Game 103, Mariners at Twins

marc w · July 30, 2015 at 5:00 pm · Filed Under Mariners 

JA Happ vs. Phil Hughes, 5:10pm

The M’s faced Hughes early on this year, and I talked about how Hughes – the consummate tinkerer – might want to stop adjusting things if he wanted a repeat of his excellent 2014 season. This being Hughes, that simply hasn’t worked. He’s dropped his arm angle. He’s changed his pitch mix substantially this year…TWICE. In the early going, he was throwing nothing but fastballs and hard cutters. Now, the curve ball that was a big part of his arsenal last year is back in a big way. He’s still giving up essentially no walks, as he’s followed up last year’s 1.9% BB% with a 2.1% this year. But the home run problems that bedeviled his tenure with the Yankees are back, and thus his FIP is sky-high. His K rate has also dropped dramatically, from nearly 22% last season to just under 14% now. The Twins have shocked the baseball world for much of 2015, and they still have a decent lead over the suddenly-all-in Blue Jays and Orioles for a wild card. But Hughes isn’t a big part of the reason why.

In fact, it can be a bit difficult to assign credit for the 52-48 record the Twins are sporting. By FIP, the Twins pitchers rank 25th in baseball. Their batters have been better, however, ranking way up at…24th? The Twins are solidly below average at pitching, hitting and fielding. What they HAVE been good at is sequencing. By base runs, they “should be” 11 games under .500.

1: Jackson, CF
2: Seager, 3B
3: Cruz, RF
4: Smith, LF
5: Trumbo, 1B
6: Gutierrez, DH
7: Miller, SS
8: Taylor, 2B
9: Zunino, C
SP: Happ

DJ Peterson picked up a pair of singles in his first AAA game, a 5-1 win at El Paso. Ruggiano and Montero homered for Tacoma; Montero has been red hot since his demotion, and he’ll head north to take Dustin Ackley’s spot on the 25-man roster. Forrest Snow tries to tame the unruly Chihuahuas tonight in El Paso.

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Comments

158 Responses to “Game 103, Mariners at Twins”

  1. Bremerton guy on August 5th, 2015 4:07 pm

    r-gordon: As bad he’s been this year, Rodney still has a ways to go before he reaches the heights of ineptitude exhibited by Bobby Ayala. Rodney only has 6 blown saves this year, in 48 appearances. In Ayala’s last season, in 62 appearances, he blew more saves (9) than he converted (8). But if Lloyd keeps running Fernando out there, it’s likely he’ll cruise by Bobby at about game 55.

  2. Dennisss on August 5th, 2015 4:09 pm

    Bunting was good enough for Connie Mack. Who are we to question anyway?

  3. Dennisss on August 5th, 2015 4:12 pm

    Both teams are scraping the bottom of their bullpens at this point. It’s got to end soon.

  4. Longgeorge1 on August 5th, 2015 4:17 pm

    How right you are!!!!!

  5. Bremerton guy on August 5th, 2015 4:18 pm

    Put that one on Rodney. Again.

  6. Dennisss on August 5th, 2015 4:20 pm

    Soon enough.

  7. JMB on August 5th, 2015 5:51 pm

    ‘Twas the perfect storm: Carson Smith had a few shaky outings, Fernando Rodney had pitched decently… Rodney gets a shot at having his job back.

    The results were neither surprising nor disappointing.

  8. JMK on August 7th, 2015 5:12 pm

    I hope this is temporary.

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