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I sincerely hope that if you started watching yesterday's M's game you were able to stick with it until the ninth inning. What a crazy ending! Adam Lind sure is good at getting people to emote in his general direction. It's so nice/satisfying/ridiculous when the M's manage to come away with the victory in a game they had no business winning. Tonight, with Jose Quintana on the mound for Chicago, the M's will likely need to continue channeling some of that magic they stumbled across late last night.
By fWAR, Quintana has been the third most valuable pitcher in the American League this season; he's been pretttttty good. Unfortunately, given their lefty-heavy lineup, the Mariners have struggled against southpaws this season. They have the third best wRC+ vs. RHP but just the 18th best wRC+ vs. LHP. Even with yesterday's miraculous comeback, they're currently 13-18 vs. LH SP in 2016. That's a pretty uninspiring record. With Wade Miley on the mound, it seems like they'll probably need to put up some crooked numbers to come away with the W.
Speaking of Miley... in three starts since returning from the DL, he has been far from impressive. Over that period, Miley has averaged 5.1 innings per outing while sporting an ERA north of 6.00, allowing an OPS of 0.936(!), and running a 7:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio. All of those numbers are bad, bad, bad. With talk of the M's going to a four-man rotation for the next couple of weeks, Miley's performance tonight will likely dictate his future role with the club (at least in the short term). If he lays another egg, he could end up making a few starts down at Cheney Stadium. But hopefully that doesn't happen and he remembers how to pitch like a pitcher and not like a belly-itcher. Give 'em the business, Wade.
Go M's.
Game Info
Mariners vs. White Sox, 7:10pm PDT, Safeco Field
TV: ROOT
Radio: 710 ESPN AM
Web: MLB.tv