Game 76, Mariners at Red Sox – Deliver Us From Evil, St. Wade
Wade LeBlanc vs. Steven Wright, 4:05pm
In general, I’m not convinced that momentum is a meaningful thing in baseball. Will the M’s collapse after a painful series sweep in the Bronx? Not likely. It’s easy to dismiss, but then, this whole season seems to have been made out of pure, high tensile-strength momentum. No, the team’s success isn’t due purely to luck, but nearly the entire season has felt miraculous, blessed, guided by baseballing providence.
If the team had a living, breathing embodiment of that, divine will cruising lazily along as an 86 MPH heater, it’s Wade LeBlanc. As bad as this last series was for the M’s, Wade’s last start was one of the clear highlights. If anything can snap the M’s out of their little run of bad play (and really, bad timing), it’s Ol’ Wade LeBlanc.
Of course, what would be even better would be a return to form from the M’s offense. They haven’t been out and out bad, but the big hits that always seemed to come late haven’t shown up recently.
1: Gordon, 2B
2: Haniger, RF
3: Span, LF
4: Cruz, DH
5: Seager, 3B
6: Healy, 1B
7: Zunino, C
8: Heredia, CF
9: Romine, SS
SP: Wade LeBlanc
The clearest sign of the M’s changing fortune? It’s gotta be the fact that SS Jean Segura’s been knocked out of the line-up by an infection in his arm. I mean…what even… of course, if there’s someone whose own reserves of fortune and fortitude can overcome the rather large gap between Segura and Andrew Romine, it’s St. Wade.
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12 Responses to “Game 76, Mariners at Red Sox – Deliver Us From Evil, St. Wade”
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What an absolute mess of a pitching match up. And Why bring in and leave Vincent in, in a high leverage situation just coming off the DL! Immediately gives up a 2 run home run, a triple and an RBI single… Everyone BUT the pitching wants to win this game.
I’m fully expecting Nomar Garciaparra to end this in the 9th with a grand slam of Bobby Ayala.. This is painful
Thought we were a new age stat team? The bullpen has been an freaking disaster and Diaz hasn’t pitched since 6/16 due to lack of classic save situations.
Nicasio’s ERA is over 5 and we leave him in? Horrible management.
Hello, Alex Trebek, I’d like to buy an OUT!
This feels vaguely like a few seasons ago, when they were competing for a playoff spot before the All-star break and I believe they lost something like 11 in a row and totally s**t the bed for the rest of the season.
Grayfox3d, yep. Here it is again. I remember that. It was the pitching that went to pot then too.
Thank you DiPoto for Segura and Haniger, but your team’s opinions on pitching is so bad! You can not win with out pitching and we all knew the pitching could not hold the pace at which it was going.
This stretch of games has obviously been disheartening. Worst case scenario come to life. The Mariners are a ways away from truly competing against the legitimate teams of the American League.
A little cold dose of reality is all.
Our $7 bullpen is regressing back toward being the bullpen we spared every expense creating.
When you look up and down the lineup you realize that outside of Segura, Gordon, and Haniger… We aren’t hitting that well and really struggling in spots.
Thats the downside.
Remember, whatever this team is, it’s 16 games over .500 midway through the season. Nelson Cruz is waking up. Seager historically better in the last 2/3s of a season. Healy has silently been looking better and better at first base. And our biggest weakness all year (starting pitching) has been remarkably… decent-ish the last few weeks.
That said, there is a market out there and its almost time for the M’s to declare if they are buying or selling.
Above all else, this team could really use an ugrade in the rotation. From the outside. From the inside, I’d love to see Elias get a crack at a rotation spot. It feels unjust that Erasmo got a chance to let us down (again) and Elias never got a chance to reprise his career as Mariner starter.
Id prefer they buy. The farm system sucks. There are no good young players at the MLB level. Our two best hitters are a DH and 35 year old suspended 2nd baseman with an immovable contract.
The Astros look to be set for a decade. Angels spend money and cause Trout.
This may be the only shot to make the playoffs for 5 years, go for it.
Selling? 16 games over .500? This isn’t the Oakland A’s with a payroll budget of $3.57. Good Lord.
The problem with half the AL selling out 2018 for draft picks is that only one team gets that #1 pick. If you are a bad team with a #13 pick, how much better off are you than being at #20? There are serious diminishing returns here.
There is no reason to go for it at this point…