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GAMEFLOW

The M's took a 4-0 lead and, seeing that the Rays were losing interest in competive baseball, threw them a few runs.  Once the Rays pepped up, the Mariners resumed Knight-forking Queens and Rooks ... but saw the Rays' countenance fall again.  So the M's threw them another tie game at 5-5.  

"Carrying" the loser might seem generous in the middle rounds.  But in the 11th, Iannetta's homer must have hit the Rays about like Little Marco did after the "Linguistic Killshot" (the Washington Post's term) blew him back off the podium, showing the country the soles of his shoes.**

So, the gameflow can be brief this issue.  Just pretty much --- > Nurse Diesel holding a big spoonful of fruit cocktail out to Harvey Korman and, when Korman finally leans forward, taking the spoon back and savoring it juicily in front of him.  But the Rays knew we were strict.  Nobody forced them to be there.

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TAIJUAN WALKER, SEATTLE MARINER (tm Spectator 2014)

Didn't see the game live, but ran the tape back to see what happened in the 6th.  By coincidence or design, Taijuan and Iannetta relayed the situation accurately -- well, we should say "candidly" -- in the postgame.  Obviously they are stepping up their games in order to make Seattle Sports Insider.

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"I just started trying to be too cute on the corners, instead of going right after them, especially when I felt like I had my best stuff today," Walker said. "I had the couple walks and that's what was huge. I'd rather just make them put the ball in play and earn it."

"Taijuan did a great job," said Iannetta. "I know the line doesn't look as good as it was, but he was cruising for a long time and made a couple pitches around the zone that were really close. Then he throws a curveball to Dickerson -- he'd been swinging and missing at offspeed pitches all series and he finally connected with one. You tip your cap in that situation. It's unfortunate for Taijuan that it ended that way, but the guy did really well today." 

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And, oddly, that was what had occurred.  DiPoto and Servais have started an experimental fad in Seattle:  telling the reporters what happened.  In the 6th inning:

• Guyer took a 1st-pitch 95 fastball, painted right on the black, hard the other way for a 2B.  :: cap tip ::
• Brad Miller, of all people, took 8 pitches, four of which were a baseball's width off the plate.  BB.
• Evan Longoria, more comprehensibly, took 9 pitches, two of which missed and two of which were a baseball's width off the plate.  BB.
• Corey Dickerson guessed 1st-pitch curve and took a good one over the CF fence.  HR 4 RBI.

Normally ballplayers assume it is useless to explain that they played good, but the other guys won fair-and-square.  But 21-and-13 will do wonders for their relationship with the press.

We know what you're thinkin'.  What could Taijuan have done better?  ... not much.  He could have made Miller hit his way on with challenge fastballs, but that's about it and that's second-guessing.  More to the point is the fact that precious few MLB pitchers finish their careers with ERA's of zero-plus.

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All y'all saw the five innings before that.  Walker's fastball drew 11 swings and misses, a 96.1 average on the gun, an 11" hop, and the home plate ump's undying admiration.  As well, his "slider" and "splitter" were consistently breaking out of the zone, as they have been doing all year, which created the "In-Between" reactions and the fastball swings and misses.

But there was something Dr. D had not seen yet this year:  Taijuan was flinging his overhand yakker (-19 MPH) at the knees routinely and with an air of amusement.  Well, the kind of amusement you see from the baddies in the horror shows, anyway.  The "slider-change nibble" factor has already made Taijuan a TOR starter; the easy command of his curve, if continued, would make him a $200M pitcher.

When Garry Kasparov was 15 years old, the Grandmasters around him were freaked out based on one specific idea.  "He learns VISIBLY."  From one week to the next you could see the changes in his games from the bleachers, as it were.

Walker has been getting ugly on the league since about last July, but yesterday's game flashed greatness.

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Would you give Walker a Matt Moore contract yet?

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NELSON CRUZ

We're sorry to report the truth sometimes.  But in this case the truth is that in the 4th inning, Chris Archer made life very, very easy for Boomstick.  Archer issued an engraved invitation with that 1-1 changeup waist high middle-in.  Cruz gleefully accepted the invitation, though at 112 MPH launch velocity the elevation angle of only 21 degrees meant a lack of yardage on the drive.  He didn't even get the usual forward roll on the "draw" because of the chain-link fence.

Not meaning to be too harsh on Boom for what was, after all, a home run.  But he's "only" hitting one a week, and this week's was on a cripple.  For the first 5-6 weeks he has lacked the gasp-inducing Steroid Vision that he showed last year.

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Timbuk3 peeping tom techie with x-ray eyes, Dept.

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Boomstick is batting .270/.366/.475 with a 141 OPS+, but you've got to slug .600(ish) to be a 2015-era Booooooomstick.  At the moment you roto owners should probably be dealing Cruz to anybody who expects another 40+ homers.

Which is okay.  If Cruz slugs .500 with 32 homers, and Robinson Cano continues his Payback Tour, you'll have two guys with 130-160 OPS+ as opposed to last year's 119 and 160.  There is a comforting normalcy to Cano earning $30M and Nellie $20M.

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RAISING THE ROOF ... er, FLOOR Dept.

Sadly, the Stat-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named has made all other analysis obsolete.  With an air of resignation, he reads off the teleprompter:

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Last season, the M's had only two players (Cruz, Seager) with >2.5 WAR.  To compensate, they did sport 13 players with negative -WAR, and nine of those players combined for -5.3.  

This year the problem is -WAR problemo is limited to Adam Lind, who admittedly is on pace for -4.5 WAR.  Clevenger and Sardinas are nominally below replacement also.  But the point is, this roster is not frantically churning and bubbling through Monteros and Joneses and Weekses and Taylors.

And on the mound, it's just as ugly.  EVERYbody is good, and WBC-san is gooder than you thought he was.  He's on pace for another 3.5 WAR.  Felix doesn't have a single WAR to show yet, and the M's are 21-13.

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Hey, guess what.  The cream of the M's glovework has also risen to the top - they are #2 in all the land for Defensive Efficiency Rating.  Only the Cubs are better defensively, and the M's .729 conversion rate is beginning to echo the 2001 Mariner defense (.740) that Baseball Prospectus called "eerie."  

The M's glovework snuck up on people all year in 2001, and it's doing exactly the same now.  The credit for the M's 121 ERA+ isn't exclusively limited to Vidal Nuno's imposing presence on the mound.

Be Afraid,

Dr D

** I like Marco Rubio.  :- )