Pennant Race
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For those who just joined us, the local club has to beat out ONE (1) of the following rivals. Another way to put that is, whichever of these three teams now plays the worst, the M's need to exceed that team's wins:
| Team | W | L | GB |
| Orcs | 80 | 63 | -- |
| Royals (Central Div) | 79 | 63 | 0.5 |
| Seattle | 78 | 63 | 1 |
| Tiggers | 79 | 65 | 1.5 |
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A little flavor text for yer:
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Tigers 9, Royals 5
Royals fans are wringing their hands over the following spiders in their pennant sandwiches:
- KC is 4-10 against Detroit this year (5 games left between the two)
- Many/most of Detroit's wins have been blowouts, like 8+ runs scored
- This occurred again, to start the showdown series
- Danny Duffy, and his 2.42 yearlong ERA, just went down with a rotator cuff
- Jeremy Guthrie and Jason Vargas are slopballers
- It negates your bullpen when your all-pitching team gets behind early
- The Tigers have awesome star power
- Last 30 days, Butler and Moustakas are batting .220/.280/.300 between the two of them
- Eric Hosmer is DOA
- They have Carlos Peguero on their roster ....
- The Royals fans are storming the castle to get the manager replaced
Of course there are plusses: James Shields, Wade Davis, Alex Gordon, and Josh Willingham have carried the Royals the last three weeks, while Wil Myers rips along at 0.0 WAR on the season.
Despite the Myers trade and all of its benefits to KC, I'd say that in Seattle, we are well-and-truly back to chasing the Royals, not the Tigers.
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Orcs 4, White Sox 5
You knew, of course, that the White Sox were down to their final strike on Monday. Oakland ahead, bases empty, "closer" in the game, two outs ... and two strikes.
"Boom, boom, boom," as Duck Commander Phil would say. The duck flurries up desperately out of the pond, juuusssssst in time to catch a broadside of birdshot. You have only yourself to blame, guys, after you left three (3) runners at 2B and 3B in the 8th and 9th ...
The A's are +8 up, -19 down the last four weeks. As Mojo pointed out, their fans take it as a given that they're going to make baseball history by finishing 8th in the league.
They should hope that is the case. :- ) If I'm an Orcs fan, I feel like I've lost already, no matter what happens from here. I had the team of the decade going, I was giddy with joy, and then my ballclub responded to the Bright Lights by pulling an Albert Brooks Broadcast News.
... It's as if the Seahawks were 9-0 going into game ten, and then went 1-6, giving up 500 yards about five times. Supposing they did scrounge a playoff berth from there? It would be like Tiger Woods scounging a tee-off time with the final 4 golfers on Sunday in a U.S. Open. Hey, nice going, there, Champ.
With such an attitude, victory is next to impossible. Baseball is full of 1964 Phillies and 1995 Angels teams that blew huge leads and tried to rally at the wire. Hard to escape den-sity at that point, amigo.
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M's 4, Astros 1
Tomorrow's news today, dept: a week ago, we swooned over the way that Brad Miller was swinging the bat. Since August 23, he's now 12-for-27 with 3 doubles, a triple, and 2 homers, 8 RBI. Twenty-three total bases in 27 at bats.
Chris Taylor continues to rake, and has a .390 OBP against left hand starters. Quite a platoon. The shortstop position may supply the M's third-best hitter in the stretch run.
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Similarly, in the 8th inning James Jones entered the game for Mike Zunino's walk. With one out, first base ... Jones promptly swiped 2B and 3B. The pitcher was on a high wire, as opposed to in a rocking chair. Jones scored the winning run.
Jones might do this three more times in the last 19 games, score the go-ahead run as a pinch runner.
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Michael Saunders, somehow, returned with razor-sharp timing. He pulled a 95 MPH fastball, with ease, for his line drive base hit and walked twice.
In right field, John Dewan has him at +12 runs saved with the glove -- in half a year. Monday, we saw another sensational play to rob the homer. If the Paxton add is comparable to a Jon Lester trade, well, adding Saunders could be a Jayson Heyward deal. Heyward is playing tremendous defense in RF, with a .274/.355/.394 line, and supposedly that's already >5 WAR.
Eine great-zig defensive outfielder who zen gifs you major damage vis ze bat? Vot next? On base percentage from ze number two hitter?
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Felix' release point is more erratic than usual; you could look it up. But an out-of-synch Felix? It's like Earl Weaver used to tell Jim Palmer. I don't need you to be 100% to be better than anybody else I have. Or anybody else they have.
After the NFC championship, Russell Wilson sprung a question on Terry Bradshaw on stage: "What does it take to win the Super Bowl?" Quoth Terry, you have to play the game down. If it gets too important, you'll foul it up.
That'll do for Felix, too. If I were him, I'd be talking myself into the idea that these are spring training games.
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Brandon Maurer averaged 97.5 MPH on his fastball Monday, and it is a located 97.5. He is making Tom Wilhelmsen look like a pantywaist.
Batters are now totally sitting dead red and are sitting ducks for his (excellent) changeup. At the moment, he is essentially the good version of J.J. Putz. I dunno, maybe we could trade him for a glove man and a #4 starter?
Which ... Dr. Detecto has always preferred that his setup man be better than his closer. Just today at Hey Bill:
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