Game 74, Mariners at Royals
Hisashi Iwakuma vs. James Shields, 5:10 pm
Perhaps, disenchanted with the perpetual tightrope walk that is Erasmo Ramirez starts, you were wondering about the availability of one Taijuan Walker. To which, I must regrettably point out that in yesterday’s outing, young Mr. Walker gave up six earned in five innings, boosted by two dingers, though the K/BB was acceptable at 4/1.
We knock the Royals for the silliness of the “Trust the Process” cult, which few seem to buy into, but this year it appears to be paying dividends for them (bear in mind that Dayton Moore has been at the helm of the Royals for far longer than Jack Zduriencik has been in charge of the Mariners). They gave up Wil Myers, but James Shields has been worth more and the team leads the division ahead of the Tigers. But when your team’s hopes seem to hinge on Sabean-ing your way into contention now and then… well, I certainly feel my misgivings about rooting for these Mariners even when they’re good and I like baseball a lot more than I do other sports. By the way, the Moore and Sabean remarks are for those of you who think that it’s a given that Zduriencik is on a hot seat. It’s the same process that permits one to continue starting an over-the-hill hitter because he hit a dinger recently enough to remember it, so perhaps the problem is not so much the GM.
Shields has slightly reverse splits for his career, but this year has been slightly worse against left-handers, whom he’s always walked a bit more. ‘Kuma is ‘Kuma, whether you’re in the camp that calls him The Bear or you’re in the camp that tries to call him The Machine (note: cyborg bears are not a resolution to this or any other problem). He’s been pretty good against the Royals, but Shields isn’t so bad himself.
Tonight’s minor league news opens with me complaining that the Rainiers have two days in a row prioritized Justin Smoak and Xavier Nady over Ji-man Choi. Matt Palmer is on the mound for them tonight. In Jackson, Steve Landazuri makes only his second start since April, and back in April he looked like one of the better next-wave pitching prospects we might have. And Julio Morban has been activated from the DL. Will wonders never cease? Unsworth is going for High Desert, Huijer is pitching for a Clinton game in progress, Cleto tries to stop the skid against Tri-City, and Littell, an interesting late-rounder from last year, goes for Pulaski. We also have Arizona opening the season, which will mean first looks at Jackson, Morgan, Muhammad, and Gorgas, along with summer leaguers and rehab stints for various players we’ve been wondering about. Huzzah.
RF Endy Chavez
CF James Jones
2B Robinson Cano
DH Kyle Seager
1B Logan Morrison
LF Dustin Ackley
C Mike Zunino
SS Rad Miller
3B Willie Boom Boom
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22 Responses to “Game 74, Mariners at Royals”
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Wait. Seager at DH? Who’s at third?
Oh….
As someone who, like Boom Boom, went to ASU, I don’t know if you have more or less right to complain about it.
Replacement level top and bottom.
So, Mariners baseball is like the lowest-possible budget porn?
Bunt – sigh.
Chavez contnues to lead off, while some say he doesn’t belong on the club at all. I guess I have sympathy for Endy, since Yuniesky B took away a year or two of his career while they were Mariners.
“Lowest possible budget porn”
– Priceless !!! –
Well done.
So do we blame the Hitting Coach or the Manager for this ineptitude at the plate?
LoMo leading off with a bunt….that’s just giving away outs with 1 pitch!
He’s trying to bunt for a hit against the shift. He’s just not very good at it … And he’s not very good at going to the opposite field when he swings. Simply stated, he’s not very good.
Shift “that”!!!!!
Whomp whomp.
Well that certainly makes up for that 1 pitch at bat earlier, thank you LoMo.
Morrison and Moustakas with home runs in the same inning.
Locust might be on their way.
Wow – Nice play big fella!
Great job LoMo.
We have already exceeded our average runs per game. We are toast!!
!! Miller!
Who Died and possessed Brad Miller!!!!
That was useful!
May you now be exorcised of your underhand toss demon.
That Aoki at-bat was great unintentional comedy.
How bout Brad Miller? The anti-Franklin. Lots of folks on here had written him off, but he’s fighting back and getting through it. Good for the kid and the M’s!!
I dont think anyone wrote Miller off, but he definitely needed time to work on things. I thought he should have done that at AAA, but the Mariners had no one else.
As a Sun Devil, I think I have every right to complain. And, to point out that Boom Boom now wears a number exactly one-half of the number he wore when I first moved to Seattle and he was on the roster. If the numbers don’t lie, does that mean he’s half the player he used to be?
(I’m sure someone thought of that before I did.)
Eastside Suds,
The anti-Franklin? Franklin hasn’t even had 50 at-bats at the MLB level this year and Miller had more than that in May when his average went from .180 to .158. It is great that Miller seems to be turning it around but please don’t compare a player that is getting all the chances in the world to succeed to a player that has barely been on the MLB 25-man roster this season.