Mariners Swept By Blue Jays

The Seattle Mariners after having a great time winning the first two games on the road beating the Philadelphia Phillies by scoring 21 runs went to Toronto where they barely scored any runs in four games.

I believe a lot of the problem with the Mariners not able to score runs because they didn’t have Robinson Cano play over the weekend.  Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seager were not able to make up for the loss of Cano. Also most of the other players didn’t do their job either. It is obvious that the Blue Jays though they have been struggling so far in the season that their pitching is better than the Phillies as well;  at least in this series any way.

It amazes me over the years whenever the Mariners are able to go on a nice little run where they win several games they turn around and lose about the same amount. This especially happens when they make ground up and land at five hundred like they did this time. We just hope that they can turn things around this week in Seattle. So far they have a good record playing at Safeco Field this season.

There is a possibility that Mitch Haniger will be back playing right field sometime this week and that James Paxton will be back in the rotation. Actually the starting pitching was good on this road trip especially in Toronto going with starters that would not be in the rotation except Ariel Miranda and Yovani Gallardo.  In fact they would be pitching for Tacoma.

Another injury happen to a starter over the weekend where Ryan Weber who had been sent up to start up against the Blue Jays was pitching pretty well when he grabbed his arm in the fourth inning. He had to leave the game and he was put on the disabled list. Not sure how long he will be out. On the positive side the Mariners are showing guys like Chase De Jong who may be in their starting rotation in the future.

The Mariners lost Iwakuma last week as well. He looks like he will be out for four to six weeks. Now that he is in his mid-30s we must wonder how much longer he will be able to pitch for the Mariners. Also Felix could be out for a bit longer to. He threw on the side lines but the Mariners had to put him on hold. At this point Paxton is the only one looking to come back soon. Of course he has been the most productive starter so far this season.

The Mariners bullpen has been suspect so far this season. Sunday when the Mariners could have used a win very badly closer Edwin Diaz gave up a walk-off home run that gave the Blue Jays a 3-2 lead. The Mariners could have won at least two of those games if not more in the four game series. I am sure that manager Scott Servais will be glad that Steve Cishek should be back to help out Diaz in the late innings. Injuries along with poor performances haven’t helped the Mariners.  The lefties in the bullpen have done a fine job but not the righties. Nick Vincent had been pitching pretty well for a month until he gave up a home run to key the win on Saturday for the Blue Jays. We hope that he will be able to get back to where he was pitching. Dan Altavilla who was brought back once again because of the injury to Weber we can hope that he can bounce back and is able to put his fast ball and splitter in the right spots. We can say the same for Diaz. The problem with Diaz is that he hasn’t been able to pitch on a regular basis. The return of Cishek it may be a good idea that he and Diaz split up the closer role. We have to remember that Diaz is only in his second season closing and hasn’t done a full season since he was a starter in the minor leagues before becoming one last May.  It will be nice if the Mariners can get the pitching and hitting together at the same time. I hope that they can go 5-2 on this seven game home stand against the Oakland A’s and the Chicago White Sox. Go M’s.