August 26, 2006

G129: Mariners 4, Red Sox 3

David Wells pitched pretty well (7-8-2-1-4, 97), but couldn't hold leads of 1-0 and 2-1. (He wasn't helped by some atrocious outfield defense from Coco Crisp's noodle arm in center and Gabe Kapler's meandering routes to hits in the gap in right.)

Mike Timlin entered the game in the eighth and promptly coughed up a 3-2 lead -- surrendering a solo home run, two singles and a sac fly.

Boston stays 5.5 GB New York and falls to 5.5 GB of the Twins for the wild card.

***

Since their sweep of the Red Sox, the Yankees have lost four of five games. They lost their third in a row this afternoon, 12-7, to the Angels. (The Angels have racked up 32 hits in two games.) ... Let's see if the Sox can take advantage of the loss tonight.

***

David Wells (5.40) / Gil Meche (4.66), 10 PM

Today's Pet Peeve: Pregame notes inform us that Wells has appeared in 42 games against the Mariners, pitching 194.1 innings. He is 11-11 with a 4.54 ERA.

This information is worthless. Telling us this is a waste of time.

Wells was 24 years old when he first faced Seattle -- on September 4, 1987, his 4th major league appearance. Pitching for Toronto, he faced Alvin Davis, Domingo Ramos, Jim Presley and Scott Bradley -- all four of whom were out of baseball by 1993. How is his performance in that game relevant to how he might do tonight? Have the announcers and writers who blather about stuff like this thought it through at all?

On August 31, 1993, Wells (with Detroit) threw five shutout innings against the Mariners. That bodes well for tonight, right? But on July 25, 1997, Wells (now with the Yankees) allowed 9 hits and 8 runs in 3.1 innings to Seattle. That's clearly bad. ... I'm so confused.

Lineup:
Crisp, CF
Loretta, 2B
Ortiz, DH
Ramirez, LF
Lowell, 3B
Hinske, 1B
Lopez, C
Cora, SS
Kapler, RF

12 comments:

Jim said...

Great point, Redsock. Considering there were 4 expansion teams added in the 90's, a plethora of new stadiums and the whole juice/no juice issue, the smart stathead will give us the last 3 years performance splits.

allan said...

I'd do away with the stat completely. A lot of the time, the same players aren't playing, maybe the pitcher was coming off an injury, maybe the opposing lineup was weak for whatever reason. Dozens of factors.

It's little better than telling us what a pitcher did on Saturdays.

s1c said...

thats why you should look at my breakdowns. If you had you could have yelled at the pregame guys yes he is 11 and 11 but as a starter he is 11 and 9. LOL

Jim said...

I guess it depends on what you expect the stats to tell you. If you think they have predictive value, then you're on fairly shaky ground anyway. If you like background info, then it's about as interesting as what high school somebody went to. But if you like announcers to either inform us about stuff we can't see or stfu ...

oops, nice pick by Hinske to save a run

Jason said...

How could that game not have been played under protest?!? Fracoma never seems to give a shit about the terrible calls... He never looks more than vaguely confused while trotting out to listen to the ump, then trotting back...

thatdietcokegirl said...

i've lost interest in this season. goodnight, irene.

DanM said...

Is the ship sinking or is it sunk?

Peter N said...

Leave it to you to get the whole point and nothing but the point in your first sentence. And "magic' years contain games like this, only they're victories.

laura k said...

NYY mired in a slump, and we do nothing.

That is all.

Peter N said...

Little League throws...a compliment...I hope he's OK.

laura k said...

Those are Little League throws.

And apologies to Little Leaguers everywhere.

9casey said...

David Wells pitched pretty well....Whats your hard on with this guy....2 runs through 7 is pretty well...Whats pitched great or even pretty good......Its not like he gave up a 4 or 5 run lead..