{"id":4327,"date":"2017-03-16T00:30:08","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T04:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=4327"},"modified":"2017-03-16T00:30:08","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T04:30:08","slug":"world-baseball-classic-mariners-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2017\/03\/16\/world-baseball-classic-mariners-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"World Baseball Classic: Mariners Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\">March 15, 2017,\u00a0saw the USA start its second\u00a0round play for the World Baseball Classic against Venezuela. The premier matchup of the night?\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hernafe02.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Felix Hernandez<\/a><\/strong> vs. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/smylydr01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Drew Smyly<\/a><\/strong>. It was the World Baseball Classic: Mariners edition. This game was good on all accounts. It was a true pitching duel.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Venezuela and Team USA are ready to start Round 2 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WBC2017?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WBC2017<\/a> action from Petco Park. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9LYkz9rx77\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/9LYkz9rx77<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WE2kOORf2N\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/WE2kOORf2N<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WBCBaseball\/status\/842178184938438658?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 16, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>World Baseball Classic: Mariners Edition<\/h2>\n<h3>Drew Smyly<\/h3>\n<p>Through five innings, Drew Smyly put on a rehash of his no-hitter against the Mariners, striking out eight in 4.2 innings. He allowed a single unearned run on his own fielding error on a throw to first\u00a0base. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/chiriro01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Robinson Chirinos<\/a><\/strong>, the Texas Rangers backup catcher, laid down a beautiful bunt to Smyly\u2019s right. Drew fielded it, and threw off his back leg. This caused the ball to sail and go over the head of 6&#8217;4&#8243;\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hosmeer01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eric Hosmer<\/a><\/strong>, which is quite an impressive feat.\u00a0 This led to runners on second\u00a0and third, and a long RBI flyout by <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/i\/inciaen01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ender Inciarte<\/a><\/strong>. Settling down after that, Smyly\u2019s final six outs were by the strikeout.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leylaji99.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jim Leyland<\/a><\/strong> had to have had pain in his steps as he went out to get Smyly, considering they were only going to let him go 60 pitches. His final line came out to be 4.2 innings pitched, eight strikeouts, no walks, and no earned runs. He used his entire repertoire to tie up a potent Venezuela lineup full of All-Stars. If the Mariners can get half of this from Smyly in hitter-friendly Safeco Field this year, then the playoffs might not be such a long shot.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SMylyd?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@SmylyD<\/a> is bringing the heat through four innings. \ud83d\udd25 \ud83d\udd25 \ud83d\udd25 \ud83d\udd25 \ud83d\udd25 \ud83d\udd25 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WBC2017?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WBC2017<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xpFMN11fWf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/xpFMN11fWf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WBCBaseball\/status\/842198041121722369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 16, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Felix Hernandez<\/h3>\n<p>On the other side, there was Felix Hernandez, the King. He matched Drew Smyly pitch for pitch. It looked like he found his mid-season form with his changeup, painting the corners and keeping some of the better batters in the majors off balance. Felix stumbled a bit in the third\u00a0inning. He was able to get <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mccutan01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew McCutchen<\/a><\/strong> to fly out, but then gave up three consecutive singles to load the bases with only one out.\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jonesad01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adam Jones<\/a><\/strong> reached for a low curveball, hitting it to second\u00a0base for an easy double play. Venezuela was able to stretch Felix a little farther, closer to the 80 pitch restriction for Round 2 play in the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n<p>Felix\u2019s night was done after he shut down the USA side in the bottom of the fifth\u00a0inning. His final line of the night was five innings pitched, three strikeouts, three hits, and no walks. A great showing for such an early time in March. Something that Mariners fans can surely be happy to see.<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday brought a preview of two of the Mariners starters. Felix Hernandez, the ace and Drew Smyly,\u00a0who is slated\u00a0to hold down the back end of the rotation. Watching these two men go against opposing teams full of All-Stars and MLB-level talent is a refreshing sight to see. If this is what happens for an entire 162 game season, playoffs here they come.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/653625002\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 76.262626% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/653625002?et=G69AkQbTTN5iOqIWOtJkJQ&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=SqYKFZwOlhwll28viu_CmDKwbTtUiA8FuZ_7bRNFuNo=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"453\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The premier matchup of the night? Felix Hernandez vs. Drew Smyly. It was the World Baseball Classic: Mariners edition. This game was good on all accounts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1719,"featured_media":4330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1071],"tags":[1058,672,746,1092,158],"class_list":["post-4327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mariners","category-mlb","tag-adam-jones","tag-drew-smyly","tag-felix-hernandez","tag-jim-leyland","tag-seattle-mariners"],"modified_by":"John Jackson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1719"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}