Game 37, Mariners at Red Sox
Vargas vs Lester, 4:05 pm.
It’s raining in Boston, as it is in much of the country today, so this game may or may not happen.
As for Jason Vargas, he gets a good test tonight against a pretty good line-up and a left field fence that is not that far from the plate. I like Vargas as a solid back-end starter, but don’t get too carried away with his early season numbers. Despite the increase in strikeouts, his contact rate is actually up over last year, and his strike percentage is down slightly, so odds are pretty good that the increase in strikeouts is just random variation and he’ll get back to something closer to his usual strikeout rate as the season goes on. As usual, he’s displaying some pretty significant home/road splits, as Safeco is the perfect spot for his skillset, but Fenway is a bit less suited to lefty fly ball guys, so this isn’t a great match-up for him. If the weather affects his command at all, this could go poorly.
In terms of the line-up, Smoak’s back up to the 5th spot in the order thanks to his offensive exploits in New York. Let’s hope he keeps showing signs of life. Ackley’s DH’ing again with Seager sliding over to second base and Liddi playing third, but don’t read too much into this, as the team is in the midst of a stretch of 20 straight games played, so you’ll likely see all the regulars get a turn through the DH spot over the next couple of weeks.
Ackley, DH
Wells, LF
Ichiro, RF
Montero, C
Smoak, 1B
Seager, 2B
Liddi, 3B
Saunders, CF
Ryan, SS
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62 Responses to “Game 37, Mariners at Red Sox”
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Was tempted to wait for the replay, but here I am, happy that I didn’t!
Ackley’s been hitting a whole-lot better over the last week or so. I don’t mind outs so much when the ball was hit well. It’s those pulled-grounders that drive me crazy.
I heard it was nearly impossible to be shut out at Fenway. I think I heard, incorrectly.
Its the pop ups to short LF that drive me crazy.
Routine fly ball. Joke poke to the monster.
Ichiro!
Smoaky!
I’m pretending it’s still early and they can come-back.
Smoak double!
Hey, a run.
8 hits, 0 walks, 1 run.
Well done Mariners!
I missed the end of the game – not particularly broken up about that, obviously!
It’s nice to see Smoak showing some signs of life – let’s hope it continues.
And Ichiro! came through with two more hits today. I don’t care what Wedge says – I think Ichiro! is back! Of course Wedge seems to think painting stripes on a horse makes it a zebra…