Game 151: Mariners 12, Indians 6 (7 Innings)

by Ryan on Sep 19, 2011 8:11 PM EDT in Game Recaps

A pitcher is going throw up a clunker from time to time, but this one takes the cake. Against the worst-hitting team in the AL, here was David Huff's line:

2.2 IP, 7 H, 9 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 1 SO

That's about as bad as it gets. The Mariners coming into the game were hitting just .213/.269/.330 in the month of September, so this wasn't a case of Huff facing a hot team. In fact, the Mariners had scored 47 runs in the first 18 days of the month total (or 2.7 runs per game played).

And to think that two starts ago we were penciling Huff into next year's starting rotation.

Huff was around for seven of the nine runs to score, and was pulled with two outs in the third inning. In came Chad Durbin, who walked the first batter he saw, then gave up a tape-measure home run to Mike Carp. The ball landed in the second deck (not what used to be called Pronkville), and estimated as going 455 feet, certainly one of the longest home runs in stadium history.

Thankfully, the game didn't go the full nine innings, as the rain that fallen throughout the contest finally necessitated the tarp being brought out in the seventh. A short time later, the game was mercifully called.

One bright spot was Carlos Santana, who broke the franchise season record for home runs by a switch-hitter with a solo homer in the first. Asdrubal Cabrera, who has really faded in September, hit his 23rd home run of the season in the first inning as well.

20110919_mariners_indians_0_20110919182119_lbig__medium

via www.fangraphs.com

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
Cabrera	.232	Huff	-.620
Santana	.089	Durbin	-.141
Donald	.051	Fukudome	-.045

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And to think that two starts ago we were penciling Huff into next year’s starting rotation.

I think people who were believing this need to start looking at the pitcher’s peripherals. Two week’s ago Huff’s HR/9 was screaming for regression. People wanted to see Cliff Lee.

The same was said for Josh Tomlin’s first ten start performance and remainder of the season performance. Here it was Greg Maddux.

The peripherals for neither of these pitchers supported either comparison.

by hans on Sep 19, 2011 9:46 PM EDT reply actions

Well, that happened.

by emd2k3 on Sep 19, 2011 9:58 PM EDT reply actions

This, too, is the baseball.

Il faut d'abord durer.

by CU Adam on Sep 20, 2011 2:29 AM EDT up reply actions

For anyone who gets WGN on their cable system, the 1pm game tomorrow will be broadcast there.

by Jay on Sep 19, 2011 10:26 PM EDT reply actions

Not too surprisingly, the stuff Huff had a few starts ago is nowhere to be found now. He’s just been rolling his curveball up there the past couple of starts. Not sure where that sharp-breaking curve went. Along with that pop on the fastball.

He clearly was a different guy there for a few starts. With that stuff, he’s a major league starter. But I guess his history suggested that his ability to maintain that ongoing has never really been there.

by TribeJay on Sep 19, 2011 10:34 PM EDT reply actions

AAA championship (Columbus vs Omaha at Albuquerque) on Versus Tuesday night.

by palcal on Sep 19, 2011 11:00 PM EDT reply actions

Santana is tied for the team single-season HR record by a catcher, right? John Romano is a name I couldn’t have told you until I saw it on B-R just now.

by cleveland teamer on Sep 20, 2011 6:00 AM EDT reply actions

No, because he hit many of his home runs this season as a first baseman.

by Ryan on Sep 20, 2011 8:04 AM EDT up reply actions

17 homers as a catcher and 9 as a first baseman, to be precise.

by YoDaddyWags on Sep 20, 2011 8:28 AM EDT up reply actions

I’m glad to see all the love that Shelley’s getting around here lately. For next up on the underrated contributer hype machine, I’ll nominate Jason Donald. I was a little disappointed to find that his advanced stats may point towards his dummy stats being artificially inflated a bit, but nonetheless, there are still some encouraging indicators.

His .388 BABIP, while obviously due to regress, may not fall quite as hard going forward as we think. He carried a pretty consistently high BABIP throughout his time in the high minors, and his impressive LD% this year is further evidence that he’s just plain hitting the ball well.

His walk rate has halved from last season all the way down to OCab levels at 3.4%, but overall he’s actually gotten more selective this year, swinging at fewer pitches overall and since most of the drop in Swing% has come from O-swing%, it seems like he’s done a good job choosing which pitches to lay off.

To me, best of all is his continued mashing of LHP. Although its only been 138 career PA against them, he’s carrying an OPS of .898 and ISO of .164. He’s doesn’t really qualify as a prospect anymore having turned 27 earlier this month, and if we were talking about him as an everyday player next year I’d probably be a lot more critical, but his adequacy at all 3 Util positions defensively plus his numbers v. LHP make me very optimistic about his role as utility guy for the next few years behind an IF that includes Kipnis and Chisenhall.

by TKilbane on Sep 20, 2011 2:40 PM EDT reply actions