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For those who just joined us, the local club has to beat out ONE (1) of the following rivals. Another way to put that is, whichever of these three teams now plays the worst, the M's need to exceed that team's wins:
| Team | W | L | GB |
| Orcs | 80 | 63 | -- |
| Royals (Central Div) | 79 | 63 | 0.5 |
| Seattle | 78 | 63 | 1 |
| Tiggers | 79 | 65 | 1.5 |
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A little flavor text for yer:
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Tigers 9, Royals 5
Royals fans are wringing their hands over the following spiders in their pennant sandwiches:
Of course there are plusses: James Shields, Wade Davis, Alex Gordon, and Josh Willingham have carried the Royals the last three weeks, while Wil Myers rips along at 0.0 WAR on the season.
Despite the Myers trade and all of its benefits to KC, I'd say that in Seattle, we are well-and-truly back to chasing the Royals, not the Tigers.
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Orcs 4, White Sox 5
You knew, of course, that the White Sox were down to their final strike on Monday. Oakland ahead, bases empty, "closer" in the game, two outs ... and two strikes.
"Boom, boom, boom," as Duck Commander Phil would say. The duck flurries up desperately out of the pond, juuusssssst in time to catch a broadside of birdshot. You have only yourself to blame, guys, after you left three (3) runners at 2B and 3B in the 8th and 9th ...
The A's are +8 up, -19 down the last four weeks. As Mojo pointed out, their fans take it as a given that they're going to make baseball history by finishing 8th in the league.
They should hope that is the case. :- ) If I'm an Orcs fan, I feel like I've lost already, no matter what happens from here. I had the team of the decade going, I was giddy with joy, and then my ballclub responded to the Bright Lights by pulling an Albert Brooks Broadcast News.
... It's as if the Seahawks were 9-0 going into game ten, and then went 1-6, giving up 500 yards about five times. Supposing they did scrounge a playoff berth from there? It would be like Tiger Woods scounging a tee-off time with the final 4 golfers on Sunday in a U.S. Open. Hey, nice going, there, Champ.
With such an attitude, victory is next to impossible. Baseball is full of 1964 Phillies and 1995 Angels teams that blew huge leads and tried to rally at the wire. Hard to escape den-sity at that point, amigo.
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M's 4, Astros 1
Tomorrow's news today, dept: a week ago, we swooned over the way that Brad Miller was swinging the bat. Since August 23, he's now 12-for-27 with 3 doubles, a triple, and 2 homers, 8 RBI. Twenty-three total bases in 27 at bats.
Chris Taylor continues to rake, and has a .390 OBP against left hand starters. Quite a platoon. The shortstop position may supply the M's third-best hitter in the stretch run.
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Similarly, in the 8th inning James Jones entered the game for Mike Zunino's walk. With one out, first base ... Jones promptly swiped 2B and 3B. The pitcher was on a high wire, as opposed to in a rocking chair. Jones scored the winning run.
Jones might do this three more times in the last 19 games, score the go-ahead run as a pinch runner.
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Michael Saunders, somehow, returned with razor-sharp timing. He pulled a 95 MPH fastball, with ease, for his line drive base hit and walked twice.
In right field, John Dewan has him at +12 runs saved with the glove -- in half a year. Monday, we saw another sensational play to rob the homer. If the Paxton add is comparable to a Jon Lester trade, well, adding Saunders could be a Jayson Heyward deal. Heyward is playing tremendous defense in RF, with a .274/.355/.394 line, and supposedly that's already >5 WAR.
Eine great-zig defensive outfielder who zen gifs you major damage vis ze bat? Vot next? On base percentage from ze number two hitter?
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Felix' release point is more erratic than usual; you could look it up. But an out-of-synch Felix? It's like Earl Weaver used to tell Jim Palmer. I don't need you to be 100% to be better than anybody else I have. Or anybody else they have.
After the NFC championship, Russell Wilson sprung a question on Terry Bradshaw on stage: "What does it take to win the Super Bowl?" Quoth Terry, you have to play the game down. If it gets too important, you'll foul it up.
That'll do for Felix, too. If I were him, I'd be talking myself into the idea that these are spring training games.
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Brandon Maurer averaged 97.5 MPH on his fastball Monday, and it is a located 97.5. He is making Tom Wilhelmsen look like a pantywaist.
Batters are now totally sitting dead red and are sitting ducks for his (excellent) changeup. At the moment, he is essentially the good version of J.J. Putz. I dunno, maybe we could trade him for a glove man and a #4 starter?
Which ... Dr. Detecto has always preferred that his setup man be better than his closer. Just today at Hey Bill:
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Great to have The Condor back. Now we have two Mr WBCs on the roster! Maybe a rested and fresh Condor can inject some energy into the lineup. He's capable of some serious production over short time spans. And we really could have used his bunting expertise the other night.
Because Saunders pushed Endy to OF4, which is a better role if you're gonna sit on his hot streak.
Unfortunately, Endy and JJ don't fit in the same slot.
You really want JJ's speed and defense crossed with Endy's hot streak and experience in one roster spot.
James Jones = Herb Washington in 1974, but even better. Washington was used almost exclusively as a PR for the Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, Reggie Jackson, Bert Campaneris Oakland A's. He would be inserted as a pinch runner late in close games. Everyone knew what he was there to do, steal bases and score decisive runs. But even though pitchers and catchers were primed and ready for his attempts, were gunning for him, he stole 29 bases in 92 games, and his feats were celebrated. But even Washington was caught 16 times.
James Jones as of today has played in...92 games (admittedly most as a starter). He's stolen...25 bases. But he's only been caught one time.
He is a VERY important weapon in the pennant stretch and the postseason. He will be thrown out occasionally when it really hurts, more than he has been so far, but imagine having Jones pinch run for, say, Kendrys Morales in the 9th inning of the one-game wild card playoff with the score tied. With the season on the line, Jones could represent the decisive edge for a Seattle entry into a full playoff series. Conjecture, sure, but not far-fetched.
Of all the wonderful things that Lloyd has done this year, maybe my favorite was his admonition some time ago that the team just play hard and 'enjoy the journey'. To a young player, the primary response has to be, "Really? OK, cool!" It's liberating, because it removes the end focus on wins and losses and just lets them be them. (Did Miller look like he was feeling a lot of pressure in that AB against Sipp?)
But of course, a veteran will realize this for what it is: a psychological ploy that works for the young. But for the vet? It's different. He understands that at this point in the season...and this point in his career...every game is life and death. You do...or you don't. And thus, my concerns.
I don't think Felix was mysteriously 'out of sync' last night. It looked (to me) like he put himself out of sync. By overthrowing. By trying to will results. It's understandable (and preferable) that his changeup and his breaking stuff sometimes wind up in the dirt. But not the fastball. Not that often. He was trying too hard to hit the bottom edge of the strike zone with maximum gas, and the results were not good. If there were ever a guy who could trust his stuff, it's Felix. But is he trusting it now?
At the same time, we saw Cano react after striking out for what was (not) the last out of the inning. This season, we've seen him blithely shake his head for chasing a bad pitch, maybe flip the bat with a little disgust. But this was different. This was him boiling over, just for a minute. He knew the team needed him. And he knew he failed at that moment. He took a beat to beat himself up. Gone was that megawatt smile that he seems to wear like a logo.
Our greatest advantage this whole pennant race has been attitude. We aren't KC and the Tigers, battling each other to avoid the one game playoff. We aren't the A's, trying to swat away demons. We're not the Indians or the Yankees, sitting and just hoping a couple teams above us totally flop. We know we're better than people give us credit for, and we use that to our advantage. We are loose.
But the actions of Felix and Robbie last night threaten to take that away. They start to imply to the young guys that it's time to 'win or else'. And if that's what the young guys infer, we lose our advantage.
Which is why, were I in a position to talk to both those guys, my message would be simple: "Relax. Don't worry. You got this."
Saunders is such an igniter when he's in a groove. So glad he's healthy i time for this final road trip...we're gonna need him.
"I’d be shocked if we make the playoffs at all at this point.
That would require the A’s to be better team than the Mariners and Tigers.
They’re not."
This quote is from an Orc fan on the whole Wild Card situation. (Note that I had to run the quote through an online translator program to get the quote from the guttural Orc tongue to English, so apologies in advance if it did not translate perfectly.) The Orc concept at issue here, is that the Orcs have scouted their enemies, and the Orcs don't look like winners.
Comparatively, The Orcs strengths are its starting rotation. Who has the better 1-3? Choose two:
1. Felix, Kuma, Paxton; 2. Lester, Samardzija, Gray; 3. Verlander, Price, Scherzer.
Hitting wise, the Mariners have a deep team of troublesome lefties, Detroit has Kinsler, Miggy, and V-Mart, and the Orcs have the swooning Josh Donaldson, Adam Dunn and Yeonis Cespedes.
Bullpen wise, the Orcs have suffered greatly from the loss of Sean Doolittle, Detroit is sorry and Seattle is an eleven headed monster that looks like something that Tony LaRussa made.
Detroit, for its problems, still looks like a winner. So does Seattle.*
*I'd like the record to reflect that Detroit is chasing Seattle for the Wild Card game and not the other way around.