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Friday, May 31, 2019

A real baseball game



The truth of the adage that defense and pitching wins baseball games was driven home in the Ms 4-3 win over the Angels tonight.  And the contrast to the bad pitching and ugly defense of the last few game made really clear.

Mike Leake pitched a beautiful game, just 5 hits and 2 runs over seven innings.  His mix of pitches was superb and, except for back-to-back homers to Trout and Ohtani (no sin in this world, these are the guys who can beat you) he handled the Angels line-up easily.  The M's were aided by some eye-popping d: Murphy throwing out a runner, Haniger’s full body layout catch in right-center and Seager's bare-handed throw off a ninth inning squibber.  And Bass got the save taking care of the last four Angels in an inning and a third.

Been awhile, but this is what real, winning baseball looks like and, by golly, it just makes you feel good to watch it.

Game ball goes to Tom Murphy who caught an excellent contest.  He and Leake work so well together.  And he can hit - a double, a couple of inches short of a homer, followed by an opposite field blast that did go for a home run.  Also, so satisfying to see Jay Bruce hit his 300th career home run, which just happened to make the difference for the win.

Nicely done.

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Just keep the drinks coming



Sitting down in Portland waiting for tonight’s game against the Angels to begin.  Still muttering after yesterday's loss to the Rangers.  At one level the Ms showed signs of maybe figuring it out.  On another level, more stupid errors and questionable fielding, unreliable relief pitching, all the pieces in place for a comeback when Seager, who has proven he can hit to the opposite field pulls the ball directly to the first-baseman to crush all manner of hopes with a game-ending, hopes for all sorts of future-ending 3-6-1 doubleplay.

The Rangers are not a good team, if anything their power or nothing line-up and marginal pitching resembles the Mariners, who they have dominated.  They do, however, appear the catch and throw the ball reliably.  Guess that explains it.

The game at hand:  Kikuchi walks first to batters he faces.  Davis comes out to settle him down.  Pujols hits a run-scoring single.  What did Davis tell Yusei?  It didn't work.  Sitting in a bar for dinner, I order another Manhattan.

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

My biggest worry


The four best coaches/managers I've ever seen, George Allen (look him up), Chuck Knox, Pete Carroll and Lou Pinella all had different ways of playing the game, but they were exactly the same when it came to their passion for winning.  And their visceral hatred of losing. And losers.  There was absolutely no room in the clubhouse, sideline/dugout or field for anyone who wasn't totally committed to winning.  No time to take a blow or sulk or do anything but focus on winning.

That's my biggest concern for these Mariners.  I believe DiPoto is correct in his idea of taking a step back and reimagining this team.  With one warning.

While starting the process of learning to win, take care that you don't teach players and coaches to get accustomed to losing.

Where was Marco last night?  Four innings, 8 runs (two unearned, but still)?  Are DiPoto and Servais on top of this?  Do they realize the damage that's done by letting the team play bad baseball?

I watched Beckham walk away from a strikeout in a critical moment a couple of games ago.  He didn't look at all upset.  Just a neutral look on his face.  Another K.  No surprise there.  Just part of another losing losing game.

Stop it! Wake up.  Now!

I once heard someone say, maybe Wyman, that Chuck Knox would stand and look each player in the eye when they came off the field into the tunnel after losing a game.  All these years later the thought of the look on his face was still terrifying.  Losing is not okay!

I don't mind losing if it motivates getting better.  Mallex is showing me that.  So has Seager.  But if Mitch and Marco are the heart of this reimagined team they better show it in every at bat and every pitch.  And I expect Servais to expect, no, demand that and DiPoto to back him up.


Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Turned the corner yet?



I don't think this is a team that should be playing .250 baseball.  Of course they are, that after that unrealistic 13 and 2 start they've played 11-30 ball.  But recall my discussion of "regressing to the mean" when they were so hot.   It cuts both ways.  Probability tells us the mean is .500.  My guess is the Ms are somewhere between .250 and .500.  If they don't go out of there way to pitch dumb, they could avoid losing 100 games.

On top of the Vogie monster shot and the Mallex sb-cycle, saw something else new for this season.. 9 hits and 6 walks, lots of baserunners.  Seven singles!

Another interesting analytics piece by Jake Mailhot in Lookout Landing.  I'm not sure I buy his conclusion, but I find his methodology fascinating.  His form of analysis, looking at outcomes pitch by  pitch reinforces what I've always taught about statistics:  it's simply another way, not the only or the best necessarily, to represent reality.  A called strike or a foul ball hit on a pitch outside the zone is an event, just one moment in the nine-inning narrative of this thing called a baseball game.  But it as also a point of data providing a clue as to a batter's approach (intuition?) at the plate.  He has to make a decision.  As swift as it is, it is neither random or unconscious.  It is the result of thousands of these moments and what he has learned.

https://www.lookoutlanding.com/2019/5/28/18642778/mitch-haniger-strikeout-rate-fastball-whiffs

And, at the end of the day?  Another double digit loss.  Was fun while it lasted.

Monday, May 27, 2019

Back home full of surprises


A win!  Two extraordinary highlights.

Basic stuff first, another decent start for Milone, but this time the bullpen held on and got him the win.  Not only do Gearrin, Biddle, Adams and Bass shut the Rangers down, the M's score three runaway runs in the 7th and 8th, highlighted by a mammoth home run from Vogelbach to the third deck of T-mobile.  Not since the home-run hitting contest at the All-Star game have I seen a ball up there.  An impressive blow.

To top that, Mallex Smith walks and steals for the cycle... walks, steals second, steals third, steals home!

Particularly impressive relief from Jesse Biddle.  Who?  Somebody who can hold the other team back?  Nicely done.

One more surprise:  Kyle Seager two opposite field singles.

Sunday, May 26, 2019

Deja vu all over and all over and all over again



Well, I've been looking for a pattern and these three straight losses in Oakland may have revealed it.

Fairly okay starting pitching.  Give up two, three or four runs early.  But keep them close.

Mariner hitting low or ineffective.  A run or two, lots of missed opportunities.

Around the 7th offense shows signs of life, enough to raise hopes of comeback.

Relievers come in.  Ineffective, too.  Give up enough runs to put game just out of reach.

Offense gets hot in 8th of 9th, but just not enough.

Rinse, wash, repeat.

Saturday, May 25, 2019

Different ballpark, same game



The change of scenary from Texas to Oakland didn't help.  Ms started hitting, but never got in synch... they ended up with 11 left on base after five and only one run.  LeBlanc pitched alright but gave up an early 3-run home run.  Just when the offense looked like they were ready to make a run for it, Gearrin failed to hold them and it was all too little too late.

Again, my pitching logic is tested.  Maybe I'm thinking wrong.  With two runners on base wouldn't a pitcher be particularly cautious about throwing a pitch the batter could drive for a home run?Obviously I'd be looking for an out, but in those circumstances the last thing I'd want is a three-run homer.  If I'm going to give up any runs, less is better than more, right?

Oh, yeah, there was an A's run scored on a throwing error, too.  Again.

Friday, May 24, 2019

A blessed relief



I can't say going a day without a Mariner's game was all that bad.  They have become for me, a fan, unpleasant to watch, and as a blogger, painful to recount.  Not having a game yesterday was just what I needed.  And listening to comments on talk radio, I wasn't the only one.

Back at it tonight.

I did find a couple of interesting things to read:

Here's a good update on "lost" Mariners by Matt Roberson of Lookout Landing:

https://www.lookoutlanding.com/2019/5/23/18636731/checking-in-on-the-seattle-mariners-exes-trades-former-mariner-dipoto-2018-19-offseason-cano-diaz

This piece by John Trupin, also from Lookout Landing, is heavy on analytics, but raises some interesting points to flesh out out thinking, and concerns, about Mariner pitching:

https://www.lookoutlanding.com/2019/5/21/18634009/the-mariners-need-to-abandon-their-fastballs



Thursday, May 23, 2019

Trying to keep calm



The ten-run losses are devastating, humiliating, but the one run low-scoring defeats like yesterday's 2-1 to the Rangers, just suck the life out of you.  Especially when one of the two-runs is unearned, the result lf an error that extended the inning one more batter.  He doubles, a run scores.

If I feel this bad I can only imagine what goes through starter's mind.  All pumped up, ready to face a tough line-up of hitters.  Hit the first batter... uh oh.  Bam bam, a slick double play from a new infield!  A grounder to first, EE has it.  Running to cover firstbase... good break,  getting out of the first inning.  Wait! Throw out of reach.  Can't get it.  Oh shit!  Inning still going.  Gotta get pumped up again.  Oh no.  Batter is Mazzara... killing us this series.  Get him to a 1-2 count.  Almost out lf this.  Crack!  Line drive to right, off the wall.  Run scores.  Down 1-0 already.  Gotta stop this now.  Forsyth.  First pitch, fly to center.  Hold my breath.  Whew, Mallex catches it and holds on.  Done, c'mon, guys get a run back.

And, ultimately the Ms did get a run.  But so did Texas.  And because of the error that fronted them a run, the Mariners, with little offense, lost themselves another game.

Here's hoping all this bad baseball in 2019 means great baseball in 2021.

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Maybe ok


All the way back in spring training I questioned the wisdom of replacing Mike Zunino with Omar Narvaez.  I was never concerned about his hitting, which has turned out to be better than expected and nearly as powerful  (if not as jaw-dropping) as Mike Z's.  It was Omar's defensive skills that troubled me.

To be fair, he seems to be an okay catcher.  Admittedly my skepticism has caused me to look carefully at every passed ball and missed tag at the plate, but in fairness he looks alright... not great, but pretty standard.  His progress in framing pitches has gotten better.  What I can't determine is how much, if any, of the blame for bad pitch selection can be passed on to him, the pitchers or Paul Davis. The homers on grooved two-strike fastballs are someone's fault... seems like the catcher would be a good place to examine.

What I hadn't counted on was his determination and success as a clutch hitter.  I love to watch this guy at the plate.  He is impressively composed and focused, whatever the count or situation.  He's a wily hitter who works the count snd hits the ball.. hard.

But for an inch or two he could have won last night's game against the Rangers.  He hit a home run and missed another by no more than two inches.  The rest of the M's bats except for EE remained silent, but Omar kept the team in there.

I'm starting to like this guy.

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Just another one run loss


Well, not exactly.  The Ms dropped their road-trip opener to the Rangers 10-9, but in a fashion amply demonstrating the team's few strengths and many weaknesses.

Mike Leake, uncharacteristically, gave up five runs in the first, maybe watching the Twins beat up the other starters this way left him with the impression the game is best played with his team down by bunches of runs early.  He yielded another two in the fourth, it was just not his night and the Mariners looked to sink out of sight until after five, the bats woke up.

Of course as their late rally started, with two runs and more hot hitting from the usual suspects, Encarnacion, Santana, Healy and Beckham, two new relievers Garton and Markel gave up three to put them further back.  But Seattle never quits and a Beckham grand slam and another Vogie bomb brought them to one run, but too short, to catch Texas.

Who lost this game?  Pitching, again.  But who really lost it?  Leake?  He pitched well this season... every starter is allowed a bad one now and again.  Servais?  Maybe he should have pulled Leake earlier, but a bad starter for this team may still be better than an even worse reliever... as Garton and Markel proved a couple of innings later.

This was Garton's fault.  He sets us up with an 11 pitch one-two-three sixth and comes back in the 7th, same guy, different pitcher, and immediately gives up a double and home run.  Markel comes in, works the count to 3 and 1 and gives up a homer to the first batter he facex.

Dipoto's ability to find good power hitters is more than matched by his failure to find good relievers.  That's a fair summary of this season.  Maybe Jerry, who was a pitcher himself learned to identify guys who were dangerous at the plate, but never came to recognize what it takes to get them out.  I give DiPoto the loss on this one.

Monday, May 20, 2019

Thank Yu, sei



Give Yusei the ball again and again, please.  He knows how to stop the bleeding.  Another solid start from a pitcher who appears to think about what he is doing.   I saw him quoted after yesterday's 7-4 win over the dominating Twins.  He said he could see they were a fastball hitting team, so he threw his heater "just a little bit faster."  And it worked, along with mixing in an excellent slider and curve.

In other news, one of the "Zaks," Swar, is gone.  Six home runs in 8+ innings will get you traded to the Braves who must be even more desperate than the Ms for relievers.  He started well, looking terrific in his first six relief appearances, then started dishing up home runs like fries with Big Macs.  Farwell, Swar.

Off to play the Rangers on the road.  Be nice to get a couple of wins.

Sunday, May 19, 2019

The bottom yet?


In their 18 to 4 loss to the Twins last night, the M'a used six pitchers.  All but one gave up runs.  The one successful hurler was Tom Murphy, the catcher, thrown into mop-up duty at the end of the game.  Some of his success may have come from the fact that Minnesota was exhausted from being on base 26 times in the course of nearly four hours after banging out 19 hits, six of them home runs, walking six times and reaching base once, of course, on one error.  

What may be even more astounding is that over 34,000 people sat and watched this, although I'm sure most left early.  Even I turned this stinker off after six.  If this is what DiPoto had in mind for a "step back," maybe he didn't take a look to see there was nothing behind them but a sheer drop.

I take no satisfaction in the fact my post yesterday described accurately what we were to see later that night.  To be honest, the pitching has gotten so egregiously bad that reaching my prediction suggests no forecasting talent on my part.  Five-plus run innings have become the new norm for this team.

My curiosity only grows as to what Davis, the pitching coach, and Narvaez, the catcher, are saying to these guys on the mound.  Maybe something like, "just throw it up there, let your fielders do the work."  Ooops. Not such a good idea with these gloves behind them.  Better to advise them to keep their bags packed, they're soon headed back to T-town when Tom Murphy takes their jobs.

Saturday, May 18, 2019

What happens in the fourth inning?



Marco seemed to be pitching fine in his start against the Twins last night until he hit the fourth inning.  Then he seemed to begin throwing batting practice.  The first four batters hit safely.  Back to back to back to back hits aren't that rare, but not common either, especially in a pitcher as skilled as Gonzalez.

It seems like I've seen this a lot lately, innings where the Ms pitchers give up bunches of hits.  Everything is going fine, then in that one inning, the opponent gets three or four hits, some consecutive, they score multiple runs and the game is over.

I'm not imaging this.  By inning, here's what teams are scoring, on average, in each inning:

.50-.79-.89-.60-.51-.38-.79-.74-.40

The third is the worst, but the fourth isn't great and look at the late-inning bullpen work.  Yuck! 

What's happening?  Here are a couple of hypotheses.  Familiarity?  Having gone through the line-up once batters pick up something that they exploit the second time through.  Predictability?  The Ms pitchers become over-reliant on a pitch or pattern and give it away to the batter.  Fatigue?  Three innings in Ms pitchers start to lose something on their pitches.  Stealing signs?  Telegraphing pitches.  Rhythm?  The other team just catches fire.

I'm not a big believer in coincidence, not in sports at least.  When I see something happen repeatedly I get curious about what's causing this.  Big inning failures are caused by something.  If I were Servais and pitching coach Davis I figure out what's going on and stop it.

Friday, May 17, 2019

Just stop for a second



In working with organizations over years I've discovered when things start to go wrong, frantic efforts to make things better only make problems worse.  The situation is like that of a little kid in a bathtub... once the water gets sloshing back and forth, more activity only makes it worse until the agitated liquid splashes over the side to flood the floor.

So it is with this season's Mariners.  Last night was another big-inning, high scoring drubbing.  We've learned this is a streaky team and these lop-sided defeats seem to start a few more days of thrashing.  Some of that is due to a bullpen that gets ground up in these thrashings, but I think it has more to do with the psychology of losing, especially when errors and mental lapses are involved.

Best thing to do... and tonight is the time to try it... is take a deep breath, shake off the loss and play simple, straightforward, basic baseball.  Don't press.  Don't get frantic.  Slow down.  Keep the water in the tub.  Let it settle.  Get back on track and start winning again.

Thursday, May 16, 2019

Seen this before


Mercifully attending Larkin's end-of-the-year choir concert allowed me to miss the Twins 7-run fourth inning.  Two errors, one by Mallex.  Smith did, however, hit a home, so mixed results from his Tacoma stint.

Don't feel like I missed much.

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

A small request


The Oakland series was a blessed relief.  I don't think baseball was ever supposed to look like what the Ms have shown us over the first nine weeks of the season, be it double-digits wins or losses.  8 runs total between two teams, a 5 to 3 game, feels about right.  So these last two games seemed normal... still plenty of excitement  and suspense, but not that dizzy sensation of seeing six or seven runs scored at a time.

This team needs a little bit of normalcy.  If the hitting and pitching are to settle down, if they are to establish an identity and a template for winning there needs to be less chaos.  Here's hoping the nightmare in Boston last weekend marks the end of the craziness.  Less hope for some regular baseball, win or losing, so these players can master the technique of that kind of game.

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

The power is back on!



It's pretty clear, the Mariners offense is built on the long ball.  Sometimes they hit, sometimes they don't, but if they start hitting home runs they can win.  Vogie (again), Beckham, Haniger (again) crushed A's pitcher Brett Anderson, who only given up one homer in eight starts this season.

Excellent start by ever-steady Leake.  Shakey defense, but they held on and Elias pitched like a closer.

Two-game winning streak!

Monday, May 13, 2019

The homestand begins


No quit here.  Yes, the A's hit five solo home runs.  And Kikuchi deserved better.  He gave up three of those dingers, but pitched well otherwise.  Ms weren't  really hitting, except for Haniger's lead off homer and Vogie's late inning blast to temporarily tie it.  Otherwise, three hits.  Can't win that way.  

A's break tie in top of tenth but with two out in the bottom of the inning, and all hope just about gone, Vogie hangs on to get a walk and the bats finally wake-up.  Santana gets down 0 and 2 and then drives a double down the left field line. And, how sweet it is, Narvaez, hitting over .300, gets a single to win the game.  Walk off win feels great after the last week.

A winning streak begins at home.

Sunday, May 12, 2019

Notable, not in a good way


I have followed this team since it's first season, pretty closely.  Admittedly I have given the Ms a greater level of attention this year than ever before.  I cannot think of much worse baseball than I have witnessed on this 2 and 8 roadtrip.  True, the played winning, championship teams, but they were crushed. And even where it looked like they might be bouncing back, like today, they blew a 4-1 before they got through three.  The pitching is a disaster.  The hitting is starting to falter.  I can't imagine how the players must feel.  Maybe this is what Houston went through on their rebuild.

Saturday, May 11, 2019

Ugly



When I decided to write a blog through the full course of a baseball season I anticipated this would be a chaotic year as the team went through its step back from the team of Felix, Robbie and Nellie to step up to the Mariners of Mitch, Marco and Mallex.  I never imagined it would be so crazy.  Two days, two blow-out losses to Boston have been disturbing as, quite frankly, most of this roadtrip has been.

I keep going back to what I said about fundamentals the other day.  Baseball has been played long enough that what comprises good pitching is as understood as well today as it was 100 years ago.  But this Mariners bullpen pitches as if totally ignorant of those fundamentals.

In last night's throttling by the Red Sox, M's pitching gave up 15 hits, ten which scored runs.  I kept track, All but two of those hits came with the pitcher ahead or even in the account.  Smart baseball says to play with the hitter... try to get them to chase.  You've got pitches to spare.

Not this staff.  Five times they gave up hits with two strikes on the batter.  Why?  Why throw a hittable pitch while the advantage is to the hurler?

Frustrating.

Come on Ms, pitch smart!





Friday, May 10, 2019

Trying to get a finger on it


I'm returning to an earlier theme: the issue of team identity, more likely, the lack of one.  Who are these guys?  What can you expect?  It's easy to think they're going to get demolished every night, then they lose a low-scoring one-run pitchers' duel.  You're pretty sure they're going to blast out 4 homers a game, then they're lucky to get two hits.  Just lots and lots of inconsistency.

I don't have the analytics on this, but I'm getting the sense that some of this inconsistency has its roots in breakdowns in pretty basic rubrics of baseball.  In pitching, it comes from first pitch balls, first batter walks and hit yielded on two-strike counts.  Batting 3-2 called strike outs, failure to hit to the right side.  Base running mistakes: out at home on contact, wandering off base and getting picked off.  Defensively?  Outfield throws to the wrong base, failure to get the lead runner, passed balls, only getting one out in a possible double play.

Note these are the kinds of mistakes that lose games and are almost all mental errors.  These are not failures tied to physical limitations.  These are breakdowns in thinking that give your opponent an extra at bat, rob your offense of a run, extend an opponents' chance to score runs.

Killers one and all.  Maybe all fixable with more experience and cosching.

I recall Chuck Knox explaining something about football that applies just as well to baseball.  In the course of a game there are three or four moments that explain the outcome.  When they occur they are often small and unnoticed.  But in the end they make the difference.  These mental mistakes I've enumerated occur all too frequently with the Ms and explain why so many of these losses are hard to explain (and even harder to digest).

Thursday, May 9, 2019

At least it wasn't 1-0



The M's wrapped up their four game series in New York with a 3-0 loss.  This was almost the second time this season the usual potent Mariner bats were held to one hit.  They eked one more hit in the 8th, but how long before this tram gets no-hit on an off night.

It was almost another 1-0 loss, but the relief pitching saved us that horror, one of the "zaks" giving up two runs in the bottom of the eighth.

Off to Boston where I am sure they are looking to get even for their bad start in Seattle last month.

That's more like it



Damn, I forgot to press the publish button.  This should have been posted yesterday.  I'm proud ti have wriiten everyday since this Mariners blog started.  This should be May 8.  Sorry.

 Kikuchi showed just exactly what we've all hoped for.  A no-hitter into the sixth, a bloop hit and one just outside of the reach of Dee for a run, then a couple of more scoreless innings.  Add in three M home runs and some timely hitting and they cruised to a 10-1 win over the Yankees.

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Queasy



Around the start of the bottom of the 8th inning I began thinking about what I wanted to day about this game.  Things were fairly encouraging.  The Ms were up 4 to 1, playing pretty good ball to back up a strong start from Marco Gonzalez.  But I was feeling uneasy.   Already in mid-May this Mariners team has shown itself to be so unreliable that there is this uneasy feeling things could go wrong.

And they did.  The reliever, Brennan walks the first two batters, looks like he's going to settle and get out of it and a wild pitch gives New York a run.

Top of the ninth.  Ms waste a scoring opportunity, for the second time tonight runner out at home on a  ground ball.  Bottom of the ninth?

Swarzak gives up another home run.  Two runs to tie.  That's Swarzak's fifth home run in his last six appearances.  Elias comes in... single, an out, a stolen base, a base hit.  Game over.

M's at .500 for first, and most likely last time, this season.

Monday, May 6, 2019

Felix descends to earth



Six Yankee runs in Felix' first two innings pretty much explains this.  To his credit, Hernandez hung in there for three more innings, the Ms tried to punch their way back, but they couldn't catch.  They had their chances, but couldn't get clutch hits when the needed.  The Ms left 8 on base and four times left runners in scoring position with two outs.

Haniger who showed signs in the Cleveland series of getting in his groove, looked bad tonight: 0fer5, two strike outs and four lob.  A thoroughly forgettable game in the Bronx.  It didn't help what the Ms last 12 batters made outs, six of them strikeouts.

Sunday, May 5, 2019

Confusing


It was Churchill who once referred to the Soviet Union as a riddle wrapped inside a mystery inside an  enigma.  The same could be said of this season's Seattle Mariners.  We haven't seen this team for eight days when they beat the Rangers 14 to 2.  In between we've seen that Ms team that gets crushed by giving up 11 or more runs (3 times) or loses by one run (3 times) or, once, actually wins by one run.

Again, what's the pattern or identity of this team.  A couple of patterns appear to be: lose big, win big, lose close.  What kind of pattern is that?

New disturbing trend, maybe it was just what comes of being in Cleveland, the Lake Effect.  Base-running mistakes.  More part of the learning curve?

Off to New York.

Saturday, May 4, 2019

And still another one run loss


Six losses in a row, today's eerily similar to last night's.  Decent offense kept pace all day with Cleveland, enough to pull ahead in the 8th, only to see another late inning relief failure, this time the other "zek," Sadzeck.

Maybe this is the "learning" DiPoto claims the year to be about.  Let's see, Reliever Lesson 1:  tied or with a one-run lead, do not allow anyone to score anything against you.  That's what a "hold" is. 

Friday, May 3, 2019

Another one run loss



Great pitching by Kikuchi tonight, matched almost pitch by pitch by Cleveland's Shane Bieber.  Swarzak lost it in the bottom of the ninth.  Let the lead-off batter walk, saw him score two outs and another walk later.  In a low-scoring game small mistakes get amplified. The walk to open the inning was bad.  The two out walk was worse, because it moved the first runner into scoring position and the next batter's hit brought him in.  No second walk and it's unlikely he would have come home from first on that hit.

Five losses in a row.  Fifth loss by one-run.  Better than losing by 14, but hurts just the same.

Thursday, May 2, 2019

Hard times


Wow!  If those weekend clobberings at the hands of the Rangers were awful, yesterday's one-hit 11-0 humiliation by the Cubs was worse, because after a promising bounceback in defeat the day before, the Ms appear to have learned nothing.  It was all there, lousy pitching, undependable fielding, no hitting.  

This graph, the proprietary work of baseball-reference.com, tells the whole ugly story.  It shows run differential, how much a team won by (green) or lost (red) for each game through the season.  Four games ago the Ms led all of the major leagues with 43 RD.  Over the next four games the team's run differential fell to two... 2.  That's it.

Just when I think they have it turned around, they stagger off the path.  Keep in mind the red lines are losses.  After reaching an early April high of 13 wins with two losses, Seattle has played 5 and 13 ball.  That's a .278 winning percentage.  That projects to a 51-111 season.

I don't know if I can think about that much less write about it.  Back on the road... Cleveland, the Yankees, the Red Sox.  Okay?

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

A credible loss


The Ms impressed me last night.  After the back-to-back humiliations at the hands of the Rangers, the lost to the Cubs, but, strange to say, in a way that shows they have some of that most basic baseball stuff: heart.  I was most impressed with Felix.  He gave up a home run on his second pitch to start the game and just settled down and ground through six innings.  He wasn't stellar... he gave up three more runs, but he was steady and solid, notching 8 strikeouts along the way.  It would have been easy for him to fold, but he hung in there tough and waited for the offense to wake up.

And it took a little time for the bats to get going... Hamels is a tough pitcher... but they fought back, squeezed out a couple of runs to take the lead.  Felix was actually sitting on a win when Brennan, really for the first time this year, blew it.

This was a mature rebound after some bad bad baseball.