Game 108, Mariners at Red Sox
King Felix vs. Ryan Dempster, 4:10pm
So the first two games of the series could’ve been better. The M’s have had a few timely hits, and their pitchers have escaped some jams with double plays or through completely insane throws from CF to catch runners at the plate, but they’ve fallen short twice. Nice to send King Felix to the hill to stop a losing streak, but it’d be even better to stop sending Felix out to extend winning streaks instead of stopping losing streaks.
Ryan Dempster’s primarily a three-pitch pitcher: a 91mph fastball, a slider, and a splitter that functions like a change-up. The M’s looked vulnerable to splits last night as Koji Uehara cut through the line-up with ease (Nick Franklin has got to be hoping that Uehara doesn’t pitch tonight), but Dempster struggled mightily against the M’s at Safeco a few weeks back. In that game, he gave up nine hits in 3 1/3IP, including a HR to Kyle Seager. Homers have been a particular problem for Dempster this season, with 20 yielded thus far in 2013. Somewhat unusually for a slider-heavy pitcher, it’s righties who’ve done the most damage. As I mentioned last time, he’s got fairly even splits over his (long) career, with a better K% and HR% against lefties than righties. This is partially undone by much higher walk rates against lefties, however.
1: Miller, SS
2: Franklin, 2B
3: Seager, 3B
4: Morales, DH
5: Saunders, CF
6: Smoak, 1B
7: Chavez, RF
8: Ackley, LF
9: Blanco, C
SP: FELIX
Morse sits to allow Saunders and Ackley to play. Ackley moves to left today, which is somewhat unusual, but Saunders is still the superior defensive CF as he showed last night.
James Paxton starts for the reeling Rainiers at home against Omaha tonight. This is a big game for the Canadian lefty, as he could very easily find himself in the Tacoma rotation in the event the M’s slip Joe Saunders through waivers. He’s been brilliant recently, as we’ve detailed, and another month demonstrating good command will go a long way towards putting the calls for him to shift to the bullpen to rest. Stephen Landazuri starts for High Desert where his opposing starter will be intriguing prospect or historic bonus baby bust Michael Ynoa. Ynoa signed the all-time record (at the time) signing bonus with the A’s in 2008, but injuries and ineffectiveness have kept him in single A. Even so, he was added to the A’s 40-man roster this year; they still believe in the 6’7″ Dominican, though his statistics in 2012-13 do not inspire a lot of confidence.
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Pluck me…
And Papi is on deck… (knees knocking a bit)
The Mariners traveling circus continues…
I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!!!
This is getting old
I’m always fascinated how relievers seem to need to clear the other pitcher’s runners off the bases, then they get serious. Let’s hope that’s the case here.
Hey Felix, having any doubts about reupping that contract?
Thank you for not using pencil.
Juneau-
Kinda how I always have to clear out the first glass of Scotch, then get down to some serious drinking…
Bringing on a new pitcher sort of makes my theory look worrisome…
Win, lose or draw…after this game, put the Bartender on a bus and call it quits. I’d rather be surprised by a closing effort from someone I don’t know than have this sickening feeling of deja vu game after game.
I may have lost consciousness there.
Wow PitchFX had that clearly a strike…
SHOULD HAVE BEEN A K
Alrighty… Had a stressful day already, I can’t do this…
Over and out.
Yep. What a joke.
Yeah, there’s a sick part of me just hangin’ in there to see how bad it gets.
There’s a reason they’re the Red Sox and the Mariners are the Mariners.
good thing Jack didn’t trade Oliver-NOT
Stunning, pathetic, dishearting
I feel a lot older, again.
Felix should ask to be traded if this is the best we can do after he pitches like he did tonight. This loss is embarrassing.
Sure is a good thing the M’s didn’t try and improve the team before the trade deadline. Re-signing the current gritty veterans for cheap seems more and more plausible as no one else will want them (except Morales).
I feel sick. If we had a real front office, Willhelmson would be DFA’d tomorrow just to send a fucking message that this performance is never acceptable. The Bartender has been unacceptable most of the year. I am not sure if the Mariners will be able to rebound from something like this ending. Heads should roll just because.
And, Perez has been horse shit for almost 3 weeks now as we’ll! Fuck!
I have never understood why what was good for Ackley, the number two draft choice, future face o the franchise, wasn’t good enough for Wilhelmsen. He should be doing a serious tour of the PCL. Whether in a Rainiers uniform or tending bar for someone I don’t particularly care right now.
It’s embarrassing that after the last 5 months they’re still trotting Wilhelmsen out there. Door. Ass. Bang. Lock.
It will be specially hard for the young guys to recover from a loss like this. They start realizing that the season is over and have no motivation to play better for the rest of the season.
I for one would like The King to explode just once and show some anger and frustration at this bull shit. No one would chastise him for doing so. This team needs a serious shakeup in the psyche!!!!
And Robby Thompson has been a joke!
I’m going to be honest guys, I tried to convince myself that this team had a chance in the playoff race and everything. We were only 7.5 games back of the second wild card so I tried to sell myself on the fact that we had a chance, and I’ve been watching every game in hopes that we could make that run this year. But in a way I’m kind of appreciative of tonight’s results because it brought me back to reality. I realized tonight that this team is not going anywhere this year, even though it took me a while to figure that out.
Wilhelmsen and Perez need to be sent down or cut before they leave Boston tonight. Hopefully that would be a message the rest of the pitching staff would understand.
Fuck this team.
Even if one doesn’t believe in a wild-card run, at least it has been (as of the past 30 days) an acceptable wish for this team to A) be competitive. B) continue to improve….and C) reach .500
Not sure any of these can be reached now after this loss. This may very well be devastating to this club the remainder of 2013
TW looked crappy vs Cleveland (from Row 16 behind the Ms dugout). Couldn’t throw #1 for strikes. Looked scared to throw it.
And his intro is so OVER THE TOP, it’s a disservice to Jimi!
He’s gotta be gone……but who else? Farqhar is nasty, but he’s a real wild one (Iggy Pop intro in 3, 2, 1…..)
Well now – I stopped listening at just the right time, apparently.
Like a lot of you guys here, I’ve been a Mariner fan since the beginning. In my opinion, this was the worst effort put forth by the relief pitchers that I ever recall (and remember, there were a LOT of lean years). Each and every one of them should feel horrible for being in the MLB and playing like a bunch of no-talent bums. Something needs to be done this weekend, for the good of team (and fan!) morale. Felix deserves better. WE deserve better.
You know….seriously, Danny would be better because of two things. His ball moves like crazy and he misses a lot of barrels. Secondly, the kid has swagger. He is a grinder. You can see it in his body language and his bounce. I know there in no “Bulldog Quotient” Sabermetric score. But Willhelmsen looks like a whipped puppy. You can see the fear and unsteadiness in his presence. We have seen enough!
I wish I didn’t love the Mariners so much 🙁
This game made my stomach turn. I’m glad they didn’t air any shots of Felix watching from the dugout, because it would have made me as a fan feel bad about him as a player staying loyal to this fucking garbage. Excuse my language, but I am royally pissed off.
Am I crazy or did they show Jack Z. sitting in the stands during the 9th inning meltdown? Can’t imagine how hard that would be to watch that debacle in person.
phineasphreak…….I apologize as we’ll. I have never used vulgarity before when posting on USSMARINER. Tonight just put me over the top. And…….how classy is Felix?
As it is in most years, the Mariners are simply providing wins for teams wanting them more than a group of individuals that just want to put up some personal stats. In this game, Felix was the only Mariner going for the win. Everyone else was just hoping to pad their stats for their career payoff. Wilhelmson is not an MLB pitcher anymore.
Wow. Wow. Wow. That was was a full-on slow motion devastating car crash. Multiple fatalities.
Gag Harbor-
No offense….but that doesn’t even come close to making any sense
Not that plenty of other things didn’t go wrong last night, but –
Am I the only one who finds it weird that if a manager starts to move the wrong arm and the crew chief interprets that as which pitcher he wanted, there’s no recourse to correct it? I could understand if, say, the wrong pitcher had actually stepped onto the field of play. But just because of the manager moving his arm?
Ghost, none taken. Please correct me.
Does anyone know why Wilhelmsen hasn’t been DFA since last night?
jak924, because Jack Z is the spitting image of Curly Howard, which is sadly appropriate, given that the whole Mariner organization really wouldn’t be any worse off it actually were run by The Three Stooges…
Jak, perhaps Jack Z is a masochist and derives pleasure from watching fans suffer so much?