Series Preview: Seattle Mariners @ Los Angeles Dodgers

Seattle: 37-35
Los Angeles: 47-26

SUMMARY

Boy our offense sure took advantage of a weak opponent. That was refreshing. Unfortunately, the pitching also let us down a bit, doubly so when you consider the opponent and venue and as far as RAA is concerned, we made up little ground. Come back, Erik. Come back, Shawn.

GAMES

Game 1: Jason Vargas* vs. Clayton Kershaw*
Game 2: Felix Hernandez vs. Eric Milton*
Game 3: Garrett Olson* vs. Hiroki Kuroda

The Dodgers make their hay against lefties. Oops. At least we miss Manny's return.

In his second Major League season, Kershaw has managed to hold onto his stats as a slightly above average pitcher. For a 21-year-old, that is a lofty achievement. The individual pitch results however hint toward adjustments still needing to be made by Kershaw to adapt to the tougher competition. He's throwing balls at a 40% rate now, a dubious percentage to try and maintain effectiveness at. His swinging strike has also dipped a bit. His ground balls are way, way down. Really, the only reason Kershaw has a tRA that looks good is his home run rate, currently at about 4%. That is unlikely to last and tRA* shows Kershaw as being below average this season.

I thought Eric Milton was out of baseball. It turns out he was. A fly ball/line drive pitcher, Milton throws strikes and misses a not embarrassing number of bats.

Hiroki Kuroda was the guy who might have saved us from Carlos Silva. Kuroda posted a 124 tRA+ last year and is at 142 so far this year. Whoops. Kuroda does a good job missing bats with his slider. He is also a rather prolific groundballer. Double whoops.

THIS SERIES BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

Mirror Pond Pale Ale
Deschutes Brewery. Bend, OR

A shout out to a good pale ale and also the beer used as the base for the Mirror Mirror barley wine, which has an exquisite nose. Also, apparently there are some great strip clubs down Portland way, so head down (or up) for a brewery tour