Tag Archives: Felix Hernandez

by | April 21, 2010 · 9:46 pm

Game Recap – 4/21/2010

That went as expected.  I feel a little bit bad for Baltimore.  They really suck and probably won’t reach 10 wins for another month.  Seriously.  Thankfully, I’m a Mariners fan and it appears that the dark days like those are past us.  After starting the season with a 2-6 mark and causing concern throughout Mariner nation, the M’s have rattled off wins in 7 of their last 8 games and are only a 1/2 game out of first place. 

This game had two key parts that determined the outcome:  Felix Hernandez and the bottom of the 4th inning.  We’ll start with the latter.

Guti started the inning with an out but then the miraculous happened, Jose Lopez drew a walk!  When that happens I feel like something special is about to happen.  After Loafie walked, Kotchman singled and Sweeney popped out (more on Sweeney later).  Tui then hit a sharp single and Lopez stopped at third.  Rob Johnson hit a slow roller up the middle and somehow Tui beat the throw to second.  Then Jack Wilson cleared the bases with a double.  Bingo!  That’s all the runs the Mariners needed.  What’s even more weird is that all those RBI’s came from Hips and Hot-Hands Wilson.  I was beginning to believe that Jack Wilson was going to hit about .230 all year and I was okay with that because of his amazing defense.  All of a sudden, he has 4 doubles in 3 games.  I hope he can continue to hit at least somewhat. 

Once that bottom of the 4th happened the game was over.  Most 3 run games can be a little bit tense but not this one, I had no fear that the Mariners would lose this game and that is because of Felix Hernandez.  Felix didn’t appear to be very sharp early; leaving fastballs over the middle of the plate and not mixing in other pitches.  He gave up four hits in the first two innings and one unearned run.  But then, he got in one of those moods.  You know, the “Hey, I’m Felix and I’m better than you” mood.  His control got better and his other pitches became a part of the game plan.  He faced Adam Jones in the 6th and snapped off a 90 mph slider to strike him out.  In the 9th, he ended the game with nasty curveball that Reimold chased as it dove to the dirt.  After a few games in which Felix didn’t quite look like the king we saw last summer, he found his crown tonight and showed why he’s one of the best pitchers in the AL. 

Kevin Millwood was weird.  I’ve watched Millwood pitch quite a bit and he’s never looked like that.  I’d have to do some research to be sure but his fastball used to have a little more velocity and didn’t run so much.  It seems as if he switched from a 4-seam fastball to a 2-seamer that had a little more run on it.  It ranged anywhere from 86-91 mph and came in on righties.  He threw his normal slider that was around 82 mph.  That’s a normal Millwood pitch and was pretty effective.  Then, he threw in this loopy breaking ball.  It was SLOW!  It came in at about 70 mph and had some major break to it.  You know what that repertoire looks a lot like?  Doug Fister.  No, seriously.  Matthew made this observation about halfway through the game and then I started to pay closer attention.  Fister threw in that loopy breaking ball on Monday and had some very good success with it.  So, in a week where Fister has been compared to everyone from Brad Radke to Carlos Silva, it seems like Millwood may have been trying to imitate Fister.

Hero/goat after the jump along with a few notes.  Continue reading →

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by | April 17, 2010 · 12:40 am

Game Recap – 4/16/2010

This afternoon I was all set to write a post about hitting with runners in scoring position.  I was going to say that, while hitting with runners in scoring position does take some skill, it’s mostly luck.  A good hitter will hit no matter if there are runners on or not.  I was going to break it down scientifically and with stats.  All this to prove that the Mariners were going to break out at some point with a barrage of runs.  I would have looked like a genius.  Instead, I decided to play Mario Kart…Oh well.

So, in case you missed it the Mariners dominated tonight, winning 11-3.  The bats came alive and the hits came in bunches.  There was the 3 run 4th, the 2 run 5th, and the 6 run 6th and all of a sudden the Mariners had 11 runs.  Think back a few days to the dismal home opener and 11 runs counts as a minor miracle.  What’s more impressive is the Mariners did it without home runs; they had 11 singles, one triple, and took advantage of a terrible Detroit defense.  (Seriously, if you don’t appreciate the Mariners defense watch the Tigers corner outfielders.  Ordonez takes the worst routes to fly balls possible and Johnny Damon’s arm is worse than mine.  One time tonight he tried to throw a foul ball into the stands except he didn’t make it there.  It was hilarious.)  Jeremy Bonderman, Detroit’s starter, wasn’t very good and gave up line drive after line drive.  His defense threw in three errors that all led to unearned runs. 

Felix was good as usual tonight.  He had a little trouble spotting his secondary pitches but his fastball was more than enough to get by tonight.  I couldn’t tell from my seat high up on the third baseline if he was getting squeezed by the umpire but it sure seemed like it.   He had one bad inning in which he gave up his two earned runs.  If it weren’t for that inning he would have had a shut out easy because the Tigers didn’t touch him after that. 

The atmosphere tonight was great.  It was close to a sell out and the crowd made a good deal of noise.  Johnny Damon was heckled to no end, which is just fine by me.  People are catching on to how great Felix is.  He got the loudest cheer during introductions and then was given a loud standing ovation after leaving the game.  The one bad thing about the Mariners blowing Detroit out was that the crowd lost a little bit of interest after the 9 run lead came.  But that’s just fine.  This city is ready to erupt with Mariner fever, the team just has to be in the pennant race for that to happen.  I might add that I don’t usually like the wave but I saw the most successful Mariner game wave tonight.  I was really impressed.  There was a ton of energy in the stadium. 

So for now, enjoy this victory.  Enjoy this 3 game winning streak.  Unfortunately, Justin Verlander pitches for the Tigers tomorrow but who knows, we could make it 4 in a row.  Baseball is a funny sport and it’s been a funny start to this season but it seems like things are getting on the right track.  So, maybe someday I’ll get to that post about hitting with runners in scoring position but as for now I’m just going to enjoy what the Mariners did tonight.

My goat/hero and a few other notes after the jump.  Continue reading →

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by | April 10, 2010 · 8:49 pm

Game Recap – 4/10/2010

In my quest to tricking my fellow good guys into letting me cover each Felix start, I get to recap the Mariners second win of the season. 

For much of the game it looked as if it’d Seattle’s 5th straight loss.  The Mariners scored a run in the top of the first and then the offense went cold.  It didn’t go cold like it did in prior games though.  The Mariners outhit Texas all day long but they just couldn’t get runners across the plate.  Seattle had 12 hits on the day and a good share of those came before the 3-run ninth.  Baseball is a weird sport and the Mariners have been bad this week but luck hasn’t been on their side.  Their BABIP (batting average on balls in play) was way below average for the week and their were a few bad bounces in the field that hurt them.  I’m not making excuses for them but there’s statistical reason to believe things will get much better.

Anyway, the Mariners might not have had much of a chance in this game if it weren’t for King Felix.  He was fantastic today and if it weren’t for a Figgins throwing error, Felix might have only given up one run.  My favorite thing about watching Felix is that I never know which pitch will be his best on a given day.  Today I think it was his change-up.  His change came in at 86-88 mph and fell off the table when it reached the batter.  It was beautiful.  Another thing that stood out to me about this start was the way Felix handled Guerrero.  He used his two-seam fastball to tail in on the hands of Vladimir and then threw that change into the dirt.  He produced two strikeouts and a groundball to third from this.  Long live the King!

Despite this outing, the Mariners were still down by 2 heading into the 9th inning.  They scored 3 on a flurry of singles and pesky baseball.  Here’s exactly what happened:  single, walk, sacrifice bunt, single (run scored), single (run scored), single (run scored), double play.  It’s innings like this that explain why the Mariners, Angels, and A’s are described as “annoying teams”; there were no extra base hits in that inning, they just produced runs by playing simple baseball.  The singles were hit hard but watching single after single gets annoying when you’re opposing fans and it prolongs the inevitable agony more so than a quick 3 run homer. 

In the bottom of the 9th Aardsma looked very good in striking out the 1st and 3rd batter.  But the second hitter, Elvis Andrus, hit a rocket to right center.  Luckily, we have the best center fielder in the game.  Guti covered a ton of ground and jumped up against the wall to take away a home run from Andrus.  I could try to describe this more poetically but it wouldn’t do it justice; just go watch it if you haven’t seen it already (heck, go watch it if you have seen it already).  If he doesn’t make that catch who knows what happens in this game.  I’m glad that Franklin is on the Mariners and will be for quite a while.

Does this game take away my worries?  No, it was an ugly week (although, not as ugly as many people say) and we were dangerously close to being 1-5.  But, the way it stands now is that if we somehow get a win tomorrow we finish the road trip with a mediocre 3-4 record.  Not good but okay.  It’s not the end of the world if we lose either.  But let’s not worry about tomorrow until tomorrow.  Today was the type of game the Mariners will be playing all season and it was good to see them win. 

My hero/goat and a few other notes after the jump.  Continue reading →

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by | April 6, 2010 · 3:59 pm

The Good Guy’s 2010 MLB Predictions


More predictions after the jump!
Continue reading →

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by | April 6, 2010 · 12:46 am

Game Recap — 4/5/2010

Thank God that baseball is back.  Halfway through the game I was sitting on the couch with my brother, each of us sipping a Mexican Coke and enjoying a baseball game.  There are times in life when you know you’re at the right place and that was one of those times.  I can’t remember the last time I was able to watch opening day with my brother and, in a life where it’s vital to cherish the little things, this was one small event that I am very grateful for.

On to the recap.  The Mariners were in control for most of this game.  They played like they will for most of the year: solid pitching, good defense, and tacking on a run here and there.  For most of this game the pitching was more than solid.  Felix’s line isn’t extremely pretty but take away some bad pitches from Sean White and it would be much better.  (More on Sean White later.)  Felix was still dominating, his control just wasn’t quite where it needed to be.  He got a ridiculous amount of ground ball outs, it’s hard to remember a fly ball.  As for his control, I’m not too worried.  The umpire tonight was bad (apparently he didn’t know what  low strike was) and Felix got a little tired in the later innings.  As the King gets stretched out more and more, his command will get better.  In the 6th and 7th innings he started leaving the ball up in the zone, this is what pitchers do when they’re tired, but for the most part he missed down in the zone.  This is a good sign and will be vital against Texas next time out.

The end of Felix’s outing brought us to Sean White.  Let me just say that I’m not a Sean White fan.  He benefited from a good deal of luck last year, his FIP was 2 runs higher than his ERA.  Wak doesn’t feel the same as I do about Sean White though and therefore he put him in after Felix.  I would’ve put in League, Lowe, or maybe even Sean Kelley but that didn’t happen.  Maybe White will prove me, and other skeptics, wrong this year but if he doesn’t I’ll be anxious to see what Wak does with him in the bullpen.  Thankfully, we won this game so I don’t have to be too upset with Sean White but if he keeps costing Felix wins I will get angrier.  For now, he’s okay.

As for the other two pitchers, I was impressed.  League was what I expected.  After that Jack Wilson error I got a little nervous but he produced another ground ball that turned into a double play.  I’m excited to see League throughout this year.  Aardsma did what he did last year.  I’ve always been on the fence about Aardsma but I do like that he comes right after hitters.  He was good tonight.

The offense tonight was about what I expect for the season.  Score a run here, score a run there and then what do you know, we end up with 5 runs in a game.  This team is way more patient than last years.  I’m pretty sure we matched the amount of walks we had last year in one game (sarcasm).  It will be nice to see Figgins, Kotchman, Bradley paired with Griffey give this team a patient approach. 

The stolen bases were fun and something I expect to see a lot of.  Speed is an underrated aspect of baseball and speed is something we have. 

Hero: Casey Kotchman. He was awesome tonight. I’m a Kotchman believer and one of the few who seem to think he will produce at a higher level this year. I like him batting third in the order and am excited to see what he can do this year. The fact that he got 4 RBI and a game winning hit in his first Mariner game is pretty cool.

Goat: Sean White. I didn’t understand White being the first reliever to pitch this year, especially considering it was the 7th inning and he was entering a jam. Everyone knows how lucky White got last year on balls in play, and his inability to strike guys out scares me. Tonight’s performance confirmed my fears of White this year.

A few more quick notes after the jump. Continue reading →

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by | April 1, 2010 · 2:26 pm

Random Day Dreaming Thoughts…

  • Has it ever occurred to anyone that only in baseball do managers wear uniforms just like the players? In football, the coach dresses comfortably like the fans and in basketball and hockey, the coach wears a suit like a top executive. Imagine if coaches in football, basketball and hockey all wore the team’s uniform, similar to in baseball. Makes for a funny image in my mind.
  • Jake Locker could be a New England Patriot next year. Here’s how-
    When the Raiders acquired Richard Seymour from the Pats last year, they gave up their 1st round pick in 2011. Considering the Raiders could be awful this year, and possibly even the worst team, it’s likely New England will have a top 5 pick next year, which is of course a rarity for a good team like the Patriots. To add to the intrigue, Tom Brady’s contract runs up after the 2010 season, and while it is likely the team will re-sign or franchise him, another Brady injury could add some uncertainty. Even if Brady is extended, he will be 33 after this year, so the Pats may be looking ahead and who knows, Jake Locker could be their target with a top 3 pick.

  • Is it safe to say the Mariners have the best hitter, AND the top 2 pitchers in the AL West? Ichiro, Felix, and Lee might be the top 3 players in the division. A healthy Bedard could contend for 3rd best pitcher too.
  • In other Mariners topics, does anyone find it odd that Chone Figgins came to Seattle as a great lead off hitting 3rd baseman, and now he is 2nd in the order and playing 2nd base? Obviously Ichiro is tough to beat out for the lead off spot, but in a year where production from the 3 hole could be difficult to come by, I think the team should have seriously considered Ichiro in that spot. Wouldn’t be the first time that discussion has come up though.
  • Finally, what’s to make of the Huskies wearing all Gold jerseys in their home opener just to draw attention to Jake Locker and his Heisman trophy campaign. Sounds odd to me…

    (Ok April fools on that last one)

    Although speaking of jerseys, I would love to see UW bust out black unis at some point this year!

    PS- Our next post will be our 100th by the Good Guys!

    -Dan

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