It feels like playoff baseball at Safeco Field this weekend.
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The Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics are tangled up in a key series as they battle for positioning in the wild card standings. As hard as it is to believe, one of these teams could miss the playoffs completely this season, even with the extra wild card spot that is in place. These games have huge postseason implications.
It was a marquee pitching match-up on Saturday, with Sonny Gray starting for the A’s opposite Felix Hernandez. Such as these things seem to go in Seattle, King Felix was outstanding once again but did not have any run support to show for it. It had to be a welcome sight, then, when Robinson Cano blasted this beautiful home run to tie the game 2-2 in the 7th inning.
As far as pitch location is concerned, here’s betting that Gray does not need to see the PITCHf/x data to know that he seriously missed his spot there. Throwing a center-cut pitch to Cano is not an advisable strategy, especially with your team clinging to a one-run lead.
The Mariners are paying Cano an awful lot of money to bring offense when it matters most, and he did just that in this moment.
Stay tuned to FanSided for all of the latest news, rumors, and analysis for Major League Baseball as the season races towards the postseason and the hot stove this off-season.