What Day Is It? Depends on Who You Ask

Today is Father’s Day. It’s the longest day of the year. It’s the day after the Mariners decided to make every day Edgar Martinez Day for their hitters, and Jose Tabata decided it would be cool to break up a perfect game by sticking his elbow in front of a pitch.

 

Portland:  L, 3 – 8.  .200  .333  .375;  0 ip ,  0 er.  So today is the official beginning of summer. It’s the longest day of the year.  The Rosebuds must think every day is a long day. Maybe as long as Melanie’s was yesterday.  She got up at 5:45 a.m. Her run started at about 8:00 am.  She ran up Mary’s Peak, then back down and through the woods.  At about 1:30 she texted me that she was at mile 21 out of 32+ miles and would be done in about 3 hours.  At about 3:30 she called me — she had taken a wrong turn after the text and had inadvertently cut off about 3 miles. She got a ride from the race organizer back to the place where she’d gotten lost.  Her final time in her personal ultra-marathon-plus: 9:58:00.  It might have been the first time in her life that she finished dead last in a run. That’s kind of like what every day is for Portland.  Melanie had a true Rosebud Day.

Canberra:  DNP, 2 – (-1).  .361  .395  .583; 12 ip, 9 er.    Taijuan Walker pitched well enough, but Rick Porcello didn’t — 6 er in 5 ip. On the other hand, it was a fine day at the plate for the ‘Roos. The elderly A J Pierzynski led the way with a single, double and triple (!) in four plate appearances — if not exactly a Father’s Day, at least an Old Man’s Day.  Close enough.

Kaline:  W, 7 – 4.  .333   .396   .571;  1.3 ip, 0 er.  No one has suffered more from Marinitis than the Drive — well, no one other than the Mariners themselves, I suppose.  So when the M’s “reassigned” hitting coach Howard Johnson to an unspecified location in the minor leagues (I’m thinking maybe Siberia), that wasn’t too much of a surprise.  But when they named Edgar Martinez to replace him — well, that IS a surprise.

Edgar Martinez is my all-time favorite baseball player, just ahead of Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell, with Feliz Hernandez perhaps passing Kirk Gibson for fourth. (Don’t get me started. I have this sort of figured out well past the top 10.) I am excited to see Edgar back in baseball. But I admit I am a little skeptical that greatness can just rub off on people.  Exhibit #1: Alan Trammell’s tenure as Tigers manager.  Exhibit #2:  Kirk Gibson’s last couple of years as Diamondbacks manager.

Can every day suddenly be Edgar Martinez Day for the M’s?  Well, the Drive are sort of a shadow-Mariners team in our league.  They missed the golden .300, .400, .500 standard by one baserunner, although their two M’s batter only managed a single and two walks in 8 trips to the plate (.167, .375, .167). But the real Mariners went 7 for 31 with 5 walks and 3 homers: .226  .333  .516.   That’s one out of three on the Edgar Martinez batting line.  It was enough for a Mariners win, so we can call it 1/3 of an Edgar Martinez Day.

Flint Hill: W 2, L  (-1); 7 – (-5).  .318, .375, .523;  36.3 ip, 11 er, 2.72 ERA.  Not quite an Edgar Martinez Day, either, but indubitably a very fine day overall in downtown Flint Hill.  Tyson Ross pitched a nine-inning, 4 hit, 1 er gem that will not get much notice nation-wide for some reason.  Joc Pederson smote a blow for young people everywhere with his homer and a two walks for 4 plate appearances. It was good enough for an EFL Double Win day, always an uplifting experience.

Pittsburgh: L, 3 – 4.  .192, .344, .231; 8 ip, 4 er.  When last we saw Vance Worley, he was crashing our database with his 0 ip, 1 er, infinite ERA monthly stats.  Well, after a nearly three-week disappearance, he reappeared yesterday, and gave up another earned run, but this time over 2 innings, to shrink his June ERA by an infinite proportion, all the way down to 9.00. (Infinity minus 9 is still infinity, right, John?)  Meantime, the Alleghenys were straining to produce a Kids Day, with young Blake Swihart (age 23), Mike Trout (age 23) and Addison Russell (age 21) combining to go 4 for 7 with a double (.571, .571, .714).  Some of the luster got scratched up when young Noah Syndergaard (age 22) allowed 3 earned runs in 4 innings, even though youngest Roberto Osuna (age 20) patched some of the scratches with his a scoreless inning. Still, I’m not buying it. If this isn’t Father’s Day, it at least has to be Old Man’s Day.  Kids Day hasn’t been invented yet, and the burden of proof for new holidays is higher than the Alleghenys offered.

Peshastin : W, 4 – (-2). .250  .250  .450;  12.3 ip, 0 er.   Get this: Pears pitchers allowed 0 hits in those 12.3 ip.  What a happy happy Max Scherzer Day: his perfect game and a near perfect 3.3 innings of relief (marred only by a single walk)!! Congratulations to the Pears, and especially to Max Scherzer.

What’s that? It wasn’t a perfect game? Jose Tabata, with two strikes on him with two outs in the ninth inning, ruined it by tucking his elbow down to get hit by the pitch?  So Scherzer only got a no-hitter?

Well, of all the low-down, bush league things one can do!  This is worse than the umpire’s blown call at first that cost Armando Gallaraga his one chance at permanent glory — his no-hitter and perfect game on what should have been the last out. That was just a dumb mistake. Tabata cheated and got away with it.

Why didn’t they video review it? Well, it would have been awkward and not very classy.  So of course Tabata would never understand the decision not to review it. If I had Tabata on my team yesterday, I wouldn’t today.  Now  Max Scherzer Day will always have this shadow counterpart, Tabata’s Elbow Day.

Cottage: “L”, 5 – 3.  .226  .94  .452; 6 ip, 2 er.  Last time we saw Nathan Eovaldi he was Royal Chulking for the Corvallis Curds. Yesterday he pitched on short rest from his 2/3 inning Royal Chulk. Still toiling for the Curds, but in a city we all agree is a little gem tucked in near Mary’s Peak, Eovaldi had a little Personal Redemption Day: 6 ip, 2 er.  Enough to earn a call-up to the big league team? We’ll see.

Haviland: W, 6 – 3.   .250  .372  .361;  7 ip,  2 er.  A nice win for the Dragons, cutting 0.7 games off their distance from first place. There were no outstanding performances, just a lot of people doing their jobs.  How fitting for a Father’s Day — a Jobs Well Done Day.

Old Detroit: L, 4 – 7.  .229  .309   .333;  20.7 ip, 12 er. Yikes. What wretched pitching!  Kluber, Liriano and DeSclafani all stank a little.  The lone bright spot — Erasmo Ramirez — left with a groin strain after only 3 scoreless innings.  And the hitting wasn’t really any better. For, what, the fourth day in a row the Wolverines have been unworthy of first place or anything near it.

But I am still tempted to proclaim a Manny Machado Day.  Amid the Old Detroit ruins, Machado went 3 for 5 with two doubles. For June he’s now .364, .410, .636, almost matching the resurgent Giancarlo Stanton (.345, .405, .833) his yoke-mate in the increasingly difficult task of keeping the Wolverines ahead of their predators.

I’ll hold off for now on my Manny Machado Day proclamation, not wanting to jinx him, and merely note that yesterday was another in a nice string of Edgar Martinez Days for Manny Machado.