M's 6, Tiggers 2
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WILD CARD
The Mariners are -2 below .500, the Rays +1 above it. By my math this leaves the M's 1.5 games out of the playoffs, magic number of 89. And the big kids get out of school tomorrow, rotationally speaking.
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ROTATION
Speaking of which, Servais had a more predictable quote on this Monday. Forget where it was. The gist was, when Felix and Iwakuma get back Friday-Saturday, we'll figure out what to do with the Rainiers starters at that time. Maybe Gaviglio will head out to Tacoma; maybe he'll be our long man. We'll decide then.
Heavy sigh. I guess it's possible the M's believe that Gallardo's "stuff" and moxie make him, simply a better bet than Gaviglio. (Even if you thought that, I would point out the development imperative; given an equal choice between a ham sandwich and a developmental player, invest the time). Or it's possible that the M's have a buyer on the line, hey, just two quality starts here and we can get back Dillon Overton. :- )
In any case, if you're willing to bet hard cash on a sub-5.00 ERA for Gallardo going foward -- even in Safeco with Dipoto's athletic outfield -- then you've got better persistence than most men.
Smyly goes out for a rehab stint shortly and then would it be Gallardo over MIRANDA TOO?!
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GUILLERMO HEREDIA
Here is that game-tying homer in the bottom of the fifth. ... had just been about to say, he doesn't have much of an ISO for a guy put together as well as he is, only a .358 SLG despite a .278 AVG coming into the game. He's got a handful of homers; for some reason he's only got 4 doubles (?!) in a full 190 at bats, a third of a season. That's just a freak coincidence we're sure. No way a player like Guillermo Heredia finishes a season with 12 doubles.
His big evening jacked his OPS back up to around 100, give or take three points. The Mainframe is very optimistic long term. Baseball is about the strike zone.
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SAM GAVIGLIO
Watched the game from the deep LF foul line and so couldn't see much. Except that in the 4th inning, Gaviglio had 4 walks 0 strikeouts and yet only 2 runs allowed against a star-studded offense. This is the difference between Gaviglio and Bergman, the ability to scuffle on an off night. Come to think of it, that's the difference between Gaviglio and some guys ahead of him on the depth chart...
Okay, okay, we'll give it a rest. When you annoy YOURSELF you can safely assume it's time to move on. To:
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ANOTHER PERFECT RUN BY THE BULLPEN
James Pazos came into a tie game, bases loaded, one out. Motter kicked a DP groundball and that had been it for Cishek.
From the stretch, a wild pitch loses the game,* Pazos attacked the first batter like a pit bull on a stew bone. Fanned that dude on a slider and then blew Andrew Romine away on this 99 MPH fastball. Aroldis Chapman throws some 99's you know ... the final score 6-2 looks like it was pretty easy. But when Pazos came in the Tigers were likely to win, as in 64% likely to win. Hooray for James Pazos.
Who is sitting at 10.9 strikeouts, 3.2 walks, and 0.57 homers per 9 innings with a 2.01 ERA. His fastball is 96.1 MPH average, his slider is -14 MPH off that, and you know Dr. Detecto loves him some 2-pitch nasty boys.
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The M's have a video up of Diaz' save, and he goes Pazos one better on this game-ending fastball. Sugar is 11-for-11 clean wipeouts since the M's hauled him into dry dock in the middle of May. In fact when they look at his game logs in 500 years :- ) they'll figure he just had that one bad 4-BB outing on May 15. But the Mariners saw the patient convulsing and jumped right on it. WAY TO GO MARINERS!
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POTATO IN THE POT
If you're reading, how about throwing a line or two into the comments? I like to read too :-)
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Enjoy,
Dr D