Game 116, Twins at Mariners
Dave · August 13, 2007 at 6:12 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Hernandez vs Santana, 7:05 pm.
Happy Super Awesome First In A Lifetime Great Venezuelan Pitching Matchup Day.
Felix vs Johan. The current Venezuelan ace against the future Venezuelan ace. The best pitcher alive against the guy with the best arm on the planet. This should be epic.
As such, I refuse to acknowledge the defense John McLaren has put behind Felix. It’s some kind of August 13th joke, and we’ll find out the real line-up just before gametime. No one’s stupid enough to bench Beltre and Lopez against a left-hander with the most dominant groundball guy on the staff pitching, right? Right?
Whatever. Go Felix.
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342 Responses to “Game 116, Twins at Mariners”
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That should be an error. And please I know Raul wouldn’t have gotten to the ball.
#298
To replace the void left by Julio Mateo in the Mariners bullpen.
Wow. I believe Dave but I just saw evidence of Vidro’s range. Or lack thereof. Unbelievable.
I vote we trade John for Lance Parrish, currently managing the Great Lake Loons. (Plus Lance went to my high school!)
Sean Green kicks ass.
I don’t think that’s an error, but it’s a play he should’ve had. I’d heard he was a great fielder and he’s certainly fast with a good arm, but can somebody who watched him play in the minors more (probably Dave) tell me, how good a fielder is Adam? Did he drop many balls in AAA this year?
enazario, there’s no way in hell that’s an error, give it a rest. He barely got there.
I can’t believe McLaren. I know it’s hard to understand but generally you don’t want to rely on an acquisition from one of the worst bullpens in the league when you already have one of the best bullpens in baseball. Especially after he walks the first batter on 4 pitches then gives up a single, then you leave him in to face a third batter? What the hell is wrong with you?
John Parrish enters in a close game, puts guys on base, game tied when Adam Jones drops a flyball, and the USSM server dies. That’s a bad 5 minutes.
Parrish really pitched? Seriously? Why? It’s not like there were five better options to go to in that situation… Wait, what? There were? Well I’ll be damned. Come on, sling-arm.
The only way he can be forgiven is if Ral or Richie go Funky to win this thing…
Jones defense in Tacoma was awesome. Yes, he should have caught that ball. No excuses. But it’s not a sign of any kind of flaw.
Great, is he planning on bringing Putz into a nonsave situation? McLaren’s decision makings skills tonight have baffled me beyond belief. I now know why he was a bench coach for so long
There are no more save situations as the home team.
Wow. Thanks Gardenhire!
McLaren bringing JJ into a non-save situation? Strange, since his pattern indicated…two dimensional thinking.
Wow. I don’t think I ever knew that one could “bunt out.” I guess I haven’t seen it since I started watching baseball!
If Richie wins it instead of AJ, I will still be happy
Server melts
Called it! If that’s what sucking less means, I’ll take it.
Richie! I can’t help myself; I like the guy. And I’m very happy to see a walk-off homerun rescue this game from some crap managing.
An Interesting Series of Events:
1. Richie Sexson steps to the plate.
2. I nervously bite my fingernails.
3. Pitch comes…
4. Tears of frustration come to my eyes as I curl my hand into a fist to hit my computer (MLB.tv) as I mistakenly predict another Sexson blunder at the plate.
5. Richie hits a walk off homer.
6. My head explodes
I don’t believe what I just saw. As does no one else here.
The good news is that while Jones has now dropped two fly balls in a short period of time, that won’t diminish his playing time. The reason he is not in the lineup is that guys like McClaren think he is not a “proven veteran” and therefore is more likely to make mistakes. So when he makes them, that is not a shocking event. He figures to get two starts out of every seven games. And if Richie, Ibanez and Vidro keep hitting the ball, well, we might stay in the hunt.
I think the server meltdown was the response to the Richie walkoff homerun, it’s the only possible explanation.
I now this is a serious place to talk about Mariners baseball with serious baseball fans, but it’s comments like 319 that make it even a more enjoyable experience.
When Jones dropped that ball, he also bashed into the wall and was holding his knee as he came in after the play. Let’s just pray to whatever gods we embrace that it’s only a bruise.
Give Up the Suck!
Well nobody was booing that Richie!
I was just typing “Now would be a good time to jack one Sexsy” then what do ya know, there it is.
I feel good for him though, he needed that, and if he isn’t gonna be benched anyway that’s definitely the kind of thing I like to see.
I was bitching all night (not here, obviously, but to those around me at the bar) that Gardenhire had out-managed the M’s in the past and was likely to do so again. And then he has a guy bunt with two strikes. Against Putz. Huh?
On another note, I really hope Parrish isn’t McLaren’s new Reitsma. I don’t get why he seems to have so little confidence in Green to get the job done, has he ever not?
Yeah, that bunt was bizarre. Did Gardenhire call for it?
Do we really have the 3rd best record in baseball? Wouldn’t have predicted that a few weeks ago!
Is there some way to send another open letter to the powers that be about managerial “issues” such as playing Lopez/Beltre for a groundball pitcher?
Is that the first walk-off Funk Blast?
And somehow, despite McLaren getting his playbook from a team of thousand drunk monkeys, we win anyway.
Hell, if that’s the way it has to be, then bring on the drunk monkeys.
(And speaking of drunk monkeys, what the heck is up with the the post-game show? Way more incoherent than usual – not easy to do.)
For a site that preaches regression to the mean, Richie coming around shouldn’t be that big of a revelation. I personally think that random walk theory applies as well. When a player is hitting well he can be expected to continue to hit well, until he stops hitting well. Richie certainly fit that theory when he was not hitting.
Joser,
are you sure that was Gardenhire? Quite often when a manager gives his players some rope, they hang themselves.
Re: post game show, I’m guessing Cara Capuano screwed up the team chemistry since Angie is presumably post-natal now?
Damn rookies.
As long as the drunk monkeys aren’t rally monkeys. I hate the friggin rally monkey.
Great, is he planning on bringing Putz into a nonsave situation? McLaren’s decision makings skills tonight have baffled me beyond belief. I now know why he was a bench coach for so long
I know hindsight is 20/20, but I really was trying to write this response at the time Putz came in, but the server was dying. Anyway, here goes:
As someone else mentioned, there were no save situations left in the game for JJ. Saves are dumb. Mac brought in our best reliever in a high-leverage situation. JJ helped this team win tonight. He didn’t garner the glory stat, but he held the Twins in check and let Richie win the game. This is one of the few moves Mac has made recently that I whole-heartedly agree with.
Also, hooray Richie!
In general, sure bringing on your closer for the top of the 9th is a good move. But we were facing the weakest hitters in the Twins lineups and lefties to boot. It was a perfect spot for Sherill and then use Putz for the heart of the order in the 10th if it gets that far.
The Mariners sure are doing their best to Forrest Gump their way into the playoffs, thanks mostly to McLaren. I just hope they notice it is in spite of him not because of him and search for manager in the off season.
Go M’s!
thank goodness I had nothing to do with bringing down the server.
and yes, Sir Dave, Angie did pop out the little Mentick, who, amazingly, did not weigh 40 lbs when he arrived.
It was a perfect spot for Sherill and then use Putz for the heart of the order in the 10th if it gets that far.
I hear you, to a degree, but “if it gets that far” is the key phrase. I would just hate to see Sherrill give up a run and the M’s lose while our best reliever sits on the pine. Obviously, Sherrill is a good pitcher, but he’s not the best the Mariners have to offer. Putz is just as good against lefties as he is against righties. It was a crucial spot, and Putz was the guy to go to. As long as he’s not being overused (and I don’t think he is), he should usually be the first option in high-leverage spots.
he should usually be the first option in high-leverage spots.
That would have been in the 7th.
A Felix win or not? Vidro!/Mac!
Troy J Says:
it was only 11 extra pitches but that could end up being an inning. say he starts the 8th with 89 or 100. 100 and we go to the bullpen, 89 felix gets the chance to finish the inning.
Wasn’t around my computer last night. I was so missing reading the game thread and I think I snorted beer out of my nose when I saw the Harry Canary sign. This is all hindsight of course but WFB did pretty good at third, Ichiro stunk, Adam stunk, Vidro and Sexson carried the offense… what’s going on here ???