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Well, if not a "kill shot," certainly a buffer shot. From the position they're in, the Angels can do little damage to the M's lead. On the other hand, from the position WE are in, we can do great damage to their deficit. As GM Mikhail Tal once said, "I don't know if I could win this position with White. But I do know that with Black I could lose it, and in only a few moves."
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Bat571 brings the Anthem discussion to a rather thunderous pause with the following gem:
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Q. James Paxton give up 3 runs?! How could he DO that to us?
A. It happens. As it turns out, his ERA is 3.02. .... do any of you guys remember the time some beat writer asked Randy Johnson what happened after he lost a 2-1 game? That he stared the guy down about 10 seconds and asked if the guy had seen his ERA? After an eternity: "that's about what I give up. About two runs."
A bit more to the point: Tampa came in with a particular strat-er-gy ---- > start the bats on strike one, in time with 96 MPH and hope that the barrel connected with the pitch. Stay away from 2-strike counts at any cost whatsoever, and stay away from "looking" at pitches at the same price.
As it happened, they did manage to cheat their way onto a Paxton fastball, about 4 times in fact... weirdly and unrepeatably, all of them for extra-base hits. Three doubles and a homer.
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GLS sez,
Just throwing this out there. Doc, I'd love to get your take on Felix these days, especially after yesterday's dud. I suspect the shoulder is robbing him of his velocity and even if gets a smidgeon of that back, his power pitching days are basically behind him. So what does he need to do to keep pitching effectively in the majors?
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Not absolutely sure I understand exactly what Tampa's doing with their "Openers" strategy. On Thursday, they had a 97-98 mph almost Mariner take the first inning and use 30 pitches to post a zero. Their idea was for the 5' 10" righty Austin Pruitt to then have an easier time facing the top half of the M's lineup twice and the bottom half three times. Actually he faced 28 batters, coughing up runs in the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th but holding the line for the 6th, 7th and 8th.
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GAME ON
It starts, finishes, and ends with "Hard RBI." Boomstick's mortar shot in the 4th, to open the M's account and bring a McCullers sneerfest to a screeching halt, was one such.
The M's keeping the score right at 3-1, with some pretty defense by Dee Gordon in various and sundry formatons, was another such.
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WADE LEBLANC
Adjusting for circumstances, and grading on an A-Pass-Fail, the Mainframe gives LeBlanc a solid "pass" for his 4 ip, 7h, 3 r, 3 er, 3 bb, 3k, 1 hr line. The first circumstance? This inside/outside strike zone plot.
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20-80 SCALE
For those who just joined us, "50" is MLB average and is a solid compliment. Captain America has "50" boomerang ability; Scarlett Yohannsen has "50" composure when secured to a chair at the edge of a building. Then it's 60 or 40 for "plus," and 70 "plus-plus" means you can win a game with that tool and nothing else. Don't even ask what 20 and 80 mean. Dr. D has 20 wit and wisdom; Thanos has 80 hit point total. I think once Pedro had an 80 something.
Dr. D sat down very unusually, ready to "grade" HA! Paxton on three things:
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No, as Mojo and probably a plurality of SSI'ers can tell you, the .44 Mag isn't the most powerful handgun in the world. But when it's photographed to look like an artillery piece, you stop asking questions. At least he got the 629 model number and the non-stainless right. The far more virtuous photography was of his size-42 blazer with no bulge. Personally I like to go with 629's on the ankle, don't you Moj
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The Mariners have fallen out of the razor-sharp mode that we'd all basked in so luxuriantly the last few weeks. The main culprits here: a failure to punish 7+ ERA fish Matt Moore with BB and HR, and an implosion of the "2nd bullpen" to botch a sloppy 4-2 lead in the middle innings. Lots to enjoy even in this one, though:
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JAMES PAXTON showed signs of tiredness, as D-O-V had expected to see shortly. He threw 117 pitches two games ago, sandwiched around two 105-type pitch count games before and after. Of course "signs of tiredness" in Paxton's case results in the joyful enemy jailbreak totalling 2 runs scored.
