Game 70, Phillies At Mariners
Pineda vs Oswalt, 7:10 pm.
The big story of the day is obviously Dustin Ackley’s Major League debut, and as expected, he’s being put in the bottom of the order to begin with. If he hits, hopefully it won’t take too long for Wedge to move him up.
The other question was how Wedge would handle third base with Ackley’s arrival. Today’s decision is to stick with Figgins and use Kennedy at DH, meaning another night on the bench for Jack Cust. It’s pretty clear that he’s on the outs here, as Wedge simply doesn’t value the base on balls, and that is Cust’s primary skill. He’s only played in four of the last 10 games, going 0 for 12 in those appearances. He already had Carp and Peguero cutting into his playing time, and now with Kennedy getting starts at DH too, the writing is on the wall – I wouldn’t expect Jack Cust to be on the roster too much longer.
Ichiro, RF
Ryan, SS
Kennedy, DH
Smoak, 1B
Olivo, C
Peguero, LF
Ackley, 2B
Figgins, 3B
Gutierrez, CF
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149 Responses to “Game 70, Phillies At Mariners”
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That’s three hard hit balls tonight for Ackley. Fantastic.
How low can Figgins go?
Guti needs a week off.
Ichiro baller my god!
I’m sorry we doubted you Ichiro, please forgive us.
I certainly didn’t expect to chase Oswalt from the game.
Hope guti can figure it out
Not good with Peggy in the 5 hole. Pitching around Smoak and Peggy swinging at everything.
The rumors of Ichiro’s demise appear to have been a bit premature.
Ackley obviously can’t play second.
The lookout landing game thread almost melted my iPhone.
What is up with Olivo?!
From “The Catcher And The Guy,” by Dustin “Ackley Kid” Ackley: “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy Little League career was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that Ken Griffey Jr. kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”
Figgins needs like, 50 days off to watch some games.
That was amazing Thom
Is it wrong that I hoped Figgy got injured a little on that foul ball?
I started Ackley over Votto and Pedroia on my fantasy team today!
“Anyway it was the Friday of the baseball game with Philadelphia. The game with Philadelphia was supposed to be a very big deal around Seattle. It was the last game of the year, and you were supposed to commit suicide or something if Old Seattle didn’t win.”
“I kept telling the crumby batboy: ‘Stop calling me ‘Ackley kid,’ God damn it. I’m old enough to be your lousy father.'”
Glorious Thom.
“this game was making me feel real sexy”
WTFIGGINS!
Wow good job Figlet….
Figgins! I know that wasn’t an easy play, and appreciate him going into the stands earlier, but my does he infuriate me!
Ryan had that you fuckity fuck
Show some flippin emotion Figgins. Do you even care?
Damn, that was a good game. Might have to watch on the rewatch!
Big League Play by RYAN!!! That was a beautiful play
Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.
Figgins can take dumps on plays, and Ackley might not be the best fielder, but thank GOD for Ryan’s impeccable defense.
Woot! Mariners win! So glad Ichiro is getting back to his normal self, makes this lineup much better
B. Ryan’s interviews are the best lol.
My favorite team as a child beat by my Mariners at home…in my new hometown: Love it!
PS: Beltre would have made that foul off of Utley look routine…
Man, someone needs to tell Dave Sims he doesn’t have to use the word “glide” on EVERY FRIKKIN’ PLAY involving Gutierrez.
The hidden beauty of that last play, was Ackley holding up from snagging that ball, and letting Ryan take it, as he had the better position. Great read.
M’s magic number is 93!
Hah. Agreed.
I think Brendan Ryan is giving us the best SS we’ve had since Carlos Guillen gave us 2.7 WAR back in 2001.
After his April the idea that he had a useful bat to go with his glove seemed pretty far fetched. I’m not saying his .912 OPS in May is sustainable, but its nice that he can come up with a month like that occasionally.
Charlie Manuel putting Ibanez in left with a DH spot available has got to be one of the single most indefensible moves in the history of managing.
Oh, I’m sure Charlie was just thinking back about all those great plays Raul made when he played LF here. There was that time, you know, he, uh….
Okay. You win.
Remember how frustrated we used to be when Hargrove and McLaren would never lift Raul for a defensive replacement in the late innings?
Five years later Manuel still leaves him in LF all nine innings.
From the world wide leader:
Oh, and what an experience it was.
Ichiro saw where Ryan’s ball was going in the seventh and knew he wouldn’t need to slide to score. After all, unlike Charlie Manuel, he played center field next to Raul for a couple of years. Or, more accurately, he played left-center and center field next to Raul for a couple of years. I love Raul, but he was a DH a long time ago.
Hey Carson – only saw your call for beer now, phone was off and I was caught up in the game. Next time. 🙂 Aren’t we all overdue for a blogger night at the ballpark, come to think of it?
Crowd wasn’t as big as I’d hoped, but big enough to make the ovations for Raul and Ackley (and the booing for Figgins…) enjoyable. Wish I’d stuck around afterward, apparently Ryan was signing stuff like no one’s business in the dugout after the game…
I’ve noticed that managers tend to give players credit for experience without factoring in how good or how bad that experience turned out to be. 😀
… and there was great joy in Mudville
“Walking papers” seems to be an appropriate, climactic ending for JC. As a matter of fact, I am not sure how I didn’t end up coming up with that for his nickname – two months ago.
Although he is not “completely useless” as I recall having referred to him at one time in the past (which I was wrong about – by the way), his level of production will not be difficult to replace – and he won’t be missed.
Ackly looked great last night. Excellent idea of the strike zone and a real nice compact swing. He also turned in a superb double play. Worst case scenario with a guy barrelling in on him late and his legs still on the ground … but he spun and delivered a bullet to Smoak – and got out of the way just well enough to not be injured on the play. That was a tough double play to turn, but he did it very well.
Guti has got to get going and Figgy … well, nothing more needs to be said about him. His play has said it all.
I’m rather concerned with Guti. Especially given our quite vocally old-school manager, I wouldn’t be surprised if Guti is basically playing hurt – his gut problem is affecting his play, in other words.
Right now he’s basically just a slightly better fielding Michael Saunders – and fielding was something Saunders was doing well.
If Guti is still sick, he really needs to deal with that first. In the end that’s what’s best for the team.
As an aside – the fact that Guti’s fielding numbers are better than Saunders’ shows just how special Guti is. Saunders was no slouch out there; but Guti is world class.
Tonight’s lineup, as posted on the Mariners site:
Ichiro! RF
Ryan SS
Kennedy 3B
Smoak 1B
Olivo C
Pegeuro LF
Ackley 2B
Carp DH
Halman CF
Dimes to donuts Ryan called him off on that ball. Ackley doesn’t pull off until the last moment, and it’s a bit sudden.
Doesn’t take away from the play, though. Awareness of your DP partner’s location is part of learning that position.