Seattle Mariners receive harsh words from Cole Irvin of Athletics

The Seattle Mariners won their second straight game in a row, defeating the Oakland Athletics 4-3 on Tuesday night. It was a nice change after their six-game losing streak. Cole Irvin was the starting pitcher for the A’s, and he had some parting shots against the team after taking the loss on the night.

“Bottom line is I wasn’t executing,” Irvin said. “I wasn’t executing in two strike counts and at times I wasn’t getting ahead … Yeah, there was a lot of weak contact and some swings that ended up being hits. But I think at the end of the day just pitch execution needs to be a lot better and a team like that should not be putting up 10 hits against me or anyone. I’m extremely disappointed in my efforts tonight.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but it’s never a good idea to go out and talk crap about a team after you get roughed up by them. Irvin went just 4.2 innings before being pulled, but not before he would give up ten hits and get tagged for four runs, the only runs the Athletics would give up to the Mariners on the night. The Mariners strong play would raise Irvin’s ERA to 3.92, handing him his 6th loss of the season.

Cole Irvin complained and whined after the game against the Mariners.

Did he have a point though? Did the Mariners have a bunch of weak contact hits? Was it really a problem of him not executing with two strikes? 20 years ago, we probably would’ve either had to take his word for it, or the word of people who were there via eye test. Now, we have something that can get us all the answers. The wonderful world that is baseballsavant.mlb.com. Let’s dive in and see if Irvin was right, or if he is crying more than Lebron after not getting his way.

Hmmm. The top exit velocity of the night belongs to Kyle Seager, who ripped a single at 109.5 MPH in the third off of Irvin. One of the hardest hits of the night came from Jarred Kelenic, who smoked a ball at 101.5 only to line out in the second. The only two arguments that Irvin could have would come against JP Crawford, who had a 75.2 MPH single and a 76.0 MPH double, both “cold” speeds.

Everything else was at 84.0 MPH or higher, which would be considered average or better. If anything, Irvin should be happy that he didn’t actually get unlucky. Four of the eight hardest-hit balls off of Irvin on the night were for outs, including one that was for a double play.

Maybe next time, before running his mouth, Irvin should realize he had an off night, or just left enough pitches in spots that a Major League team (yes, the Mariners are a major league team) punished him for not being good enough. If you’re going to talk like that about the Mariners, based on your reasoning, you should’ve given up 15-20 hits against anyone else. I guess that says more about how bad you are. I hope the Mariners shell Irvin next time, even though it looks like we miss him next series.

Hey, Cole Irvin. Take your loss like an adult next time.