Game of the Week: July 22: TEX @ SEA

[Commissioner Erick]

Texas Rangers (66-34) @ Seattle Mariners (71-31)


TEX: Marcus Stroman (12-5, 2.74)
SEA: Tomoyuki Sugano (11-5, 3.83)


In the American League West, being the second best team in baseball won’t be something that yields a comfortable playoff path. It may, in fact, result in a relegation to a win-or-go-home Wild Card game.

The two best teams in the PBA will face off in an AL West showdown when the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners meet for the Game of the Week.

Seattle is absolutely on fire, winning nine in a row since the All-Star Break, and 19 of 21 since late June. Seattle’s pitching staff is excellent, and while the offense isn’t special, they have the best defense in the league and the league’s home run leader in Francisco DeJesus.

Texas is very similar. They’ve taken seven of nine since the All-Star Break, and they’ve only lost one series since late May. In fact, The Rangers and Mariners-are one-two in runs allowed, and in both starter and bullpen ERA. Texas is a little bit worse offensively, and neutral defensively, but their offense may take off with the team getting healthy recently. It should lead to a fascinating matchup.

Texas welcomed Anthony Rendon, Rougned Odor, and Ender Inciarte back during the All-Star Break and the trio has mainly played well now that they’re healthy. Rendon is hitting .457 this month with five doubles while Inciarte has a solid .278 average with good defense. Only Odor has struggled, but he still has an OPS over .900 on the season. The trio has allowed players like Gabriel Guerrero, Luis Guillorme, and Luis Gonzalez to return to the minors or at least to backup roles. That should allow Texas to elevate their offense from 10th in the league.

They have the best rotation in the league though and will send Cy Young favorite Marcus Stroman to the mound. The former Mariner leads the AL in WAR, and continues to dazzle opposing bats. Hitters have a .341 slugging percentage against Stroman this year, the lowest number in his career, and he continues his excellent career limiting home runs. In fact, he’s fourth All-Time in home-runs-per-nine among starting pitchers who have pitched at least 500 innings. Stroman simply has exceptional command and exceptional grittiness, as he doesn’t give into hitters and puts his pitches where he wants them too.

Even against a lineup like Seattle’s, Stroman has done well. He worked 8 innings earlier in the year, allowing just two runs in a Rangers victory. Last year, Stroman struggled in his first two starts against Seattle, allowing 12 runs in 10.1 innings, but he settled in afterwards, allowing just three runs in three starts stretching 19.0 innings, good for a 1.42 ERA. In fact, even with the bad starts taken into account, Stroman has walked just two Mariners and struck out 38 over 37.1 innings.

That would be concerning for Seattle, but they’re sending their own horse to the mound, as only Stroman and Woo Seok Ko have thrown more innings than projected starter Tomoyuki Sugano. Sugano is sixth in WAR and second to Stroman in walk rate as he’s another arm with exceptional command. The 34-year-old also has solid home run rates. In fact, Sugano led the Nippon League Central League in home-runs per nine last year, led the league in walks-per-nine in five of his seven seasons, and led the league in WHIP in all but one season. He was a three-time ERA leader and four time wins leader, and it’s all translated in the United States. Sugano’s worked 6.1 scoreless against Texas this season leading to what should be a fantastic pitching matchup.


Questions for the GMs:


For Clayton Piper, you finally have the lineup you want after you made a few in-season signings to round out your roster. What will be the batting order against Sugano and why?

What’s your gameplan for limiting the Seattle lineup?

You recently signed Jason Heyward. What do you expect from him during the second half of the year.

For Jeff Thomas, one of your most important early acts as GM of Seattle was to trade away Marcus Stroman for Matthew Thompson, Luke Heimlich, Emir Velasquez, and Denyi Reyes. How would you grade that trade looking back on it?

Speaking of Stroman, the AL is still trying to find an effective way to produce against him. What’s your gameplan going into the game?

You recently acquired Raimel Tapia in a trade and he’s off to a nice start. Why did you deal for him?


TRIVIA: Tomoyuki Sugano is tied for the most All-Time Strikeouts in the WBC. Who is he tied with?

[marinersjeff]

For Jeff Thomas, one of your most important early acts as GM of Seattle was to trade away Marcus Stroman for Matthew Thompson, Luke Heimlich, Emir Velasquez, and Denyi Reyes. How would you grade that trade looking back on it?
That was not a great trade looking back. I had really high hopes for Thompson and Reyes. I liked Stroman at the time, but we weren't really ready to contend just yet, so i was looking at brining ins young guys who would be around for a long time . Heimlich did ok as a reliever, but none of those guys really panned out. Obviously not every trade works out, but this one looks really bad now. I'll give myself a D-, since Heimlich did pitch in the majors for a bit.


Speaking of Stroman, the AL is still trying to find an effective way to produce against him. What’s your gameplan going into the game?
I'm going to pray a lot! I think for this game, the plan/hope is to keep the game close, get to the Rangers bullpen and hope we can get to them then. Our bats have started to wake up, and hopefully they can keep it up during this series. We've got a rough stretch of games with two series against the Rangers, so this will be a very telling couple of weeks for us, and how ready are we for a playoff run.


You recently acquired Raimel Tapia in a trade and he’s off to a nice start. Why did you deal for him?
Going into the season the one weakness was the OF. I worked on finding upgrades, but didn't like a lot of the options. We had the chance to trade for Tapia and help give us the OF depth we desperately need. We've added a couple of OF options, neither will go down as blockbusters, but they give us depth and more options to help down the stretch. Plus he's signed past this year and will give me more options when we look at needs this offseason.

[Commissioner Erick]

Rangers 4 - Mariners 3


WP: M. Stroman (13-5)
LP: T. Sugano (11-6)
SV: K. Barraclough (30)


The Seattle Mariners got a superb performance from catcher Tomoya Mori, but the Texas Rangers still won the game, 4-3. Mori went 3 for 4 with a home run and 2 singles. He drove in 3 runs and scored once. Marcus Stroman, the winning pitcher, is now 13-5. He went 6 innings, allowing 3 runs on 7 hits, while fanning 3 and walking 0. Kyle Barraclough earned his 30th save in 32 chances.

Texas needed the clutch hitting of Melvin Novoa to notch the win. The catcher hammered a 3-run home run in the top of the seventh inning to put the Rangers on top, 4-3. For the game, Novoa had 1 home run and 1 single in 4 at-bats.

"We squandered some opportunities," said Seattle manager Jeff Thomas.

With the win, Texas raised its record to 67-34.


Questions for the GMs:


For Clayton Piper, Melvin Novoa has had a rough season but he had a big game and the huge home run. Why have you stuck with him this year?

Paul Goldschmidt went 1-5 with three strikeouts and has really struggled of late. Have you thought of dropping him in the rotation?

Ender Inciarte had another big day with three hits. Any thought of moving him up in the order?

For Jeff Thomas, Yordan Alvarez went 0-4 to drop his average to .120 and he doesn't have any RBIs. Are you regretting not giving him a rehab assignment?

How disappointed are you that Texas sat Francisco Mejia on the bench and you couldn't come away with a win?

Lucius Fox went 0-4 and now is hitting .239. Should he still hit atop your lineup?


TRIVIA: Who are the only two catchers of the 10 Catchers with 100 or more home runs who have not made an All-Star Game?

[Commissioner Erick]

TRIVIA 1: Franklin E. Perez

TRIVIA 2: Miguel Gomez and Austin Hedges