Game…sigh…75. Athletics at Mariners, I guess
Hisashi Iwakuma vs. Bartolo Colon, 7:10pm
He looked again at the 8.5×11″ sheet that functioned as his ticket. “I miss old tickets” he thought, the latest in a litany of complaints he’d considered because he didn’t want to come out and say the real reason for hesitating. Iwakuma’s great, he thought. 2nd best pitcher on the team, having an incredible year. And Bartolo Colon. Could be a pitcher’s duel. Nothing like the tension of a pitcher’s duel. Offense held in check for 5, 6 innings, every at-bat, every ground ball or can of corn bigger than it should be – like every event is wearing a crisp charcoal suit.
You can put a charcoal suit on yet another three-pitch K (last pitch a foot outside) if you want to, he thought, just make sure you put it underground next. Didn’t we just do this? Iwakuma pitched, too. Extra innings without runs. Every event not magnified, not greater than itself – every event just *tired*. It was an ode to sleep, performed by the exhausted. “Excitement” doesn’t just rise over time in a game like that. It rises for a while, and then you get a bit restless, and then it’s all you can do to stop yourself from hating them – you’ve grounded out weakly four times and the fact that it’s close, the fact that this game is statistically improbable, doesn’t make me feel any better when you do it a fifth time.
Colon doesn’t miss bats. Puts the game in motion. Lots of chances. They can play spoiler a bit, with Oakland and Texas in a real race. Always liked Jaso. I’m still really curious to see what Kyle Seager’s ceiling is. I wonder if Nick Franklin will hit 20 HRs one year. How is it that a player can go from high-K to low-K in one year while moving up to the majors? The M’s had prospects, we were just confused over which ones they were. No matter. Montero can’t catch? Zunino can. Ackley can’t be a centerpiece middle-infielder? OK, we’ve got Franklin. The plan’s delayed, that’s all. A’s and Rangers were always going to be tough in 2013. And what can you say about Iwakuma?
Nothing that we haven’t said about Felix. The only good thing about last night was that it wasn’t at home. I hated seeing the crowd in a frenzy after seven straight hits, but I will have nightmares about that happening here. King’s Court stunned, K cards half lifted, hanging around the midsection like a shield. One kid near a field mic still yelling because she’s too young to understand that the M’s aren’t going to come back, that while Felix may not do this again for a long time, we just caught a glimpse of the end. The only thing to do is to be quiet. We go to games to *stop* seeing glimpses like that. That’s what we’re here for, unless Franklin Gutierrez is playing, and then we have an odd kinship with the glimpses – like we have something in common with someone as extraordinary as Franklin Gutierrez. And anyway, Felix has his Mark Trumbo. We hate Trumbo for it, but at least we know it, and we know his role, and hope any of his successes are short-lived and not-enough. We don’t know who Iwakuma’s Trumbo is yet, and that just makes it worse.
1: Chavez
2: Franklin
3: Seager
4: Morales
5: Ibanez
6: Smoak
7: Zunino
8: Saunders
9: Ryan
SP: Iwakuma
Taijuan Walker’s performance last night earned him a promotion. He’ll pitch Tuesday evening at Cheney Stadium.
In other heralded-prospect news, Brazilian lefty phenom Luiz Gohara makes his US debut tonight for Pulaski.
Last night, Edwin Diaz struck out 9 in 6 scoreless innings (giving up just one hit), but the game went scoreless into extra innings, where the P-M’s lost. A fitting introduction.
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Hmm, no pregame due to technical difficulties, but Root says we’ll have the game at 7:00. What’s the diff? Certain camera(s) out? Sponsor cancelled? Union on strike?
Oh wait, it’s because this part comes from a studio.
Oh wait again – Sims says it’s going to be something unusual.
Was watching the Cardinals game earlier on MLB Network. Really wish the M’s would have found a way to sign Beltran a couple off-seasons ago. Not having a great season with just 1.2 WAR, but that is because of his defensive shortcomings. His 151 wRC+ would look pretty good for this team.
AAA pitchers the next 4 days: Paxton, Ramirez, Maurer, Walker. I’d almost rather follow them.
^And then there’s Romero, Miller, and Ackley lighting things up.
Franklin!
BOOOM!
Why can’t the stupid trivia question be knocked out?
So, I’m guessing the M’s won’t send anyone to this year’s All-Star Game, right?
That ads for the game on MLB keep showing Felix and he’s suddenly in the “I play for November” ads. Only if he gets traded!
Every team has to be represented at the all-star game. Right wrong or indifferent, its a requirement that someone be selected. Felix will make it. Kuma might make it, but they will definitely have someone named. So will Houston (Altuve probably).
Oh yeah, I figured Felix was the one pic by default. It was just funny that he’s suddenly in the ads, like they realized there’s no vote necessary for him, so they might as well put him in the ad.
I recall someone somewhere writing something a while back about how Ryan should not be replaced by Franklin because you have to compare Franklin’s likely performance (which the writer did not seem to think very highly of) with Ryan’s future performance. So from the date that Franklin was called up, how has his performance compared with Ryan’s (his future, now past) performance? Oh, that’s right, I forgot. Small sample size. But what the heck? Let’s look anyway. Since Franklin was called up, Ryan has hit .188 (OBP of .244 and SLG .288) compared to Franklin .280 (OBP of .415 and SLG .500). Ryan has 6 BB and 17 Ks compared to Franklin’s 11 BB and 15 Ks. Ryan has 2 doubles, 1 HR and 5 RBIs compared to Franklin’s 6 doubles, 4 HRs and 10 RBIs. Ryan has 80 ABs and Franklin 82.
And how many errors has Ryan had compared to Franklin? (yeah, I’m a bit drunk and bored)
Who waved Seager to 3rd?
That’s just a bad play by Seager. Down by one in scoring position with no outs in the 6th. Why are Blojay defending it?
They didn’t. They said, “like the hustle but not real smart.”
I can defend that about as well as I could making my blind and deaf Bichon into a guard dog…
Not sure what Seager was thinking. That will ruin a potentially good inning.
I heard the “liked the hustle” part and missed the rest. Thanks for the correction.
Appreciate Bone’s play for the team back in the day, but jeez, this guy is like our Joe Morgan.
Shut up, just shut up with all the grit and toughing it out and hustle and squishy and playing the game right and he’s due and turning it around. That crap drives me crazy.
Buhner is so bad he makes me long for the days of Ron Fairly.
Shit!!!
Saunders gets sent down Monday. Michael Saunders Poster Giveaway on Sunday is the only reason he’s still in Seattle.
Sogard reminds me of some character from Bad News Bears. Those glasses…
Oh lordy. The bartender…
This should be a nice confidence boost for Willy.
Good golly!!!
And…Last call! Time to mow the lawn!
OK. So, obviously, something is different about Wilhelmsen. He was successful, now he’s not.
Is he injured? Is he tipping his pitches? Has he changed his mechanics? Is it all in his head?
We don’t know. We can’t know.
Too bad he’s completely on his own without a coaching staff to help him out.
Seriously, people don’t perform like they showed that they should be able to perform and it’s like everyone involved with the M’s just shrugs and says “Oh…darn. Guess THAT’S broken now.”
Am I wrong in being confused/upset by our team’s inability to do anything about underperforming talent?
I think it’s about time Wedge got a junk punch.
Weak sauce.
Zunino is every bit as good as advertised at recognizing and hitting breaking balls down in and/or slightly out of the zone. He might not see a fastball until September.
Bonus, though … We get to see Harang pitch tomorrow.
I think I would rather watch Woodcutta delivering a junk punch.
Yep, tomorrow is the day – boycott of one game.
Searching for happy news, one has to look to ex-Mariners since the current M’s have so little: Munenori Kawasaki hit his first career home run tonight, a game-tying 2-run homer that tied the game against the Orioles. No happy dance or jazz hands apparently, but he’s already charmed the fans in Toronto.
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/21/munenori-kawasaki-hits-first-career-home-run/
Last 7 games, Saunders is hitting .286 with 3 BBs. Why would you send him down Monday, Jeff? He’s actually, finally, coming around.
Great news about Muni, MKT!
well, I think the organization go this one right. I have been wondering why the M’s don’t give Franklin a shot at short. And now I think the reason is not that he is a bad shortstop but that he has the potential to be an excellent second baseman.
Maybe Ackley can evolve into a leadoff center fielder. And if Miller pans out short we might be building something quite nice.
So agree about Buhner. And again his hogwash comes at the only highlight of THE GAME when Nick belts his 3-run shot.
And if I hear these millionaires talking about how tough and gruelling it is to play baseball for a living and then have to fly home all the way from Tampa Bay or Toronto I am going to barf at something other than our offense. What a bunch of spoiled snobs that are just rockheads.
And that includes Blowers, Buhner and Sims.
jeez, got people watching the game every day working 50 hours a week for nothing and they are complaining about a long charter or first class plane trip
Westside guy, why not say he’s hitting .333 in his last two games? Yeah, he had one good game two days back and he did get a hit yesterday (immediately getting picked off), but he has been awful. One double in his last ten games, no other extra base hits, and a look on his face like a serial killer about to snap. I suppose the pick-off was the immediate trigger for my comment, but he has been awful since coming off the DL on 4/29. He needs to regain his confidence, and maybe he can do that in Tacoma. Ackley is ready to come back up. And if it wasn’t for the embarrassment of having a poster giveaway for a player who’s been sent down (“Daddy, who’s this on my poster? Why is he in Tacoma?”), I believe the M’s would have made that move already.
Of course, a couple of good games this weekend and he won’t get sent down. But I don’t think his last seven games have been predictive of a good immediate future.