Game Thread: ALDS Game 1

[TraderGary]

Agree Julioooo, and man, I don't get the excuse making for Sewald. Of all the shit that went wrong, walking that fucking rookie to bring the tieing run to the plate was the worst. What a fucking choke job. That's not on Service. Jesus. He went lefty on lefty....don't go middle in with that fastball and who knows? Or, maybe, don't throw a fastball right after you snuck the first one by...I don't know. BUT, that at bat should have never happened.

Exactly!

Three things that piss me off right now.

1). Why is Munoz throwing primarily nothing but sliders when he has a 103mph fastball in his arsenal? He threw his FB a little more today but not nearly enough. That FB sets up the slider perfectly. I'll never understand this way of thinking.

2). As good as Sewald was last year and earlier in the season, the wheels have clearly come off for him for whatever reason. Even though his numbers look decent, it feels like he has given up a lot of runs in key situations including the long ball. He's hot garbage right now and I would be very hesitant to bring him in in anymore high leverage situations.

3). RR comes in to face arguably one of the best hitters in baseball, a prodigious power hitter representing the potential winning run. And what does he do? He proceeds to groove not one, but two fastballs center cut. He got extremely lucky on the first one, but if he thought he was going to blow another 94mph fastball past a hitter like Alvarez with the game on the line, then he's even more of a head case than I thought. Maybe those fucking tight pants are cutting off the circulation to his brain. What a fucking moron. He should have two losses in his two appearances thus far in the postseason if it weren't for the miraculous comeback on Saturday.

I can understand not wanting to throw him the low and away slider given the short porch in LF unless you throw it off the plate, but good lord, to groove not one, but two fastballs to a great hitter like Alvarez with the game on the line? I'm guessing the idea was to get those pitches in on his hands and maybe he just missed his spots, but he has to know you can't make a mistake like that to a hitter of that caliber in that situation. Absolutely inexcusable.

4). I agree with Michael. I don't put this loss on SS. Munoz, Sewald, and RR all failed to do their jobs. This loss, and probably the season is on them. I don't know how we can come back after this, but then this team is resilient as evidenced by their great comeback on Saturday. We will clearly need another dominant performance from Castillo on Thursday to have a shot and to pick the team up after a gut-punch loss like this.

One other thing.

FUCK YOU RAY!!

[TraderGary]

Yeah, in that case, who? Swanson? In hindsight Ray was a bad move, but the moves made weren't the problem, sorry, at what point do we expect players making a shit ton of money to make plays? This isn't Bobby Ayala blowing lead after lead, this is a bullpen that was set up for this, or so they thought. Over use? What? Why are they average now? Seems like the Cubs and Dodgers in recent memory have made playoff game five inning events with some serious powerhouses in the bullpen. Wasn't that what we thought we had? At least until a few weeks ago?

Speaking of Swanson, why has he been the forgotten man in the bullpen? Is he hurt?

[TraderGary]

I don't know about anyone else, but this is the way I felt after the most recent Seahawks Super Bowl loss. Actually both the Super Bowl losses. It's just a good hard kick in the nuts. I'm literally sick to my stomach right now. I can only imagine how the players feel after they gave it everything they had and played great baseball only to see the last 3 relievers shit the bed. I have no words.

[Juliooooo]

Haven't gotten much traction on this, but A few times throughout the season I've mentioned that I thought they should steer Emerson Hancock towards the bullpen. There are two basic reasons for this. The first reason is his injury history. Maybe he'll be healthy from now on, but I kind of doubt it and so I think a couple years in the bullpen makes sense and then if he's healthy and still wants to start and there's an opening, then okay fine, make him a starter. But reason number two has to do with what we saw here today, which is the lack of elite arms in relief roles. There's Munoz and that's basically it. Maybe Brash. The others are good, but not elite. But Hancock has frontline starter upside. I think you put that in the bullpen with Munoz and you start shortening games in a way we've not seen yet with this version of the Seattle Mariners.

Hopefully Sadler comes back in form. Isaiah Campbell could be a force in the bullpen next year. If brash stays in the bullpen, he should be 1B to Munoz 1A. Seawald should be the 4th or 5th option.

[ice99]

Why? Ray is a HR pitching machine....I don't get it.

Yes, that was bad. Ray has given up the most HRs on the staff. At least have him pitch only when they are in TMobile.

[GL_Storm]

Here's where Sewald went wrong. It's his second batter, so you can't pull him after this AB, but obviously he has no command here. The basic Sewald playbook is fastballs up - sliders down, but you see the first pitch was a slider and he couldn't get it near the plate. Probably should have tried again, but instead Cal calls fastball, probably to make sure the count doesn't go out of control, and that seems to work. Sewald's 4-seamer is fairly high spin and moves both down and in to a right-handed batter so these fastballs in the middle of the plate aren't the end of the world exactly. But pitch number 6 is another slider and is just too far in off the plate to get a swing. Now the count is 3-2 and here comes pitch #7, a fastball middle-in that gets fouled off and then Sewald hits the rookie.

But then he got Altuve out so you've got two outs with a runner on, which is a manageable situation. In my view, since Altuve was his third batter, SS should have pulled Sewald at that point and brought in a fresh arm to pitch to Pena. I had a similar thought about Sewald's bad inning the other day vs. Toronto. It's not so much that he was terrible, but that he was just left out there too long when he was clearly struggling. The rule is 3 batters. That DOES NOT mean the reliever has to complete the inning.

[Juliooooo]

Here's where Sewald went wrong. It's his second batter, so you can't pull him after this AB, but obviously he has no command here. The basic Sewald playbook is fastballs up - sliders down, but you see the first pitch was a slider and he couldn't get it near the plate. Probably should have tried again, but instead Cal calls fastball, probably to make sure the count doesn't go out of control, and that seems to work. Sewald's 4-seamer is fairly high spin and moves both down and in to a right-handed batter so these fastballs in the middle of the plate aren't the end of the world exactly. But pitch number 6 is another slider and is just too far in off the plate to get a swing. Now the count is 3-2 and here comes pitch #7, a fastball middle-in that gets fouled off and then Sewald hits the rookie.

But then he got Altuve out so you've got two outs with a runner on, which is a manageable situation. In my view, since Altuve was his third batter, SS should have pulled Sewald at that point and brought in a fresh arm to pitch to Pena. I had a similar thought about Sewald's bad inning the other day vs. Toronto. It's not so much that he was terrible, but that he was just left out there too long when he was clearly struggling. The rule is 3 batters. That DOES NOT mean the reliever has to complete the inning.

If you have a 2 run lead in the 9th, give up a HR before you give up a walk. DO NOT PUT THE TYING RUN TO BAT FOR FREE!!!! That just pissed me off to no end. Make him hit the fucking ball.

[GL_Storm]

Haven't gotten much traction on this, but a few times throughout the season I've mentioned that I thought they should steer Emerson Hancock towards the bullpen. There are two basic reasons for this. The first reason is his injury history. Maybe he'll be healthy from now on, but I kind of doubt it and so I think a couple years in the bullpen makes sense and then if he's healthy and still wants to start and there's an opening, then okay fine, make him a starter. But reason number two has to do with what we saw here today, which is the lack of elite arms in relief roles. There's Munoz and that's basically it. Maybe Brash. The others are good, but not elite. But Hancock has frontline starter upside. I think you put that in the bullpen with Munoz and you start shortening games in a way we've not seen yet with this version of the Seattle Mariners.

Hopefully Sadler comes back in form. Isaiah Campbell could be a force in the bullpen next year. If brash stays in the bullpen, he should be 1B to Munoz 1A. Seawald should be the 4th or 5th option.

Brash has to get better though. His command is terrible, even for the bullpen, and if he can't get better then I see him as more of an early option to put out the fire. But I really wouldn't be shocked if Hancock could step right in and dominate in the eighth and ninth.

Another option would be to bring Edwin Diaz home, but that sounds like a fantasy to me.

[huskyduck]

I’d rather have Bobby Ayala come out of retirement than use Ray again in a crucial situation this series.

[GL_Storm]

I’d rather have Bobby Ayala come out of retirement than use Ray again in a crucial situation this series.

I just don't understand why he threw fastballs to one of the best pure hitters in the game. I mean, at least throw a fucking slider since that's supposed to be your signature pitch that helped you win the Cy Young.