Seattle Mariners: Making National League Baseball More Exciting

That was some Thursday night.

(Be you warned, for here there be .gif[s])

Consecutive events near the end of yesterday's Marlins/Phillies nightcap:

-M. Stanton lined out to left
-J. Lopez homered to left off C. Lee

Raul Ibanez's diving catch made for the second out in the top of the ninth of a 1-0 game. Cliff Lee then faced Jose Lopez and got ahead 0-2 before putting a pitch in literally the one place that Jose Lopez can handle. (But not the one place that Jose Lopez thinks he can handle, as Jose Lopez thinks he can handle everything.)

Lee was thus prevented from picking up his seventh complete game shutout of the season, which would've been the most in baseball since Tim Belcher had eight in 1989. Still, he does have six. The Cubs, Reds and Indians haven't even held the opponent scoreless six times. In case you thought Cliff Lee was really good a year ago, this year he's boosted his strikeout rate from 22% to 26%. He has a slightly higher strikeout rate than Brandon Morrow. Or, if you prefer, he has a slightly lower strikeout rate than Carlos Pena.

For those of you who're feeling nostalgic, Ibanez's UZR is currently hanging out at -18.3. As for Lopez, he slugged .288 with the Rockies, got dropped, got added, and has slugged .543 with the Marlins. Overall, he has a batting line of .230/.257/.396. Miguel Olivo has a batting line of .224/.255/.387. Wild.