Mike’s Mighty Bat

Mike Zunino continued his hot hitting on Wednesday Night for the Mariners against the Rangers in Texas. The game was tight for the first four innings when neither team scored a run until the fifth inning when Zunino hit a solo home run and then Jean Segura hit a two-run homer to take a 3-0 lead. The Rangers scored a run in the sixth inning the only one of the game by them. The Mariners put the game out of reach scoring five runs including Zunino’s second solo run. The two home runs gave Mike twenty-three for the season the most he has ever had in one season. He now is second on the Mariners list for home runs by a catcher. I expect that he will pass up Dan Wilson who is the leader next season.

What would be great if Mike has figured it all out which at this point he looks like he has he will be available player in the Mariners lineup. If he can hit like he has in spurts this season over a full season we will see him in an all-star game I have no doubt.

If Zunino can bat sixth or seventh in the lineup on a regular basis this will help the guys like Heredia in the bottom of the lineup to get better pitches.

Mike Leake was able to get his third win in three appearances since coming over from the St. Louis Cardinals. At this point it looks like an excellent trade for the Mariners. He can be an available part of the starting rotation along with Felix Hernandez and James Paxton. Speaking of them Hernandez will pitch the final game of this series against the Rangers. It will be great if the Mariners can win Thursday night to take three out of four games in the series. We just hope this is not too late for them to make the wild card. Paxton will pitch Friday Night in Houston in the first game of that three game series.

The Mariners schedule for 2018 came out earlier this week. They start at home on March 29 against the Cleveland Indians. Right now the Indians are the hottest team in the major leagues. It will be quite the series if the Astros and Indians meet in the American League Championship. Of course we all hope with a miracle that the Mariners can be there instead. It would be great if the Mariners can finally go on a win streak for the remaining of the season. Often we have seen them win two or three and then lose two or three. Not the way we want to watch baseball however the offense has been more entertaining this year over some of the past ones. It would have been nice if the pitching could have stand pat to match the offense. We can hope that the injuries won’t happen next year and that the Mariners can add more depth to the starting and relief pitching. We will go more on both of those at a late time. Go M’s.