Game 32, Mariners at Yankees
DMZ · May 9, 2005 at 5:16 pm · Filed Under Game Threads
RHP Meche v LHP Randy Freaking Johnson. 4:05 our time, FSN.
The Mariners have been bad against lefties. Randy Johnson is left-handed. He’s also really, really good.
Also, Ichiro’s been in a bit of a funk lately.
So question of the day: since it looks like only injury will ever get Beltre/Boone/Ibanez/Ichiro/Winn out of the lineup, who do you think gets injured out of those five? It’s an interesting exposure v. fragility thing — I’d pick Ibanez if he was playing left all the time, but as a DH? I’m going to go with Boone. I think he’ll get caught napping at second and take ground ball off his leg and miss a couple games with a nasty thigh bruise.
Comments
255 Responses to “Game 32, Mariners at Yankees”
It was classic how Posada stood up on that last pitch to make sure Mariano got the pitch up high enough out of the strike zone. Then to see Dobbs get handcuffed on it, just as they had planned. They played him like a drum, and everyone could see it coming.
Why does *anyone* put Jeff Nelson into a game, particularly a close game? I mean, has Hargrove paid absolutely no attention to his track record? Hello? This is Mr Jeff Give Up the Run Nelson. Do they have to hang a sign around his neck before the managers pay attention? He can’t make the close!!!!
RE #230 As far as I’m concerned the Mariners have had 3 slam dunk Hall of Famers play significant parts of their careers with the Mariners (I don’t count Gaylord Perry). While I see lots of grumbling about A-Rod, my basic memory is of Opening Night in 1996 when he drove in the winning RBI in extra innings and I told my buddies to enjoy the ride because they were looking at a future All Star and probably Hall of Famer and of his last game with the Mariners — 2 homeruns and a infield single in the 9th to bring Edgar up with one last chance against Mariano Rivera in Game 6 of the 2000 ALCS. I thought he was a class act then and even though he suffers from being too scripted, I still follow the Yankees primarily to see how he (or the Big Unit) are doing. Barring injury he is very likely to reach 600 home runs. Why not just enjoy a fabulous baseball player?
Griffey is clearly the dominant Mariner of all-time as much as I love Edgar. He was the best player in baseball over the course of his decade with Seattle and is still the most likely of the trio to return here for his final curtain call. (While it wouldn’t necessarily make sense from a financial standpoint, I still wouldn’t mind seeing if the Mariners couldn’t take him off the Reds and package Winn and Boone for some genuine pitching prospects or a catcher if we determine by mid-season that Olivo isn’t the answer.) But I remember him wagging his finger no to fans in the center field beer garden when asked whether he was coming back. He spent those last couple months just swinging for the fences with no real interest in playing winning baseball, and I for one was ready to let him go at the time.
The Big Unit deserves to go down as the dominant left-hander since Koufax and is one of the top 5 all time. He always seemed the most emotional of the trio, and I don’t think he tanked it in 1998 as much as he simply wasn’t in the emotional place he needed to be to pitch as effectively as he did subsequently. (His strikeout rates were just as good with Seattle, but his concentration was not what it needed to be to get the big out when needed.) But I personally blamed Mariner management for refusing to even negotiate another contract with him and never held it against RJ.
Basic point of too long a post: all three are Hall of Famers who at the very least established themselves as genuine All Stars while in Seattle. Can’t we just enjoy the memories of their time in Seattle and their continuing accomplishments without running any of them down?
We are still only 5 games out of first?!
# 248 Don’t be too hard on Boone, at least when he isn’t striking out he has warning track power.