=== Wallowing In 2-and-Oh ===
Aside from The Play of the ballgame, the 3rd run, here are some of my other favorite "tough at-bats" on the evening:
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1) 4-2, top of the ninth, Ichiro on 2B against a lefty. He swipes 3rd.
2) Figgins dips a bit at the knees, gets under the ball, and launches a medium-deep, perfect-trajectory fly ball to CF to drive him in. (It's more precise to hit a fly ball when you don't pull it to straightaway LF.)
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3) Top 7th, Ryan rips a double down the LF line, 0 out .... Wilson unfortunately goes to 0-and-2.
But Wilson, determined to move Ryan over, short-swings at a pitch, pushing it to the right side, and socks a single to RF.
4) Michael Saunders gets the ball in the air, again properly to CF, to drive in Ryan and tie the ballgame 2-2.
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The A's confusion was palpable.
Brett Anderson is the second-toughest SP the M's have faced in the last decade, after John Lackey. Anderson's ERA against the M's was 1+ his last five starts, 2.01 for his career (10 nightmarish games in only two years). He took a shutout into the 6th. This ballgame was supposed to be theirs. Last year, it woulda been a routine finish.
It was like Rocky getting up in the corner against Apollo in the first fight, "Hunhh!," c'mon back let's fight some more ..... Apollo shaking his head that the, um, M's, hadn't had enough...
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5) Top 6, Mariners down 1-0, and Anderson has pole-axed Ichiro and Figgins. Two outs nobody on.
Bradley singles and steals second base on the lefty.
Cust, with a controlled swing, serves a high hard fastball up the middle on a line drive.
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6) Wilson leads off the 9th in a tie game. He singles, and Saunders comes up against the LH Fuentes. Saunders pulls a bunt firmly past the pitcher to the second baseman. He is a VERY good bunter.
M's now with a RISP, one out, and the next three hitters a pinch-hitter, Ichiro, and Figgins.
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7) When Barton threw home and the ball got away from Kurt Suzuki, it didn't get far away at all. But Miguel Olivo, with a pulled groin, alertly scampered to 3B and just barely got in with a headfirst slide.
He scored on the wild pitch to give the M's their insurance run, 4-2. This winter, Zduriencik deadpanned about Olivo's speed being a plus. In this particular game, it was the 4th run in a 4-2 game.
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Those were just my favorites.
The war-weary A's pitching stars threw 20 pitches per inning on average, 359 pitches in 18 innings, the first two games.
20 an inning, every inning! So this morning you can spare Dr. D the "A for enthusiasm, C for analysis" bromides.
;- )
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=== Dr's Prognosis, Dept. ===
If LrkrBoi29 is mis-reading SSI's estimate of the M's chances to be in the race in September, he can read my clarification here.
A second victory running, that doesn't raise my 25-30% odds by 10%. The M's are the same team that we thought they were after March. :- )
We're not predicting a parade. We're just describing the reality: that the last two games, the Mariners were the better team, they deserved to win, and they did win.
But I will say this:
......
The level of execution has been stunning. You can't play more technically excellent baseball than this. These guys oughta go try out for Team Japan.
About the first year the M's were in the Kingdome, they went on a little 8-and-3 run and a vet coach said, "If we played like this the whole year, we'd win the pennant easily [but of course we won't]."
I didn't expect them to play two games this well. But it's still two games.
.......
I've been a big cynic, but I'm starting to wonder whether Jason Vargas might not be a legit #3-4 starter. He is starting to remind me of Jamie Moyer. (He'd remind a ChiSox fan, more accurately, of Mark Buehrle.)
It almost looks like his command is repeatable. He's throwing the kind of pitches that are in the strike zone - and taken by the hitters for called strike threes. He's been sick.
That 1-run game didn't happen by accident. Vargas also was better than the A's, deserved to win, and did win.
...........
Every. Time. The Mariners check their swings on a close pitch and get a ball called, I just sit there and bask.
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Be Afraid,
Dr D
I've been away from a TV the last two nights, and will be on a cruise to Mexico all next week, so these game recaps have been priceless, Doc. At the risk of blasphemy, they almost make up for the loss of Dave Neihaus. Seriously, they are that good.
... knowing that you're getting something out of them, that can inspire to throw in the extry paragraph.
:daps:
Fastball (well...kinda) on the outside black (or an inch+ outside), change-up at the bottom of the zone, the occassional curver down and in, just catching the corner of the zone.
If you're a lefty not named Koufax or Big Unit, that has always been a recipe for fair success against RH hitters.
Vargas has got more than some of that. He's legit, Doc.
Milton's bat really looks quick right now...however, I don't know whether to be pleased or scared at the image of Milton, "like a caged lion" (quoting Sims, IIRC), pacing in the dugout. He was intense.
Does such intensity historically signal that Milton is engaged, ergo, producing. Or is it the signal of an imminent Milton event?
Don't know. Worth watching....
Vargas was a 2nd-round draft pick, #68 overall. In fact, here's the list from the 2nd round in 2004:
64. Hunter Pence
65. Dustin Pedroia
66. Grant Johnson RHP, Cubs, bust
67. Kurt Suzuki
68. Jason Vargas
He was only a trade throw-in because of injuries, not because he was never considered a guy with a chance. He even got a Rookie of the Year vote in 2005.
In that regard he's more like Paul Abbott (one of my all-time favorites) -- who was a 3rd-round pick and in the majors at 22 (just like Vargas was) before heading to the scrap heap and resurfacing at 30 as a solid MOR starter.
I was with my girlfriend and her family this weekend so only got to watch the opening game and only because my girlfriend is awesome and was willing to nap on the floor of her office so that I could get the game and stay up late to see it (she's a Red Sox fan...but she likes seeing my passionate side in all its' forms including Mariner fandum so she puts up with me...LOL).
If it weren't for your recap, Doc, I would have assumed that the Mariners won two games in a row by a combination of unusually tight home plate umpiring and unusually bad Oakland defense. It was nice to see a full description of the events. I hope you or someone else who has posting priveleges will keep doing those kinds of recaps as often as possible.
'as often as possible' being hard to nail down from my end :- ) but ... thanks for the encouragement.
If anybody knows where to find a neat handful of blogroll links, it would up the post count...