Ryan Rowland-Smith had a fantastic outing today for the Mariners, showing real versatility and calm under pressure. The M's starter Jarrod Washburn took another caning today against the Tigers, giving up 12 hits and 9 runs over 2.1 innings of work. The Tigers were living up to their reputation and leading 9-1 in the bottom of the third. Seattle needed someone to come in and settle things down a bit, and they turned to Rowland-Smith to steady the ship just a day after another successful performance against the Tigers.
Today was more of the same for Rowland-Smith. It was a suberb performance. He came into the third inning, with the Mariners having already scored 7 runs that dig, and with Pudge Rodriguez standing on first, with one out. Rowland-Smith faced 8 hitters over his 2.2 innings of work (that is, he gave up no hits and no walks, and retired every one of them). That is a quality effort. The Tigers, while they havent lived up to the hype so far this year, boast a high quality lineup. These are the hitters he retired:
- Placido Polanco flew out to CF on a 2-2 fastball
- Gary Sheffield struck out swinging at a 2-2 changeup
- Magglio Ordonez flew out to right on a 2-2 fastball
- Miguel Cabrera grounded out to short on a first pitch changeup
- Carlos Guillen popped out to catcher on a 0-2 curveball
- Marcus Thames grounded out to short on a 1-2 fastball
- Edgar Renteria grounded out to third on a 3-1 fastball
- Brandon Inge struck out swinging at a 2-2 changeup
Those are 8 pretty quality hitters. When you consider that he retired the side yesterday in his one inning of work, that shows he must be doing something right at the moment. There is little doubt that he is the most successful active Aussie MLB player at present. In the last week he has posted a 0.00 ERA, pitched 5 innings, giving up 2 hits, 1 walk and three strikeouts. These steady numbers will do him good, particular in a club where the pitching has been a bit erratic this year. Hopefully he can keep it up.
Huber's future uncertain?
While there is no specific word on Huber himself, Padres GM Kevin Towers has flagged that there could be 'wholesale changes' at the club this week. This news comes on after Padres ace Jake Peavy went on the 15-day DL with an elbow problem; the second arm in their rotation Chris Young got smacked in the face by an Albert Pujols line drive, breaking his nose, and; starting catcher Josh Bard went on the 15-day DL with an ankle injury after some contact by ....Albert Pujols. Peavy has been replaced, Young will probably need replacing, and Bard is likely to be replaced by Michael Barrett, who is himself coming off the DL. Towers feels the Padres have underperformed, and it is hard to argue with this while looking at a 17-31 record. As such, he may take the chance to shake things up a bit.
YahooSports noted the other day that the three leftfielders employed by the Padres this year, Justin Huber, Scott Hairston and Paul McAnulty have combined to hit .199 (32-for-161) with four homers and 10 RBIs. Those are pretty appalling numbers. Personally I think it is a bit harsh to lump Huber with a lot of blame here. The guy has only had a handful of starts, and they have been a bit ad hoc. He hasnt played since 17 May though, so I wonder where he sits in the Padres plans. Top Padres prospect Chase Headley - who has converted from third base to left field - has hit quite well in AAA this season, batting .297 over 43 games, with 8 homers and 21 RBIs. We will have to wait and see what is in store, but I would hope that Huber would get some more opportunities before being dropped.
Snelling's knee recovering
Chris Snelling, who has been on the DL for over a month, is showing signs of recovery. Apparently he has taken some batting practice, and will play DH in an extended spring game (whatever the heck that is) on Saturday. Not clear yet whether he will stay in the bigs, but he would have to be a big chance to be assigned back to AAA, with Shane Victorino and the other members of the Phillies outfield back on deck.
For a bit of a laugh...
check out this article about how the brouhaha between Ryan Rowland-Smith and Ramon Vazquez started.
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