ALDS - Seattle Mariners at Houston Astros Oct 11-17

[Sports Hernia]

Ray likely headed to the IR with pitchers whiplash neck.

 

[getnasty]

No lefties in the pen hurts. At the same time Yonder hits 22 points higher off lefties so maybe Swanson was the move.

 

[Hawk-Lock]

Yeah the team really needs to go get a big time LHP for the bullpen. It's basically Boyd and that's it.

Why aren't we using Swanson? He was one of our best arms all season. He is yet to make an appearance in the playoffs.

Don't think Sewald can come in during a close game. And to be honest, I think Sewald would understand.

As for Ray, I'm still okay using him in the pen against lefties. As long as it keeps him out of the starting rotation, i'm fine with him being in the pen.

I will say, TBS needs to do a better job of showing who is warming up. I think they once showed us Brash warming up, nothing else. It was like a surprise everytime we came back from commercial break to see who was pitching for us.

 

[Rainger]

From CBS​

Reasons to not bring in Ray​

1. He is a starter. Starting pitchers are used to longer, more drawn-out warmups. All players are creatures of habit anyway, so it's always risky to bring a starter in relief. Some handle it well, but you never know until you try it. Ray has only appeared in relief four times in his entire career, with three of them coming his rookie year in 2014 and one coming in 2020. That's it.

2. He gives up lots of home runs. Ray finished second in the AL in home runs allowed this season with 32. Even last year, when he won the Cy Young, he was fourth with 33 allowed. Alvarez is one of the best power hitters in baseball and exactly one play beats you: A home run.


3. He hasn't thrown well lately. Ray had a 5.27 ERA with eight home runs allowed in 27 1/3 innings in his last five regular-season starts. He then coughed up four runs on six hits, including two home runs, in three innings in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series.

4. The Astros have owned him. Ray made three starts against the Astros this season. He gave up 23 hits and 13 earned runs in 10 2/3 innings (10.97 ERA, 2.81 WHIP). Astros hitters slashed .442/.509/.865 against him. Small sample? I guess. Nothing really lines up as encouraging here, though.

5. He's a fastball guy. Ray throws fastballs nearly 40 percent of the time. That's his most frequent offering. Alvarez was the second-most valuable hitter against fastballs this season (behind Judge, unsurprisingly), hitting .355 with a .752 slugging against the heater. The homer came on a sinker, but I'm just talking about the thought process to bring Ray in.


Just on the surface, I've got five pretty good reasons to not use Ray when there was one reason -- albeit a flimsy one -- to use him. It was a no-brainer to avoid pulling the trigger on the move.

"We talked about it coming into the series," Mariners manager Scott Servais said after the game. "We talked about it pregame today. I looked at it in the seventh inning and said, 'hey, this could happen.' So that was the plan going in. End of the day, you have a plan, we still got to execute it."

It's true. It was the plan and they needed to execute the plan better. But it's also pretty easy to argue it was a bad plan.

 

[Hawk-Lock]

I’m over complaining about game 1. That was an awful ending and some very questionable decisions were made, but nothing we can do about it now.

On the bright side, Servais using Ray there likely means we are using a three man rotation of Gilbert, Castillo and Ray.

I think going forward we don’t use Sewald at all unless the game is a blowout. Likely the same with Ray, but him being a lefty, I could see possible situations where he does make another appearance in a close game.

Momentum is definitely gone, but I’m hoping this young team can let it go and get ready for Thursday.

 

[Shanegotyou11]

Diego has big nuts in the playoffs unlike some. 1 ERA in the Postseason.

Why do yo bring Diego in
game with the game on the line? Dumb AF.

Hope it doesn’t backfire.

 

[Shanegotyou11]

Scott S is a terrible decision maker, has been this way forever.

so that's why he wins so many close games?

Ppl have opinions. Not facts.

 

[Shanegotyou11]

He may win a bunch of close regular season games….but when the shit matters he has always gargled the dog..

Lmao.

 

[Shanegotyou11]

Scott blew it, too many moves per usual.

What was your move?

 

[Shanegotyou11]

SS did exactly what Schneider for the blue Jays did. Pulled his starter too early. Keep Logan in there for a few more outs there's no need for Ray. If the "bomberos" lose it, you live with that.

Doubt Ray throws another pitch until 2023.

Except Logans numbers get worse and by wide margin in 3rd AB.

 

[Shanegotyou11]

Also Per Salk, Swanson throws a lot of splitters.

And Yordan kills them.

 

[Shanegotyou11]

That was devastating. Gm 2 is a must win.

 

[DJrmb]

After an evening to digest everything, Man, this was a tough one for all of us as fans. I can only imagine how the team felt afterwards. There is plenty of blame to go around but ultimately I don't put this on any one person. You win as a team, and you lose as one also. I very much questioned the decision to bring in Ray at the end but if it had worked? I doubt a lot of people blasting SS now would be saying anything about it...

The truth is that Alvarez shouldn't have even been up to the plate in the 9th. If Munoz and Sewald don't let 11 guys come to the plate over those 2 innings you don't even let Alvarez come up to bat. That was the plan and unfortunately they didn't execute. You brought in your two best BP arms to lock down the last two innings and they both just didn't have it that night. 9 times out of 10 you don't have both of those guys struggling like that back to back.

The team lost this game, multiple guys made mistakes and didn't execute to finish off that game. There's plenty of blame to go around. Hopefully they learn from it and move forward.

 

[ivotuk]

After an evening to digest everything, Man, this was a tough one for all of us as fans. I can only imagine how the team felt afterwards. There is plenty of blame to go around but ultimately I don't put this on any one person. You win as a team, and you lose as one also. I very much questioned the decision to bring in Ray at the end but if it had worked? I doubt a lot of people blasting SS now would be saying anything about it...

The truth is that Alvarez shouldn't have even been up to the plate in the 9th. If Munoz and Sewald don't let 11 guys come to the plate over those 2 innings you don't even let Alvarez come up to bat. That was the plan and unfortunately they didn't execute. You brought in your two best BP arms to lock down the last two innings and they both just didn't have it that night. 9 times out of 10 you don't have both of those guys struggling like that back to back.

The team lost this game, multiple guys made mistakes and didn't execute to finish off that game. There's plenty of blame to go around. Hopefully they learn from it and move forward.

Phenomenal Post.

This one hurt, but even 710 hosts the other day were saying that Robbie Ray should be used as a reliever against left handers in this series. I think the pitch just got away from him, and now he feels like utter crap! I hope his team mates are picking him up.

Games like these make life difficult as a fan. But at least we aren't Cleveland.

Yakov Smirnoff: "Countries always have that city that they make fun of. In the United States. it's Cleveland. In Russia, it's Cleveland."

Thursday can't get here soon enough.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

An absolute gut punch. There was ZERO reason to bring in Robbie Ayala. He had an over 10 ERA vs. the Astro's. He had SEVERAL options in the bullpen. Clueless. Tale a look at Swanson's ERA vs. Lefties, 'nuff said.
You went from being on the doorstep of a MASSIVE win and sending the message to going right back to being owned by the Astro's. While I expected a win in game 2 and a loss in game 1, this is just a playing massive brain fart by Servais. Not sure I will listen to anything he has to say after bringing Ray in. Pathetic. These players deserve better. And yes, Munoz and Sewald have to do better. However, look how much he's using them? They are clearly gassed. He HAS TO KNOW his players and what they have in the tank. He flat out RUINED any of the momentum this team had.
Get the win today, and we are looking good and are at a best of 3, with 2 at home. However, this is just plain unacceptable. I haven't been that pissed since 49.
And yes, I DO agree it should have never come down to that. However, it is the Managers JOB to put the right person out there. As soon as Ray started warming up, I had zero doubt we were gonna' lose. And I guarantee I wasn't the only one.

 

[sutz]

Game 2 first pitch 12:37 pm PDT

RHP Luis Castillo vs. LHP Framber Valdez

Castillo (8-6, 2.99 ERA) makes his 27th start (13th with the Mariners). He has a 1.08 WHIP, 2.7 BB/9 and 10 K/9 in 150 1/3 IP.

Valdez (17-6, 2.82 ERA) makes his 32nd start. He has a 1.16 WHIP, 3 BB/9 and 8.7 K/9 in 201 1/3 IP.

Mariners-Astros ALDS Game 2 preview

Oct. 13: ALDS Game 2

www.mlb.com

 

[SoulfishHawk]

He has a nasty curve ball, should be interesting. I was surprised how much they rocked Verlander.

 

[GeekHawk]

Question - why don't teams start their #5 or whatever starting pitcher against the other team's ace in the first game of a must-win series? Seems to me that would put the first team's ace against other team's #2, first team's #2 against other team's #3, etc. You would think that would be a better way to get a series win...

 

[hawkcrazzed]

Well Lets hope 1 isn't enough today

 

[Hawk-Lock]

Outside of the HR, Castillo looks great. If we can get 3 runs from the offense we can win this game. Unfortunately, Valdez is tough and he may shut us down.

Come on M's!