Early Season Comeback

On Sunday April 19 the Seattle Mariners faced the Texas Rangers for the third final game in their series in Seattle. They had split up the first two games the Mariners losing the first game and on Saturday Felix Hernandez pitching a gem and winning 3-1. King Felix pitched seven innings and struck out twelve batters ending a four game losing streak the Mariners were on.

The first two innings it looked like James Paxton was rolling along for a victory. The Mariners were leading 2-0 on home runs from Austin Jackson leading off the game and Nelson Cruz both in the first inning. The third inning became a new story. The inning led off with a bunt single by Martin for the Rangers followed by several light hits that could easily been outs. The Rangers tied the score 2-2. It looked like the Mariners should get out of the third inning; however, more hits happened that were much harder including a home run. The next thing we knew was the Rangers were leading 7-2. Just like that James Paxton was out of the game with two outs in the third inning, and replaced by reliever Tyler Olson. He got the final out of the third inning.

Going into the bottom of the third inning it did seem hopeless; however, Nelson Cruz hit his second home run of the game with two runners on base to get back into the game with the score being 7-5.

In the sixth inning the Rangers scored three runs to make the score 10-5; however, the Mariners were not done. In the seven inning they scored one run to make it 10-6. In the eighth the Mariners got the bases loaded with one out when the Rangers summoned their closer Feliz. He walked in a run to make it 10-7. With Nelson Cruz coming up to bat once again he struck him out. The next batter was Kyle Seager who had hit in the sixth run of the game. Seager hit a single to bring two more runs to make it 10-9. Feliz got out of the eighth inning with the one run lead. Reliever Medina came in and got the Rangers out in the top of the 9^th inning.

Going into the bottom of the 9^th inning Feliz had never given up a run to the Mariners. The final rally happens to finalize the comeback for the Mariners. Brad Miller led off the inning with a single. Logan Morrison followed with the first out of the inning flying out to center field. Then Seth Smith followed with a walk. With Miller on second and now Smith on first Austin Jackson came to bat. He fouled off several pitches and then finally hit a pitch to right field for a single that scored Miller to make it a tie at 10-10. At this point we knew the Mariners would at least go into extra inning; however, the decided they did not want to go into the tenth inning. Rickie Weeks flied out to center field but the ball was not deep enough to score Seth Smith. At that point Austin Jackson was on second base with Smith still at third base. The Rangers decided to walk Robinson Cano to load the bases. They wanted to face Nelson Cruz instead. I guess you could say the less of two evils; however, Cruz hit a hard single between 3^rd base and shortstop to win the game.

Though it was an exciting game and a great comeback by the Mariner batters the starting pitching obviously has some worries to correct. The Mariner relievers did a really good job to keep them in the game as well. Outside of Felix Hernandez and J.A. Happ the Mariners have some work to do with the other three starters. Hopefully tonight against the Houston Astros Iwakuma can correct himself and pitch a good game. He will be followed by TaiJuan Walker who has had two poor outings as well. That game will be very critical to see if Walker stays in the starting rotation. Of course, the Mariners will have to see what happens with James Paxton as well. He had a very short spring training with arm troubles and pitching a limited amount of innings. We will have to see if one of the pitchers will be replaced in the rotation. The Mariners have a day off on Thursday so there is a possibility either Paxton or Walker will miss a turn. At least the season is early so corrections still can happen. In the meantime Go Mariners!