the inning he saw him pitch in Tacoma– Glasgow wondered aloud if Mateo would ever see the big club again …
oh, and Drayer says Lopez is not going home, his family told him that he wouldn’t make it in time for the funeral and to stay here and play in memory of his brother.
Drayer ran into Bob Christofferson at Wrigley (busman’s holiday?) who said he had a nice visit with the Cubs groundskeeper. No word on if he also went to the South Side to meet with Roger Bossard …
at least the bullpen got a good rest today. Losing sucks, but Batista did his part today. (though a lot of luck was involved) Hoping for another winning streak from tomorrow!
Another great Ichiro quote after the game today: when asked if the rowdy fans changed his personality he said:
“I have many different Ichiros inside me,” the center fielder said. “I’m always one of them. At different times, I have different personalities.”
That quote makes me think of those little Russian nesting dolls.
Ichiro! rocks.