An idea, which is often misattributed to Leo Tolstoy or John Garnder, holds that there are only two plots: a man goes on a journey and a stranger comes to town. This afternoon’s Mariners game had both.
Robbie Ray’s starts are always a journey, and the terrain today was the Guardians lineup. The world-building for this story can come from two background facts: The average starter’s four-seam fastball has a whiff rate of 9.9% and the Cleveland Guardians lineup has a league-leading whiff rate of just 9.0%.
So it was really quite something that Robbie Ray was able to collect nine whiffs on the 30 times that Guardians swung at his four-seamer today.