Game 120, Orioles at Mariners – Two Struggling Rotations Collide

marc w · August 14, 2017 at 6:14 pm · Filed Under Mariners 

Yovani Gallardo vs. Kevin Gausman, 7:10pm

So I’ve just flown off on vacation, and to make things interesting, I’ve come down with some stupid illness, so I don’t think I can watch this one. Did the series against the Angels literally sicken me? We can’t rule it out, friends.

The Orioles were supposed to be a team that could win despite a lackluster rotation. They had a great offense last year, and a dominant bullpen, headlined by closer Zach Britton. With steady if uninspiring guys like Chris Tillman and Wade Miley around, this really could’ve worked. Instead, everyone in the rotation regressed, including tonight’s starter and perennial ‘Maybe he’ll put it together this season’ tease, Kevin Gausman.

The M’s kind of liked their rotation coming out of spring training. Felix had done strength training, Paxton turned into PAXTON midway through last year, and Smyly/Iwakuma could add some innings. A whole lot went wrong there, and now the O’s and M’s are among the league’s worst rotations. The O’s actually have it worse, because while the M’s defense drives a low BABIP and thus fewer runs than FIP would think, Baltimore’s defense adds fuel to the dumpster fire that is their rotation, pushing their ERA to a steroid-era-esque 5.53.

I mocked the O’s inability to develop pitchers yesterday, but Gausman’s the new example of this longstanding phenomenon. The 26 year old throws 96, and has two different fastballs along with a splitter and slider. This should be enough to do some damage, and he’s put together two good partial years, but then he’ll have a season like this one. Homers have always been an issue, but they’re not appreciably higher than last year. Gausman’ been hurt by his defense and a problem putting away lefties.

1: Segura, SS
2: Alonso, 1B
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Heredia, LF
7: Gamel, RF
8: Zunino, C
9: Dyson, CF
SP: Gallardo

Comments

16 Responses to “Game 120, Orioles at Mariners – Two Struggling Rotations Collide”

  1. mrakbaseball on August 14th, 2017 7:49 pm

    Gallardo in his natural state, surrounded by opposing baserunners.

  2. Sowulo on August 14th, 2017 7:51 pm

    not anymore

  3. Milendriel on August 14th, 2017 8:00 pm

    They should just let Gallardo go the distance. At this rate it’ll only take about 300 pitches…

  4. Sowulo on August 14th, 2017 8:51 pm

    450. You forgot to calculate that he will be giving up 10+ homeruns per inning but the time he hits 200 pitches.

  5. WTF_Ms on August 14th, 2017 9:05 pm

    Who can tell us the highest ERA in the Majors this year?

  6. 15andcounting on August 14th, 2017 9:17 pm

    And another night of Casey Lawrence mop up duty…at least this time Servais put him in when we were already out of it and not up by 5. Seems like he throws every night

  7. Grayfox3d on August 14th, 2017 9:34 pm

    This is basically the same team that had the second wild card spot less than a week ago? Because right now it doesn’t look like they could beat a beer league team…

  8. mksh21 on August 14th, 2017 9:45 pm

    Hey at least we got Women in Baseball night to look forward to… Crap it isn’t hot chicks in bikinis it’s actual women who do boring crap in baseball. This season sucks.

  9. MKT on August 15th, 2017 2:26 am

    A coincidental follow-up to my mention of how Robert Ramsay had battled brain cancer — glioblastoma — from his Mariner days until it finally killed him a year ago: a number of other baseball players, Philadelphia Phillies in particular, have also died from glioblastoma. But the numbers are too small to draw definitive conclusions from.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/sports/baseball/brain-cancer-phillies-daulton.html?_r=0

  10. davepaisley on August 15th, 2017 11:30 am

    mksh21

    That is just a completely reprehensible comment.

    Given the outstanding women that cover the Mariners from major TV networks to LL to the thousands of female M’s fans that love baseball and are extremely knowledgeable about it, your comment stands out like sewage in a swimming pool.

  11. eponymous coward on August 15th, 2017 2:13 pm
  12. mrakbaseball on August 15th, 2017 3:09 pm

    I remember people drawing conclusions about all the former Phillies who later had cancer was that they were all exposed to the Vet’s turf. Probably a coincidence considering the hundreds and hundreds of former Phillies who don’t have cancer.

  13. mksh21 on August 15th, 2017 3:57 pm

    davepaisley

    Holy crap take a joke. Wow overreaction of the century.

  14. Sowulo on August 15th, 2017 6:29 pm

    Inappropriate joke. Very bad taste. The kind of joke that was probably being told among friends at a certain rally in Virginia the other day. Yes, I went there. The best humor has its roots in truth, not ignorance.

  15. mksh21 on August 15th, 2017 7:44 pm

    Wow. You guys have gone off the deep end. But you are so progressive I commend you. Can’t even make a joke about girls without being a Nazi now. What a joke of a site this has become .

    Hey nobody ever try and make light of a bad season ever again unless its a knock knock joke . Enjoy your echo chamber and pretend you give a rats ass about women in baseball so your partners don’t give you a dirty look.

  16. eponymous coward on August 15th, 2017 10:04 pm

    Crap it isn’t hot chicks in bikinis it’s actual women who do boring crap in baseball

    Enjoy your echo chamber and pretend you give a rats ass about women in baseball

    You sound like a nice person.

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