Break the Even Mark

It seems the Mariners are having trouble getting over the five hundred mark on the season. Whenever they go on a streak like the one on the last road going 5-1 they ended up losing to fall behind once again.

I believe the problem has to be a mental block for the team. Thursday night against the New York Yankees they had a good chance to go over five hundred behind the good pitching of Felix Hernandez who went seven innings giving up three runs and one hit along with only two walks and he had nine strikeouts. His only run was a homer by Gardner in the sixth inning. It always seems that Felix gets little run support when he is pitching a great game.

The final score was 4-1. James Pazos came in the eighth inning giving up one hit in a third of an inning however a fielding error by Jean Segura cost the Mariners a run. That made the score 2-0 going into the top of the ninth however Robinson Cano made an errant throw on a grounder to him with two outs and two runners on base. Rookie Max Povse came into the game after being called up from Tacoma.  Danny Valencia was unable to handle the throw from Cano which should have been the third out and gave the Mariners a chance to win the game. The two unearned runs made it difficult for the team to have a chance to win.

The Mariners got their one run in the bottom of the ninth when Mike Zunino walked as the leadoff hitter and was pinch run by Guillermo Heredia. He scored with two outs on a double by Robinson Cano. It was the third hit in the game for Cano however his error in the top of the ninth was too much to overcome.

The Mariners did have a chance quite a few times to score runs but left twelve runners on base. This shows where they have the block to get over the five hundred mark.

This is a game that the Mariners should have won. Friday night they should be in front of a large crowd once again. Thursday night they had over thirty-five thousand fans in the seats.  Andrew Moore is going for the Mariners after having a bad outing the last time going only three innings. The Mariners are hoping that he can pitch like he did in his other outings. The Yankees have C.C. Sabathia going for them so it will be a tough game for the Mariners. We hope somehow the Mariners can win the game.  The Mariners need their offense to come back alive.

I think the Mariners are a winning ball club however with most of the ball club back and healthy they should start getting on a hot winning streak. Often though teams like the Mariners could hang around the even mark for a while; with a ball club that includes some new players like shortstop Jean Segura and the outfield of Jarrod Dyson, Mitch Hanger, Ben Gamel and Guillermo Heredia it could take the time to match together. It could be until next season that the team could really perform in the manner they should match their talent. The Mariners though do still need some starting pitching though. We will see the rest of this home stand how they do and going into August primarily being on the road. Go M’s.