Game 118, Rays at Mariners
Kevin Millwood vs. Matt Moore, 7:10pm
Matt Moore’s still one of the best young pitchers in baseball, and while he hasn’t quite ascended to the Verlander/Felix/Weaver level of AL starters, he’s been excellent in the past month or so. Including his start against the M’s on July 22nd, he’s given up 3 runs in his last 25 2/3 IP, over four starts. He’s kept his walk rate in check, as that’s been a major problem for him, and he’s struck out 25 (against 7 BBs) in that stretch.
One of the possible reasons he hasn’t been able to maintain a stratospheric strikeout rate or keep his RA/9 under 4 has been his struggles against left-handed batters. Remember, Moore’s a lefty himself, and a lefty whose fastball *averages* 95 mph. He’s got a curveball that scouts have praised in the past, so on paper, he should be death on a stick against lefties. Instead, in his brief MLB career, lefties have a wOBA of .341 while he’s holding righties to a .300 mark.
This isn’t new, either. He was great against lefties in the minors, but it was righties that he completely dominated. In 2011, he struck out nearly 40% of the righties he faced, but managed to K only 23% of lefties. In the majors, he’s K’d 25% of righties but only 16% of lefties, and he’s walked more lefties as well. He’s faced righties over 3X more often than lefties in his career, but maybe that’s not the ideal split. He’s brand new, so ALL of these numbers are small samples and should be taken with a grain of salt, but MLB hitters have spoken, and to date, they agree that his change-up is way, way better than his curve-ball.
Kevin Millwood is probably as surprised as all of you that he’s still a Seattle Mariner.
The other big story of the day is that Justin Smoak’s been recalled, and will bat 6th tonight. Mike Carp’s gone on the 15-day DL with tightness in his hip. Mike Zunino’s debut with Jackson’s underway – he’s catching James Paxton, and threw out a baserunner trying to steal 2nd in the first inning of the game. His first at-bat was a hard-luck line-out to 3B.
1: Ackley (2B)
2: Robinson (LF)
3: Montero (DH)
4: Seager (3B)
5: Wells (CF)
6: Smoak (1B)
7: Olivo (C)
8: Thames (RF)
9: Ryan (SS)
SP: Millwood
Four righties in the line-up, though I presume Wells is in there just to give Mike Saunders a much-needed day off.
Go M’s!
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150 Responses to “Game 118, Rays at Mariners”
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perfect place to pinch hit Jaso….
Why would you want your best hitter in this situation?
Jaso needs to go stand at the rail of the dugout directly in front of Wedge.
I predict Miguel Olivo swings at this 3-2 pitch.
Did I mention Fire Eric Wedge?
I was right. I hate being right, but if I knew it, what is Wedge’s excuse?
A strikeout???? Who would have guessed that?
Yeah, why not Jaso? Go for the win.
Shit.
Freaking stupid ass, Wedge.
Backup catcher just in case … On the bench – also your best hitter.
It’s fun to watch Joe Maddon manage.
It’s maddening to watch Eric Wedge manage.
Wedge has short term memory lost. He forgot Jaso on the team.
Wow, just wow.
WHY DID JASO NOT JUST PINCH HIT FOR OLIVO. WHYYYYYYYYY
Oh my God we won it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice job Eric Thames.
I amend my statement – Eric Wedge doesn’t understand splits period.
Thames!
The river wins it!
Gets wedge off the hook, too. Kinda
And that, gentlemen is the proverbial “rabbit”
Wedge was lucky there.
Wedge is an idiot.
Woo hoo!!!
I love it when this team wins despite the gross incompetence of the manager.
Why is Figgins bunting 2-0. Pena bails him out.
Why does he not pinch hit Jaso. Thames bails him out.
I hate our manager so much.
Hey, look; Jaso is still alive after all.
Luck and baseball. It’s why I love the game!!
ok, WEDGE is a genius right
There’s Jaso with the Shaving Cream pie for Thames. That should have been his.
Why is Figgins bunting 2-0.
I don’t have any problem with this. You put him in the game (perhaps unwisely) to bunt, which he does seem to be pretty good at. He’s not good at getting hits, regardless of the count.
Marcus – 20 years old. Good for you, man.
I am not 100% sure Thames was happy after Jaso nailed him with that shaving cream pie!
Back to Smoak for a second. Just by cutting down on some of his strike outs batting from the left hand side, he is basically a league average hitter.
Even with his struggles, he is a 87 wRC right now, and the thing really hurting him.
AND HIS HAIR IS A FUCKING SEAGULL!
Please tell me people are looking at Smoak’s hair right now! Screenshots, anyone?
Haha, originally I missed Marcus rubbing his youth in our old faces…
Henry, that is definitely bizarre hair on Smoak’s head.
Olivo’s strikeout was good for -.202 WPA.
The worst play of the game for the Mariners.
But not near as bad as Pena’s error -.405 for the Rays.
Better to be lucky than good, eh?
Did Pena get the biggest cont for the M’s?
Take “lucky” any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Ackley had good luck tonight. Hit one ball square – ended up with three hits. The luckiest dude of the evening though, I think that had to be Wedge.
Yup – LL just posted the game chart.
Kevin Millwood is kind of a hoot.
Spot-on, Mike. But I’m sure Wedge doesn’t think it’s luck – it’s good managing.
Total Contribution by Pitcher(s): +22.7%
Total Contribution by Lineup: -16.2%
Total Contribution by Opposition: +43.5%
SEATTLE MARINERS BASEBALL!
“We don’t quit!” Thanks Thames, that was a fun game!
Today Thames again earned his nickname “Adventure” – in a good way!
“If I put Jaso up there, they’d just walk him and that puts them in a better situation,” Wedge said. “Now, they’d have a double-play situatuon, so it just gives them another option, another opportunity to get out of the inning. If I hit him for anybody — unless we get to the point in time where there are bases loaded — they’re just going to walk him. What you’re trying to do is eliminate multiple options for them.”
So if the Rays walk Jaso, that gives us the bases loaded with one out.
Right where they want us. None of you thought of that did you? Everybody in this entire thread, myself included should apologize to Wedge, he knew what he was doing all along.
Funny – it looked to me like Wedge was eliminating multiple options for the Mariners, not for the Rays.
So, by extension of Wedge’s “logic”, in situations like that shouldn’t he be pinch hitting and bringing in his very worst hitter to maximize prevention of the dreaded intentional walk in favor of the apparently preferred automatic strikeout…? Oh, that’s right. Olivo was already up… never mind.
I missed the end of the game, but got a kick out of the comments. Has anyone ever seen another manager use Wedge’s logic in a situation like that? Even if they walked Jaso, the pressure’s still on the Rays. A double play is no guarantee.
We got lucky. Depending on Olivo and Thames to get it done probably won’t work too often. Glad the results were positive last night, but that kind of crap is frustrating.
I was encouraged by Smoak’s post game comments about how he had been trying to do to much and just needed to settle down and make contact. If he can learn that he will be fine. The power will come along.
Cabrera just tested positive for PED’s, specifically, testosterone. Suspended immediately for the rest of the season. This comes from ESPN.
He’ll likely be a little more affordable now.
I just heard that, Steve.
Cross him off the FA list – IMO.
My only question is why it would have taken this long into the season to disover, unless he only recently started using. And there is no reason for him to have only recently started using – since he was having such a great season.
The cheaters are still out there. I doubt he is the only one.
Damn – I thought we were 99% of the way past this shit.
Happy Felix day everybody!