Game Day - April 1st - Watchin’ Out West
Cleveland Guardians @ Seattle Mariners
Can the Guardians keep their offense rolling in tonight’s game? Can the Mariners find some bats in this game?
The answer to both opening questions was no and I’m underwhelmed by both these teams to start the season. The flickers of offensive hope are few and far between for both teams. There were eight hits total in this game and watching the whole thing felt like a wet rag of offense rather than a pitcher’s duel. After the opening game where the starters looked like they were in control, the rest of the series, outside of Cleveland in game two has been an offensive dud. Cleveland, on the back of game two, gets a pass. They really looked dangerous in the second game of the series. I’ve seen it, I know the offense in there, here is your room to figure it out. The Mariners on the other hand are on notice that they’re past a blip and a trend, they are on three games in a row of weak bats, which makes a streak. A streak of the bad varietal.
I would like to know who is going to dig the Mariners out of their offensive slump. Rodriquez and France are the most likely candidates. For Cleveland, I want to see the bats find a rhythm as they had in the second game. If the Guardians have another poor offensive showing but win the game, I would be less ruffled because wins are wins. Cleveland, by virtue of their wins, has earned some time to sort it out. Seattle on the other hand would be 2 games under 500 early and have no positives to point to going in to their next series.
Arizona Diamondbacks @ Los Angeles Dodgers
Over as soon as it started?
The Dodger bats showed up in the first inning. A sac fly got the festivities started and Trayce Thompson hit a grand slam. The score was 5-0 Dodgers after the first. Arizona added a run in the top of the second but after the lead-off home run, the D-Backs followed with three strikeouts.
Is this game effectively over?
I’ve not seen anything in two games that suggests the Diamondbacks will score more than 5 runs this game. Nothing in the first two innings suggests there are more than 3 runs in the Arizona lineup.
As this game seems to be over, I will be focusing on the questions from the last game. What are Muncy and Martinez doing in this game? They are freed up to relax and trust the process. Kershaw is on the mound and I will trust his career era performance will keep the Diamondback held off while the slower Dodger bats take the chance to get going.
Well, I may have been done with the game, and rightfully so, the Dodgers won 10-1. Trayce Thompson went off and hit three home runs for right rbi. I’m going to be that guy and point out that without Thompson’s performance, the Dodgers had 2 runs on 5 hits. The Diamondback had 1 run on 5 hits. A win is a win and concentrated offense is still offense. However, I’m not put at ease by this win or the performance to date. The good news is that the Dodgers have their first ten games against the bottom half of the NL West to get things sorted out.
We asked what Muncy and Martinez are doing and Martinez had a good game. I’m going to jump on this early because I want to see how this moves over the next few weeks. I’m starting a 3/4 Martinez/Muncy tracker and here are the rules. As long as they are in the 3 & 4 spot of the line up, I want to know if they are really slowing down the offense. I’m going to track hits, strikeouts, walks, rbi, and game scores. To be clear, I think they deserve time to get going, but not in the 3 & 4 spot.
-Muncy/Martinez Tracker: 24 AB 4 Hits 2 RBI 1 BB 12 K .167 AVG .231 OBP WPA Pos/Neg 2/4 games
