Mariners Do It Again

The Seattle Mariners had another giant hill to climb on Friday against the Houston Astros. They were facing Gerrit Cole who was having a very good season for the Astros. In his last outing against the Mariners he was pitching a no-hitter for much of the game until the Mariners were able to score runs against him.

The same again happen on Friday night in a manner of speaking. The game was zero to zero until the bottom of the fifth inning when the Astros scored two runs off of Mike Leake however the Mariners were able to come back and score two runs of their own in the top of the sixth inning. In the end those were the only runs that the Astros scored in the game.

Mike Leake again was able to go toe to toe with one of the Astros top pitchers. Because of his pitch count at ninety-seven at the end of six the Mariners went to the bullpen in the seventh inning with Adam Warren. Although he had some problems giving up a hit and a walk he was able to get out of the seventh without giving up a run.

In the top of the eighth with the bases loaded Nelson Cruz hit a double to bring in Mitch Haniger and Jean Segura while Denard Span went to third base. He scored on a grounder that Kyle Seager hit to the second base. Span was running on contact so Astros had no chance to get him out at home plate. So the score was 5-2 going into the bottom of the eighth which turned out to be the winning score. Alex Colome and Edwin Diaz were able to finish off the game with Diaz recording his forty-fourth save of the season. Also it was the first time this season a team was able to beat Justin Verlander and Cole back to back.

In other news manager Scott Servais announced that Felix Hernandez has been moved to the bullpen. What his role is not defined yet but may take a little time because of how a reliever must warmup before a game. The Mariners haven’t announced yet who will pitch on Sunday but Servais that the pitcher likely will go only four or five innings before going to the bullpen. There is a possibility that Felix could be used on Sunday as well. I believe that could depend on the score in the game as well.

Saturday’s game will be another tough one for the Mariners in the same manner as the two previous games and of course we hope that the game turns out in the same way. The Mariners will have Wade LeBlanc going for them and he will be facing Charlie Morton who has a record of 12-2 with an era of 2.81. Like the previous two games the Mariners will have to pick their spots to score some runs and that LeBlanc will have to keep them in the game just like Paxton and Leake. We hope that the Mariners can pull this game out as well. Since the Mariners will need the use of the bullpen on Sunday I see LeBlanc having to go as long as he can regardless of how he is pitching. If the Mariners can get seven innings out of him with a close score than the Mariners will have a good chance in winning this game to. Go M’s.