The Mariners on a Roll

The Seattle Mariners are now on a three game winning streak beating the Tigers in Detroit twice after losing Felix and Haniger for three to four weeks along with a loss of 19-9.

The last two games were both close games. Friday’s game against the Indians in Cleveland the Mariners won 3-1. This now makes the Mariners record 11-13 which is a lot more reasonable that is for sure. The Mariners are showing that they can compete with those in the American League Central Division. We hope that they can do the same with the American League Western Division when they return home next week.

The Mariners got their three runs on a two-run homer by Robinson Cano and a solo homer by Ben Gamel. The Mariners defense in the outfield continues to shine. They have had instances where they have held the opposition to a single instead of a double. We are being showed a lot better defense over last year.

Ariel Miranda bounced back in this game giving up two hits and one run in five and a third inning. He was replaced by rookie lefty James Pazos who went two and a third innings giving up two hits and striking out four.  He gave up one of the hits with two outs in the eighth inning when Edwin Diaz came in for the second game in a row to close off the game. Diaz faces four hitters and striking out three of them. The one he did not strike out was a high pop up to Kyle Seager on a 3 and 1 pitch in the ninth inning for the second out in the game. It is nice to see Diaz get in some game action since prior to Thursday he hadn’t pitched a lot for a couple weeks.

Steve Cishek is now doing his pitching rehab with the Tacoma Rainiers. He will likely pitch at least a couple times with them before being called up to the Mariners.

Yovani Gallardo will go for the Mariners on late Saturday afternoon game in Detroit followed by Chase De Jong who has replaced Felix in the rotation for the time being. Servais felt that De Jong deserve the start since he went four innings last Saturday in relief giving up one hit and no runs. The Mariners lost the game to the A’s however De Jong gave the offense a chance to win.

Depending on how De Jong pitches I would not be surprised to see lefty Dillon Overton pitch a couple innings as well. He was brought back up by the Mariners on Wednesday after the blow out on Tuesday 19-9. The Mariners brought right handed reliever Chris Fien the same day and sent back Chris Heston and Evan Marshall to Tacoma after both pitched in the blow out game. Also Ben Gamel was brought up because Haniger and Felix were put on the DL.

The Mariners will start May by playing the Los Angeles Angels and the Texas Rangers at Safeco Field. They will than go on the road for two in Philadelphia and four in Toronto. Hopefully Felix and Haniger will both be ready when the Mariners return home for the next home series against the Oakland A’s and the Chicago White Sox’s. Go M’s.