Thursday, June 16, 2005

Game 63 Mariners 5 Phillies 1

Who is this guy? Aaron Sele has been incredible lately and I really can’t see why. Over his past 5 starts including last nights gem Sele is 4-1 and only gave up more than 2 runs once in the loss to Tampa Bay. He simply has been incredible! Last night he baffled the vigorous Phillies with cut fast balls and snapping curve balls. He seems to work almost better with a man on base. Sele, in he new found resurgence, is able to induce double play balls almost upon command. It’s uncanny to see this unfold during the game once, twice, three times, and sometimes a fourth to close out his night. Last night he only needed one double play but of course it seemed like he planned it.

Sele downplays his performance but numbers don’t lie. Did you all know that in interleague play there is only one man that can call himself Sele’s Equal? That’s correct, Sele is a gaudy 18-7 in his career in interleague play. That’s inconceivable. Greg Maddox is the only man that can call himself Sele’s equal in interleague play. Greg "Hall of Fame bound" Maddox is Sele’s equal.

In last nights game Sele allowed 8 hits and 1 run over 6 innings of work. That one run came in the first inning. Sele gave up a leadoff single to Jimmy "I’m not worth 40 million dollars" Rollins who in turn stole second. Rollins eventually Scored on a Bobby Abreu single. After that Sele shut the Phillies down over the next 5 innings. 7 of the 8 hits were singles and the loan double belonged to Chase Utley in the top of the 6th inning.

Ichiro and Winn powered the Mariners to an early lead with two deep home runs, considering the sources. This lead was never relinquished. Aside from Sele the other major story from last nights game has to be the play of this blog’s boy Mike Morse!! Who said this guy can’t hit? I know his numbers in the minors said he couldn’t, but ether something clicked in or he was just trying to hard. Morse looks comfortable at the plate, comfortable and confident. He looks like a hitter feels like a hitter, and as of his call up is a hitter. Morse is only knocking the ball around at a cool crisp .395, which is 15-38 since his call up.

While it is obvious that he can’t keep this pace up it is great to see him play so well. Last night he belted his first major league homerun a rising line drive out of left field. Morse must not have wanted to enjoy it too much though because he ran that homerun out like it was an inside the park shot. I think as the trade deadline approaches the Mariners should trade Boone and bring up Lopez, lets really get into the middle infield of the future.
While we got swept in DC I think that was a case of a hot team running into a scorching team.

The Mariners are back to winning another series. That’s what it’s all about. Hopefully Joel can follow in the success of the first two games of this series.

2 comments:

  1. Seriously, what the hell is up with Aaron Sele?

    Trav this sentence was a mouthful:
    "He looks like a hitter feels like a hitter, and as of his call up is a hitter", yet for some reason I fully understood it. That's the beauty of baseball jargon.

    There may be more talented SS options in the M's system (Tui, Jones), but there is something about Morse that you can't help liking. He seems to have that "I'm just happy to be here, I'll do whatever skip needs me to do" attitude, and is able to shake off his growing pains.

    The perfect example is this-In the Washington series he made a nice play in the hole with a man on third and two outs. But he rushed himself and couldn't get the ball out of his glove. Run scores. The next night, the exact same situation, and he makes the play. Granted, he made an error in every game of that series, and there is nothing "measurable" about that, but there is something to be said for growth like that.

    Keep sending Mikey Morse out there, he's a fun guy to watch.

    I am a fan of the sabermetrics movement, but there are certain intangibles that make baseball great as well. OK that's enough, a couple beers in my has me rambling

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  2. Wow, I hardly ever think of Freddy Garcia anymore. I realize I hadn't thought about Garcia in almost a month when I noticed the ESPNews Ticker telling me he was starting against the Dodgers. Sure there are times we could use a guys like him, especially the way our starting pitching started off the season. Just the same, I sure like what we got in return for him.

    Maybe Olivo will turn things around and get his bat back. If not, we still have a good centerfielder from that trade, plus a player who looks like he could be a very good shortstop!

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