For the folks who determine the individual player ratings for the popular video game MLB The Show, Ty France has news for you – improve your ratings…now.
Hours before he was the first-day hero for the Mariners in their 3-0 win over the Guardians, he ended a goalless game that gave the sold-out crowd of 45,268 an uncomfortable déjà vu of the final game at T-Mobile Park. which ended in a frustrating defeat, the lovely France was at his locker venting his frustration.
His player ratings on MLB The Show were presented to him, including his speed of 11 out of 100. And that he’s a bronze-level player with a 70 out of 100.
“I stopped playing because they were all way too low,” he said, half-jokingly. “You can tweet that.”
France went out and put in a performance worthy of a rating downgrade.
After seven frustrating innings of stranded runners, missed opportunities and no runs, France drove in the only runs of the game and smashed a deep flyball over the wall in Cleveland reliever James Karinchak’s right field to send an already agitated crowd into a frenzy.
“I knew I didn’t hit it great,” said France. “Especially from the at-bat before, I hit this one really well and I thought I got it. So if that one didn’t go out, I wasn’t sure if the one that actually went out would go out.”
On a cool, open-roof night, several hard-hit balls that looked like home runs ended as outs.
“A lot of times he makes it look easy,” manager Scott Servais said. “I know how he does it. But he’s in no hurry to strike. He doesn’t try to pull the ball. It’s hard to get a ball from here to the opposite field, especially as cold as it was tonight with the wind blowing in there. Right off the bat I definitely thought it had a chance. We needed a big hit. We had the right man up there and he came through.”
Karinchak, a nervous right-hander for Cleveland who had a reputation for taking too long between pitches, was clearly bothered by an early pitch clock injury. It energized the crowd and made them count down the final seconds of each pitch.
A controversial walk that saw JP Crawford check his swing but seemed to hit the ball only seemed to bother him more. After counting Kolten Wong 2-2 in four places, he couldn’t put it down and finally beat him in a 3-2 place to put France on the plate.
“We’ve seen Karinchak a lot in the past,” Servais said. “He’s got a routine, a very tedious routine, and he’s had to try and make adjustments to the things he’s doing, things like turning the ball and everything else. He was a little out of control. It is a credit to our crowd. They got loud. They made it difficult for him to focus and concentrate. That’s really the impact that home field advantage can have in our game. Hats off to them. That made a big difference in the ball game today.”
It was France’s third goal in a game in which the Mariners had seven overall. He also had a single in his first at-bat and a double to deep center field, which may have confirmed the low speed ratings.
“Was I sure?” he said.
In terms of ratings, France jokingly promoted itself.
“I think we should raise those ratings a little bit,” he said. “I think I should be at least a gold guy. You have to tweet that for me.”
Starting pitcher Luis Castillo and the Mariners pitching staff lived up to their above-bronze ratings and expectations.
Castillo threw six shutout innings, allowing only one hit with no walks and six strikeouts. That one hit had a full stadium and nearly every Mariners fan watching on TV gasping in shock.
Before the third inning, rookie outfielder Will Brennan chased a 96-mile line drive right back into Castillo’s face. With minimal time to react or raise his hands, Castillo instinctively turned his head. The ball bounced off his head and clipped his dreadlocks, untied his ponytail and knocked his hat to the ground.
“It was 50-50, 50% head and 50% hair,” he said through interpreter Freddy Llanos. “It was scary. It came so fast you can’t really see it.”
Mariners personnel were on the field immediately to see if Castillo was injured. After a brief chat, a repositioning of his dreads, and a readjustment of his cap, Castillo threw a few warm-up pitches and agreed to continue.
“When the ball hit me, I immediately noticed that I was fine,” he said. “Usually when you get a hit on the head you get dizzy, but I was fine. I was able to react and see where the ball went.”
He knocked out Mike Zunino, Myles Straw, and Steven Kwan to end the inning and didn’t allow any other base runner the remainder of his outing.
Before the game, Servais made it clear that he would not push Castillo to 100 pitches. With Castillo on 76 pitches and the Guardians’ 2-3-4 hitters hitting the plate for the third time, Servais went to his bullpen.
Among the pitchers who pitched more than six scoreless innings on opening day, Castillo joined Felix Hernandez, who did so in 2013 and 2007, and Randy Johnson in 1995.
“He’s ‘The Rock,'” Servais said, referring to Castillo’s nickname. “He’s kind of consistent, his demeanor, his confidence and his belief in his stuff and what he’s doing out there. This is exactly the type of guy you want to lead your pitching team.”
Matt Brash played a scoreless seventh inning and flashed his usual nasty stuff. Paul Sewald completed the eighth without incident. Things got a little tense in the ninth round as Andres Munoz conceded a single to Amed Rosario and Jose Ramirez a double with two outs to plate the tie in the form of the hulking Josh Bell. But Munoz made his first save of the season, coaxing France at first base with a groundball to end the game.