Damn you Ray!!!

[FrodosFinger]

You’ve been a huge disappointment after winning the Cy Young and signing a huge deal you got lit up again punk. Why?

 

[hawkfan68]

He shouldn't have been out there in the first place. Terrible decision by Servais.

 

[Chapow]

Absolutely baffling decision to put Ray in the game there.

Having said that, it felt like it was coming no matter who was pitching.

 

[Rainger]

True but the reason he was even out there was because of one of the worst management decisions in baseball history.

Loss totally on Scott Servais

That decision to bring in Ray who had given up home runs in the second game to the Jays was a monumental F up. BRING THE DAMN CLOSER YOU MORON!!! omg that one stupid decision could now lead to the Mariners not getting past the Astros. The Astros have the M's number and the M's could have been...

www.seahawks.net

 

[Hawk-Lock]

Sewald walking the #9 pinch hitter was even worst. Honestly, should never have even gotten to the situation where we had to use Ray.

I think people are being a little too harsh on him. He faced one batter, arguably a top 5 hitter in MLB. And Alvarez won. Sewald faced the 100000th best hitter in baseball and walked him. And then continued to hang pitches that allowed Alvarez to get a chance to win the game.

 

[Chapow]

Sewald walking the #9 pinch hitter was even worst. Honestly, should never have even gotten to the situation where we had to use Ray.

I think people are being a little too harsh on him. He faced one batter, arguably a top 5 hitter in MLB. And Alvarez won. Sewald faced the 100000th best hitter in baseball and walked him. And then continued to hang pitches that allowed Alvarez to get a chance to win the game.

Yep. This 100%.

And no one's even mentioned Munoz giving up half of our lead in the 8th, which also contributed significantly to the loss.

 

[Rainger]

From CBS sports:

Reasons to not bring in Ray​

1. He is a starter. Starting pitchers are used to longer, more drawn-out warmups. All players are creatures of habit anyway, so it's always risky to bring a starter in relief. Some handle it well, but you never know until you try it. Ray has only appeared in relief four times in his entire career, with three of them coming his rookie year in 2014 and one coming in 2020. That's it.

2. He gives up lots of home runs. Ray finished second in the AL in home runs allowed this season with 32. Even last year, when he won the Cy Young, he was fourth with 33 allowed. Alvarez is one of the best power hitters in baseball and exactly one play beats you: A home run.


3. He hasn't thrown well lately. Ray had a 5.27 ERA with eight home runs allowed in 27 1/3 innings in his last five regular-season starts. He then coughed up four runs on six hits, including two home runs, in three innings in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series.

4. The Astros have owned him. Ray made three starts against the Astros this season. He gave up 23 hits and 13 earned runs in 10 2/3 innings (10.97 ERA, 2.81 WHIP). Astros hitters slashed .442/.509/.865 against him. Small sample? I guess. Nothing really lines up as encouraging here, though.

5. He's a fastball guy. Ray throws fastballs nearly 40 percent of the time. That's his most frequent offering. Alvarez was the second-most valuable hitter against fastballs this season (behind Judge, unsurprisingly), hitting .355 with a .752 slugging against the heater. The homer came on a sinker, but I'm just talking about the thought process to bring Ray in.


Just on the surface, I've got five pretty good reasons to not use Ray when there was one reason -- albeit a flimsy one -- to use him. It was a no-brainer to avoid pulling the trigger on the move.

"We talked about it coming into the series," Mariners manager Scott Servais said after the game. "We talked about it pregame today. I looked at it in the seventh inning and said, 'hey, this could happen.' So that was the plan going in. End of the day, you have a plan, we still got to execute it."

It's true. It was the plan and they needed to execute the plan better. But it's also pretty easy to argue it was a bad plan.

 

[Crizilla]

I don't know is it the analytics that are suggesting managers pull their starters out at 80 something pitches with big leads? But yeah having Ray in your game plan for this game made no sense whatsoever I'm still dumbfounded by this.

 

[ivotuk]

What did I do? ]

Ohh...THAT Ray...

 

[Ruminator]

Oooh yeah, 8.10 ERA! How lucky the Ms are to have this former Cy Young winner! Thought I'd extend the celebration of his first 2023 start by bumping this thread from last October to bring back fond memories.



But seriously, it's a foregone conclusion that we're all going to have pretty low expectations of a W whenever Ray starts. At least until (and if ever) he remembers how to pitch like a bona fide starting major league pitcher.

 

[cymatica]

How many times did his pitches land at least a foot off the plate last night?

 

[FrodosFinger]

Dude gets lit up every time I watch him pitch. Might need to replace him in the rotation with Flexen

 

[nwHawk]

He needs to build up confidence again. We paid for Cy Young resume to provide credibility and situational experience to the young bucks. I think he will rebound.

 

[FrodosFinger]

He needs to build up confidence again. We paid for Cy Young resume to provide credibility and situational experience to the young bucks. I think he will rebound.

His velocity went down a good 4 mph since Toronto

 

[nwHawk]

It was back up during spring training. He’s on the 15-day IL now, so you may get Flex.