Game 6, Mariners at Orioles
Felix Day!
Nothing quite turns my spirits around after a game like last night’s than to know that Felix is going to be taking the mound, even if it’s ahead of schedule to pick up for Bedard.
Felix faces Guthrie, a pitcher whose notable characteristics include not being Felix. Which must suck.
M’s run out their standard Sunday day lineup. It’d be nice if they thought about, say, subbing out more than just the catcher, but this is the Mariners we’re talking about. I remember back in the day, when Lou would throw all his subs in on Sundays, and I’d complain that he’d be better off using them as appropriate rather than just punting one game a week. Ah, those were the days, when the bench got used at all.
The Orioles respond in kind, subbing Quiroz in at catcher, and Hernandez in at short.
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221 Responses to “Game 6, Mariners at Orioles”
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Wait, does this mean it takes more then a “one-two punch” to win ball games?
185: Geez, if Rizzs is saying something even that critical, that tells you something.
Games like this kinda make me long for the management style of the ’60’s and ’70’s — when managers weren’t so paranoid that those extra 10-15 pitches which their starter might throw in the ninth would completely destroy his career.
Ms just don’t look an order of magnitude better than the Rangers or the Os…
Hmmm. Considering they’ve dropped three of three to the Baltimorioles, you could have a point. Frankly, right now I’d settle for “not an order of magniture worse than…”
Wait, does this mean it takes more then a “one-two punch†to win ball games?
Dunno. Maybe we’ll find out some day.
Sorry, this is my first ever posting and I hate to start off on a negative note. I love this team so I want to be positive. Not today. How many out there were screaming NOOOOOOO! when Felix was pulled. Further proof that Mclaren is a minor league manager at best. Lowe has a 96mph fastball and nibbles the outside corner i.e. wild pitch in the dirt outside. The closer is the most important player on this team because they don’t score many runs. Better luck tomorrow.
Ahhh. The end of a meaningless game between two also-ran teams.
From now on, I will feel:
ashamed when we are shut out
pathetic when we score 1 run
slighlty bummed for 2 runs
apathetic for 3 runs
happy when we score 4 runs
elated when the M’s score 5 or more!
I think they will be in the bottom of the league in runs (again) if they don’t fix the middle of the lineup. Sexson and Wilkerson are going to K 200 plus times if it stays this way.
The funny thing is, I’ve read so many times on this website that managers don’t figure into the wins and losses of a ballclub.
No you haven’t. We’ve written that the importance of managers is generally overstated, that there’s not a huge difference between most managers, but we’ve never said that managers don’t figure into the wins and losses of a team.
I concur.
If McLaren just gets out of the way this team will be okay.
Felix says he didn’t feel 100% to go out for the ninth and he said “bring in the lefty”. Don’t you think if he doesn’t even know the relievers name maybe he should rethink that one. Killer instinct please.
a) How is Felix supposed to know who’s warming up while he’s pitching? Listen for a stadium PA announcement?
b) Do you really think that he doesn’t know O’Flaherty’s name?
Give him a break.
Relax, everybody. It’s not the Mariners. We just had the bad luck to play the two teams who’ll be battling it out for the AL title, you know, Texas and Baltimore.
To DMZ: Thanks for the clarification (No. 208). Indeed I did a poor job of paraphrasing your thoughts/attitudes of managing.
I should add that I’m rooting for McLaren. He seems like a solid guy who certainly has paid his dues. It’s just hard to like what he’s doing with this team right now, that’s all. He’s compounding injuries with poor decisions.
I’d be delighted to admit I was wrong about this guy. I’d love to write that in fact he is one outstanding major league baseball manager.
I hate to draw analogies between hockey and baseball, but Guy Carbonneau was skewered in the press in Montreal early this season, and now everyone is eating their words in Quebec….
Quebec? Doesn’t our injured ace lefty hail from there?
Baker’s summary:
“It seems that Stottlemyre asked Hernandez after the eighth whether he wanted to continue, given his pitch count being at only 97. Hernandez usually insists on going back in. This time, he did not. He told them he wasn’t feeling 100 percent and thought Eric O’Flaherty could better handle things with three lefties due up among the first four batters. Hernandez threw his bullpen session two days ago instead of the normal three days he would take before a game. Remember, Hernandez was pressed into service because of Erik Bedard pulling up lame. Hernandez says the one fewer day of rest after his bullpen session made a difference today, enough that he wasn’t fully ready to tackle the ninth and did not want to put his team in a bind. Very unusual for Hernandez to say that.”
I don’t support McLaren at all, and how nice a guy or how hard he’s trying has no impact on my feeling.
Rooting for him to succeed, even though he has proven beyond all doubt that he has no understanding of how baseball actually works, is rooting for the bad habits of today to be perpetuated. It’s exactly the same as hoping to lose weight while eating ten Big Macs a day. Until the M’s have it RUBBED IN THEIR FACES that they are following an outmoded and incorrect model for evaluating needs and talent, they will never, ever change.
PS: it is NOT the decisions that are wrong. It’s the thinking behind the decisions. What move you make in Situation X does not matter. If McLaren made all the “right “moves in the game, he would still suck just as horribly as a manager, and the M’s would be just as dysfunctional as an organization and as a team.
Why do people insist that pulling Felix was the wrong move? He was throwing a day early, was already at 100 pitches, was hurt last year, and is now saying he told he wasn’t 100% to throw the 9th.
It was the right move to pull him. Yes a 9 inning shutout would have been wonderful, but look elsewhere for your complaints.
So, whats the over under on Bavasi and McLaren panicking and shipping off Triunfel and Aumont for some veteran relievers before the M’s brass cans them?
I wonder how much of that is true, and how much is Felix — or, more likely, Stottlemyre — covering McLaren’s ass?
Quebec? Doesn’t our injured ace lefty hail from there?
Actually, no. He’s from the Ottawa area on the Ontario side of the river. Not a big deal, but it is a bit like getting a Hispanic from Texas confused with one from the other side of the Rio Grande.
213: And then, a lot of people were scratching their heads when the Habs’ front office moved their starting goalie (Huet) at the trade deadline. Don’t know if anyone in Hab Nation is now, though — I believe they wound up winning their division regardless.
Which only goes to prove…anything (well, almost) can happen over the course of a long season.
Unfortunately for Mariner Nation, however, ours is not starting out any too promising. 🙁
Ugh. I’m kinda glad I worked today and missed this game. I know it’s only been a week, but dropping 3 straight to the O’s is embarrassing. This is shaping up to be a long summer.
When does Seahawks training camp open again?