Ackley, Seager, Olivo, all crushed fly balls to the deepest part of their respective opposite fields that juuuuuust died on the track. Much as Beavan clearly didn't have it, Quintana also clearly didn't have it. The Mariners got a ridiculous number of baserunners, left the bases loaded twice, crushed three almost opposite field shots. Beavan got lucky he didn't allow more runs. Quintana got luckier, methinks.
Still, it's pretty evident that the Sawx hitters, especially the RH ones, are just plain better than the Ms'. Starting rotation, too. I'd match Vargas up with Quintana most days, in most parks, but US Cellular is like the worst possible environment for that guy: wind blowing out to right field, tiny fences.
Looking at the Mariners' lineup vs. LHP with Casper mired in a slump and Gutierrez injured is just sort of embarrassing. Jack Z needs to find the team another RH COF/1B bat, stat. Too bad about the free agent market blowing and everyone demanding an arm and a leg for their hitters. Just checkin' up on the FG leaderboards... Allen Craig would be a dream, but I can't imagine the Cardinals would give him up cheap. Maybe while the Red Sox are in fire sale mode we could nab Cody Ross, or maybe we could sign Melky (who no one else will want)... Scott Hairston's a hero vs. LHP, but probably not enough to warrant a full-time OF job. Heck, maybe even Jonny Gomes...? RH OF bats aren't THAT expensive, generally speaking.
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=== Damage Report ===
The Sox looked a more powerful team, top-to-bottom. Disheartening. The Tigers, exactly as Merks prophesied, have won 7 of 10 and now the M's are -7.5 to them on the WC2. Dreary. The M's 3-4 starters, Vargas and Beavan, showed their keisters and gave convincing imitations of #5 starters and (lower-half) AAA starters, respectively. The triage decision: go with first aid, get to Minnesota, and hope that another winning streak cuts casualties to a minimum.
Nothing easier than to laugh at the M's mini-run now, but baseball is up and down.
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=== Gameflow ===
Ackley hustles out an infield hit to lead off, embarrassing Quintana covering. Kyle Seager lands a body blow with a 3-run shot that sends Quintana reeling into a 42-pitch first inning.
Unfortunately, several M's lefties (Thames, Saunders, Jaso UGH) were in dry dock, and the M's never scored another run. They did indeed battle hard, as they battled to come back from 7-2 Friday. They refused to give away a single at-bat, the whole night, and obviously were under the delusion that they could win. The technical term for this attitude is "progress." Just in the nick of time, Ensign. I couldn't have taken another year of veteran-entitled sloppy at-bats.
.........
Blake Beavan didn't have it, not whatsoever. At one point he had 25 strikes, 20 balls, and Blake Beavan without fastball command is most definitely a PCL pitcher. As in, one of the lower 50% of PCL pitchers.
The White Sox, add Youkilis and a resurgent Big Donkey, are not known for being gentle on AAA pitchers. Aside from the 5 runs, Dunn also had a 2-run shot caught Right. Up. Against. the center field fence, another guy had a lashed double down the RF line hit Wells' glove with two men on, and lots of stuff like that.
In the 4th and 5th, he did find his command, and befuddlingly, matters got worse. Maybe it was that 3rd-time-through thingy? They were fighting to get to the plate.
Best thing you can say about Beavan: the man competes. I'll give him that. Of course, so did Dave Fleming. Dr. D does not like to come off as impressionable based on one game. But he's going to remind his good buddies, based on this one game against a tough lineup, that Beavan is not the man to take James Paxton's seat away from him.
...........
Charlie Furbush came into the 6th inning with tie score but a man on 2B and nobody out. That's a run expectation of 1.2, so the Sox were effectively up by 4.2 to 3. Could Furbush take a third of a field goal down off the scoreboard for us?
He almost did, but on a 2-strike, 2-out pitch he centered a fastball which was lined back up the middle. Dr. D does not like to come off as impressionable, and his impression of Charlie Furbush does not move based on his yielding a base hit in a major league baseball game.
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=== Seager Two Jacks ===
Seager was hitting .280/.315/.490* before launching two beeeyooootiful home runs, one off a lefty and one off a 95 MPH fastball at the knees. *On the road.
People talk about the pitchers booking Seager. We doubt that if his overall statline read .285/.320/.500 that folks would be worrying about it. The things we've loved about Seager apply no less today than they did in April:
- High contact rate (has "dipped" to 82%, vs league average of 79%)
- Despite the fact that he swings very hard
- KBIZLT, plane of the barrel of his bat aligns with the pitch plane, Don Mattingly-style, leaves him in great shape for offspeed
- Pulls the ball
- In the air (43% fly ball, 37% ground ball)
You tend to forget that Seager only got 1,090 at-bats in the minors, and only 250 of those in AA, 100 in AAA. He's fighting a rearguard action against elite ML pitchers who are realllllly bearing down on him in an empty M's lineup, and Safeco considered, he's providing a rawhide-tough rookie* season.
It says here that Kyle Seager is going to get better. Much better. Here is a guy who could bust out.
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