Doug Fister got more run support from his offense in one inning than he had in three previous starts this season. He didn't waste it, either. Fister struck out a career-high seven in 6 1/3 innings, and the light-hitting Seattle Mariners capitalized on 11 walks allowed by Detroit, routing the Tigers 13-3 on Tuesday night. Read more: http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=310419112&teams=detroit-tigers-vs-seattle-mariners
The money stat from this game is that it upped our League-leading walk total to 78, or right about 4.3 per game. Last year we were 13th with 2.9 per game. It's days like today, when Ichiro and Figgins are both "on" (literally and figuratively) that this offense can do some damage. We only had 3 extra-base hits (all doubles), and I don't expect our 8-9-1-2 hitters to go 12-17 every day, but stringing together walks and singles can work. We've got the walks going...now if we could just get some singles...
Additionally, I think that once it gets around the league that we're a patient offense, willing to take some walks, that that'll allow our hitters to see better pitches and to start teeing off on people. You need to have three components of that, though...1) a pitcher that will give you a pitch to hit, 2) a hitter to do something with it, and 3) enough relevancy that the pitcher actually cares about giving you a walk or not. Being 30 games back doesn't do much good
I think he's on his way to being that. But so far this year, Smoak, Bradley, Ichiro and Kennedy are the only ones even batting .250. Ichiro's 4-hit outburst last night brough him up to .280BA/.345 OBP and Figgins' 3-hit effort up to .188BA/.232 OBP. Guys need to be on base to pile up the runs.
