=== Yo Adrian ===

Mariners still playing verrrrrrry tough.   Detroit is leading the AL Central; they are potentially a wild-card rival; and they had Justin Verlander on the mound, cruising at 98 mph all the way through the game.

The Mariners took Detroit to the mat and won the game.  They'd have won Tuesday, also, despite Porcello's lights-out performance -- except for the blown hold.

Give 'em credit.  Despite the M*A*S*H team scrambling on and off the theater of battle twice a day, these dudes are going to war.

.

=== Gen'l Patton Dept. ===

On Snell's 2nd-to-last pitch of the night, he went 3-1 (IIRC) on a Tiger and Rick Adair came out.  Gave him a supportive little talk, tried to connect, and trotted back to the dugout.

Snell's next pitch missed badly -- whereupon Wakamatsu came out of the dugout with a :- / look on his face.  Let me know the next time you see a pitching coach and manager come out on consecutive pitches.

Key to raising small children:  never tell them anything more than once.  ;- )

.

=== State of the Ian ===

Good:  Had a 3-hit shutout into the 6th.  Final line looked good:  5.2 IP, 4H, 1R against a playoff team.

Bad:  Had 3 BB's against 2 K's, so it wasn't a Shandler PQS.  In other words, you would usually assume it was a "lucky" start.  ... Snell's outfield did indeed save him on several deep blasts, notably Saunders on two bullets into the LF corner.

Good:  But the extreme-platoon-split Snell had to go against Granderson LH, Guillen LH, Huff LH, Santiago LH, as well as Miguel Cabrera (145 OPS+) and impossible-to-K EYE wizard Placido Polanco.   So Snell gets a pass for not showing glitzy K/BB numbers on this one.

Bad:  But we haven't seen a sniff of the vicious slider that Snell has shown in the past.

Good:  Snell is throwing a very lively FB to go with a plus changeup.  In the big picture, his stuff is definitely no disappointment.

Bad:  Snell's velo dropped off again.   As did his command:  he threw 14-of-23 strikes in the crisp 4th and 5th innings, but then as his velo dropped, he was 20-for-37 and was laboring badly in the 6th.

Good:  Snell is not afraid to mix in plenty of offspeed stuff -- tonight he threw 49 offspeed vs 51 fastballs.

Bad:  But for some reason he's not really getting the "pitching frontward" benefit of getting to 0-1, 1-2 with the fastball and then striking guys out with his offspeed.

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

Triangulation:  D-O-V is starting to figure Snell out a little here.  His essential problem is that he tries to be too fine with the FB, doesn't get to two strikes, so can't expand the zone and put guys away with the change and slider.

Watch the games and you'll see:  Snell aims each FB for the black, or the very bottoms of the knees, as though he were Luke French and couldn't afford to miss over the plate.   But Snell CAN miss over the plate.  He throws 93 with excellent life and movement.

Needs to nibble less, get out in front, trust his stuff, put guys away by expanding the zone later.

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

The nibbling isn't lack of confidence.  Snell's tempo shows that he is confident.   It's just his game plan needs to change, to get more of the plate early.

Cheers,

Jemanji