They had some bad luck offensively or they'd have score 6 or 7 runs easily. Multiple innings ended with a frustrating groan of an out (or DP) that should have been a hit. But I was having fun all night with the offense because they were grinding out ABs still...they made McAllister throw 107 pitches in 4.1 innings...LOL Hey, Cleveland's got a decent bullpen and their best relievers shut down the line-up with fewer long innings, but they had to go to that pen in the 5th. Again. You keep doing that and it's going to make a lot of teams struggle against you.
But it was definitely a frustrating game on defense. Raul missed about four base hits in left, too many pitches by E-Ram and the relievers...lots of 3 ball counts...lots of nerves.
The DP turn in the 9th was among the louder game call moments of my life. I was into this game BIG TIME
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GameFlow
Emotionally, the game felt like a P90X workout like three P90X workouts, back-to-back-to-back. There wasn't a single moment of it that was truly enjoyable ... well, there was one pitch I liked, the one that Nick Franklin turned into a whirling dirvish of a double play that saved the game.
There is a GameFlow to a P90X workout, or a 10K run, or 24 sets' worth of personal bests in the weight room:
............
(1) In the first 5 minutes, you're not loose yet, but you know you got 55 minutes left. There is a certain part of your head that is seriously considering quitting, and going to do something that isn't a waste of your precious life coming back at it fresh tomorrow. For a great session. Tomorrow morning. First thing. It's what, Saunders starting Wednesday? Yep, tomorrow morning.
That's what it felt like, Erasmo Ramirez getting gutpunched again in the 1st inning ... watching the game was like starting up a long workout, before you've broken the sweat.
That's twice, in as many attempts, that he had lousy command and feel. But he did cobble a Quality Start* against a loaded lefty batting order. Excellent determination, amigo.
Look: E-Ram's mechanics are Maddux-quiet. He's commanded the ball all his life. He will hit his spots. Don't sweat it.
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(2) About 10 minutes in, you flush, you break a sweat, and the world fades away. That was the 3-run third inning.
ROOT TV ran a tremendous split side-by-side replay, of Raul's leadoff double, and of Kendrys doubling him in:
- Both got fastballs up and away, outside the zone
- Both men, somehow, got on top of the pitches anyway, sailing them off* the left-center wall
- Raul's face grimace was that of an arm wrestler ... who just lost an ACL
- Kendrys' face was that of Sylvester Stallone, eyes half lidded, half asleep, even as the bat made contact!
Rauuuul's body was an EXPLOSION of nerve endings as he rallied every fiber of his body to catch up to the pitch. Kendrys? He looked like he was tossing a Frisbee in the back yard with his daughter.
I didn't realize until that moment, just how impossibly relaxed Kendrys is while he's playing. The beauty of that is breathtaking. There is a deep inner Peace to Kendrys' game.
... is this related to the odd lack of ambition we often see in ex-Cubans like Yuniesky Betancourt? ::shrug::
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Note carefully that nothing in the T1, or B1, or T2, or B2, or T3, was anything you'd be doing if it weren't an investment in yourself. You wouldn't choose it over a R.I.P.D. movie just because it held your interest.
True, Ramirez gave up no runs in the 3rd ... but he gave up a leadoff fly ball, then a single, then walked somebody ... ::c'mon, more range of motion this set's almost done:: ... then battled Quentin for a hard fly out...
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(3) As you grind through the middle innings, your gameflow consiss of --- > a series of heroic efforts to get to the little milestone-rest points. Wow, there are five Plyo blocks but we're almost through with the second block, and then there are only three... anybody can do threeeeeee.... OH NOOO was that my calf muscle going?
The M's were ahead 4-3 after three innings. Every plyo block inning the rest of the way, you were kind of relieved you made it to the checkpoint alive.
17 consecutive half-innings, in which the Mariners completed their "Lead Hold" block, and it wasn't like you had Felix and Pryor out there doin' it. It was a tedious, sweaty workout all the way: laborious, strenuous, leaving you conflicted. But worth it.
Medina is the very definition of a max-effort reliever. His CG takes a violent, hairpin turn around a 90-degree left corner just after he releases, and then he stomps in 10 feet to demand the ball back. I don't know how he ever throws a strike, and the batters are just as confused as I am about the issue.
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(4) There's a certain point, maybe 44 of 60 minutes in, when it occurs HEY THIS IS REALLY GONNA HAPPEN and you cheer up.
After Yoervis Medina's monster-ugly but effective 7th inning, I hit a smooth point and the game was kind of less of a grind.
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(5) It isn't really when you FINISH that you feel the elation. It's right about 3-4 minutes before the end ... only one or two sets left, and those last couple sets are really just a cooldown.
After Franklin's gorgeous double play, the last out was a very refreshing cooldown. Not just for me. The Mariners were out there celebrating during the game, after two were out. Did you see that?
"Ba-da-boom, we got two out, right there," gloated Wilhelmsen after the game. He seems confused about which sport he participates in, which is okay with me. The chemistry in the infield is kinda like the chemistry in that cheesy Kevin Bacon dance studio they use at Beachbody.
That guy on the left is doing P90X Plyometrics ... on a prosthetic leg. Make your own application to a guy spectating baseball with the Seattle Mariners as his home team.
(I'll bet you a dollar that Kendrys Morales, Jesus Montero, Justin Smoak, and every Mariner pitcher except Iwakuma, would quit Plyo before the Rock Star Hops. Bet you another dollar that Raul would beg for a second disk.)
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(6) The 3-hour afterglow leaves you with amnesia (about the pain) and enthusiasm (about the next session).
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There isn't a moment of a 5K run, or a pushup-chinup routine that you really enjoy, but it's a funny thing: every moment of it is satisfying, too. You're not at work. You're not threatened by a cell phone. You have a tremendous sense that all's right with the world, that everything's gonna be okay.
Tuesday night's game was so ugly, at so many dozens of points, that we don't even want to try to catalog them. But Dr. D was always fine with the fact that he was investing his time in a ballgame, and when it was over, he felt like he'd accomplished something vaguely important.
..........
The M's had a terrible off night. But the FLOOR of their team performance level is very high right now. It feels like they're never going to phone in a game again.
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Comments
No, we are NOT giving this game away. YOU are team that will choke. YOU are the team that will make indecisive, unsure moves.
I have not felt like this about a baseball team since 1994. Many of you were just thoughts in your teenage parents heads back then.
See, in 1994, The M's, right before the strike that wiped out the world series, caught fire! It was exhilarating. The strike was crushing. I believe it also crushed an up and coming Expos team.
But back to the point... this is AMAZING. I live in NC. I stay up now until 1 a.m. to watch every game. That is ridiculous! But it is amazing to watch a team... well... become a team!
I am so vested now. I want no one traded. I want to see what this team can do for a full year. This is Seahawks 2003. This is the budding. The bloom comes later.
Thank you baseball gods for seeing to it that I might feel this slow ebb of love for a game and a team that for so long I have had to avoid.
Thank you to this site that uplifts even when perhaps the stark reality is a downer. Thank you.
I'm all in.
It's interesting - the vets we have acquired are finally the team-leader types with on-the-field performance to back it up. Most of them are cool as ice water from a mountain stream (see: Doc's analogy about sleepy-eyed Morales who crushes balls without raising his resting pulse above "coma").
The rookies are assassins. Miller and Franklin are death to grounders up the middle and turn double plays like they've been together for years. They honestly enjoy playing together and pushing one another - and they scare opposing pitchers. Rookies. MARINERS rookies, for that matter.
Zunino handles the pitching staff like it's another day at the office. Ho hum, steal another strike for my pitcher (nobody EVER talk to me about pitch-framing again after watching Zunino vs Montero/Jaso/Shoppach/Olivo). Yawn, block an impossible curveball in the dirt. You wanna steal on me? You're out by two feet - next?
And now his bat is coming around. He's figuring out when to be greedy and when to take the single the other way for the RBI (memo to Franklin: you're still a little too greedy from the LH side - it's okay to "just" hit a single. But then he does keep drawing those walks...).
And what to say about Seager? Maybe this: at this pace, he'll get to 40 doubles and 25 HRs on the season. There's only one man in history who's ever done that, and it's not who you think. George Brett was one XBH away from the mark in a season, and some others have been close, but that one man:
Eric Chavez. If you're trying to figure out who Seager is, you could do worse than pegging him as a healthy Chavez.
But here's an even more interesting stat: there are 13 seasons EVER by a left-handed 3B with 35 doubles and 20 HRs. Kyle Seager is already on that list, thanks to his 2012 season. Kyle doesn't have to do more special things to be on a list of greats. He already has.
These are the guys who put pressure on the opposing team. These are the guys who are making pitchers crack, and filling those gaps with run-scoring hits. It's the guys in between the vets and the rooks who are still finding their way. Ackley, Saunders and Smoak have all been in the bigs long enough to get settled, and still aren't quite settled. Maybe Smoak has finally gotten there. We'll see the rest of this season. Saunders finds it and loses it, and Ackley is still in search of that first-season approach and success.
If they join the party full-time, the sky really is the limit. Maybe the rookies are finally taking us to critical mass. The team has a hungry approach at the plate every inning, looking to devour the dude on the mound or let him scare himself off of it (77 pitches in 3 innings last night? Yowza). And on defense they just keep drawing the noose tighter. Miller's making fewer errors than Ryan, Franklin is better than Ackley, Seager is a Hoover, Zunino is the best defensive backstop we've had since Dan the Man and his current level of offense is better than several of Dan's seasons to boot.
Ackley is getting the hang of CF, bit by bit, and using that speed of his. Smoak helps all the kids out by making every catch at first. And you can see their confidence and relaxed swagger infecting the whole team. It's kinda fabulous.
If we get 60 more games this year like this, I'll have no complaints regardless of record. THIS is how I want to see baseball played.
~G
I had to stay up watch the game I recorded. I watched it mostly in "speed" mode, but when something was brewing I slowed it down to normal. A month ago I wouldn't have bothered, neither would I have bothered most of the last few years. This year DOES feel different, at least now it does.
What a fascinating metaphor, Doc. P90x. I watched my sons follow those videos. All I could think of is "Are you nuts?" I do run (run?) a 5 K every now and then, so I kind of get it. Apparently the M's followed your metaphor to the T today. What? Another P90X session? Uhhh...I'm still sore from last night's.