Dodging Bullets, Part 2

By Patrick

Winning is fun

Nicely done boys. The onus was on the Mariners Friday to prove that they can continue to score runs off of their torrent rod trip. They showed no such thing last night, scoring just one run. However, not only did they not allow a run, they sent six pitchers to the hill to combine for a no-hitter, the tenth of that sort in the history of baseball. 

Since I already prattled on about the no hitter this morning, I'll just say that the hitting disappointed greatly in its return to Safeco. They didn't need to do much, and they pretty much did the minimum. Sure, the Mariners had eight hits, but they didn't do anything that remotely resembled scoring outside of the seventh inning. They need to do better tonight, and they face a very steep challenge to do so.

June 9: Jason Vargas (7-4, 3.64) vs. Clayton Kershaw (4-3, 2.55)

Show me this matchup last season, and I'd laugh in your face and take Kershaw in a heart beat. That's not surprising, since he's the defending National League Cy Young award winner. That being said, Vargas took out a similarly dominant Cole Hamels last year in an inter league pitchers duel and has vastly improved since last season. So maybe this game will be closer than the experts think. It's hard to say whether it's good or bad for Vargas that the Dodgers didn't have a hit last night. With a struggling young team, you would argue that the wind has come out of their sails and they will struggle for the rest of the series at the plate. But the Dodgers, while certainly young, boast the MLB's best record. So the terrible outing last night should motivate them more than discourage them. That's why this game worries me for the Mariners. Oh, and Kershaw too. Yikes. The M's better have their hitting shoes on tonight.

Players to watch:

Justin Smoak: Smoak is slipping again. In his last five games, he has one hit. This is bad news. His strong run of form in Texas and Chicago appears to be coming to an end, so he'll have to start hitting soon before he's mired in yet another slump. Unfortunately, Kershaw's pitching. So that won't necessarily help him very much. But if he can hit Kershaw, that would probably help his confidence a lot. Big game for Justin tonight.

Andre Ethier: The deadly left-handed hitter leads the NL in RBIs with 48, but like the rest of his teammates, he was held in check last night. Charlie Furbush absolutely wrecked him in the seventh with a slider, and Kevin Millwood struck him out as well. It's interesting that the Mariners handled him so well having never faced him before. That bodes well for today, since Vargas will need to bring his A game with his left-handed off-speed stuff.

Prediction:

Dodgers 3, M's 1: But Patrick, they threw a no hitter yesterday! How can they lose? Here's how. vargas has morphed nicely into a consistent six to seven innings two to four runs guy, and that's good. So maybe he succeeds and gives up two runs. The Mariner still have to score on Kershaw. They couldn't score on Nathan Eovaldi last night. Eovaldi has nine career starts. Kershaw has a Cy Young. The m's will struggle again, and this time, the Dodgers will be out to prove something and pull this one out late. Maybe Shawn Kelley comes in and blows it so he can head off to AAA. Go Mariners (Furbush voice).