Seth Smith Playing Major Role For Mariners

On Monday May 2 the Mariners won the first game of series against the A’s in Oakland on the new seven game road trip. The Mariners won the game 4-3 with good hitting along with good pitching by Nathan Karns along with several relievers. The bullpen continues to do a great job with Steve Cishek getting another save. The Oakland A’s got all their scoring done by outfielder Davis who hit a home run early in the game to put the Oakland A’s ahead. The Mariners later tied the score and then took the lead 4-1 when Davis hit another home run with a runner on base. Karns did a great job pitching for the Mariners other than giving up the two home runs to Davis. He gave up a total of six hits however Marte made some spectacular plays at short stop make several double plays. Although the Mariners scored only four runs they did get twelve hits in the game. This has been the plan since the beginning of spring training by Dipoto and Servais that the Mariners have quality at bats. Even though they only scored four runs at least they had the opportunities to do even more.

For the first month of the season Seth Smith has played a major role for the Mariners in the lineup though he did not get any hits himself on Monday. Last Friday he got the only hit at Safeco Field to help the Mariners and King Felix to win against the Kansas City Royals 1-0. Again he hit another home run in the victory against the Royals on Saturday night for the Mariners to win the series though they did lose on Sunday 4-1.

Seth Smith is currently hitting .292 making some key hits so far in the season. Along with Nelson Cruz he is one of the few who is hitting for a good average. Robinson Cano’s average has not been great so far however he is hitting key home runs along with driving in a lot of runs too. Those three have been the key contributors on the offense though Kyle Seager and Leonys Martin have made some good hits even though they are struggling getting hits so far and their averages are below .200.

The main reason the Mariners have a record of 14-11 has been the starting pitching along with the bullpen who has done a stellar job. Steve Cishek has no blown saves and the other relievers have hold on in most situations.

What Seth Smith primarily has done is that he knows his role and has played it very well so far. He has played good defense most of the time along with key hits. He has done a good job to coming off the bench when he is not in the starting lineup. He has had to be the designated hitter on some occasions because of a nagging injury. Usually he is alternating in right field with Nelson Cruz against lefties as well at designated hitter.

We can hope that Seth Smith will continue to do a good job when the other hitters start performing better.  Smith knows what he is doing and what his limitations are as well. Now we hope that Aoki and Martin can do a better job hitting along with solid defense. Franklin Gutierrez needs to improve on his hitting though he is doing a good job defensively when he is in the lineup. Not sure if he is unhealthy or not but we know that he can be a lot like Smith when he is. The Mariners have some guys doing well with the Rainiers so if they need help especially in the outfield they can do a call up at any time.

The Mariners winning ways will continue as long as the pitching does well and some timely hitting. The number one thing is that they are winning the close games. Go M’s.