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GAMEFLOW

For once we get a nice smooth victory that felt like ... ? ... maybe like, not running out of hot water in the shower.  Relaxed, mellow, and hopeful that I-167 may be cruising at 10+ MPH.  Last time we had a nice smooth victory, Lone Star Ball was for sale and Kreuger was trying to figure out how Jerry DiPoto fixed the M's so easily.

The gameflow was Sweet Lou's favorite.  He loved to --- > get a two-run lead and then play for one run at a time.  The ten or fifteen times a year it actually worked like that, those were just about the only times he didn't look one ump's call away from going Rage Monster on one of the bases.

Very few line scores look like a Wladimir Klitschko championship fight:

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That lucky uppercut in the first round only added to your misery

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CHRIS IANNETTA

Last year, Zunino and Sucre were what, 6-and-156 for getting on base three times in a game.  Iannetta had done it at least twice before his Edgar-like performance on Friday.  The OBP is up to .452, so shave thirty points off that and I'm still fine.

His lifetime O-Swing rate is only 19.9%, compared to the 27.3% average, and his SwStr% is the same this year as it has been any year.  It's just that his BABIP is high. In other words, what you've been seeing, that's pretty much what he's been all his life.  A few extra balls have fallen in.  Nice to have some tough AB's out of the catcher?

The worry wasn't that Chris Iannetta was a weakling; he has a lifetime OBP of .351 and OPS+ of 104.  The worry was just that he'd gotten old.  Early returns suggest, not.

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ADAM LIND

Had a Godzilla-steady head and body, for that shot he rifled into LF against the shift.  'twas a t'ing a beauty..

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Git up, y tomata can Mickey loves ya

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He came around to score on that one, IIRC, and then he rifled another clean hit into right-center for an RBI.  Reminds you that his HIT tool is extra-class for a power hitter, like Nelson Cruz' is.

Stat of the day:  Lind has 3,311 career plate appearances vs right hand pitching, with a SLG of .507.  He hadn't done much before Friday, but ... you know how 6-year-olds have neat solutions to the world's problems.  Like, "Israel, we're sorry we hit you.  Do you want to come over and play Uno? Your friend, Palestine."  And like, giving a lifetime .500 SLGger more than 21 at-bats.

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FRANKLIN GUTIERREZ

With the M's up 4-1 in the 6th, Ketel Marte blooped on in and then - GASP! - stole second base.  Nori Aoki golfed one off his shoes to the right side, putting Marte on third.  Then Gutierrez showed the famed "go the other way with authority" shtick, clocking a hard fly ball to right field.  Manufactured run to add on.  I think I'm going to cry.  Lou does too.

Also had a real compact swing to cover a low-in (!) fastball and roll it way out into the Bronx power alley.  A+ for aesthetics today, Guti.

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THREE TRUE OUTCOMES WATCH

Before Fridays' game, which will help it, the M's were #3 in the league in best out-of-zone swing rate and #5 in contact rate.

Despite Severino's nuclear stuff, the M's actually came out ahead again on Friday for TTO factor.  10:7 control ratio for the M's pitchers, 3:4 for the Yankee pitchers.  One homer apiece canceled out.  Today the Bronx, tomorrow the saber world.