A's 6, M's 2
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=== Bazooka Joe ===
Where were you?, during Blake Griffin's double airball from the foul line. Whoops! First one slipped, man. Watch me, now, I got the laces here. I'm gonna MAKE this one. ... WHOOPS!
Saunders needs plus-plus command of his fastball; in this game he didn't even have mediocre command of his fastball. He'd fall behind 2-0, and he'd bear down to try to hit his spot, and then the ball would sail two feet wide and two feet high.
Since the fatball was useless, it underlined the fact that his curve is a minus pitch and his change is a minus pitch.
If he can pitch worse than that if any major league pitcher over the age of 25 can pitch worse than that, I don't want to know about it.
..........
After the game, Sgt. Wedge praised Saunders to the skies. You really saw the bulldog out there tonight, dudes. Seriously, that's what he was talking. And so it becomes clear how Saunders got here.
That's okay. We don't begrudge Sgt. Wedge his homies. But Dr. D is already counting the days.
Don't get me wrong. Saunders isn't going to average 1.0 BB per IP very often. But we'll still be counting the days. The #4-5 SP situation is .... well, how long is Erasmo out again?
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=== Brendan Ryan ===
Man on 2B, 1 out, first inning. Slow bouncer into the hole. The play that Derek Jeter makes 14% of the time and that Ryan makes 60% of the time. Ryan made it, and Saunders got out of the inning.
Next inning, IIRC, score 2-1 and there's a double into the corner, man on 1B. Ryan scrambles out to halfway down the 3B line, takes the relay, and fires a 150-foot screaming meemie Right. Onto. the Plate. to protect the lead 2-1.
The man is a genius.
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=== Kameron Loe ===
Here's an inkblot test for you. Do you like sinker-slider pitchers? Judge your inner baseball compulsions by your visceral response to Kameron Loe.
His sinker, sinks more than most sinkers sink. His slider, slides more than most sliders slide. It's like a wiffleball where you're reversing the side the holes are on.
Dr. D endures sinker-slider pitchers. He doesn't like groundball "pitch to contact" guys, and he doesn't care for the slider as a concept. If Dr. D never saw another sinker-slider pitcher again, it would have no appreciable effect on his life happiness.
Some MLB(TM) employees, who live under constant crushing Atlantic Trench-level pressure, appreciate the chance at a ground ball double play, and appreciate the chance at 2.0 IP, 0 BB. I'm not operating under that pressure, and I don't like sinker-slider pitchers.
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=== Oakland A's ===
Left 18 men on base, scored 6 others, and had several gunned down on the bases. All in all, I'd rather be in Philadelphia.
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=== M's Offense ===
Didn't have quite as bad a night as the 8 consecutive duck's eggs made it look.
They had two no-doubter HR's; Jesus Montero thwacked two clean hits; and there were at least four or five balls hit very hard in the air that found leather. Kendrys Morales in particular smoked one just hard enough to hold up for Yoenis Cespedes.
The same balls in play, on another night, would have resulted in 3-4 runs.
Don't get me wrong; Milone made the M's fight for it, didn't walk anybody*, and the A's had 18 LOB's to the M's 6. The A's dominated, thanks to Bazooka Joe's tragedy, but the offense wasn't locked down quite the way you might think by the box score. (We'll say this, though: we thought the M's mailed in the 8th and 9th innings. Grrrrrrrrr.)
This is why no team, not even a juggernaut of the magnitude of the 2013 Seattle Mariners, winds up 162-0. Lot of luck comes into play on any given night. We'll have to settle for about 108-54.
M's still lead the division and can still go Wire To Wire Bab-Eh.
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