Mariners Taking Series

The Seattle Mariners have one more game to go in the series against the Diamondbacks Sunday afternoon however they did win again to take the series and we hope a nice sweep before heading to San Diego for a couple games.

The Mariners never seem to win games easy except once in a while. Saturday night was another won when winning by one run 4-3 in the 10^th inning. Denard Span hit a home run then Edwin Diaz got his fiftieth save even though he gave up a couple hits. In fact Mitch Haniger had to make an outstanding catch to end the game otherwise the game would have been tied or the Diamondbacks would have won. The Mariners continue to win in extra-inning games. They are now 13-1. Now manager Scott Servais will have to get a Edwin Diaz like haircut because of the 50 saves. It will be interesting to see how he looks in that shave.

The scoring began in the first inning when Mitch Haniger led off the game with a home run then third baseman Eduardo Escobar tied with a home run in the bottom of the first. So the score stayed 1-1 until the seventh when the Diamondbacks scored two runs. The Mariners tied the game in the ninth to make it into extra inning. The Mariners though had several opportunities to score runs to make an easy victory but not on this day. Twice they had the bases loaded and couldn’t even bring one run inning. In total the Mariners had twenty-eight runners left on base in the game. I am not sure if I have ever seen that stat being so high.

The important thing though is that the Mariners won the game no matter how difficult they made it on themselves. At least the offense came through when necessary.

Wade LeBlanc pitched well in the game going six innings giving up one hit, two walks, striking out six and giving up the home run only in the first inning. On the other hand Nick Vincent didn’t have as good an outing as the game before allowing the two runs in the seventh. He was relieved by Zach Duke but he didn’t pitch and Adam Warren came to get the two remaining outs in the seventh inning. Also he pitched the eighth inning as well. Alex Colome pitched the ninth and was recorded with the win.

Although he continues to struggle though he was given the day off on Friday Kyle Seager drove in the tying runs in the ninth inning with a double. We do hope that is the start to him getting back on track. The Mariners can sure use his bat for the stretch run and we hope the playoffs.

The Oakland A’s won again so the Mariners are still four games behind them so very important for the Mariners to continue winning especially going to the series against the A’s next weekend when they start a four game series on Thursday. The Mariners are hoping that James Paxton will be ready to go in that series. Mike Leake pitches Sunday afternoon while Felix Hernandez takes the mound on Tuesday in San Diego followed by Marco Gonzales on Wednesday. Go M’s.