Here Comes the Diamondbacks

The Mariners start a three game series beginning tonight July 27 before going back on the road. The Diamondbacks are playing this season under par just like the Mariners so this could be a time to have a sweep in a series at home.

The Mariners should have had a sweep against Toronto over the weekend; however, the bullpen blew the lead. I was disappointed because I really thought they had it in the bag but I forgot the bullpen this season is different than the 2014 version. This is really true in regards to Fernando Rodney who gave up a two run homerun to tie the game at 6. We are not sure what will be happening with Rodney for the rest of the season. It looks like he will not be put into any situations that the Mariners have a chance to win the game. He may get into an extra inning game when no one else is available like yesterday when we were saved by a home run by Franklin Gutierrez in the 10^th inning. The reason we don’t know how Rodney will be used because Lloyd did not share with the fans and media. I am sure we will know in the days ahead. It is amazing how fast a lot of closers lose it so fast, and I am sure Rodney won’t be last. What I miss though is that we probably never see the shooting of the arrow again.

I have to admit that I don’t know much about the Diamondbacks except that they are below 500 like the Mariners. They are in a division that have the Dodgers and Giants are in which can’t be easy; however, they do face the Padres and the Rockies so that should make it 500 within the division. The Diamondbacks have a history of going up and down throughout the years not like the Mariners who seem to be down most years.

I heard on KIRO AM radio this morning that the Mariners should do some catch up from now until the end of August because Minnesota Twins are the only team they face that is over 500.  You would think the Mariners have more talent than any of those teams; however, like they say it is the reason we play the games. The hitting seems to be going good right now and could keeping going the rest of the season but the pitching especially the bullpen needs to be corrected. You wonder if the Mariners will go out this week and get another pitcher along with a backup catcher. I hope if the Mariners do get a backup catcher it will be a solid one who can do some hitting to relieve Zunino. The past week Zunino has been hitting pretty good so the work with him by Edgar Martinez is paying off but no one really knows if the workload behind the plate will affect him the rest of the way. It would be nice to have a catcher that could play twice a week at least. Zunino still could go into the game as a defensive replacement late in the games.

We can hope to that the Mariners can get Montgomery and Happ straighten out. It will help the bullpen from having to pitch too many innings.

I expect that I will have more knowledge of the Diamondbacks after tonight so I will give out. Anyways Go Mariners!