Well that was no fun.
Is this how Blue Jay fans felt over the weekend? Yuck.
This was a close and competitive game. And then it wasn’t. Polanco hit a big fly to open things up after Leadoff Julio (something I hope to never see again in my life – more on that soon) grounded out on the second pitch of the game. Then the M’s loaded the bases on walks and HBPs and bases loaded Rowdy Tellez…. grounded into a double-play! It’s one or the other, folks. We weren’t going to get another great shot at Bello after this first.
Bryce Miller took two batters to give the lead back, a triple into the Pesky corner and a sac fly and we were all knotted at 1. Miller pitched through trouble throughout, notching 5 hits, 4 walks (ick), 4 runs (all earned) against just 4 Ks in 100 pitches that didn’t see him through the 5th inning. In his defense, Fenway Park was designed for 20-run slugfests, so it’s almost not so bad? That said also, Bryce has pretty quietly been the biggest disappointment so far of our Oops, All Aces rotation. He hasn’t been bad or anything, but his 4.21 ERA and 1.44 WHIP after this one look like someone else’s #4 starter, not ours.
In any case, despite leaving down 4-1, the Mariners in their new Road Offense Mode didn’t feel out of reach and they promptly put 2 on in the 6th off the Boston bullpen, Rivas grounded them over to 2nd and 3rd with a productive out, and the resurgent JP Crawford stepped up and deposited an 0-1 pitch into left-center for a 2-run single. It was an opposite field left-on-left gem, just what JP does when he’s clicking. Julio worked a walk and Polanco got to bat because they’d brought in a righty to face Julio, but he just missed the Monster on a long fly-out and we couldn’t tie it.
Bizarrely, Wilson left in Bazardo and he danced into extreme trouble (bases loaded, 1 out) and then danced out of it … in 5 pitches to Devers and Bregman. That’s right, folks, the two best Red Sox hitters (I know that Story has been better than Devers so far this year, but still) blew a bases-loaded opportunity to crack it open against Eduard Bazardo. Maybe he can be a leverage guy. Of course, he also loaded the bases first on two walks facing the 7-8-9-1 guys. Soooo maybe not.
But the guy who really took the L (not literally) in this one was Trent Thornton. When Thornton blows up, it’s really ugly. For whatever reason, his playbook today was to double-up on pitches. He threw back-to-back middle-up cutters over the center of the plate to Wilyer Abreu and while he whiffed on the first, he spanked the second for a single. After a wild walk to a Kristian Campbell who otherwise went 0/4 with 2 Ks and looked wholly overmatched in every AB, he doubled-up on absolutely middle-middle center-cut breaking balls to Triston Casas. Yeah, he’s been underperforming and yeah he hit the first foul, but it went about 1,000 feet and was a big fat warning sign that if he had been sitting off-speed, it would have hit the seats. I have no idea what Cal and Trent were thinking on that pitch call, and I’m sure Cal didn’t want it in the absolute epicenter of the strike zone, but it was Utterly Preventable. And that really was the ballgame, because the rest of the game was essentially held down by Sauryn Lao making his major league debut with an entertaining 3-hit 3-K effort that also yielded an absurd unearned bonus run for Boston when Leo Rivas threw a ten-foot flick to first about twenty feet away from the first baseman.
It was not our night.
Flush it and forget it is the main mantra here, especially with all the caveats about Fenway.
BUT WAIT. What about Leadoff Julio?
I am done with Julio leading off. I don’t like and I don’t think he likes it.
His splits are not on face egregious. Coming into this game (in which he went a respectable 1/4 with a double and a walk), his BA was about even leading off or hitting 2nd, the only two batting order slots he’s had this year. But all of his 3 home runs are hitting 2nd. 10 of his 12 walks before tonight are hitting 2nd, despite only 50% more PAs hitting 2nd. His SLG is 168 points higher. His OPS is 268 points higher!
His sample was small in 2024 (thank you Victor Robles!) and in some prior years, he was actually okay at leading off. But I think his at-bats there this year have been uncomfortable and unfortunate. Career, he’s actually a .296 hitter (.838 OPS) hitting 3rd, .329 (.961) hitting cleanup, and a whopping .476 (1.095) hitting 5th! Granted that we’re talking about 22 PAs in that last instance, but it’s still worth a look. Given that his numbers this year are better with men on base than without, maybe letting him hit behind some of these guys would give him more confidence and a better role to drive guys in. It’s not like we don’t have viable candidates for leadoff, even with Robles and Bliss hurt. Dylan Moore just won AL Player of the Week for Chrissake! Make it happen, Dan.
Honestly, I just think we should run this lineup out there every day, platoon splits be damned:
1 Moore 4
2 Polanco 0
3 Julio 8
4 Cal 2
5 Randy 7
6 Raley 9
7 Williamson 5
8 Tellez 3
9 JP 6
I’m gulping a little on Rowdy in the lineup there, honestly, but 8th is a place where he can’t do too much harm and his occasional pop still helps. And this lineup achieves the patented Scott Servais alternation so we don’t have to unload the bench with righties against a lefty reliever and burn all our lefties for the rest of the game (aside from whatever is making it so Polanco can’t hit against lefties).
Give it a whirl?
Mariners Stats:
Comeback Wins: 7
Wire-to-Wire Wins: 5
Comeback Losses: 5
Wire-to-Wire Losses: 6
Multi-Homer Games: 6-4
Single-Homer Games: 6-3
No-Homer Games: 0-4
One-Run Games: 4-3
Extra-Innings Games: 2-2
Record When Scoring >5 Runs: 5-2
Record When Scoring 2-5 Runs: 7-4
Record When Scoring <2 Runs: 0-5
Personal Stats:
Watched on TV: 2-6
Listened on Radio: 5-1
Mixed TV/Radio: 4-3
Followed on Gameday: 1-1
