M's PASS ORIOLES, TAKE OVER WILD CARD SLOT
130 MPH and ... hitting the upshift lever

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... Tomorrow's news today, babe.

The Orioles got thrummed by a 12-2 score and fell to within a single game of the surging M's, who won nice and smooth.  With the O's schedule, it feels like the Mariners have passed them already.  Any day now, the feeling will translate to reality.  Pass the Yoo-Hoo, Rick?

Okay, maybe it isn't a TOTAL wrap JUST yet.  But ..

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TOR and CLOSER

Without any question, Felix is back to Top of Rotation (TOR) form.  It's true that the Brewers' offense is a joke against righties, but it's also true that Felix' changeup is dropping to the bottom of the kneecaps.  He never lost his yakker, which is a career in itself for lesser men.  He never even really lost his velocity from 2015; what he lost was his command.  That's been back to 95% for several games now.  Go Felix.

Dr. D cheerfully anoints K-Pax as the SSI virtual #1 ace, we got the HOF'er in the second ace slot, and ... well, the third ace Hisashi Iwakuma is like 102-13 lifetime in the rotation.  As all y'all know, the top three starters and the closer help themselves to huge plates of innings in the postseason buffet.

So as thankful as we all are for the contributions of the 7-8-9 starters, the day is coming when they can take the best seats in the house and measure up their ring fingers.  Amirite?

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As you know, Dr. D is hardly the type to call attention to his past predictions, almost all of which turn out to be correct.  But we will make an exception for this one.  The 2015 Rangers were 55-57 in the middle of August and happened to hit their hot streak there.  Nothing unusual about a good dish of baseball cream needing quite a while to rise to the top.

While we're all gloating together (about the Angels), let us bask in the warm glow of James Paxton's perfect rehab start on Saturday.  Upper 90's, only one walk, it's all over but for the sore forearm tomorrow.

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BULLPEN STRUCTURE?

Pat Gillick's big thing -- he did it every stop, Toronto, Balmer, 116-win city, Philly -- was that he wanted two pairs of relievers.  Then you could use two of them one night, and the other two the next night.  According to that logic, the M's need to settle on the fourth guy.

Steve Cishek rained slider death on the (hapless) Brewers, and though he is no Kent Tekulve, let's not forget every one of his 25 saves already this year.  As a 4th reliever targeted against more righties than lefties, he could be the fourth.

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YOU WERE THE ONE WHO BROUGHT THE MEKANEEKS, Dept.

And again the Mariners offense brought the consistency.  They haven't been locked down a single time since they started their 12-3 run.  Since Boston left town, that's 15 straight games scoring three plus runs.

They're hitting a lot of tough pitches, as we'll chat about with Nori Aoki and Mike Zunino.  Of course they are feasting on the weak sisters, but I like the way they stack up for tough games once they get all three aces goin'.

Be Afraid,

jemanji 

Comments

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SonicBOOM!'s picture

I'm not at the game- not watching- just sitting here watching the news feed, my stomach grinding away. The Bartender jhust gave up four runs in a save situation in the top of the 9th to a team that was trying hard to roll over and play dead. Aargh!!!

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