Sailors graduate in culinary arts, earn 5-4 victory over Angels

The croque madame is probably one of the best sandwiches on the planet. Fine ham, toast, a rich béchamel (or even a morning if you’re a cheeky little fox) and a fried egg? For breakfast? One of the true blessings that France has brought to the modern world.

Tonight, however, the Pacific Northwest was instead treated to our own blessing from France, the croque monsieur itself, as the Mariners won 5-4 against the loathsome, fishless Angels. The Mariners improved to 32-27 and extended their lead in the AL West. They will begin June with a 4-game lead over the Texas Rangers and a 6.5-game lead over the Houston Astros (boooooo).

It’s important to realize that in the process of winning tonight, the Mariners also, in a way, if you think about it, built their own perfect croque monsieur.

The bread

In a croque monsieur, the most important element, at least from a construction standpoint, is the bread (and I would argue that construction is the name of the game when it comes to a sandwich – take away- the and now we are I’m just talking about a salty panzanella). Ideally, it holds everything in place, provides the main texture of the sandwich, and also offers its own flavor. Brioche is standard, but in a country where high quality Parisian brioche is not available, I find a good homemade sourdough bread to be the best option. Sourdough may also require a heavier sprinkling of béchamel, if the day calls for it.

Tonight’s sourdough, of course, was the big first round. The M’s laid a solid foundation for the match, earning three points for their starter early on. They took advantage of a shaky start from Angels starter José Soriano, and soon after, JP Crawford’s double, Josh Rojas’ double and Julio’s walk loaded the bases for Cal Raleigh.

From the start, I thought we were going to get a Beef Boy Deluxe, but we were satiated with a Beef Boy Sacrifice Fly for our first playthrough of the game. Next up, our perfect little golden retriever, Ty France, delivered his first blessing, by preparing a perfect loaf of sourdough in two parts:

Bread: Ready. Primary manager for your excellent pitching team to work with: Secure.

It was promising to see solid hitters across the board early on, especially since their particularly poor performances drew attention and got heads rolling. This led to a very fast first six and a half innings of baseball.

Cheese

Salty, melty, fatty, generally delicious, I probably don’t need to sell you cheese. But our choice of cheese(s) here for our sandwich is important. We want to make sure we get all of these aforementioned qualities in the right proportion, without sacrificing too much of the others. A good blend, for example, would be around 60% middle-aged Gruyère, for a nutty, almost sweet flavor, 30% Emmental for more melting and creaminess, and 10% extra-aged Parmesan, for heat, salt, and more. hazelnut.

However, the most crucial thing when it comes to cheese your crunches – we must fight against the temptation to consume too much. Cheese is a good thing, so surely, more is better, right?

No! Too much cheese will lead to an unbalanced sandwich, especially considering what’s yet to come. Plus, too much cheese can cause you serious injury in the future (or, at least, spending too much time in bed later in the day in the fetal position with your stomach making noises). revolution).

Bryan Woo masterfully mixed his pitches as if he were carefully grating and weighing cheese for his instructor at a Parisian culinary academy. As always, Woo dominated the zone with his two fastballs: he threw his four-seamer 60% of the time and his gnarly sinker another 25% of the time. He accumulated just two strikeouts, a low total for him, but he also gave up no walks on the night despite sometimes shaky command.

His Parmesan, the 15% slider, sweeper, and changeup combined, all provided a suitable counterpoint to his two fastballs, serving to keep hitters a little away from the fast stuff. He could probably afford to get more comfortable throwing them all a little more at some point, but hey, if it works, it works, and right now, it’s working – both seams generated a 41 % CSW% (called strike + odor percentage).

What dominated the conversation, however, was the decision to pull Woo after 6 scoreless innings, where he allowed just three hits, after just 66 pitches. The fan discontent was palpable and the speech unpleasant, especially considering the disaster of a 7th inning – Saucedo gave up a grand slam to Jo Adell to tie the game at 4.

“(Woo) is going through some things, obviously, some arm issues,” Servais said after the game. “You have to listen to your players and stay tuned to them…Everybody wants to get caught up in the pitch count – I don’t care. We try to take care of our guys. We’re trying to do something special here.

“What drives our train is our starting launch, we can never forget that. We need to keep these guys healthy, we need them all season long.

Woo seemed to agree.

“I think it was a tough time with some five days between departures, the flight right after a pretty grueling start in Washington, it was hot and trying. That’s kind of how it went this week… Nothing worries me about the future,” Woo said. “I’m really looking forward to having an extra day off between starts here in the future.”

Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images

Woo and Servais showed restraint – hopefully this approach saves everyone future pain and protects Woo’s arm. It’s also worth noting that the Mariners have spent the last three seasons or so as beneficiaries of exceptional starting “luck” – perhaps there’s more to it than that.

Ham

The ham in a monsieur is, for some people, a “meh” item. Take it or leave it, ultimately. It’s nice, it’s meat (for non-vegetarians) and it gives some umami flavor, but what does it provide that isn’t covered by something else? There’s a lot of salt in this sandwich, a lot of fat, a lot of umami. Who needs it?

This is precisely why Cal Raleigh’s framing is the ham in tonight’s sandwich. Often overlooked as a skill (and one that may soon disappear once the bot strike zone takes hold), framing nevertheless has a significant impact on play. Stealing a strike, or losing one, can tip the balance swings in a crucial at-bat. Whether this is a good thing or not is another matter entirely.

Ultimately, Raleigh is a good framer. Baseball Savant considers him the second most valuable framer in the league, behind Jose Trevino. Tonight, Raleigh’s framing was on display, winning many pitches around the edges as well as a few pitches that were squarely off the plate, helping his pitchers when they couldn’t really deliver.

La Béchamel

Okay, well, now it’s time to be honest. I’ve said all this nice shit about bread and everything else, but there’s a reason we all love a croque – it’s the number one mother sauce, the star of the show – it’s béchamel .

This is what we all think of when we dream of a croque. This is the most defining characteristic. This is what makes a good ham and cheese sando something transcendent. This is definitely a Hall of Fame type sandwich inclusion. Please name one sandwich component, on any sandwich, better than béchamel on a croque.

And there’s no doubt that the continued resurgence of Good Ty France is our sauce here. In the ninth inning, having already delivered two points, France decided he wasn’t quite done playing the role of conquerorand threw a casual bat flip after ripping a hanging changeup almost into the stands:

It’s a 30/30 park home run, a perfect strike, the money shot, and definitely what we’ll remember about this game.

Servais appreciated the hard work France put in this offseason.

“We saw (the best version of Ty France) tonight, the entire show. Hits a few balls to the opposite field, top of the fence, hits the base to right, then catches a changeup in front for a home run, it’s vintage Ty France.

Photo by Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Having initially considered a phenomenon upon its arrival in 2020, it is no secret that France has been struggling in recent years with inconsistencies and a lack of power. If France manages to keep its promises again, it will go a long way to stabilizing and lengthening a struggling Mariners team.

This game, while tough to swallow at times, was an exercise in patience and proof that good things will come to those who wait and bad things will happen to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. More five-run games with this offense, coupled with an exceptional rotation, would mean there’s a good chance the Mariners bring the playoffs back to Seattle.

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Bonus: fried egg

Some of you may be more of a croque madame type – if so, your delicious fried egg on top is Muñoz who ends the game on a pickoff, discovering levels of Washedness previously unmeasured by Kevin Pillar.