Texas Rangers @ Seattle Mariners Jun 14-16...

[sutz]

Here we go. Division matchup against the WS champs. Starters got a rest day to set it up.

Probables:

Fri: Heaney LHP (2-7, 4.06 ERA, 58K) vs Castillo RHP (5-7, 3.35 ERA, 85K) Apple+TV

Sat: Eovaldi RHP (3-2, 2.68 ERA, 58K) vs Kirby RHP (5-5, 3.81 ERA, 78K) Fox Sports

Sun: Dunning RHP (4-5, 4.80 ERA, 59K) vs Gilbert RHP (3-4, 3.19 ERA, 84K)

Early to say "must win" but a great chance to gain some separation if we can. By calling Hancock up we set up our 3 best starters and gave them a rest day before the series. Let's go M's!

 

[Crizilla]

Boschi is going to come in here and toy with Servais and the hitting coaches. Hope I'm wrong!

 

[Shanegotyou11]

Boschi is going to come in here and toy with Servais and the hitting coaches. Hope I'm wrong!

Like he did in Texas? 1-2 vs Seattle.

Even if Texas wins 2 of 3, it would be 3-3 on the year.

 

[Shanegotyou11]

Big June Series. Win 2 of 3!

 

[Crizilla]

They spanked us last year for the division. Time will tell if things have changed! This is it. You have to beat the division champ to be the division champ!

 

[MontanaHawk05]

Yeah baby!

 

[Crizilla]

4 walks
6 strikeouts
Much better ratio.
I think Locklear has been on base every game he's played.

 

[Shanegotyou11]

Boschi is going to come in here and toy with Servais and the hitting coaches. Hope I'm wrong!

 

[Shanegotyou11]

Great game 1 win!

15-5 Vs AL West.

 

[raisethe3]

Didn't get to see the majority of the game, but glad to see a win tonight. Hope this continues through the rest of the weekend!

 

[bileever]

When the year started, I didn't expect this in mid-June. It's June 14, and the Mariners are 41-31, ten games above .500 and six and a half games ahead of the Rangers.

The crowd at tonight's game: 41,814

Mariners' record against the AL West this year: 15-5

Our two big off-season acquisitions, Polanco and Garver, are hitting .195 and .176. Brash is lost for the year. Woo started the year on the DL. Polanco and France are on the DL now.

It's impossible. I can't quite wrap my head around it. It's a miracle.

 

[Threedee]

Another positive is that Garver has become increasingly productive.

 

[IndyHawk]

Another positive is that Garver has become increasingly productive.

He really has and always taking walks.

 

[Crizilla]

Raley still not batting 2nd makes no sense. Same sample size as Rojas same average stats are very similar but Raley has better slugging. Makes no sense especially they both hit left. Rojas has been terrible at the 2 spot. You rarely see your 3rd baseman bat the 2 spot. He's hitting .150 with a .200 OBP the last 30 days (bruh) and this coaching staff still puts him at the 2 spot. His stats are way better batting 1st. Sorry but JP is struggling. Nothing makes sense about this season.

Locklear just got robbed of a walk. Brutal. Dude is having solid at bats.
Julio and Rojas showing power. Locklear should have 2 walks.

 

[Threedee]

Bazardo Staneky situation there at the end.

 

[Crizilla]

8 walks today that's gotta be a season high

Shockingly Rojas numbers are way better at home. I guess keep playing him top half of line up. Dude has almost .100 points higher OBP at home than on road.

 

[sutz]

Bazardo has always worried me. Tonight showed us why. He needs a ticket out of town.

Shouldn't have been that close, but I'll take it. Nice stop and recover by Locklear. He's playing up to his rep from the minors. Starting to look like what we hoped we had with White.

Kirby continues his ownership of the Rangers. Started out looking like a statement game. Oh well, at least we finished it.

 

[Chapow]

Boschi is going to come in here and toy with Servais and the hitting coaches. Hope I'm wrong!

Servais badly outcoached Bochy today.

Bochy put a catcher out there that sucks at throwing out baserunners. Servais said "Lol, thanks Bruce" and had his guys pretty much stealing bases at will specifically because of who Bochy had catching for him today.

The game plan for Kirby was clearly to go after the Rangers with elevated 4 seam fastballs because they struggle against that. It worked to perfection and there wasn't anything Bochy could do about it, and it didn't look like there were any adjustments made by the Rangers hitters, coaches, or manager even when it became very clear what the game plan was.

Rojas with a huge game in the 2 spot.

I'm sure plenty of people will criticize the decision to have Bazardo pitch the 9th (while ignoring the fact that the M's dominated the first 8 innings of the game), but literally every manager in baseball puts in one of his worst relievers when they have a 6 run lead and only need 3 outs to end the game. No one's putting in one of their high leverage guys with a 6 run lead in the 9th.

If Bazardo can't even protect a 6 run lead in the 9th, the dude needs to either be sent down or DFA'd.

 

[Glasgow Seahawk]

Really important to get the sweep tomorrow. Not just for stretching the division lead but because we are about to play a pretty good Cleveland team next

 

[Shanegotyou11]

Boschi is going to come in here and toy with Servais and the hitting coaches. Hope I'm wrong!