Happy Maurer Day! Wait...no, that just doesn't have a nice ring to it at all. In any case, Brandon Maurer takes the mound today to close out the series against the Rays, and will be hoping to help the M's snag a win, or at least make it into the sixth inning without exploding.
The Mariners will get to help the cause by facing Rays RHP Jake Odorizzi, who is somewhat of a perfect case for the inefficiency using of ERA and pitcher wins as a quantifying metric. Odorizzi is 1-3 on the year, and has an ERA of 5.79 in his 32 innings pitched. On paper, heck to Hawk or something, this would be bad news. However, he's striking out 10.19 hitters per 9, and somehow has an xFIP of 3.86 while only getting 36% ground balls. Those last two numbers shouldn't work together that way.
On top of all that, he's sporting an inflated BABIP of .389 in this, his third season in the majors. So yes, it could just be that it took a hot minute for his average on balls in play to even out, but then again, he's never sported one above .300 since coming to AA in 2012. He's been worth more fWAR than Chris Young in just as many innings. With a BB/9 of 4.41, his problem is obviously control, but he still manages to put together 11-strikeout performances. All this adds up to the old familiar sixth inning cry of who the hell is (insert pitcher's name here) and why is he blanking the Mariners?
LLoyd is trotting out his typical lineup today, with Jones back in the leadoff spot and Brad back down, way down at the bottom. Mike Zunino gets the day off, and the John Buck Experience takes a...no, no no, that won't work either. I guess there is just something upsetting about players from the 2014 Seattle Mariners organization replacing the public role of another player that feels wrong. Dirty. Something like...
#Marlins lose Jose Fernandez and add Randy Wolf. Now that's a sad fish story.
— David O'Brien (@ajcbraves) May 14, 2014
Yeah, that would do it.
Game info
- Rays @ Mariners, 12:40 PM PST
- TV: ROOT, Radio 710 ESPN