The Mariners took advantage of area starter Luis Patino, who had problem with command, walking 2 before Ty France hit an RBI single– after an 11-pitch battle, I enjoy watching France at the plate– to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead. They had an opportunity to extend that lead in the second, when Luís Torrens led off with a base struck off a 96 miles per hour Patiño fastball that he shot back up the middle at 107.1 mph. Tim Lopes also had a hard-hit single up the middle, and old pal Dan Altavilla, on in relief of Patiño, strolled Dylan Moore on four pitches before striking out KLew wanting to strand the bases full. Rude!
As the Mariners have actually drooped out of the quick fever-dream of playoff contention, I have steeled myself for a barrage of losses while prepared them to crawl back inside the Top 10 for draft picks. It is much more enjoyable to summarize wins than losses, and it is particularly the most enjoyable when stated win is led by the young Mariners who will largely be a part of the team for some time to come.
Sheffield posted his 3rd quality start in a row, going six innings and providing up simply one run, with 2 strolls and five strikeouts. After getting 2 fast outs in the second, he strolled Jake Cronenworth on four pitches and offered up a single to Jurickson Profar, who seems to finally be finding his stride as a Padre.
Fernando Tatis swung at the very first pitch from Sheffield, punching a double over Kyle Lewiss head that I believed was going to screw up Sheffs HR/9 numbers. Machete Machado, Mariners Killer, then torched a changeup situated at his ankles into ideal field to score Tatís.
Wait, the TOOTBLANing wasnt over for the inning. In theory the Padres should know that Torrens has a accurate and strong arm? Sheffield stated in the post-game interview that in the third inning he felt like the game was speeding up on him and he needed to remind himself to breathe, so its great that the defense was able to assist pick him up and provide him that area to breathe.
What I particularly liked about that was that there was a blown strike 3 call the pitch before– a fastball right at the top of the zone. I dont know if its Torrenss framing but it simply looks like that high strike has actually not been there during this series, which is kind of a bummer when you have a pitching staff that likes to throw pitches high in the zone.
Love this bounceback from Sheffield. Ran into some problem in the inning, worked Grisham really well in this AB by exploiting him on the within edge before putting him away with the slider. Must have had a called K on the pitch in the past, a high FB, however rebounded with the SL. pic.twitter.com/Qy8fbFNWca— Lookout Landing (@LookoutLanding) September 20, 2020
In the bottom of the inning, the offense helped Sheff breathe easier yet, battering on their old teammate for another two runs off the bat of Luís Torrens:
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Torrens was slugging.364 with Padres; hes currently punching.442 with the Mariners. Other Luís Torrens truths: his label per MLB is “Churro,” and he has a sheepadoodle pup called Kygo who you can follow on instagram and likewise I would crave him. LOOKIT THIS SNOOT:
OK, however actually, Casey Sadler might have been a take. 89th percentile spin on his curve and is confident enough to locate it at the bottom of the zone in hitters counts. Bender bring an xwOBA of.176.
More like Casey Happyler. pic.twitter.com/pALaBFIXEr— Nicholas Stillman (@nick_at_day) September 20, 2020
Likewise an advantage tonight: Casey Sadler! His stuff was moving all over, he pounded the strikezone, and carved right through his inning. I will never forget you for being the only watchable part about that loss to the Giants, C-Sadz.
A sigh of relief: Kyle Lewis striking the ball hard and over the fence again.
Tomorrow the Mariners close out the season series versus the Padres at 1:10 PT, and Zach Gottschalk, long-lasting adorer of the San Diego Padres and frequent virtual shouter of “TRUE TO THE BROWN” in the LL Slack, will be recapping that one for you, so tune in to see Zach possibly divided himself in half.
Justus came back out after being staked to a 3-1 lead and cruised through Hosmer, Pham, and The Crone Worth in 12 pitches, which led me to develop a theory which I will tell you about in a little bit, but first you should understand that the Mariners went down 1-2-3 in the fifth and then Justus came back out and had a hard time. Despite leading off by striking out Profar looking with a changeup, Justus then grazed Trent Grisham with a pitch. Sheffield got 2 strikes on him within three pitches, but Tatís battled him for eight pitches, ultimately blasting a ground ball (109.4 mph EV, the hardest-hit ball of the game) inches past the outstretched glove of J.P. Crawford.
I hope theres a ROY crown, and I hope theyre determining Kyle Lewiss head for it now.
Yoshihisha Hirano also pitched an inning tonight. All you need to know is the Mariners won, 4-1.
Kendall Graveman also had a scoreless inning, although the emphasize of his inning was also Kyle Lewis, since its KLews world and were all simply living in it.
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Justus came back out after being staked to a 3-1 lead and travelled through Hosmer, Pham, and The Crone Worth in 12 pitches, which led me to formulate a theory which I will tell you about in a little bit, but first you must know that the Mariners went down 1-2-3 in the 5th and then Justus came back out and had a hard time. Sheffield got two strikes on him within 3 pitches, but Tatís battled him for 8 pitches, eventually blasting a ground ball (109.4 mph EV, the hardest-hit ball of the game) inches past the outstretched glove of J.P. Crawford. Sheff was sitting around 85 pitches after that bit of Houdini-ism so I was amazed to see him come back out in the sixth, but heres the thing about that: it was another 12-pitch, 1-2-3 inning, closing Sheff out at 99 pitches, 57 strikes for the night. Ive questioned why Sheff has such a wild home-road split (2.66 ERA at home vs. 5.66 on the roadway) and here is my thought: Sheff pitches with a lot of emotion, and I believe attempts specifically tough to have that shutdown inning after his offense has actually scored him some runs. Yoshihisha Hirano also pitched an inning tonight.
Sheff was sitting around 85 pitches after that bit of Houdini-ism so I was surprised to see him come back out in the 6th, however heres the thing about that: it was another 12-pitch, 1-2-3 inning, closing Sheff out at 99 pitches, 57 strikes for the night. Ive wondered why Sheff has such a wild home-road split (2.66 ERA at home vs. 5.66 on the roadway) and here is my thought: Sheff pitches with a lot of feeling, and I believe attempts especially difficult to have that shutdown inning after his offense has scored him some runs.
