=== The Muscle ===

Hit his shortest, and most impressive, home run of the 2009 season.

In the second inning, lefthander Anderson threw his hottest fastball of the night.  The ball was:

1.  Just under the letters, hard to get on top of even if 90 mph.

2.  96 mph.

3.  In on the hands.

4.  On a two-strike count.

5.  Coming from a LH angle.

Branyan, not loading the way he usually does, snapped the bat around at snake-tongue speed and laser'ed a line drive into the right field bleachers.

370 feet, maybe.   And a homer that showed us he has an X (launch quickness) to go with his Y (throughspeed).   That has been the whole question about Branyan, whether he could HIT as well as he could PWR.   He is certainly not Derek Jeter in terms of plate coverage, but he has shown plenty 'nuff HITting ability for a TTO lefty of his type.

Earlier I'd been worrying about Branyan's ability to handle a letter-high pitch, but he's since put that to bed.  A lot of dangerous, fringe LH power guys have trouble with the ball up, such as Brad Wilkerson.  Branyan swung under a lot of high FB's in April and May.  But it's not an Achilles' Heel for him, and the HR off the high 96 fastball was sweet to watch just in terms of strike zone holes.

Good time to smile about the possibility of having Branyan around for 2010-11 at $5-8M per season.

FWIW, Fangraphs has Branyan at $32M production over the equivalent of 4-5 seasons of playing time.

...............

I didn't see how high the mortar shot was that fell onto the warning track later in the game.  Must have been incredible.  The first high-fly warning track ball I've seen this year from the Muscle.

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=== Franklin Gutierrez ===

Scored the game-tying run by messing up Adam Kennedy's fielding of a ground ball.

You see runners step over grounders to hide the ball from fielders, but on this one Franklin did a weird little WR down-and-out into the infield and ran around the ball as if setting a pick for a WR teammate.  It looked funky, and it messed Kennedy up huge.  And it decided the game.

Let's not even get into the 7-pitch walk, and the SB, that preceded the baserunning miracle.

:: standing O ::

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=== Michael Saunders ===

Squared around and effortlessly bunted a medium-strength roller at the 2B. 

The pitcher, LH and falling off the mound, had zero chance to go over and run it down.   The 2B, playing on the edge of the OF grass, had farther to go in to get it than Saunders had to run down the line, practically.  Finally the 1B (IIRC) ran over and took the grounder, looked back to 1B for his second baseman, and Saunders beat the 2B to the bag by a preposterous margin.

I believe that's 5 separate times that Saunders has bunted THAT KIND OF BALL for a base hit.   He should do it once a series, maybe even once every other game.

The numbers are hazy, but I remember a 1990's STATS baseball scoreboard that showed Omar and Lofton and guys like that bunting 13-for-16 base hits during particular seasons.   Certain guys should bunt 50 times a year.

............

Saunders starts in LF in 2010, barring an FA signing.  He is a great favorite with the M's, because of his tremendous defense, tremendous instinct for the game and his 5-tool potential.  I don't know whether he's going to be a mediocrity or a good ballplayer, but he's a great favorite with me too.

Cheers,

Dr D