The Seattle Mariners He scored at the top of the first half in Game 1 of an ALDS game against the top-seeded Houston Astros. They scored three times at the top of the second and advanced 6-2 into the middle of the fourth. It was 7-3 back to 8th. It was still 7-5 with two outs in the ninth inning. However, sailors still lost.
They dominated the entire game until there were two naysayers in the ninth, even if AstrosThe star crime was fading away. The sailors still really had to win. Just look at the winning prediction chart:
It’s as steep as you’ve ever seen. Off the slope, in fact.
what happened? Well, the Astros upload offense helped. Jordan Alvarez was the second most feared hitter – after Aaron Judge – also helped. But the Mariners’ decision making was highly questionable.
Alvarez’s home run came from Robbie Ray, the primary bowler who was called up in relief just to take on Alvarez.
So why did the sailors make this decision? Let’s split things up.
Reasons to bring Ray
1. Left-handed. That’s about it. Ray, the AL Cy Young winner and AL Cy Young winner, has been harder on the left throughout his career and has carried them to the .212/.260/.387 streak this season. He only gave up four home runs to his left-footed teammates, even though he was only at 137 at bat.
If sailors really wanted the platoon advantage over Alvarez, it was Ray or Matthew Boyd. There is no other left-handed on the list. All the best Mariners painkillers in your right hand. Ray started Game 2 of the Wild Card series against the Blue Jays and continued through Tuesday.
Of course, have you ever seen Alvarez’s splits? It basically hits both sides. Here are the slashes in his career:
vs. LHP: .303/ .381/ .582
vs. RHP: .292 / .386 / .594
He’s hit the .321 against the Sothebos this season!
If you care about head-to-head history, Alvarez was 1v3 with two careers against Ray before this one. It’s a very small sample to really matter, but it wasn’t like there was a bunch of successful history out there for Ray getting into the match.
Reasons not to bring Ray
1. He is a writer. The starting pitchers are used for longer and more elongating warm-up exercises. All players are habitual creatures anyway, so it’s always dangerous to bring the initiator. Some handle it well, but you never know until you try it. Ray has appeared in relief only four times in his career, three of which came his rookie year in 2014 and one in 2020. That’s it.
2. He gives up a lot of home training. Ray finished second in the AL in the home races allowed this season with a score of 32. Until last year, when he won the Cy Young, he was fourth with a score of 33 allowed. Alvarez is one of the best hitters in baseball and exactly one game that beats you: the home run.
3. It hasn’t fare well lately. Ray had a 5.27 ERA with eight home runs allowed in 27 1/3 rounds in his last five starts of the regular season. Then he coughed four times in six hits, including two on his home ground, in three rounds in Game 2 of the Wild Card series.
4. Owned by the Astros. Ray made three games against the Astros this season. He gave up 23 hits and 13 earned throws in 10 2/3 runs (10.97 ERA, 2.81 WHIP). Astros hitters cut .442/.509/.865 against him. small sample? Think. Nothing really encouraging here, though.
5. HE’S A FAST POLL BOY. Ray throws fast balls nearly 40 percent of the time. This is his most frequent offer. Alvarez was the second most valuable hitter against fastballs this season (behind Judge, unsurprisingly), hitting .355 with a .752 hit against the heater. Homer came on a sinker, but I’m just talking about the thought process of getting Ray.
Just on the surface, I have five good reasons not to use Ray when there was only one – albeit flimsy – reason to use it. It made no sense to avoid pulling the trigger during the movement.
“We talked about her entering the series,” Mariners coach Scott Service said after the game. “We talked about it before the game today. I looked at it in the seventh inning and said, ‘Hey, that can happen.’ “So that was the plan in action. At the end of the day, you have a plan, we still have to implement it.”
it’s the truth. That was the plan and they needed to implement the plan better. But it’s also easy to say it was a bad plan.
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