M's 6, Rockies 5
and the M's get ready to haul in a big name SP ! Fer shure!

.

There isn't any amount of theorizing that's going to pique our interest in a 2017 pennant race, like there isn't any amount of grousing that is going to stand up to an 8-game winning streak.  A picture's worth 1,000 words, eh.  Monday afternoon's game was just such a picture.

Our fillin #11 starter, whats-iz-Ganglion, scrounged 5 innings and held the Rockies to 5 runs.  The Skip was positively giddy about the "ultra quality start" Coors adjusted.  We ain't kidding.  He was gushing all over the performance in the postgame.  One of yer all-time great 9.00 ERA's, but ya, we know what he meant.  

This is why Dipoto and Servais work so hard at these "stoploss" 88 MPH sinker-slider guys - a win or two in May can be the difference.  'Member, it actually WAS, last year.

So the M's are up 6-5 when whats-iz-eleven is carried off the field to a Gatorade shower and then Servais goes one pitcher at a time for approximately 12 outs, which is prototypical 21st century baseball.  Everybody got one out except James Pazos, who got four.  Remember the cliche about the picture?  You get Sugar Diaz in the 9th the way he was Monday, you get Pazos throwing like that ... Suddenly Zip-Vincent-Zych is starting to look like a flotilla of P.T. boats you can rescue outs with.  If you're careful.

Leaving the M's on this big winning streak, two, with Ariel Miranda and James Paxton next.  Resistance is futile. ... no, really, there are the seeds of a bullpen-offense-and-TOR hot streak here, as there are seeds of a hot streak with a lot of teams.  We got two good games coming up now, see what we're saying.  Enjoy a game of baseball.

....

The highlight video shoulda had more Pazos.  It had a Seager double and a Diaz ground ball.  But if you didn't see the game, yes.  Edwin Diaz was untouchable.  It makes a difference whether you expect any particular choice among the following 9th innings:

LO A gutpunch blown save

MID-LO You wind up winning but it felt like you coulda shoulda lost

MID A Cishek type gets you to the wire, not super convincingly

UP  A glorious superstar closer makes the other team wish it weren't playing in front of a TV audience

If Sugar is back, which at the moment he is, that's important.

....

We do the reading so you don' have to.  Worth your clickthrough are all of the following

1.  Bob Dutton's three takeaways are all interesting.

2.  Sodo Mojo, which is usually fine with us, has bailed on the 2017 season.  Say what?!  Come OFF it you weenies.  But their mock trade "announcement" column sounds fun.

3.  We can probably afford to not focus real much on Hisashi Iwakuma's return.  As Iwakuma's biggest fan I can see the benefit in clarity here, especially if Miranda is going to step up.

4.  Dan Altavilla may have turned a corner.  No link.  Just a travel advisory.  From Scott Servais in the postgame.

5.  Ryne Harper is a Mariner as we type this, like, a Mariner in uniform Tuesday.  A reliever who loves his CURVE ball, which is worth a sentence.

6.  The Seattle P-I has an enjoyable article discussing a trade for PIT starter Gerrit Cole.  So how's that grab yer, Sodo Mojo.  Good line in the last section that the M's need to do something about the "musical chairs" in their rotation.  Now that you put it that way.  Right, it does seem like Dipoto's responsibility to give his club a set rotation pretty quick here, extenuating circumstances or not.  ... and sorry about the clickbait subtitle up there.  Just felt like it.  :: winning smile ::

7.  We could get in a few games about 2:30 pm I think Mojician.  :- )  email me or CMS me or something?

8.  Dr. D took a sec to throw in this morning coffee stub jus' so you'd have a little something Mariners to chat around the office coffee pot.  As you know, he lives to serve.  So if you're inclined feel free to throw a mini-comment in the pot for his edification also.  Honestly, he relishes each Denizen and their accompanying word bubbles.

9.  Watch for Miranda fastballs inner third for called strikes.  Not to overdramatize, but that's sort of the pivot point for a possible $50M asset over the next several years, whether the lad is really threatening to put that live fastball in places where it will do the Mariners some good.  The offspeed stuff is already way more than good enough ... IFF he's going to zip strike one in there to both sides of the plate.

Enjoy,

Jeff

Blog: 

Comments

1

The problem during the last losing skid was not pitching...it was offense. Yes, we got blown up twice in a row due to bad SP, but the bullpen is starting to tame itself and the rotation doesn't have to be aces to get us back into the hunt. The problem has been the flatlining of the offense.

They'd better get back to scoring 5 runs a game or no amount of Paxton infusion will matter. BUT...who here thinks they are actually a 2 R/G offense as they've been playing like in the last week plus?

2

However if you're responding to what I was saying about pitching being the need, I still think it is.  I also think that the poor pitching could have partially caused the lack of offense recently.  When the shoulders slump because they feel like no lead is safe and they can never score enough it can snowball.  I don't think that's all of it and I don't think there's no room for improvement on offense either.  Simply still think the bigger issue is still pitching.

They may not be the 6+RPG offense they seemed for a time but they're definitely not 2-RPG either. 

4

That you were right about Maniger's oblique though.  Could have been back already but it's lingering. 

5

I exaggerate slightly, but, apart from "bat splintered and the broken end became a javelin that pierced the player's heart, killing him instantly" the injury I like the least, right now, is "oblique strain".

It doesn't help that I currently have one...and it refuses to go away...and it's making my life extremely miserable.

9

I'm on chess.com right now, for about the next half hour, if you happen to see this ... or email me jeffclarke238 at comcast ... no idea how to match up against a particular opponent, though.

I did figure out this much:  will need to know your chess.com handle :- )

10

Hi all, 

Here's what happened when I played Doc at chess:


Some of my pieces made it to his side of the board in one game out of five.  He crushed every blunder, impeded all my pawns, and saw, thwarted and punished all my plans before I did. More interesting than losing to Doc, is watching his chess game.  The polish and cohesion he carries into a chess match is something to aspire to.  All of his pieces work together and are in good places at all times.  

 

Doc carries a 2000 something rating on chess.com, which means he is in the 99th percentile of people with a chess.com account, and is as good as you get before you get a master title of some sort.  This makes him one of the best players in Washington.  If you want to challenge him, do so.  The beat down is instructive, and players that good aren't usually interested in handing out free chess lessons and working with you on your stuff.

Thanks

11

My tactics training is teaching me one thing...my board vision stinks. I know a lot, but it isn't translating well to the games.

13

I am basically unrated at chess.com...I've been doing tactics training only...no games there yet.

14

that is the lot of the chessplayer - we know how to play good, we just don't :- )

as an IM once put it, it's not what you know – it's what you can do. Great life lesson for baseball, chess, or whatever.

15

For those with some sense of the tournament game ... Mojician advertises himself as having started playing in January, THIS January, and never having read any books, not so much as Laskers Manual of Chess.  Despite this he's hit 1100 on the rating system, which is about where most high school players finish after several years of combat.

He had me easily beat for about 25-odd moves in one game before sheer curmudgeonry robbed him of his booty.  Honestly, 1100 in 3 months, that's the first I've heard of that, I think.

Mojician the #2 board on the SSI squad unless Matt unseats him :- )

16

His Tacoma line tonight:  8 innings, 4 hits, 1 BB, 3 K's, 0 runs, 97 pitches w/63 strikes.

He's ready.

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