Mariners Having a Blast

The Seattle Mariners bats came alive once again in the last two games against the Tampa Bay Rays at Safeco Field. The Mariners have nineteen games in Seattle for the month of June so they could make some good hay way. Hopefully this will allow them to start winning on the road too.

The Mariners will be expecting Felix back real soon. He will be having a rehab assignment on Tuesday June 6 at Tacoma. Depending on how he does he may have another rehab assignment or get a start with the Mariners. Iwakuma pitched a simulated game Saturday June 3 so he could be ready to make a rehab assignment soon as well. Also on the injured front Mitch Haniger taking batting practice over the weekend and could be sent out for a rehab assignment as well. Since he has been out longer than both Felix and Iwakuma he could be on assignment for a number of days. This will depend on the outfield as well. Jean Segura who went on the disabled list this last week says his ankle isn’t as bad as first thought. He thinks he could be back sooner. So we have to see how that goes.

Speaking of Segura his replacement Taylor Motter hit a grand slam home run in Friday night’s game in the first inning to help lead the Mariners to a 12-4. Until Motter hit the home run it looked like the Rays may have gotten out of the inning with little damage.

Danny Valencia has been hitting the daylights out of the ball lately including having a home run and a double on Friday night’s game.  He ended with three hits and drove in five runs. On Saturday night he had another outstanding game going four for four. Other words he went seven for seven in those two games. He scored three times and drove in a run on Saturday night. He now has raised his batting average to .276. At the end of April his batting average was like one hundred and fifty points lower and nice to see that he is doing well.

Another one that has figured out his hitting for now anyway is catcher Mike Zunino. On Friday night he had no hits and struck out twice with an RBI however Saturday he adjusted had three hits that included a grand slam home run in the fifth inning and a double in the ninth inning. He had a total of seven RBI’s in the game. We all hope that is something good for the future for Zunino.

The pitching was solid in both games with Chris Bergman going six innings and giving up seven hits and two runs. He looks like he could stay in the rotation even when Felix and Iwakuma come back. Sam Gaviglio pitched Saturday night went five innings giving up four hits and one run.  The bullpen did a good job giving up only one run that was a home run in the ninth inning by Logan Morrison off of Edwin Diaz. At that point the game was decided. They just wanted to have Diaz get in some action.

Sunday the Mariners take on the Rays in the final game of the series so they could sweep them. The Mariners will have Ariel Miranda on the mound as he has been doing well as of late and the Rays have former Mariner Erasmo Ramirez going for them. He has a record of 3-0 with an era of 3.66. I have to say it is time for him to lose a game. Go M’s and continue what you have done the last two games.