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K-PAX
The White Sox got 5 hits and 3 runs in the first inning. It's getting so it's weird to see batters take good swings off Paxton, isn't it?
The first inning was one tablespoon bad luck on grounders, two ounces rustiness on Paxton's part, and half a cup of "Don't throw 15 of your first 19 pitches into the strike zone." Sometimes pitchers forget that it is just as bad to tip WHERE the pitch is going as it is to tip WHICH pitch is coming.
The Sox swung in pre-set time to the fastball, knowing the ball would be there. If they'd had to wait and see first, whether the pitch was a strike, then they wouldn't have hit four or five sharp grounders. Remember when Michael Pineda had this problem for a little while? (But do notice, in consolation, that you are now the proud possessor of a James Paxton who is incapable of throwing a ball. What were the odds.)
And, after the first, K-Pax mowed um down. He got 12 garbage swings off his foshball alone! In 26 pitches! Seventeen swings and misses overall.
Most pitchers "establish their fastballs" in the first inning, but a 97 MPH fastball simply does not have to be established. Don't know why guys like him never deduce that. Start off with offspeed, and if the hitters' eyes light up about it, how fun is it going to be to heave it by them the rest of the night.
But let's say that Aroldis Chapman did have to "establish" his fastball for the first five hitters he faced? Okay, go ahead, pour the predictable heat in there. But just throw a few of them outside, or high.
It ain't rocket science. There's got to be some indecision, and this indecision must begin on Pitch One. CLOSERS pitch one inning and mix things up. Starters cannot do that in the first inning?
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THE MEKANEEKS
After 15 straight games of 3+ runs, finally got shut down two in a row by New York. They were back in action Thursday, scoring six runs. That will happen when you have nine tough hitters. Last time Dr. D remembers a lineup 9 deep, was in 2001.
The Mariners are 13-7 into a stretch where we wanted 15-8 or 16-7. Playoff chances have dipped to 29%, exactly Robinson Cano's batting average. Take the over.
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TOMORROW'S NEWS TODAY, Dept.
They tell you in public speaking school that fear and excitement are the same thing, so just use it to your advantage. Dr. D can solemnly testify that this theory is "not even false," as the animal-psi debunkers like to say, but it's a Peanuts Linus-blanket to hold on to. When you're afraid.
The bullpen riffled through a stretch where its ERA was 1+ over a 30-day stretch, far and away the best in the AL. Dr. D opined that was fine, but there is only one man in the bullpen you can trust. Last coupla blown saves ... there y'go amig-O. Edwin Diaz is tremendous and will be tremendous. Cishek, Wilhelmsen and Caminero (in that order) are fairly good.
Being in da bidness of predicting da good, da bad and da ugly ... the M's are three down and have to catch the worst two out of four teams. They got Felix rolling and Paxton will be elite from here on in. They got the second-best offense in the AL and they have a decent bullpen. The AL East plays each other. Forecast: an exciting pennant race.
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GIVE HIM THE PLAQUE NOW AND AVOID THE RUSH
Robinson Cano got an 84-MPH offspeed pitch on the outer corner and simply Home Run Derby'd it way out into the gloaming. Right-center power alley. The next inning, was it?, he jetted in on a slow roller to barehand and WHIPPPPP it to Adam Lind for a year-end highlight reel. This is the Robinson Cano we hoped we bought in April 2014. Wouldn't it have been something if this were his first game in Seattle, and his first season?
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NORI AOKI
Is hitting .321/.369/.423 since being called up. An Ichiro batting line from the leadoff spot. Just needed to get back into attack mode, I guess.
If you didn't see the game, he made a backhand catch in front of himself that was at the Very. Edge. of his Range. It would have been a super-dee-dooper play for anybody, for Mike Trout, let alone Aoki. And then later in the game he made a second one! This one to his forehand, as if he were compiling a Yoenis Cespedes prima donna reel from Cuba.
Blowers kills me. On that second catch, I could not see on repeated Slo-Mo whether the ball touched the grass first or the tip of the leather first. They challenged, reviewed in New York, and decided Aoki had caught it. Personally, I never did figure it out; that's the first replay this year where I wouldn't have been able to tell you what happened regardless of how long you gave me.
Blowers, sitting 300 feet away, had taken a glance in real time and said "Oh yeah. He got it. Big mitt." Major leaguers crack me up.
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Happy Felix Day,
Dr D
