When it comes to Houston Astros, it’s best not to miss it.
The Mariners had the Astros in game 1. They’ll probably have to wait Tuesday afternoon. Maybe that will just be another building block into the age of Mariners, depending on where they go from here in their arc, a different character builder will make their first appearance in the World. Series or even win on a not-so-distant day. Losing this streak won’t really hurt Mariners fans that much, considering what this season has given them compared to the 22 previous games. But that’s only if the Mariners keep doing better. If they keep doing the Mariners things, Robbie Ray’s quick shot will be what all their fans see when the devil comes.
And… it was there. A first strike in this series is there.
Yes, playoff baseball is different. It must be managed differently. Especially in a five-game streak, you have to get whatever win you can by any means you can. You have to be a little less patient at the start, a little more patient with painkillers, and pull some leverage that you would never count on in June. But that doesn’t mean you absolutely have to.
Calling starters out of the pen is something of a post-season tradition. But it is only necessary in a very specific situation. That’s when you don’t have a starter you trust to go the third time through a lineup and only have a few potions you trust to get a plus lineup, leaving you with six or nine points that you Can’t figure out how to get it. The Nationals won the World Series by professionally rotating through Max Scherzer, Patrick Corbin and Stephen Strasburg between their games, but they only had the three painkillers Davey Martinez trusted and saw Joe. Ross and Anibal Sanchez start the game. There is a window for it.
The Mariners are not that team. They’ve got AL’s best bullpen, and one most heavily equipped for October. So it took some real yoga-mindedness to think that Ray, mid-round, mid-ninth round with the runner running, was a better pick than Paul Sewald, who was out of the tree. pen all year to the tune of ERA 2.67, to the tune of holding left for .253 wOBA for the whole season. Other than that, that’s Sewald’s job. Ray has had one relief appearance over the past eight seasons.
If manager Scott Servais really needed to find a favorable person to face Yordan Alvarez, and he didn’t because Alvarez this year has hit the left quite a bit more than the rightists, Matthew Boyd has been in out there, and this is his job.
Perhaps Servais was a little spooked by Sewald’s performance in the Wild Card round. But that ignores that Ray was also cuffed around his ears in his first game against the Jays. So recent hits trends would not account for this. Sewald has held off Alvarez with a hit on seven ABs in the past two years with three Ks. A floppy single and an HBP don’t really signal that Sewald has lost it. It was merely an excuse for Servais to MANAGE HARD while in plain sight.
It did something for its own good. To look like you’re treating a playoff game differently, to show that a manager understands the urgency without understanding his team. It’s the Stanley Kubrick level “LOOK WHAT I’M DOING!!”
The Mariners’ trajectory should ease the sting of this one. But you never know. These opportunities are not guaranteed. It was there, and their manager was in too much of a hurry to manage on TV.
No one is as awkward as NHL
The NHL season kicked off last night in New York, and someone thought it was a good idea when a pitcher welcomed us to it:
Chris Rooney only wears a TV mic because of this, and you can tell that both Mika Zibanejad and Brayden Point are wondering if he’s talking to either of them while also bewildered that he’s not. really look at them. Maybe they thought he was having an episode. This is even better when the referee welcomes the captains to the Super Bowl. Friend, they come here at the same time as you! We now have NHL refs for PT Barnum.
