Game 77, Royals at Mariners
Yusei Kikuchi vs. Homer Bailey, 7:10pm
After a series of games in which he faced the same team in fairly rapid succession, Yusei Kikuchi now faces the Royals team he last saw in early-mid April, at the height of the M’s blitzkrieg of the AL.
Kikuchi remains enigmatic, with a fastball that yields too much contact (he and his opponent tonight, Homer Bailey, rank 4th and 5th lowest for whiff per swing on fastballs, for pitchers who’ve thrown at least 500 of them), but he’s showing signs of adapting, pitching around some hits against a great Minnesota line-up, for example.
Even further strides from Kikuchi may not ensure, you know, wins, as the M’s pen blew another lead last night. But it’d be a good sign of either Kikuchi’s ability to self-diagnose and correct issues, or the coaching staff’s ability to help…or both.
1: Smith, CF
2: Crawford, SS
3: Santana, RF
4: Vogelbach, DH
5: Narvaez, C
6: Seager, 3B
7: Murphy, DH
8: Gordon, 2B
9: Williamson, LF
SP: Kikuchi
Tacoma’s in Round Rock tonight with newly acquired MLB vet Sean Nolin on the mound. Tacoma’s remade their roster with lots of free agents with MLB time on their BBREF pages.
West Virginia’s in their all-star break, but the AZL just started last night with an AZL M’s Win over Chicago.
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I’m pretty sure if MiLB shared MLB’s drug policy, Eric Filia would be the M’s left fielder right now. If not he’d almost certainly be the best hitter on hopelessly depleted Rainiers.
Anyway – I hope all is not lost with him.
(One other thing… Do you know who is now leading the IE 66ers in HR? Even though he only has 52 AB’s… And will probably be leading them in strikeouts in around 3 weeks…)