Post-Mortem
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So this last Friday, the Mariners had things clickin on all cylinders, as much as the 2017 Mariners were going to see, and they headed into Houston to see where they stood. For the twentieth time this year, the time came to "take one and give one" and they went into potato-bug mode.
Usually Scott Servais pleads "It's hard to get a winning streak together when your rotation is bubble gum and baling wire." Thaaaaaaat's a rather broad statement -- let's see you prove that winning streaks are associated with starting pitchers more than they are with slugging percentages -- but let us suppose that Servais was right, and that it is true.
The Mariners went into the weekend with the best forward-projecting rotation they'd had since March. The outcomes being
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9/15 K-Pax 1.1 ip, 4 h, 3 r, 3 er, 2 bb, 0 k .... 27 strikes, 23 bb. Gallardo used as bridge man, M's lose 5-2 to Morton
9/16 Erasmo 4.0 IP, 8h, 6 er, 3 bb 6 k ... 51 strikes, 41 bb. Hodgepodge of RP's as M's lose 8-6 to Keuchel
9/17 Moore 4.2 IP, 7h, 3 r, 3 er, 0 bb, 1 k ... 52 strikes, 26 bb. Long relievers used as M's lose 7-1 to Verlander
9/18 Hangover game Leake 6.2 IP, 6 h, 1 r, 1 er, 0 BB, 5k, 63 strikes, 30 bb. M's come up with nothing off Martin Perez, waste Leake's performance 3-1
9/19 King Felix fails to take advantage of Leake's "stop": 3.1 IP, 2 h, 6 r, 5 er, 3 BB, 4 k, 39 strikes, 28 balls, M's lose to 10-10 Andrew Cashner 8-6
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So there are 10 games left and the teams ahead of the M's have been losing a lot also. With James Paxton pitching tonight:
- Minnesota +4
- LAA =
- Texas -1
- KC -3
- Seattle -4
- Tampa -4
If the Mariners were to go 8-2 from here, and they have evidenced little desire to do so, they would "force" their opponents to go thusly to tie them:
- Minnesota 4-6
- LAA 6-4
- Tex 7-4
- KC 8-3
- Tampa 8-2
But Billy Zoom's questions about Scott Servais start to thump louder and louder in SSI's little Telltale Heart short story.
Bah Humbug,
Dr D