Washburn’s turn to be skipped against Tigers

Considering that Detroit has a 7-3 record against left-handed starters, manager John McLaren has decided to pass up Jarrod Washburn’s turn in the rotation against the Tigers this weekend.

The plus side is that Washburn will avoid a possible repeat of his two-inning, 12-hit, nine-run outing that he produced against the Tigers two starts ago.  The caveat, however, is that Washburn’s next turn to pitch will come after Erik Bedard in the Angels series.

Washburn has stated disdain for starting after another left-handed starter, contending that batters can get too comfortable if they see two left handed starters in a row, and cites the poor outings he had pitching after Horacio Ramirez to back up his concerns.  McLaren shares these concerns as well, so don’t expect Washburn to be pitching after Bedard for an extended period of time.

Wladimir Balentien’s on-base streak

This is weird.

As Jesse Baumgartner pointed out in the “tidbits” section in his preview of tonight’s M’s-Tigers match-up at Safeco for the Mariners’ website, Balentien’s double in Wednesday’s 1-0 win over the Red Sox stretches his streak of reaching base via hit or walk to 17 games.  In a line-up populated but hack-n-slashing free swingers, Balentien’s ability to get on base on a consistent basis should be a good thing.  But what’s odd is that since the streak began on May 8, Balentien’s average has dropped nearly thirty points, his slugging percentage by nearly 100 points, while his OBP has increased by forty points.  He also has a 20:9 strikeout-to-walk ratio during that span, while collecting just 12 hits in 62 at-bats.

If you just looked at his numbers, you wouldn’t know Balentien was having some sort of on-base streak.  I always thought such streaks were a good thing, and helped a players’ stats….?

Baumgartner points out that the pitching staff has rebounded from a stretch of poor outings, a streak that could continue through the Tigers’ series.  I suspect tonight’s start by Silva will have to be watched through fingers covering your face.  Yes, it will be that scary.  About as scary as that new movie “The Strangers” looks.  Have you seen the preview for that?  It looks almost- not quite, but almost- as scary as Carlos Silva starting against the Tigers.

As for another, better, streak: by picking up the loss Wednesday night, Tim Wakefield is now winless in 18 starts against the Mariners, a streak that stretches all the way back to 1997.  Crazy, huh?