Game 107, Blue Jays at Mariners
Blake Beavan vs. Carlos Villanueva, 7:10pm
Hisashi Iwakuma and Blake Beavan both had extremely encouraging (and somewhat unexpected) quality starts against the Rays recently. Iwakuma backed that with one of the great pitching performances of the year the other night – 13 strikeouts and 18 swinging strikes are impressive no matter who they come against. Blake Beavan isn’t going to get 13 Ks, but he too can show his new whiffier ways aren’t the product of a bad opposing line-up.
Carlos Villanueva is a soft-tossing right-hander who’s been forced into the rotation thanks to the injury problems the Jays have had this season. Once there, he’s been very solid, and his season stats look great – sub 3 ERA, 6-0 record. I’m still skeptical, given that Aaron Laffey had similarly gaudy stats despite a sub-90 fastball and so-so command. Villanueva has a good slider, so he’s traditionally had some platoon splits, so that’s why Jaso catches and that’s why Eric Thames makes his M’s debut. Incidentally, I’m glad to see Wells and Thames get a shot in the same line-up, at least for now. While he’s been scuffling a bit recently, Casper Wells has done enough to earn some regular playing time, especially given Gutierrez’s injury. The M’s may yet need to run more of a strict Wells/Thames platoon, but they don’t need to do so before it becomes absolutely necessary.
Lineup:
1: Ackley
2: Saunders (CF)
3: Montero (DH)
4: Jaso (C)
5: Seager
6: Wells (RF)
7: Carp
8: Thames (LF)
9: Ryan
SP: Beavan
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79 Responses to “Game 107, Blue Jays at Mariners”
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There ya go, Mike – Wilhelmsen is back!
I guess you have your answer about Wilhelmsmen…he’s warming up.
filthy stuff
I love that curve everytime I see it.
I think Wilhelmsmen should come out to the song “Closing Time”
Closing time…one last call for alcohol so finish your wiskey and beers…
Afterall, he is a closer and a former bartender…
dw
Tell me if this sounds weird: Thames looks a little like Greg Halman + 30 pounds of muscle.
Do not walk this man
Halman 🙁
Has anyone noticed that Mike Blowers and Dan Wilson are answering each others questions, and having a merry ol’ time replying to one another, and that niether of them have really barely acknowledged Dave? Not that Dave notices, he’d talk over them if he could I’m sure 😛
I just Google’d “Greg Halman” and, in some pictures, I can see what you mean.
Game, Set, and Match!!
wah wah wee wah
Thames – charming guy
Nice win – great homestand.
7-2 without Smoak. Once the chasm in the middle of the lineup was removed, things improved. Plus SSS and quality of opponent.
I know 8-2 without Ichiro. But, Smoak was the “catalyst” for me.
Thames’ voice really is not what I expected.
Yeah Thames definitely has personality – seems like a good guy.
Also articulate, unlike some guys.
Great win tonight. Surprised Wedge pulled Beavan at 82 pitches, I thought he’d go all the way, but glad to have a seven game winning streak!!!
John Jason looks like he’ll be lighting up a blunt later
Jaso’s beard is awesome.
After the interview with Angie, John Jaso drove off in the General Lee.
The apostrophe is wrong, boys
Nice to see young guys starting to come together.,Love Ryan’s defense and his hitting is getting better.
Wow, missed the game and then was watching highlights this morning via Gameday. The Thames homerun was a thing of beauty… Textbook inside pitch power swing…
Smoak could watch the video– a LOT. He got his hands through quickly, in tight, barrel of the bat through the ball, followed through high… Wasn’t even on the meat of the bat and muscled it 405+ into center field. I know he’s nothing major, but a LOT of our guys could use whatever hitting instruction he’s had coming up.
Also, as Shirley mentioned… Ryan’s come through with Wedge’s “I’m sticking with him, he’ll turn it around…” He’s batting .288 since July 1st.
Ackley’s been looking better, too.
Now, if Jesus can start to pull it together, we can look ahead to something fun.
Fun. Interesting word. The Mariners look like they’re having some. They’re having fun ’cause they’ve won seven in a row – or thry’ve won seven in a row ’cause they’re having fun.
Thames was a good trade. A guy who hits them for a guy who gives them up. And we keep Vargas. Sensible. Finallly.
I suddenly lke this team. Not as in, they will contend, but as in, they’re beginning to be fun to watch. That word again.
Now what could be the difference? As in, hmmmmm….
The obvious difference is they’ve gotten to play one crappy team and one team that’s been decimated by injuries.
When they played a good team recently, they won one game and lost two.
A couple weeks ago we came very close to sweeping the Royals in KC. Then they visit Safeco and we swept them.
And did you see who Toronto had pitching for them? And who wasn’t in their outfield?
So yeah – bloody obvious how we beat those guys.
Westy-
Bad pitching from weak teams aside, WOW was it refreshing to see the Mariners score runs at the home stadium. Had gotten pretty scary there for awhile. It was a new weirdness I’d never experienced– hoping for the next road trip so we might see some decent baseball…
Westy-
While yes, the opposing pitching was sub-par (okay actually pretty awful) it’s not like that has been a guarantee for offensive success for this team recently. We’ve made many guys who were replacement level or so guys look like all stars. Aaron Cook would have fit right in with our opponents this week and it could have been deemed bad opposition but he killed us earlier this year.
Even if it’s a super small sample and it was against lackluster pitching, seeing some sort of spark from our offense, particularly in Safeco was such a relief and definitely something we can build on, I think.
Marcus, MrZ –
I don’t disagree with you in the slightest. The real difference has been that we actually saw some hitting from a few infield positions (2B, 1B, SS) where previously we hadn’t been seeing much.
What it isn’t due to, though – the opinions of a couple moronic national writers notwithstanding – is the departure of Ichiro. Right field production has actually gone down since he left, unfortunately. I fully expect Wells to pick it back up, though; and Thames in left most of the time will look much better than Peguero/Robinson.
Overall, as frustrating as this team has been at times… I have still found them mostly watchable this year. I have a much higher tolerance for young guys struggling than I do for underperforming old guys.
And I have high hopes we might actually get to see some exciting, competitive baseball these next two months!