Game 5, Mariners at Angels
Yovani Gallardo vs. Jesse Chavez, 7:07pm
I’m guessing that both the M’s and Angels come into this three game set in a foul mood. The M’s finally won a game, but it took a 9th inning rally against a great closer to do it; their line-up did not inspire a lot of confidence against the Astros surprisingly stout pitching. The Angels come in at 2-2, but can’t be happy with that. They performed the almost cliched trick of victimizing the Athletics’ bullpen back in the 2nd game, then lost Garrett Richards to injury in the 3rd – a scene that’s nearly as familiar as an Oakland reliever meltdown. Then, they were held in check by Andrew Triggs and the A’s yesterday. Both teams are staring up at an Astros club that’s at least as good as advertised.
Richards gets an MRI today, so we’ll see if the Angels week gets any worse. As it is, they’re going with reliever-turned-starter-then-back-to-relieving-and-whoopsadoodle-let’s-try-starting-again right-hander Jesse Chavez. The M’s saw him a lot when he was with the A’s, but it’s possible he’ll be using a different approach now. The A’s in the early part of this decade had some success teaching pitchers a cutter or, even better, a cutter and sinker, and giving them a very different arsenal. Brandon McCarthy was perhaps the most famous of these reclamation projects, but Chavez was another. He’d been a surprisingly ineffective reliever for several teams, but became a reliable #3-4 starter 7 years into his big league career in 2014. He maintained that effectiveness in 2015, putting in two full seasons with sub-4 FIPs and nearly 4 total WAR. Then, the A’s flipped him for reliever Liam Hendriks, and the Jays moved him back to the bullpen, where a bout of HR trouble nuked his effectiveness. This year, the Angels moved him back to the rotation, and as a guy capable of getting lots of fly ball contact, you can see why: he’ll play more than half of his games in parks that suppress fly ball contact.
In Oakland, the cutter seemed to be the solution to his persistent platoon splits. We’ve mentioned the spectrum of cutters, with some with slower speeds and lots of break being rebranded sliders, and others, like Kenley Jansen’s or Jesse Chavez’s acting like straight fastballs. Chavez pitched off of his cutter in Oakland – it was his primary fastball, and had nearly the same speed and almost the same movement as his four-seam. It had a bit less vertical rise, but like the four-seam, it’s been easy for batters to elevate. He even uses it the same way as his primary fastball: he keeps it away to RHBs and LHBs alike, and stays around the zone instead of elevating it or burying it low. It’s been a reliable pitch for Chavez, which is why it’s noteworthy that he spent this spring using it much LESS than he has before. Who knows what to make of two spring training starts, but he looked a lot more conventional, pitching off of a four-seam and sinker and mixing in the cutter instead of using the cutter as his primary pitch. Maybe he was working on things. Maybe he thought it was time to try something new, particularly after getting hit hard as a reliever in 2016. In his tiny-sample 2017, he all but abandoned the cutter to lefties, using much more of his change-up. That pitch has always been his weakest behind his fastballs and curve, so it’ll be interesting tonight to see if he’s got more confidence in it, or if his different approach this spring was just tinkering. I can imagine that Chavez using more four-seamers, particularly up in the zone, might change his batted-ball profile a bit (though the cutter was never a ground ball pitch), and it may give hitters who’ve seen him before (like most of the M’s) a new wrinkle.
1: Segura, SS
2: Haniger, RF
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Valencia, 1B
7: Dyson, CF
8: Zunino, C
9: Heredia, LF
SP: Gallardo
Please don’t be terrible, Yovani. Guillermo Heredia makes his first start, and Jarrod Dyson moves over to CF to give the struggling Leonys Martin a break.
The R’s were rained out. Check out the PCL preview below! Tony Zych will get an inning to start the game tonight, and then it’ll be the opening day starters: Sam Gaviglio for Tacoma and Chris Stratton for Sacramento.
The Arkansas Travelers got a brilliant pitching performance from Andrew Moore, but couldn’t hold onto the lead as Corpus Christi edged them 2-1. Moore went 6 scoreless giving up just 1 hit and striking out 7. Blake Perry struggled in the 8th and Zac Curtis allowed two inherited runs to score, and that was that. Ian Miller had two hits including a triple. Tonight, it’s Max Povse on the mound against Kent Emmanuel, which sounds like the name of a parochial school.
Modesto was so excited to become an M’s affiliate that they didn’t want their first game in the system to end. They played 14 innings, ultimately winning a 3-2 decision over Lake Elsinore. The top of the line-up scuffled, with Braden Bishop and Eric Filia going a combined 0-11 with 5 Ks, but the bottom of the line-up bailed them out. Ricky Eusebio (batting 9th) and Gianfranco Wawoe (7th) both homered. Nick Neidert went 4 2/3, giving up 2 runs. The pitching performance of the night might have been 2B Jordan Cowan’s. Cowan, who hails from Covington, pitched two perfect innings in the 13-14th for the win. Pablo Lopez makes his first start tonight.
Clinton got roughed up by Kane County, 13-3. A 7-run first set the tone, as the Cougars battered Ljay Newsome. Newsome hung in and ended up pitching 4 innings with 5 Ks and 0 walks, but the LumberKings bats were quiet. Luis Liberato hit a three-run HR to get Clinton on the board, but then Kane County pulled away late off of Matt Clancy and Michael Koval. Danny Garcia, a lefty the M’s got in the 15th round last year out of Miami, starts tonight against mid-tier Diamondbacks prospect Jon Duplantier, a 3rd round pick out of Rice.
I’m really hoping that Cano and Cruz find their stroke soon, C’mon boys!
seems like most games against the Angels last season started with a Trout 3 run bomb, lets see what happens here.
Lot’s of good contact, just have to find grass, rather than leather.
Good damage mitigation, could of been a lot worse.
Nice job, Kyle. Error #3 on the season.
Freaking Seager.
Give Gallardo credit for staying poised.
Rough rough start to the season, No need for panic but it is a tad bit discouraging. There’s a lot of road games in April hopefully they get it going.
5th game of the year and the offense, for the most part, has been MIA, and with games in Houston and Anaheim, you can’t really blame the weather either.
Getting shut down by Keuchel and McCullers and the Astros bullpen was one thing, but now we are on Jesse Chavez… I am trying so hard to stay patient!
Nice play there by Dyson!
Throwing the same pitch, in the same location, 3 times in a row to Trout just isn’t smart.
Nice heads up play by Dyson to bail out Gallardo.
This is just getting silly.
Yes, it’s early, but offensive struggles are a concern. Bad ABs there in the 7th against mediocre bullpen. Chavez had a good game plan and elevated fastballs, but his command wasn’t anything special.
The M’s bats are taking pitches and swinging at strikes, but don’t seem to able to drive the ball with any consistency.
I effing hate the effing Angels.
I used to hate Oakland among our division rivals, but the Angels have far surpassed that.
I just checked in….down 4 runs in the 8th? Wow. And another Seager E? Another wow. Gotta turn it around quick, before it’s too late! We can’t rely on a 10 game run in August.
JMB,
Not sure why, but the Angels have always made me far angrier than the A’s. I chalk it up to Tacoma being the A’s AAA farm club during my impressionable years; hard to hate on Canseco after cheering him on.
I often feel Texas should be the easiest to hate, but I can’t quite summon it. Not sure why. Beltre? Probably.
I’m not giving up on the Mariners, but I just bought an milb.tv subscription so I can watch the Rainiers or the LumberKings if the Mariners games keep following the same script. 😀
BTW there’s a discount code “DASH” that gets you $10 off an milb.tv subscription.
1-4. In and of itself, it’s meaningless. But then you remember that every game counts and M’s can’t afford to dig themselves a hole when the teams ahead are at least as talented (this is not akin to the Dodgers of recent years). Get it together, boys.
Pablo Lopez gave up 12 hits and 8 runs in 3 IP for Modesto. Maybe skip that game, eh, Westy?
(MiLB.tv is a treasure, and for the record they don’t show many low-minors games. But you might want it for Povse/Moore in AA and O’Neill and Vogelbach in AAA).
I liked this earlier tweet from Bakersfield (retweeted by Curto, I think):
In other bizzaro world news… the Twins are 4 – 0….
Hard to win much of anything hitting .159 as a team. Only real saving grace is all these games are on the road and its still super early.
My only two takeaways so far from this season are : I really enjoy watching Segura play and i really dislike watching Gallardo pitch.