Game Eleven Recap
Yay, 5-6.
After four close wins that all demanded David Aardsma to preserve a lead in the ninth inning, that was a nice change.
Let’s start with Felix. For the first three innings, he pitched as well as is humanly possible. This wasn’t the Felix we saw in years past, where he’d just pound the zone with fastballs and take a beating early. He went after Austin Jackson with two sinkers, then a curve and a change-up for the strikeout. He setup Johnny Damon with a couple of sinkers, then threw him an 0-2 curve before blowing him away with a four seam fastball up and away. He established his fastball, but he didn’t make it the only pitch in his repertoire.
Even in the fourth, he didn’t pitch badly despite giving up two runs. Jackson hit a flare up the middle for an infield single, and then Damon hit a groundball that’s an easy out if Kotchman isn’t holding the runner on. Miguel Cabrera took a fastball at the knees into the gap for a double, but that’s why he’s one of the best hitters in baseball. With the tying run at second base, Felix busted out the nasty stuff, and stranded Cabrera in scoring position.
He wasn’t as efficient as he could have been, especially with the big lead, but this was one of those nights where the other team didn’t stand much of a chance. He was overpowering, racking up nine strikeouts and simply looking unhittable for long stretches. The Tigers weren’t winning tonight. Not with that version of Felix on the mound.
Of course, the M’s didn’t need Felix to pitch a shutout tonight, because the offense busted out for 11 runs, which didn’t seem possible for the first ten games of the season. The top of the order showed how this team is going to create runs this year, as Ichiro, Figgins, and Gutierrez combined to go 5 for 11 with 3 walks and a couple of stolen bases. You don’t need Adrian Gonzalez to drive in runs when your top three hitters get on base eight times. The M’s still didn’t show any power, with only the one extra base hit, but six walks and 11 singles work too. The M’s won’t always find this many holes, but neither will they always hit every ball right at someone like they did the first week of the season. Regression to the mean can be fun when you’ve been running overly cold, and that’s basically what we saw tonight.
Of all the hitters to single out, I’m going to go with Rob Johnson. A year ago, he combined a lack of power and contact ability with a frustratingly terrible approach at the plate. He chased pitches out of the zone and regularly got himself out, rarely worked counts, and was generally useless at the plate. He’s shown significantly more selectivity this year, and tonight, drew his fourth and fifth walks of the season, despite having just 23 plate appearances. He still can’t hit, but it seems like he may have learned that he can’t hit, and he’s now willing to adopt the Chone Figgins approach, rarely swinging unless he has to. Given his skillset, that’s not a bad idea. He’s still going to find new and creative ways to frustrate us with passed balls and easy drops, but if he’s willing to take the free pass when its offered, he might yet turn out to be moderately useful.
M’s go for .500 tomorrow, but they do it against Justin Verlander, who is the Tigers version of Felix. He has knockout stuff, but also can run up high pitch counts and get himself out of the game in the 6th inning against teams who are willing to make him work. Be nice to see the M’s steal one and even up the record, which should finally silence the last of the crazies who were freaking out a few days ago.
What luck…I get the 16 game pack and miss Felix by a day, but get Verlander. Although it would be cool to see Verlander pitch, I would rather see the M’s win!
What is it, 1 in the morning for you Dave? I really do appreciate your post-game recaps. Very interesting and solid stuff.
More good news from Tacoma:
Jack Hannahan: 2-4, HR, BB
good to see the M’s finally swing the lumber and good to see Milton take some hacks and hit the ball hard.
The crazies will never be silenced! They will however be less noticable if the team can keep it around .500 for April.
Just got back from the game tonight. Very fun and exciting stuff. Felix looked great, and the team was doing a great job at getting balls through holes and in open areas to drop.
Guti is looking red hot right now and I love it.
GO M’s!
Thanks for the description of the fourth inning. We were listening on the radio and they had Lenny Wilkens in the booth and Rizzs was doing his “Brooklyn baseball reminiscence” thing, and I had no idea if Felix was struggling or if the balls were just finding holes.
Milton came into the game with a .118 BABIP, that is a hard stat to maintain for long. On the other hand Gutierrez looks like he’ll be able to keep his gaudy .441 BABIP until he gets tired of hitting line drives. I realize he can’t keep it up for ever, but there is not much luck involved the way he is hitting, just a lot of solid contact.
Speaking of strange stats, Adrian Beltre has pulled of a near impossible feat: his OBP is lower than his batting average: .294 vs. .304. He doesn’t have a single walk, which isn’t too surprising, and he has a sacrifice to give him one more PA than AB.
I learn to hate Rob Johnson a little more every day. If you include his propensity to not catch things flying at him along with his tendency to not hit them either…isn’t Adam Moore just better?
This was the first time in like forever where I turned off the game halfway through a blowout…while we were on the good side of a blowout game. I can’t remember the last time I was so secure in an M’s win.
This was a fun game to watch. Felix was dominating the whole time he was out there. Just good pitching.
It’s funny that you mention Rob Johnson trying to take more of a Chone Figgins approach at the plate. The player that has impressed me the most offensively this season (other than Guti, of course) has been Figgins. I haven’t been able to watch all of the games, but the ones I’ve seen, he has had amazing discipline at the plate, drawing a lot of walks. His OBP is 126 points higher than his BA of .270, if that says anything. It’s nice to see a crappy hitter like Johnson taking a page from Chone’s book.
I do have to say that Rob Johnson has shown some pretty terrible defense though. There were a lot of balls that got by him tonight. Yeah, I know, he’s catching Felix and that’s not easy, but c’mon. Not to mention he’s made some pretty shaky plays already this season… I wasn’t expecting anything special from him, but he’s not even living up to the low standards. He’s still doing better than Moore so far. It would be nice to see someone behind the plate add some value to this team.
WORLD SERIES BAHBAY!!!!!!!!!!!
Have you seen a bigger baseclogger than Figgins?
Rob Johnson cost Felix a run because he can’t catch the friggin’ ball…he’s useless even if he can draw the occasional walk.
Very nice game all around (though I wish Johnson didn’t give Damon second base in the 4th).
A fun little moment was when Figgins had to freeze halfway over the plate when his base on balls looked like it might be a strikeout because the umpire thought he was in “The Naked Gun”.
Last night was just the M’s giving Derek a proper semi-retirement party.
Look, it’s Enrico Palazzo!
Dave–
Even though I don’t think it’s to be expected from him every night, I’d definitely throw in Lopez’s 2-4 night with 2 rbi in the #4 spot (probably best performance in the cleanup spot this year?).
Somebody questioned (understandably) sending out Guti and Lopez at 3 and 4 against a right hander– but it sure seemed to work out okay. That Wak and his hunches. He’s hot right now, too, it seems.
1 thru 4 in the lineup went 7 for 15 with 3 walks, and 7 rbi’s.
That’ll do, Donkey. That’ll do. (Shrek quote- sorry.)
I suppose it’s because there are far more opportunities for passed balls, but it sure seems like a passed ball should be an E on the catcher, and not count as a detriment to the pitcher.
It makes no sense that the 2nd run last night was earned (if Rob Johnson gives him a free base, and he doesn’t score without that).
Especially when it comes to deciding things like a Cy Young award that was as closely contested as last year’s.
I was getting ready to curse the name of Schone White if he’d allowed the last two Felix runners to score. That, combined with his removal of a Felix win in Game 1, would have probably ended up having an impact on this year’s award race.
Somebody questioned (understandably) sending out Guti and Lopez at 3 and 4 against a right hander– but it sure seemed to work out okay.
“But I won $500 playing blackjack last night- what do you mean I shouldn’t expect that to happen every time out?”
Passed Balls do count against the catcher and not the pitcher (though a PB is not considered an Error). Wild Pitches count against the pitcher.
Now, why it should qualify as an earned run, well, don’t put too much stock in earned runs.
Felix lead the league last year in wild pitches.
All of them were thrown to Rob Johnson.
This is not a coincidence.
Eponymous-
I don’t quite understand your point? I mean, I get what you’re saying, but I thought it was a bad move and questioned it when I saw it too. (And if you play Black Jack, you’ve already established yourself as a gambler, so why would anyone expect you to do the reasonable thing? People who always want to make the safe move should neither play Black Jack, nor baseball.)
Plus, with Wak, we all know it has no bearing on whether or not he would do it again.
JM-
I know the difference between passed balls and wild pitches, and I’m not too worried about ERA, but lots of people who decide things that ultimately determine a pitcher’s current and future value DO– so I was wondering aloud why a catchers mistakes should “cost” (literally) the same as the pitcher’s?
MrZ, the byzantine world of official MLB stats will drive you bonkers if you let it. I’ve seen it reduce good men to pitiful wretches huddled in the corner reciting the balk rule.
Well, not really, but I suppose if you dwelt on it too long… Anyway, the problem with PB/WP of course is the “official scorer” making the decision and if you’ve watched enough games you know the difference between a catcher to will block a breaking ball in the dirt and a catcher who will let it through to the backstop. Since it went in the dirt, it’s a wild pitch, even though a good catcher keeps it in front of him and a Rob Joh… er, less good catcher doesn’t.