I can't believe it's gotten to the point where I actually feel bad for John McLaren. Not that he isn't still a lousy manager who doesn't deserve his job, but to have to watch this every day without being able to do anything to change it (short of bringing in JJ for middle relief) has got to be heartbreaking. I should know, I'm doing it too. Except unlike John, I don't get to take my anger out on asshole umpires.
Everything - everything - is going wrong. Just look at the game tonight. Kenji Johjima makes the best slide of the season and busts up his wrist in the process, while the A's score the eventual winning run on a jam-shot blooper. It seems like the whole bullpen's melting down, as evidenced by Sean Green's seven runs and 14 hits allowed over his last 6.2 innings, but over that span he has a 4.33 GB/FB ratio, a strikeout an inning, and an average line drive rate. Don't get me wrong; the team is playing poorly. You don't lose 15 of 17 games without being awful. But the whole thing has just been compounded by bad break after bad break, be it a blown call, a lucky hit, or a blown call. You keep thinking to yourself "okay, it couldn't possibly go on forever," yet every single day there's something new that leaves us royally fucked.
Our season unofficially ended in New York, and officially ended in Detroit. We came to terms with that. So for this to continue even beyond the point of formal surrender is more than a little excessive. Tomorrow morning as you drive to work, school, the gym, or wherever you're going, if you see a dog on the sidewalk, I implore you to swerve and run it over. It might be somebody's innocent pet, but it might also be Scrappy. As a Mariner fan, that's just the chance you'll have to take, because it's high time for something radical to be done. This needs to stop, by any means necessary.
Biggest Contribution: Kenji Johjima, +32.5%
Biggest Suckfest: Sean Green, -31.5%
Most Important AB: Johjima single, +17.3%
Most Important Pitch: Piazza single, -25.1%
Total Contribution by Pitcher(s): -55.1%
Total Contribution by Hitters: -14.1%
Total Contribution by Opposition: +19.2%
In the last two games, Ryan Feierabend and Jorge Campillo have thrown 8.1 innings of shutout relief. Horacio Ramirez will make his next start.