Game 122, Twins at Mariners
Mike Snow · August 19, 2012 at 1:24 pm · Filed Under Mariners
A little late on this, Blake Beavan vs. Samuel Deduno (who?), 1:10 pm.
Ackley 2B-L
Saunders CF-L
Seager 3B-L
Jaso C-L
Montero DH-R
Smoak 1B-B
Thames RF-L
Robinson LF-B
Kawasaki SS-L
Okay, Deduno is not a command/control lefty. Judging from his track record, he appears to be a rather wild journeyman righty, hence the heavily lefthanded lineup.
Comments
84 Responses to “Game 122, Twins at Mariners”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
The one thing I was worried about with Saunders was how he’d handle a slump, since every player slumps – would he let it get inside his head and undo all the stuff he’s worked on? I’m glad it appears he didn’t let it get to him too much.
It’s not quite KC pitching, but the Mariners seem to be enjoying Minnesota pitching.
Thames!
I love it.
Good for him.
Whenever “the River” comes to bat, I briefly think of Benny Hill.
The Mariners are on quite a roll. Can it continue?
Robinson has had some bad babip luck – with several “at-em” balls since his callup. He looks quite a bit better than he did last year.
I wonder of London Mariner fan has any difficulties pronouncing the name of the river when referring to the name of the player.
Between Marcus, Eric and the actual River itself, there are 3 different ways to pronounce the same name.
Ackley, Saunders, even Smoak…
The Twins cure all ills!
He looks better because, so far, he’s cut his strikeouts almost in half!
Wedge sure pushed a number of the correct buttons to get his defense through the past 3 innings. Good job by him.
BTW I wasn’t disparaging Eric with my “Benny Hill” comment – it was because the show always started with the Thames Television graphic:
http://www.dannyjpalmer.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Thames_Television.jpg
And on one episode, Benny Hill’s head popped up over the graphic and he sang “THAMES!!” – which is burned into my brain permanently.
Michael, that was ball four you swung at!
Nice pitch though.
Nice to see Ackley has extended his hitting streak.
Can anyone tell me how Smoak has generally looked lately? I can see he’s getting some hits, just wonder if he’s still hackin’ at crap.
Smoak has made an adjustment with his hands (held lower) and with his “load.”
It appears to be a more efficient looking swing but still a work in progress. He is still trying to pull outside corner pitches and rolling over/popping up – but any improvement is a step in te right direction. It didn’t help his bat speed, but it adjusted the swing “path” a bit. He doesn’t look completely comfortable with it yet, Steve.
Come on Kinney. Get it done. Not sure why you are still out there, but get it done!
I’m not as impressed with Smoak as Mike is. Other than the one homer, he’s hit like 200 popups to infielders in the last week.
Hopefully when Carp comes off the DL, Smoak will be given more time at AAA to work on his swing.
BRING OUT THE BROOMS!!
When did we start playing well? This is awesome.
Well we sure kept Mauer in check, despite giving him lots of opportunities to drive in runs.
Great job by the staff.
Take 3 of League’s blown saves and pretend they were successful conversions by Wilhelmsen and tho team has a .500 record.
Amazing and surprising. And … Amazing. But mostly, it’s amazing.
Thanks for the Smoak report. Somehow, I kind of expected that! But maybe there’s a little hope for him, eh?
It sure does seem like we’re getting to see more of the young guys’ potential again lately!
Westy, I am not impressed with Smoak. I have noticed his adjustment and what appears to be a slight improvement, but I have not seen anything “impressive”. The adjustment does provide a glimmer of hope, though.
Steve: Mike, having played, is a better guy to judge the changes in his swing than I am. And I’m not going to write off Smoak – it’s just not his fault they had to bring him back up right away. He just needs to be given more time to keep working on his swing.
Hi Mike, I didn’t phrase that very well. I know you were focussing on the changes you’d seen. I just meant that – relatively speaking – I was even less impressed than you were. 😀
Of course with Smoak, I can certainly be accused of “results-driven analysis”.
I’m somewhat hopeful for Carp.
The Mariners are inching towards .500 for the season.
They now have played .500 ball since May 4. Three and a half months of .500 ball. I guess we are seeing that they don’t like playing in the cold marine air, but warmer days are making them play better.
I’m just grateful for a little insight! The box-scores don’t say much!
I’m in the Carp camp as well. I’d rather see Smoak continue to work on his adjustments in Tacoma when Carp is able to return. Assuming he’s able to return! But I’d still like to explore possible outside sources for next year.
So maybe the answer for Safeco isn’t moving in the fencs, but instead, replacing the standard lighting with heat-lamps, maybe even convert the roof into some kind of portable hot-iron?
There is an electric heating cable that’s sold for garden use – you bury it a few inches down, and it warms the soil significantly.
Maybe the Mariners need to invest in a few hundred of these cables for Safeco Field.
I have a better idea (for me)… Why not move the home games to Sao Paulo, Brazil, for the months of April and May? It will be summer here and the city is an hour away from any possible marine-layer in the air. Almost certain the attendance wouldn’t be any worse!
😀
Right now, the Mariners are just 8.5 games out of the playoffs. Pretty late in the season to be able to say that.
It would be real progress if they could finish the season less than 10 games out of the playoffs. If they can keep up this second half pace, then it will happen. Still a big if.
I’m not too worried about how far we fall short. Just want to see competitive baseball and fewer dumb decisions!
BTW Ichiro hit two homers today. I’m really glad he’s doing well – just as I’m glad the young Mariners are playing exciting baseball.