Forget it Jake, it's the Yankees

I've chosen to rewrite the cynical last line of Chinatown to reflect the inevitable frustration the M's face when ever they face the New York Yankees.  Maybe it's payback for the Mariners amazing comeback in the 1995 playoffs against NY.  It seems like the Yankees just pick apart Seattle like vultures tearing through their prey.

What had been four encouraging series prior to this one, the Yankees came into town, grabbed an early lead and held it in the first game and coasted to a win in the second behind the surgically precise pitching of Masahiro Tanaka (who gave a master lesson to his countryman, Yusei Kikuchi, who returned to grooving home run balls.

22 strikeouts in two games probably didn't help either, along with getting just two hit in 15 opportunities with runners in scoring position.  

Revenge game today: Paxton returns to face his former team and to pitch against the guy he was traded for, Sheffield.  The season just grinds on.

Felix gets left behind again

Felix' return to the mound after a couple of months rehabbing on the IL went quite well.  He made it deep into the 5th, gave up only two runs on three hits.  He's not the same power-pitcher he was and, finally, seems to recognize that changing up his pitches and relying on his breaking ball are what he needs to do in the latter stage of his career.

But the real story is how the game ended.  He left with a three run lead, only to watch the bullpen blow it, leaving him with a no decision and the M's with a loss.  His whole career with the Mariners was encapsulated in this one game.  Whatever unlucky star he was born under sentenced him to pitch for a team that, for years, couldn't score runs for him and wasn't able to hold leads.

As he left the mound, to a deserved standing O, I'm sure his thoughts were the same as the 414 starts he made: "I gave it my all, that's all I can do."  That thinking it what has caused such fan support for the King.  He just worked so damn hard for his team and the fans of Seattle and he couldn't get the wins.

In the last couple of seasons his popularity waned, probably because he seemed to resist making the changes in his pitching style as the velo and effectiveness of his fastball declined.  He seemed stubborn and petulant last year, reluctant to try pitching out of the bullpen.  That's too bad, because, at his best, he is up there with Seattle's top pitchers ever, Randy Johnson, Jamie Moyer and Mark Langston.

A most welcome homecoming

Last night's big story was supposed to be the first major league start for Justus Sheffield, but some potent and relentless hitting and all around good play, much of it from the newer Ms, stole the headlines.

Sheffield didn't look great, but more importantly, he didn't look bad. He gave up two runs on four hits in the first inning, but he wasn't hit hard.  Two line drives and two ground ball singles, but nothing to the fence.  It took nearly 40 pitches, but he worked through it and stopped the bleeding with a strike out.  There's no give in this kid.  He kept his composure and got through it.  He gave up one more run over the next three innings and bounced back to show command of his pitches.

Meanwhile, the team just picked up hits and, thanks to Toronto's own feeble bullpen, eight walks.  And they scored runs, despite batting a frustrating 1 for 18 with runners in scoring position, leaving 13 on base.  But they were getting on base and six different Ms scored the winning 7 runs.  Again, relative unknowns like Crawford, Nola, Lopes and, in his second game, Fraley, added to the offensive attack led by the veterans Seager, Narvaez and Gordon.

Five innings of one-run relief by a swarm of relievers surely helped, too.  

The crowd, full of visiting Blue Jay fans was disappointed, but the small cluster of local Ms loyalists were happy to see this team come home.

A pretty good roadtrip

Except for a walk-off loss in the last game against Tampa yesterday, the Ms had a terrific road trip, the best stretch of baseball they've played this season, better in many way to that false 13-2 fast start they got off to starting with their first series in Tokyo.  It's far to early to declare these last nine games  the "New Ms," but these guys are surely a much improved version.  6 and 3 is a most respectable start.

The pitching stabilized.  A bullpen of largely unknown pitchers emerged.  Enough so that seven out of the 'pen pitched together to win a game all by themselves.  The offense flourished.  Kyle Seager emerged from a two-year shift induced constipation to hit like he used to, but better.  Then Austin Nola and Tom Murphy started ripping line-drives like Ancestry dot com had proven them to be born from the same gene pool as Mitch Haniger.

Way too early to rejoice, much less get excited.  But encouraging.  The 13 wins in the first 15 games of the season was illusion, all bubble, gonfalon of the highest order.  What we've seen over the last nine games is winning baseball... authentic... surely temporary, but proof that this team can win and win the right way.

More on this later.  I believe Scott Servais' benching of Mallex Smith for his careless play in the field and on the basepaths played an important part in helping this team find its footing.

What we've been waiting for

The game Yusei Kikuchi's pitched against Toronto today was one everybody has been waiting for since January 1 when he signed with the Mariners.  It only took 230 days for him to live up to all the excited talk that signaled his arrival in Seattle.  Over the months, deeper into the season, that excitement turned into frustration, disappointment and doubt he'd ever live up to his hype.

A 4 and 8 record and no wins since June 23 only fueled the growing fear that, once again, the  Ms had made a poor choice and wasted millions on a dud starter.   Ranking second in yielding home runs didn't help.

Patience, lots of coaching and some hard work and real discipline on his part paid off, at last.  Today's line tells the story: a 9-inning complete game, no runs, two hits, one walk and eight strikeouts.  A so-called Maddux, a game named after Hall of Famer known for throwing CG shutouts in less than 100 pitches.  Kikuchi needed only 96.

Another promising sign for 2020.

A new-time kinda win

This might be a game worth noting.  The Ms squeaked out a 4-3 win over Toronto employing devices this reimagined team has been working on for months, utilizing players few of us knew about 45 days ago.

Here's how.  For the third game in a row, the Mariners used an "opener" in place of a starter.   And for the third time, the opener held the heart of the opponent's line-up scoreless.

A bullpen that has been one of the worst in the league showed up, six more Mariner pitchers holding the potent Blue Jays to three runs.

Yes, the won the game on an old-time Kyle Seager home run, but they grabbed and held the lead thanks to a homer by Austin Nola and two, yes two, run scoring sacrifice flies be Keon Broxton.  He may only be hitting .178, but with a runner on third he's money in the bank.

Not your grandfather's baseball, but it worked.

Toothless Tigers

The Tigers are such a feeble team the Ms have been abe to take 6 of 7 from them this season.  Better than that, they've become home to the Mariner rejects, namely reliever David McKay.  He pitched against his former teammates and looked just as bad as he did when he was an M.  Meanwhile, the Ms slugged out a dozen hits, saw some solid pitching and took off for Toronto.

I just hope as many obnoxious M's fan show up for tomorrow’s game as irritating Blue Jay fans come to support their team in Seattle.

Don't blink, you'll miss it

After tortuous days of no offense a trip to Detroit was all the Mariners needed to wake up their bsts from the deep sleep the Rays' pitching induced.  Eleven hits, five of them homers, three by Seager, two by Murphy, overcame a lackluster Kikuchi start to gain another win, five in a row now, against the Tigers.

The Ms have Detroit's number and they just beat on them.  It was fun to watch us do to them what others have done to us all season.  Sadistic, yet satisfying.

More missed opportunities

For the third time this season the M's lost a 1-0 game.  At least they didn't get no-hit, but they only mustered three feeble hits and never got a runner past first against the Rays.  Not much of a tribute to Edgar on the weekend honoring his entry into the Hall of Fame.

All this has only caused me to think more about the importance of picking up opportunities during a game and the absolute necessity of never giving opponents any additional ones.  Last time I fumed over balls and walks, today let me add my disgust at errors.

With Crawford at short, Seager back in the line-up and Santana off the field things have gotten better, but the Ms have led the majors in errors, now at 108, all season.  That's in 118 games.  Errors are given-away opportunities and they allow an opponent to extend an inning, move runners, score them, just do all sorts of damage, most notably exhaust and demoralize pitchers.  Outs are hard to come by. Imagine how deflating it is to pitch to a tough batter, think you've gotten them out only to realize a boot by a fielder has taken away the out, put a runner on base and brought up a new batter.  This has two be particularly exasperating when a third out gets lost to an error or an inning-ending double play falls apart.

Errors and walks, which I now realize could be the subtitle of the Mariners 2019 season, just kill a team.  And when an inning starts with a walk and doesn't end due to an error, nothing good is going to happen.  But as much as giving opportunities to the hitting team pisses me off, watching my team on offense give away opportunities is enough to surely frost my noogies.

I've expounded on this before.  In my mind there is no excuse for getting called out on strikes, especially on a 3-2 count.  And getting picked off base or thrown out on a running blunder is a black mark in my book.

It comes down to this:  Duke's Rule #3... never give an opportunity up or away.  Each pitch is an opportunity, treat them with care.

A game of opportunity

Watching the Mariners so closely this season has given me a fresh perspective on a game I've loved since childhood.  I think I'm a fairly knowledgeable fan, even acquainted with the fundamentals of analytics, but lately I've started to look at the game in a different way.

Witnessing another bullpen failure in the top of the ninth inning of last night's loss to the Rays, seeing a bases-loaded walk give Tampa the lead in a tight 2-2, suffering through 8 runners left on base and a woeful 2 for 12 hitting with runners in scoring position prompts these thoughts.

As I've written before, this season has sensitized me to the damage walks can do.  I'm going further today, from a pitching perspective I've come to hate balls.  Balls are nothing but trouble and except in very extreme circumstances, a ball is a problem on any time unless it is tempting waste pitch in a 0-2 or 1-2 count.

Here's what I've come to realize.  At its most basic level, baseball is a game of opportunities.  Before the contest starts, a team is given 27 chances, three per inning, to win the game.  And any at-bat provides, at minimum three more opportunities (strikes).  In that sense, any given inning is, fundamentally, like a carnival game where you are handed three balls and given a chance to knock over a small pyramid of milk bottles.  Each throw is an opportunity. You get three and that's it.

In baseball the game boils down, offensively, to adding opportunities to the three given chances to swing, defensively, to taking away the batter's opportunities.  A pitcher should always avoid giving his opponent an additional opportunity... stop them from getting another at bat or swing.  A ball to any batter or a walk, hit, error or batsman hit gives an additional opportunity beyond the allotted three strikes and outs.  As I see it, the whole idea of any pitch is to eliminate offensive opportunities (likewise, getting a hit, taking a walk, even fouling off a pitch is the offense's way of adding opportunities).

Applying this logic I understand better why I hate balls and their legacy, walks.  Balls and walks literally give away the game, handing over to an  opponent just that many more opportunities to get hits that guarantee the scoring of runs that will beat you.

Pitchers throw balls for two reasons, either technical incompetence or trying to fool the batter into swinging at bad pitches, known in the game as being "cute."  If walking batters and falling behind in the count is a matter of competence, a pitcher shouldn't be in the bigs.  If it's a matter of being cute I think a pitcher might want to weigh carefully the risks in giving batters more opportunities.

A no drama win

This far into this season a well-pitched 3-2 win is bright spot indeed.  After six dreadful starts, Kikuchi put together five solid innings.  And then, amazingly, a cohort of relievers held on long enough for the Ms to squeeze across the go-ahead run.

Not a lot of hitting, but that was to be expected with Padres' Luchessi on the mound.  But a revived Kyle Seager handled Luchessi's stuff, driving in runs with a homer and a ground-out.  The last three relievers looked very good, especially Tuivailala.

The season lurches forward.

 

Another losing streak

There was a moment in the seventh inning of last night's loss to San Diego when it looked as though the Mariners were about to be no-hit for the third time this season.  Some timely hitting, too late and too little to change the outcome,  but enough, saved the Ms from being embarrassed once again.  Seeing any hits, and runs, is enough for joy these days.  And watching another first MLB hit, a home run by Tim Lopes, is a treat we've enjoyed many times this season.  I guess that makes it a good night.

Looks like Beckham is gone.  His 80 suspension for steroids takes him into the next season, and I truly hope he's gone by then.  He had a great start to the season... player of the week and he produced some clutch hits, including a dramatic grandslam a few days ago.  But he was a dreadful fielder at short and never seemed to me to take any of this seriously enough.   The loss of Beckham for drug use doesn't mean much, alongside the unraveling of this team through trades and injuries.

I miss Nelson Cruz.

The pain continues

I couldn't bear to write about the Mariners getting no hits, again, last night, gambling they'd bounce back this Sunday.  They didn't.  Milone and the bullpen (!) pitched well enough to hold the Astros to five hits and three runs, but the Ms could only score one.

At one point in this series Seattle went nearly 16 innings without a hit.  I was surprised to hear Ryan Rowland-Smith describe the M's offense as "broken" but I guess there's no better way to describe it.  Admittedly the three losses came against Houston, the best of the American League.  Seattle just couldn't and didn't compete.

M's get a day off to travel home and start again, against San Diego, Tuesday.  Could be a long month.

,

Houston homers

Thanks to the Ms, the Astros have a new record: six home runs, by six different players in one game. In eight innings no less.  Four of those shots came off Kikuchi whose tends to groove these pitches.  I'm beginning to think that some of what worked for him Japan is less effective here.

Vogelbach added his own home run, but the Mariners were down nine by then, so it was a footnote to another unsatisfying loss.

Rabbit Rabbit

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I am a pretty superstitious person.  I take that stuff seriously, so much so I'll cover my ears if I'm about to hear a new one.  I've already got plenty to dictate the course of my daily life.  Many years ago I was making a purchase at the counter of Barnes and Noble.  When  I enquired the date to write a check, the clerk replied, "It's the first! Rabbit Rabbit!"  Puzzled I looked up and asked, "Huh?"  She went on to explain you had to start each month, every month with the exclamation, to which someone was expected to reply "Hare Hare!"  Thus it started and, along with a number of other goofy rituals, I pass it on to you.  Who knows, maybe this simple utterance will turn the M's around.

The trade deadline arrivzed and passed with minimal drama.  As Brock and Salk would say, "no news," among the options of good, bad or no news.  Leake's move was expected, as was Elias'.  The trade of Strickland was a typical July 31 surprise.  I thought we were going to get him back.  Elias had become an okay closer and Strickland was a proven product on his way hack from months on the IL.  I was looking forward to some saves what's left of the season.  Guess not.

The July 31 trade cutoff is always a little melancholy.  I get attached to players and it's hard to see them go.  I liked Leake.  It was a tough competitor and a smart pitcher.  He could throw a lot of different things and he knew how to mix them up.  He kept batters off balance with clever variations in speed and movement.  The trade to Arizona gives him a (low) chance a play-off game... he has certainly earned it.  But I'll miss him and his steady game.

The deeper sadness, however, comes from the inescapable, but hardly surprising, realization that as "sellers" in the trading market the Mariner’s season is over.  They're giving up.  We knew this not long after the 13-2 euphoria ended.  This season these games don't count.  You just hope people are learning things from these games that will pay off in a winning future.