Mariners Go to Washington

The Seattle Mariners series at home against the Chicago White Sox was just awful. Not only did they lose three of the four games the losses were not even close. They were similar to the victories that the Mariners had against the Phillies except in reverse.

The pitching was not only horrible giving up over twenty runs the offense was missing the whole series.  The recap of the series the Mariners won the first game 5-4 then on Friday lost 2-1. On Saturday and Sunday both games were over in the first inning. They went on to lose 16-1 and 8-1. The defense did not help either in both games.

The offense did not work with Robinson Cano being on the disabled list. He comes off the DL Tuesday against the Nationals in Washington D.C. We hope this will help the Mariners offense. The Mariners will not have the DH in this series along with going to Colorado next week for two games. The Mariners need to pick things up so they don’t get further behind in the standings. Outside of the Houston Astros being in first place the Mariners are not far behind the Rangers, Angels and A’s. Right now the Mariners record is 20-25. They will need to go at least 4-4 on the road trip. Anything less will make things hard for sure.

The Nationals are playing pretty good ball and are in first place in the national league east division however the Mariners have done well playing inter-league games. We hope this will continue.

James Paxton is expected to make a start on a rehab assignment this week which if things all go well he will be back in the Mariners rotation soon. The first game in the series against the Nationals Christian Berman will start for the Mariners. He pitched outstanding in his last start for the Mariners. If he is able to keep the Mariners in the game for at least six innings this will work for them. Nelson Cruz is expected to play right field against the Nationals. This will mean that either Ben Gamel or Guillermo Heredia will not start however they will be ready for pinch hitting duties.

The Mariners have recalled Mike Zunino from Tacoma. The hitting by the catchers has been awful since he was sent down to Tacoma. We hope that his offense will be improved over the time period he was gone. His power did improve with the Rainiers and the Mariners hope that will happen with them. He doesn’t need to have a high batting average just something OK with his power returning. I am sure we are all wondering how many more chances the Mariners will give to improve his hitting. The Mariners need him to be above the .200 mark instead of being down less than .175. His defense is the only thing giving him a chance to be on the ball club. I am sure the Mariners patience is running thin.

The Mariners not only need the offense to improve they need the pitching to do so as well. This goes not only for the starting pitching it goes for the bullpen as well. At this point they have the worst bullpen in the major leagues. The Mariners need Edwin Diaz to return to his closing role at the same time with Steve Cishek. The pitching needs to keep them in the game along with the offense getting back where they were before Cano went out with his injury. Go M’s.