Marco Gonzales Evens Angels Series

 

Marco Gonzales is like the Mariners teams when we think he maybe down he responds with a great outing. On Wednesday night Marco pitched seven inning giving up only two hits, walking no batters and striking out four. The Mariners are trying to limit Gonzales innings so I am sure the reason they took him out after seven innings with a 3-0 lead.

 

The Mariners got their scoring with catcher David Freitas hitting his first home run in the major leagues in the third inning. The Mariners scored two additional runs in the fourth inning when Jean Segura and Mitch Haniger each got on then Nelson Cruz hit them both in with a single after Segura and Haniger moved up a base because of a wild pitch. It was all the scoring the Mariners needed though it would be nice if the Mariners offense could start scoring more runs.

 

James Paxton is scheduled to go for the Mariners Thursday night in the final game of the series against the Angels. No one is listed yet to start the opening game series against the Colorado Rockies on Friday. Likely the Mariners will bring a pitcher up from Tacoma to do so. Wade LeBlanc and Mike Leake are scheduled to pitch on Saturday and Sunday to close the series before the All-Star break.

 

Although it seems that the Mariners have been struggling as of late in the last ten games they are 6-4 while the Astros and A's are 7-3. The Angels are at 5-5 and the Rangers in dead last are 2-8. The Mariners and the A's have sixty-nine wins remaining. If the Mariners win 92 wins for the season which would be going 34-35 in those games the A's would have to  40-29 to tie them. The Angels would have to 45-24 to tie the Mariners.  The Astros would have to go 30-39 to have a tie as well. So not easy for the A's and Angels to catch the Mariners while at the same time it will be hard for the Mariners to catch the Astros although they are only three games behind them. It would be important for the Mariners to win the majority of their remaining games against the Astros to overtake them.

 

So the Mariners do have a good chance to make the playoffs however they can't tank it by losing a lot of games in these sixty-nine remaining games. Twenty-four of these remaining games are against teams that have losing records.  They have eight games remaining against the Angels including Thursday night however they play twenty-six games between the Astros and the A's so very important for them to at least split those games. The last place Rangers they have ten remaining games. The Mariners end the season at home with three games against the A's and four against the Rangers. Those could come down to being very important. Go M's.