Mariners Power Past Red Sox 12-4: Game Recap

It was a picturesque afternoon in Seattle as Marco Gonzales toed the rubber in front of a sold-out crowd to face off against the reigning World Series champion Boston Red Sox. Gonzales, making his second opening day start of the season, was less than sharp in the first couple of innings against the mighty aggressive Red Sox lineup. The sox plated a run a run a piece in the first two innings through a slew of base knocks by the heart of their order.

The Mariners, responded emphatically in the bottom of the second. Tim Beckham started the scoring for Seattle with his second homerun (and bat flip) of the season to cut the Red Sox lead to one. With two outs in the inning, the bottom of the Mariners’ lineup managed to load the bases through a David Freitas walk, a Dee Gordon base hit, and a hit by pitch against Mitch Haniger. Domingo Santana stepped up to the plate, already with a grand slam on the year, and drove a ball down the right field line to score two, with Haniger being thrown out at home to make the final out of the inning.

The power surge continued in the third for the Mariners, as Encarnacion went yard to lead-off the inning, and Beckham continued his blazing start blasting his second bomb of the game to dead-center field. Even backup catcher David Freitas got in on the scoring action, driving a sac-fly to right field to score another new face in Mallex Smith, acquired in the Mike Zunino deal.

Marco settled down and pitched well into the 6^th, where he gave up a pair of runs before handing the ball over to the bullpen. He finished the night giving up 3 earned over 5 1/3 innings.

The Mariners offense stayed hot, tacking on another 2 runs in the 6^th and 2 more in the 7^th behind a Domingo Santana bomb, their 5^th of the night, to extend the lead to 12-4.

The bullpen did their job as well after taking over for Gonzales in the 6^th, tossing a combined 3 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball to close out the game and advance the M’s record to a perfect 3-0 to start the year.

Looking forward, Yusei Kikuchi, the young Japanese lefty will make his second start of the young season looking to continue the Mariners’ hot start against the hard throwing right-hander Nathan Eovaldi.

Lakers Fans: We Need to Talk About Lonzo Ball

Through 4 games of this young NBA season, two things are abundantly clear about Lonzo Ball.

There’s good news for Laker fans. Lonzo’s court vision and passing ability will prevent him from being anywhere near a bust as the no. 2 overall draft pick by the Los Angeles Lakers. Ball has tallied double-digit assists in back to back games, averaging an impressive 8.7 dimes through his first four games. His 2.35 assist to turnover ratio is anything but pretty, but Ball is still a 19-year-old rookie, and those turnovers will likely go down as the Laker point guard gains experience in the league.

One glaring weakness in Ball’s game has been his ability to put the ball in the basket. In his three games against competent NBA basketball teams (sorry Phoenix), Ball has averaged just 5.7 ppg, shooting a putrid 20% from the field (6/30) while knocking down only 8% of his three pointers (1/13) while playing an average of 35 minutes in those three games.

Unfortunately for the Laker faithful, barring a major change in Ball’s shooting mechanics, these numbers likely won’t change dramatically going forward.

Lonzo Ball’s unorthodox shot has received plenty of attention, with NBA stars LeBron James and Joel Embiid even seen mocking Ball’s jumper in pre-game warmups. Up until this point in his career, Ball has been able to make due with his jumper. Ball averaged 14.6 points in his lone year at UCLA, shooting a respectable 55% from the field while draining 41% of his shots from beyond the arc.

So if Lonzo’s jumper hasn’t been an issue leading up to the NBA wasn’t an issue, what’s the difference now?

To answer this question, lets take a look at Lonzo’s shot selection in his college career. Ball took 238 shots last year as a Bruin. Of those 238 shot attempts, just eight of them were jump shots inside of the three point line. The reason for this is because of his odd mechanics, in which he brings the ball across the left side of his body, over his left shoulder before flinging it towards the rim, it is almost impossible for the Laker point guard to take a moving shot. When you couple the staunch interior defending across the NBA with Ball’s average finishing skills at the rim, an in-between game is essential if he wants to pose any threat as a legitimate scorer in the league.

At this present moment, Ball’s release limits him to predictable step-back jumpers that simply are not a reliable and consistent form of offense in the NBA. Outside of the occasional catch and shoot opportunity, Lonzo’s inability to create offense for himself will limit his scoring greatly. Unless he can refine his form, don’t expect many scoring outbursts from the young Laker guard.