Game 50, Mariners at Athletics
Robert Dugger vs. James Kaprielian, 12:37pm
Yesterday’s win was an impressive one. Logan Gilbert pitcher around a rough inning, limiting the damage, and turned the game over to a bullpen that did a remarkably good job. The offense did just enough, and was led by Jarred Kelenic. It all added up to a series win against the AL West leaders in their own ballpark. The M’s aren’t yet good, but they’ve done some good things – won some big series – this year.
Today’s getaway day looks like it’ll be a bullpen game for Seattle, with Robert Dugger getting the start. Dugger, the one-time M’s draft pick turned Florida Marlin (what is it with Dipoto trading so frequently with the Florida teams?) turned Mariner, pitches off of his breaking stuff – a mid-70s curve and a slider around 80-81. After having control issues in his first call-up back in 2019, he’s improved markedly in that regard. Unfortunately, he hasn’t yet fixed the HR problems that have plagued him, despite adding a few ticks in velocity.
Opposing him is one-time UCLA standout and oft-injured Yankees/A’s prospect, James Kaprielian. Kaprielian missed two full years with arm injuries, and has thrown 50 innings in a season all of once since being drafted in 2015. He features a four-seam fastball at 93-94 with a bit of sink, a very rare sinker with – yes – more sink, and a really good set of secondaries: his out-pitch, a hard slider at 86, a seldom-used curve, and a fascinating change that works like a splitter. That change has exactly the same amount of horizontal run as his fastball, but it dives down remarkably hard. By statcast, it’s a pretty freakish pitch. But hey, he doesn’t use it as much as the slider. The slider’s great, don’t get me wrong. It has a higher whiff rate, and when batters make contact, it’s more likely to be on the ground.
Given his bendy repertoire, injury history, and the need to limit innings, Kaprelian’s only going 5-6 innings per start. I…I suppose the same is technically true for all non-deGrom pitchers, but still. The M’s can again plan on seeing the A’s bullpen, which is simply not the strength it’s been in recent years. The M’s bullpen ranks just ahead of Oakland by fWAR, 1.4 to 1.3. Can’t remember the last time we could say that; even in Diaz’s unreal 2018, the A’s got Blake Treinen’s equally unreal 2018 along with Lou Trivino’s breakout, some solid Yusmeiro Petit, etc.
1: Kelenic, RF
2: Haniger, DH
3: Seager, 3B
4: Lewis, CF
5: Crawford, SS
6: France, 2B
7: Walton, LF
8: Campbell, 1B
9: Godoy, C
SP: Dugger
Eric Campbell’s the former Met who hadn’t played in the bigs since 2016. It’s not quite the Sean Kazmar story, or even the Scott Kazmir story, but it’s pretty cool for Campbell. Not sure it’s all that great for the M’s predicted runs scored, but it’s not worse than Donovan Walton starting in left field.