Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 by Adam Wagner
What Liveblogging Makes Obvious
Tonight we’re going to try something a little bit different. I’m going to liveblog the Pirates-Mariners game, which may become extremely normal over the next three or so weeks since I must get up earlier in the morning and don’t have time to write my normal stuff after the game. Instead, you’re just going to get a giant jumbled mix of thoughts and assorted facts. This should be interesting . . . Liveblogging starts after the jump:
9:44 – Jim Tracy’s wife is going to have a very large cell phone bill this month. Boo Hoo. Also, I am annoyed that the Pirates took the bad Tracy brother instead of the successful one (Chad, who is hitting .281 with 5 HRs and 55 RBIs), who was available last year and would have been a much better 2nd round pick than Shelby Ford (.239, 3, 29).
9:47 – Bay is DHing? That seems like an okay idea by the Pirates and Tracy in particular. I’m not used to them having good ideas. Wow.
9:48 – The Pirates’ medical commercials on the radio are always about leg injuries. I really want James Andrews to come on and discuss Tommy John surgery.
9:50 – Willie Bloomquist is Ryan Doumit’s second cousin. This helps explain Doumit’s occasional complete lack of hitting ability. Ok, that wasn’t fair considering that he’s been one of the three or four most important position players on this team.
9:56 – A couple of interesting pitching performances tonight, in particular Johan Santana’s and Tim Linceum’s. Santana had a fantastic start, going the whole game while surrendering no runs and only four hits. The interesting item in the line, however, is that Santana only struck out one hitter. That is the mark of a fantastic pitcher. Tim Lincecum, however, was not pitching, as the young starter failed to live up to the hype for the second consecutive start by giving up six runs in four innings. Lincecum reminds me of Cole Hamels, who also struggled when he came up originally in part due to the massive hype that was put on him. He, however, turned it around and became the ace of a solid Phillies staff, something that the Giants are hoping Lincecum can accomplish.
10:01 – Tonight the Pirates bring Tom Gorzelanny to the mound at Safeco Field. Gorzo has been fantastic so far this year, but struggled with the homerun in his last start as he gave up three gopher balls to a struggling Texas Ranger lineup. The Mariners will pitch Miguel Batista, who has struggled significantly this year (5.10 ERA), but is one of the best inning eaters that the game has to offer.
10:03 – Bob Walk just pronounced Raul Ibanez’s name as Eyebanez. He also had fun with Yuniesky.
10:08 – The game is very late in starting, which is irking me because Bob Walk and Greg Brown are having a very boring discussion about Ichiro Suzuki and how to pronounce “Steel.”
10:10 – Five minutes late and it sounds as if the game is about to begin.
10:13 – Nate McLouth did what a hitter early in the order is supposed to do, as he had a long at-bat and found a way to get on base (albeit by an error on Richie Sexson). This guy really should be in the lineup more.
10:18 – A little bit of clutch hitting by Adam LaRoche, who sends a grounder through the right side of the infield to score McLouth. This is the second such incident in the last two games as he hit a ground-rule double on Sunday. Could he be regaining his confidence? Is it worth even thinking about that? Maybe. LaRoche will hit eventually, but it will happen when it happens and isn’t really worth worrying about.
10:20 – Base hit by Bay to move LaRoche to second.
10:23 – Questionable walk for Xavier Nady, loading the bases for hometown native Ryan Doumit. Batista has had problems locating pitches the last few batters and is going deep into counts right now. That wildness just forced a run across as Batista walked Doumit.
10:26 – Yeah, Kenji Johjima is one of the best catchers in baseball. Batista just threw what should have been a wild pitch to Ronny Paulino, but Johjima made a sick save. Apparently Bobby Valentine was right when, in response to being asked why Johjima was platooning, he responded, “Because his manager’s an idiot.”
10:28 – The Pirates get out of the first with two runs, giving them an odd 2-0 lead after the first inning.
10:30 – Home plate umpire Brian O’Nora seems to be calling a very tight strike zone tonight.
10:33 – Jose Guillen just got the Mariners’ first hit of the game after the necessary mention of the Jose Guillen – Humberto Cota/Joe Oliver trade.
10:34 – Trouble brewing in the bottom of the first as there are now runners on second and third with the .198-hitting Richie Sexson coming to the plate. Sexson is the American League version of Adam Dunn, but paid much better. I can never tell if he’s underrated or overrated.
10:37 – Gorzo gets the out on a routine chopper to SS Jack Wilson, showing the ability to get an out when he has to. If he gives up a liner here, the game is tied and all of the work the Pirates did in the top of the first was for naught. Instead, he simply gets out of the inning.
10:41 – Batista seems to be going right after Jose Bautista tonight, as he has thrown 7 strikes to the Pirate leadoff hitter in two at-bats tonight, getting the righty to strike out twice.
10:45 – With Adrian Beltre’s coming up to the plate, I can not help but wonder why the Mariners signed Richie Sexson (along with Beltre) to monster contracts after the 2004 season. Neither guy has paid off quite as well as they were expected to. And, of course, Beltre gets a hit, moving Johjima to second, just to tick me off.
10:52 – Ichiro puts a ball through the infield, scoring Johjima and bringing the score to 2-1. Vidro is now up. Gorzelanny is beginning to pitch like Batista, running deep into counts and then having trouble getting out of jams. Gorzo must throw more strikes at the moment if he hopes to have a decent start tonight. Warning signs of a really terrible start are certainly becoming evident.
10:56 – Gorzelanny has 36 pitches through two innings. That is way too many pitches for a starter, especially when the bullpen is one member short after Matt Capps received his three game suspension yesterday.
10:59 – Batista has five strikeouts after three, which is scary considering that he only had 50 coming into this game. The Pirates really need to learn how to make more contact.
11:03 – Gorzelanny gives up a huge leadoff double to Jose Guillen, which probably should have been a triple. The Mariners are hitting Gorzo really hard right now.
11:05 – Xavier Nady just made a diving catch in LF to prevent Guillen from moving to third and another runner from getting on base. It’s Sexson time (sorry, I just really like typing that).
11:08 – It is apparently not Sexson time, as Gorzo strikes out the big guy, moving his K total to 2.
11:09 – Gorzo gets out of another jam. He is still worrying me with this start tonight, as he seems to be inching closer to the razor’s edge with his pitch counts and how hard Seattle is hitting the ball right now.
11:13 – Doumit just lined two balls wickedly foul, but ended up striking out. Pirates radio announcers are already discussing Batista reaching his career high of 11 K’s, as he has 6 right now.
11:15 – Ronnny Paulino hits a two out double which he ripped down the LF line. This looked sort of like the Ronny of last year as opposed to the guy we’ve been seeing recently.
11:18 – Jack can’t bring Paulino around, but the double accomplished the important goal of knocking Batista off of the dominant game he had been throwing to that point.
11:23 – Gorzo gets another k, this time of Adrian Beltre, who had only struck out 34 times in 215 ABs coming into this at-bat.
11:25 – Gorzo at last has an easy inning, something which he has desperately needed all night. Through 4, it’s 2-1 Pittsburgh.
11:27 – First of all, Greg Brown finally caught onto the fact that Batista has thrown nine strikes and no balls to Bautista all night. Jose, however, manages to loop a single into the outfield to get himself on base for the first time tonight. Batista is very interested in keeping Jose at 1B.
11:30 – Batista gets another strikeout (7) and Greg Brown finally confuses Bautista for Batista, a mistake I have risked making all night and don’t think I’ve done yet. Jose, however, steals second and is 4 for 5 on the year.
11:36 – Freddy Sanchez continues his clutch hitting of late, dropping a fly ball into CF to bring Bautista around and expand the Pirate’s lead to 3-1.
11:38 – Both Adam LaRoche and Jason Bay ground out, ending the inning with only one run coming around. This is definitely a disappointment, as a runner on second when the heart of the order comes to the plate should always come around to score. It’s why those (or these) players are paid the big money.
11:40 – Ichiro chops a ball up the middle for a single. The speedy superstar on first with Ronny Paulino behind the dish should be interesting. Gorzo will definitely try to keep him close.
11:42 – “Well it looks like they have another good one from Japan, too. That catcher. Johjima?” Wow. Our excellent announcing team.
11:44 – Gorzo strikes Vidro out and Ichiro goes. Surprisingly, Ronny unleashes a perfect throw. Unsurprisingly, Ichiro receives a safe call for evading the tag. The Pirates announce team disapproves of this call.
11:45 – “I just, um, noticed that Ichiro has Ichiro on the back of his uniform.”
11:48 – Adam LaRoche makes things interesting, but the Pirates get out of another inning, stranding yet another runner at second base. Seattle has left 14 men on base through five innings, a ridiculously high number which still indicates some luck on Gorzo’s part.
11:53 – A walk by Xavier Nady followed by a single to right by Ryan Doumit gives the Pirates runners on first and second with no outs and Ronny Paulino at bat. Nady’s walk was especially strong, as it pushed Batista closer to his limit, where the Pirates can exploit him more.
11:56 – Xavier Nady takes a risk and just gets away with it, as Ronny Paulino flew out to right field where Jose Guillen and his dangerous arm were calmly waiting for the ball. Nady made it to third, but Ryan Doumit did not move, as he should have, to second on the play. This mistake left the double play possibility open for the Mariners, possibly allowing them to get out of the inning with no damage done. A bad baserunning error by the Pirates.
11:59 – Jack Wilson proves to be the last batter for Batista, as he walks the Pirate shortstop on four pitches (the last pitch to Wilson is his 106th of the night). Sean Green will come on for the Mariners. The righty is a decent reliever (2.82 ERA, 20 Ks through 22.1 innings this year), but could have trouble here as he is coming in to face Jose Bautista with the bases loaded.
12:02 – Bautista hits a dangerous chopper to 3B, but Beltre chooses to go to first with the ball instead of home and Nady scores. 4-1 Pirates.
12:04 – Sean Green does a better job than I thought he would as he induces the grounder and a Nate McLouth flyout to prevent the Pirates from making too much out of the bases loaded situation.
12:09 – Gorzo gets another K, his fifth of the night, and probably gets a call. It is an impressive feat to strike out Kenji Johjima, who had only done so 17 times in 205 ABs before this one.
12:11 – Sexson, who got to third when Ronny Paulino lost the ball, goes to third on Adrian Beltre flyout to RF. Why do fans freak out every time there’s a fly ball? Sometimes it’s understandable, but others it is obvious that the ball is going straight up and is going to come straight back down into an outfielder’s glove. The fans, though, will be cheering this development as if there was a grand slam. Wow.
12:12 – Gorzo forces Jose Lopez to fly out to LF, his fifth flyout of the night with the last two batters hitting two of them. Jim Tracy should make the decision and pull Gorzo now, as he has thrown 102 pitches. The Pirate skipper seems obsessed with piling pitches onto the young arm, which is healthy for neither pitcher nor team. It won’t be a problem if he sends Gorzo out for one more inning, but at the first hint of trouble he should have a reliever ready.
12:16 – Freddy Sanchez is looking more and more like last year’s Freddy Sanchez.
12:20 – The Pirates have manufactured another run, as Yuniesky Betancout throws a ball past Richie Sexson, allowing Sanchez to come around, LaRoche (walk) goes to 3rd, and Jason Bay, who hit the grounder, goes to 2nd.
12:24- The Pirates only get one run out of a runners on second and third with no out. This is the biggest downfall of what has, to this point, been a rather well-played baseball game, as Xavier Nady struck out and Ronny Paulino (of course) grounded into a 6-2-3 double play.
12:26 – I don’t know what’s worse, that Bob Walk wants Tom Gorzelanny to have another 117 pitch outing, or that Gorzelanny just gave up a leadoff double.
12:32 – Gorzo gives up another run on a sacrifice fly to Jose Vidro, decreasing the Pirate lead to 5-2. Tracy is letting him go too deep into this game and, even if the effects of him going so deep into starts are not seen immediately, he will have problems later in the year.
12:34 – Gorzelanny strikes out his sixth, and probably last, batter. A very good start for the young southpaw despite his pitching into and out of more than a few jams and his throwing 123 pitches.
12:40 – McLouth bounces a ball up the middle for a single, with Sanchez coming to the plate next. McLouth shows more of the fiestieness that marks him as a guy who should be playing more. After 7 1/2 (Sanchez grounds out), it is 5-2 Pirates.
12:43 – Grabow is on to get maybe one out, which he successfully gets. If Tracy uses more of the Kerosene Corps . .. Uh oh. He is going to Jonah Bayliss after Grabow gets one out. Let’s see if the Amicable One (Tracy) can manage to not lose this game for his team by mismanaging.
12:46 – Surprise, Surprise. Bayliss surrenders a monster shot to Sexson to decrease the Pirate lead to 5-3. This one’s on you, Jim.
12:49 – Wow, Bayliss catches Johjima looking (his second strikeout tonight . . . wait, how come the announcers are just figuring this one out). I’m amazed he didn’t launch one to bring this game even closer.
12:50 – Jack’s arm fails as Beltre’s grounder deep into the hole forces Jack to throw awkwardly. The fielders should know better than to give opposing hitters seven outs when they come in thinking that they will need six.
12:54 – After Bayliss walks, Masumi Kuwata comes on. His motion is maybe one of the most fun to watch in baseball, but let’s see if he can get pinch-hitter Ben Broussard to make the third out of this inning. I’m not sure if this is a good move or a bad move on the part of Jim Tracy, but I’m thinking he should have done this at the beginning of the inning if they were going to do it.
12:59 – Kuwata induces a chopper to LaRoche at 1B, surprisingly getting out of a difficult inning. It is nice when the Pirate bullpen succeeds (three more outs). 5-3 Pirates after 8.
1:02 – Greg Brown just asked, “Do you know what Saturday, June 30 is at PNC Park?” Apparently he doesn’t know about the planned boycott.
1:04 – JJ Putz is dominating the Pirates, as he caught LaRoche looking at strike three and Bay swinging at a pitch in the dirt. Two strikeouts on two batters. How did this guy go from being a bum to being one of the most dominant relievers in baseball?
1:08 – Another k, of Xavier Nady this time. He just totally owned the heart of the Pirate order. I don’t care how bad they can be, that is impressive.
1:09 – Damaso Marte will come out to at least pitch to Ichiro, with Chacon waiting in the ‘pen. Here we go . . .
1:11 – Marte starts Ichiro out with two high fastballs, hopefully just to show who the boss is. That third pitch could not have been on purpose, though. Crap. Why do the Mariners fans think this game is so winnable? I mean, I know the answer, but that’s not a good sign.
1:13 – Jim Colborn is coming out. It’s time for the two run homerun.
1:14 – Fly out to Nate McLouth in CF, time for ex-Pirate Jose Guillen to come up to the plate, but the Pirates are going to make a pitching change and bring in righty Sean Chacon for the save. This inning is ridiculously tense (maybe it’s the .261 opposing BA).
1:18 – Chacon starts Guillen out with a strike quickly followed by a ball way inside. A fastball inside (all three pitches have been in so far) brings a foul ball. Guillen stares at a 1-2 pitch right on the outside corner. A very well-pitched at-bat for Chacon, as he was setting up for that pitch the entire at back
1:20 – Chacon goes to 0-2 on Ibanez AND IBANEZ WHIFFS ON THE 0-2 PITCH! The Pirates WIN! Their record moves to 31-39 and they are now 5-5 in interleague play. The star of the game is undoubtedly Sean Chacon as a loss felt imminent until he entered the game and got the heart of the Mariners’ order (Vidro and Ibanez) to go down swinging.
RAISE THE JOLLY ROGER!
I may be back for detailed analysis . . . I may not. Whatever happens, I will also be liveblogging tomorrow night’s game.
Thank you for reading this, if you did. Good night.
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