Posts Tagged ‘Seattle Mariners’
 |
Red Sox Roadkill: Boston Flattened Away From Fenway … Again and Again (Part 1 of 3)July 23rd, 2008
|
Inherent in the game of baseball are streaks of both good and bad luck. The everyday aspect of the sport often blinds us from these small sample size flukes that ebb and flow throughout the course of a long, marathon season.
And even though, at the zenith or nadir of these streaks, it doesn’t seem like anything will ever change, a trend in baseball can take a sharp turn in the opposite direction after just one at-bat, one start, or one game.
As such, also inherent in the game, due to these streaks of fortune, is irrationality.
A week or two of poor plate appearances from an overmatched rookie will leave us speculating on whether he’s ready for the major leagues. A series of grotesque pitching lines from a past-his-prime starter will cause us to look for greener pastures down on the farm. That is, until, said young, stud hitter or wily, veteran pitcher finds a groove, leaving our week-ago doubts long forgotten in the dust of today’s success.
You know, sort of like Alan Greenspan’s forewarning of irrational exuberance, only on a baseball scale instead of an economical one.
The same, of course, applies to teams. There are those seemingly unstoppable winning streaks where everything goes right. And then, conversely, there are those dreaded spate of L’s bunched closely together across the schedule—games in which everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong.
But, as the saying goes, things are never as good or bad as they seem. And in baseball, a team’s record—despite all the highest of highs and lowest of lows—more often than not ends up where it should based on the talent level of an organization and the year-end total performance of that talent. Or, in simpler phrasing, how many runs a team scores and allows over the course of a season.
There are, as always, exceptions. After all, games are played in ballparks, not in computer simulations. Sometimes the end results simply don’t match all the components. And sometimes that goes well beyond good and bad luck. Often, in these cases, it may just come down to poor roster construction—or, rather, a team with very strong strengths offset by very weak weaknesses.
With this in mind, meet the 2008 Boston Red Sox—a very talented club that plays nearly unbeatable baseball at home, yet a bipolar bunch on the road that usually finds a way to lose despite component numbers suggesting better outcomes.
Following yet another road sweep—their sixth on the season in totality—at the hands of baseball’s best in the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Red Sox own the worst road record among American League playoff hopefuls at 21-32—a winning percentage of .396 away from Fenway, an inexplicable mark placing the team closer to the Seattle Mariners’ level of (in)competence on the road.
Of course, it’s been a strange baseball year overall. Runs are down, the AL is out-pitching the pitcher-friendly NL, and the Tampa Bay Rays are still in first place as the baseball season inches its way towards August.
The oddity that is the ’08 season continues when looking at home and road records across the board. No team in the AL, outside of the Angels, is excelling on the road—in fact, the Halos possess the only above-.500 road record in the AL as of July 21.
But, in Red Sox land, that’s not an excuse nor should it be. After finishing as the AL’s best team on the road a season ago, the Sox, given their talent level, shouldn’t be mirroring the Mariners’ road winning percentage.
The question, then, is why? Although a simple query, the answer appears to be far more complex and multifarious.
However, the CliffsNotes version breaks it down into three distinct problem areas: a difficult road schedule, inefficiency on offense, and a bullpen bursting with arsonists.
O’Fer Southern California, Canada, and Florida
As mentioned, if the majority of the AL is struggling on the road, it goes without saying that most of the contenders are playing exceptional baseball at home. In turn, the Sox have played most of those contenders on the road.
If we separate the Sox road opposition thus far into two groups—above and below .500 teams—here’s how things shape up:
Against above .500 teams away from the friendly confines of Fenway Park, the Sox sit at 9-20—a lackluster standing that includes two winless trips through Tampa Bay and the aforementioned Mickey Mouse weekend in SoCal to kick off the second-half of the season.
Versus below or at .500 teams on the road, Boston fares a bit better with a 12-12 record—a tally worsened, and somewhat deceiving, due to an early April sweep by the Toronto Blue Jays, which came on the heels of the opening-season jaunt through Japan.
Now, this isn’t groundbreaking news. A good team will outplay the bad ones more often than the equally talented clubs. Then again, even Boston’s end results against the lesser road teams haven’t been all that inspiring, either.
Nonetheless, a possible silver lining may exist in the form of weaker road opponents the rest of the way. With 28 away games left—equating to nine series in all—the Sox will face off against only three teams with records significantly above .500 (Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, and the Rays).
What then remains on the away schedule includes a single tilt against the Texas Rangers and a pile of sub-.500 teams in the Kansas City Royals, Baltimore Orioles, Blue Jays, and the heavily picked upon Mariners.
As a result of, literally, an easier road ahead, ground can be made up away from home. But getting to 40 road wins will require a 19-9 run, which, at this point, seems like an unattainable goal for the Sox unless two specific road trends—offense efficiency and late-inning lead protection—take that sharp turn in the opposite direction.
In part two of this three-part breakdown of Boston’s wayward ways on the road, a deeper look at an otherwise productive offense reveals its warts when hitting away from Fenway.
 |
End of the Road for Boston Woes OR Just the Beginning of Boston’s Road WoesJuly 20th, 2008
|
A few short months ago a la October, the Angels were basically running away from Fenway’s bombers with their proverbial tails between their legs. After losing two series ending in sweeps to the Red Sox on two separate post-season occasions since the turn of the millennium, the Angels seemed to have their work cut out for them again in 08 if they wanted any chance at another World Series run.
The Angels have been, in their career, weak against the formidable Boston lineup. It is because of this that so many sports writers have criticized the Angels’ management for not acquiring a more fear-inducing bat for the middle of the lineup to back Big Daddy Vladdy. In fact, despite a successful first half, power rankings on ESPN still give little credence to the team and still stress this same overly-repetitive theme: “The Angels are the clear favorites in the AL West despite an offense that ranks 23rd in the majors in OPS and runs scored. Will they make a run at Mark Teixeira or Matt Holliday, or cling to the hope that starting pitching, a great closer and a flair for one-run victories can propel them deep into October?” (Crasnik’s “Starting 9” on ESPN.com). Though that last little statement, ending in a rhetorical question, seems to be rather connotative of a negative sentiment, I beg to differ, and offer up a definite YES. Great pitching > great hitting. Almost always. Read more
 |
The Team with No NameJune 7th, 2008
|
I’d like to share a story with you.
When I was eight or nine, my younger brother decided to ride his bike down the hill near the front of our house. It was a small hill, and even though he had been riding his bike without his training wheels for only a year or so, he could have handled it easily.
If the front wheel of his bike hadn’t broken off halfway down the hill.
Man, my brother was messed up after that. He went flying head-first off his handle bars and landed face-first on the street. His face was all bruised, he had bad cuts on his arms, even a couple of his teeth were gone. He looked terrible for a long, long time after that (in fact, it’s probably a blessing that — almost twenty years later — when he first met the woman who eventually became his wife, she didn’t have the best eyesight in the world), and it took him a while to feel comfortable on a bike again. Read more
|
Luck? No, It’s Physics.June 5th, 2008
|
I bet none of those guys - Newton, Einstein, etc - knew they were talkin’ ’bout baseball when they came up with all their theories. But oh! Look how nicely it all fits:
First Law of Motion: Once something is in motion, it usually stays that way until something really messes up its course.
Baseball is a game of patterns, and streaks. Seattle knows all about streaks, since it basically is the streakiest team in baseball. But it’s true, in essence, of every team. It’s also a game of contagion. Errors or mistakes (that may not be counted officially as errors, though you KNOW your players could’ve done better on that ground ball…) often come in pairs or series. The Angels are definitely a team of contagion, where most of their runs come in packages of two or three, and if one strikes out, the next two outs tend to follow shortly.
As far as streaks go, the Angels just finally ended a 13-game streak in which they only earned four or less runs per game. It took beating a division rival team stuck 13.5 games back to snap the streak. Luckily for the Angels, they were also 9-4 in that period, so it very little affected them, thanks to the great pitching as of late. They also had a streak of about a week where nearly every game ended in a walk-off. First, it was Anderson’s walk-off walk. Talk about the most exciting ending to a baseball game… zZzZz… and then it was Rivera’s walk-off single, Junior’s walk-off single, and my personal favorite, Kendrick’s getting beaned and Maicer’s subsequent walk-off single. Really, that’s all Kendrick is good for – getting beaned. Sure, it makes for very exciting baseball – to win by a run, or to win in the bottom of the ninth with two out and the bases loaded. But after a week of the same thing every game, it starts getting to my stress levels. STOP IT ALREADY!
|
Sox Head West, Offense Goes SouthMay 30th, 2008
|
Superman has his Kryptonite. Spider-Man has his forever-conflicting sense of responsibility. And the oh-so-close-to-being-immortal Achilles had that pesky heel thing.
But the fatal weakness for the Red Sox thus far this season has been quite simple—with no intergalactic travel required. Because just outside the friendly nooks and crannies of Fenway Park, the mighty Boston lineup tends to morph from a run-producing powerhouse into the motley crew that made up the anemic offense of the painfully awful ‘62 Mets.
OK, a bit of an exaggeration, for sure. After all, the Sox, despite a recent run-scoring outage, still maintain the second best road OPS in the American League. But with Boston dropping 10 of their last 12 away from the Fens—and averaging only 3.5 runs in the process—the team needs to take the nearest exit ramp off this road to perdition.
After the first six contests of a ten game trip—a West Coast swing through Oakland and Seattle before heading back east to square off against Baltimore this weekend—the Sox find themselves with only a single etch in the win column. Read more
 |
Bonderman & Tigers Restore Winning WaysMay 24th, 2008
|
Both Jeremy Bonderman’s season and career can be summed up in one word—inconsistent.
His pitching on Thursday afternoon stood more on the positive side for the Tigers. He led Detroit to a 9-2 victory over the hapless Seattle Mariners, who jerked back the trophy for Most Disappointing American League team. 40,166 fans watched Bonderman escape several early jams, three times stranding a runner on third base. Armed with one of the game’s most dominant sliders when working—the key phrase is when working—he limited Seattle to two runs on eight hits. Finally receiving sufficient run-support, Bonderman bumped his record up to 3-4, well off pace from his 10-1 streak a year ago.
Like most Tiger pitchers, control has been a major issue so far for Bonderman. In five full years with Detroit he has averaged 31 starts and 60 walks per campaign. Through nine games, he is already halfway to his normal walk total at 33. Striking out fewer hitters as well, his strikeout-to-walk ratio is roughly 1:1; that is one strikeout for every walk. Normally, Bonderman will blow away two batters for every one he gives a free pass. A 2006 runner-up to Johan Santana in strikeouts, his inability to zing strike three’s regularly has led to more hits, ground outs, and fly outs, which in turn has led to more runners advancing to score. Despite the number of prolific bats in Detroit’s lineup, the Tigers will not score 9 runs every time Bonderman takes the mound and he must regain the command he has displayed over the course of his career.
 |
Message for the Nats’ Three Young BirdsMay 22nd, 2008
|
Singin’ don’t worry
‘bout a thing
‘cause every little thing
gonna’ be all right …
- Three Little Birds by Bob Marley
As more than 28,000 hardball enthusiasts filed out of Nationals Park on Tuesday night, the late Jamaican Rastafarian’s catchy tune permeated the ears of witnesses to the Philadelphia Phillies’ 1-0 victory, a grinder of a game that went scoreless for eight full innings before the Phils broke the seal in the top of the ninth then blunted a threat in the inning’s bottom.
But the question that begs an answer: Should the implicit message of that uplifting song be taken seriously?
One: The Nats lost.
Two: They were shutout.
Three: They stranded a man on second with one out then third with two outs in the fourth inning. They stranded a man on second with two outs in the seventh inning. And, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the potential tying run walked, then stole second, then stole third before being stranded on a game-ending groundout.
Four: Their outfielders went 1-10 Tuesday night with a seventh inning double being this notable trio’s sole hit.
Five: Their make-shift closer, equipped with six saves under his belt, pitched the whole ninth inning and gave up one run to get the loss Tuesday night.
Six: They occupy the NL East cellar, looking immediately up at the New York Mets. In other words, while the Mets have sunk and the Atlanta Braves have scaled, the Nats have occupied the bottom for no one other than themselves.
Seven: Only three NL teams have a lower winning percentage than the Nats, all coming out of the NL West (Colorado Rockies, San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres).
Eight: Two AL teams have a lower winning percentage than the Nats, the Detroit Tigers and the Seattle Mariners.
Wednesday night marks the Nats’ 16th–straight game in 16 straight days, their second-longest consecutive streak of this season. They head into the series finale against the Phillies at 6-9. Four of those nine losses were one-run games, for two of the nine they were shutout. In late July through mid-August, the Nats have 20-straight games scheduled, representing their longest streak this season.
Jon Rauch, who was converted from set-up man to closer when Chad Cordero went down with a tear in his muscle earlier this season, started the ninth by giving up a double to third baseman Pedro Feliz, who was sacrificed to third then scored on pinch hitter Greg Dobbs’ single. Rauch, who gave up three hits and the decisive run, was tagged with the loss and falls to 2-1 on the season,
Wily Mo Peña doubled to left in the seventh, going 1-4 on the night. The leftfielder is yet to homer this season, one of the primary reasons the Nats brought him in when the Boston Red Sox released him last season. He was not improving while platooning in the Fenway outfield and was supposed to benefit from daily action and at-bats so that he would surmount his strike-out proclivity. One of those four at-bats was a swinging strike-out, which came in the ninth inning. He lunged and missed at first pitches in at least three of his at-bats, perhaps a sign of anxiousness. His batting average presently is .216.
Lastings Milledge went 0-4 with one strike out. The centerfielder’s positive contribution at the plate was a no-out sacrifice fly to right field, which moved Ryan Zimmerman to third. Milledge, who helped gun down what would have been a second Phils run in the ninth, left four on base and presently is hitting .235.
Elijah Dukes went 0-2 with two walks and two strikeouts. One of those walks came in the bottom of the ninth, when he was 90 feet from tying the game after stealing second and third bases. He presently is hitting .038 in 11 games thus far this season.
This trio that patrols the Nats outfield is expected to grow into those positions and sustain them for the Nats for years to come. Peña is 26, Milledge is 23 and Dukes turns 24 late next month, and all have plenty of room to improve their game.
‘Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin this is my message to you.’
 |
Just another manic 25-run MondayMay 14th, 2008
|
After the Gabbard-Sexton slap-and-tickle match last week, Monday’s game in Arlington had a special buzz to it. Vincinte Padilla, who spends the off-season thowing pitches at small children and old women to stay sharp, going against the Mariners in the first get-even opportunity. According to the Dallas Morning News, the teams weren’t even warned before the game about bean balls. (The umpire was going to, but then Sexton threw a batting helmet at him…)(By the way, I think Sexton’s five game suspension was far too severe. My three-year-old would only get a 15-minute time out for throwing things. But he’s almost four now, so he’s outgrown that kind of behavior.) All in all, it was set-up for an exciting game.
Then the Evil Padilla Twin comes out and gives up five runs in the first inning, before being tasered and replaced by the Good Padilla Twin in the 2nd. Maybe he tried to hit a batter, but his control was still sitting at ‘Will Call” and the ball was all over the place, mainly the plate and then the outfield.
|
Streaking player probably won’t play; winner of none, loser of three will!May 12th, 2008
|
Raise your hand and speak up if you have no clue in the world what is happening with DC’s baseball team.
But, please: not everyone at once.
The Washington Nationals is the same team that earlier this season owned MLB’s worst record and had lost 15 of 17 games then turned it around to play .750 ball by winning nine of 12 games to climb to within striking distance of the team ahead of them in the NL East, the Atlanta Braves.
That surge also prompted the Nats to rise above five other MLB teams, pull into a tie with a sixth and – more importantly – demonstrate the team can play ball, win games and continue soaring upward.
Or so we thought.
Through Monday morning, as they approach this season’s quarter mark, the Nats are tied with the Cincinnati Reds and the Colorado Rockies for third-worst in MLB, ahead of the penultimate Seattle Mariners and the last-place San Diego Padres.
What more to expect from a team that markets itself on its own Web site with the following sub-headline to its top story: ‘Aaron Boone has been on a tear for the Nationals, but will likely not start as Odalis Perez throws against the Mets at 7:10 p.m. ET tonight.’
The Nationals are reduced to pitching the exploits of a back-up third baseman.
One who might not even find his way into the game.
Naming him alongside the name of the pitcher whose record is 0-3.
Is the message from the Nats: Viewers should watch the game not to watch the streaking infielder but to watch the pitcher who has won no games but lost three in the eight he has started?
|
Keys to the Nats’ RisingMay 5th, 2008
|
Will this team break out? We know they can and it just might be on the brink of doing so.
In less than two weeks, the Washington Nationals have climbed out of MLB’s basement by playing .727 ball. Their record through Saturday afternoon has them looking down on five teams and tied with a sixth. They are only five games below .500.
The Nats are 8-3 in their past 11 games, during which they captured series against three solid teams, and they’ll try to clinch another series Sunday afternoon.
Through Saturday afternoon, they have won two of three against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Right handed pitcher Tim Redding leads the charge Sunday in game four at Nationals Park against Ian Snell, also a righthander. Should the Nats lose, they’ll at least emerge with a series tie.
Next »