Thursday, August 20, 2020

Taijuan Ends Losing Skid

At the beginning of Wednesday nights game
in Seattle against the LA Dodgers not only 
did it not look as though Taijuan Walker 
would win the game he would be lucky to
go four innings.

Before the second inning was over where
Walker had given up two runs on homers
he had thrown fifty pitches. I thought no
way he is going to stick around.to get the
victory, however, it was nice to know I
was wrong. 

On his post game conference he said he
wouldn't have stuck around either unless
changing the game plan of pitches to throw.
He and catcher Austin Nola realized the
Dodgers were looking and hitting his 
fastball so they decided to go the rest of
the way with off-speed pitches which 
turned out to be the answer.

Offensively Nola had the answer to hitting
a three-run homer in the bottom of the third.
This put the Mariners up never trailing again
with final score 6-4.

The only other scoring after that Dylan Moore
hit his fifth homer of the season to tie Kyle
Lewis for the team lead in homers.

Taijuan Walker ended up going seven innings 
giving up three runs on four hits, one walk 
and striking out eight.

The Dodgers took out their starter Julio  Urias
in the second inning. throwing 53 pitches, four
hits and one run. You could say the Dodgers
didn't want to see anymore of Urias. 

It wasn't a great decision as his replacement 
Dennis Santana gave up four runs including
the homer to Nola.  

The Mariners are expected to have Yusei
Kikuchi on the mound Thursday afternoon
in the final game against the Dodgers Kikuchi
missed his last outing because of neck spasms.
We are hoping he is healthy and learn from 
Walker's performance.

It wouldn't be easy for the Mariners offense
as the Dodgers will be starting Clayton Kershaw.
As you can imagine it could be a long day for
the Mariners offense.

News came out the Mariners decided to designate
Daniel Vogelbach for assignment. He was not
cutting it offensively hitting below .100. A good
guy in the clubhouse but the Mariners needed him
to hit.

The Mariners sent Art Warren back to training site.
Warren was on the taxi squad on the last road trip 
was activated in the last game when Mallex Smith
was optioned to the training site.

The Mariners brought up Braden Bishop who started
in right field and utility player Sam Haggerty who
played in left field got his first major league hit in
the game too.

First baseman Evan White was hurt when a ball hit
him after a swing. X-rays were negative however he
may miss the next couple games. Dylan Moore moved
from second base to first. He likely will be at first 
base while White is out.

Tim Lopes started at dh, however, with Vogelbach no
longer on the team the Mariners will use several players
there. Probably see Kyle Lewis and Kyle Seager at dh
when given the day off in the field. This will probably
go with some other players. Austin Nola will probably
dh when he isn't catching. 

The trading deadline ends on August 31 so we could
see a trade or two or more though the Mariners don't
have a lot of value to trade at this time. 

It would be interesting to see if Kyle Seager maybe 
moved since he has gotten off to a great start. It is
probably the best start since he has been a Mariner.
If Seager is traded I wouldn't be surprised if Dylan
Moore becomes the everyday third baseman. Stay tuned!

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