Mariners: Friday night shutout

Now that the wild card race is probably over the Mariners beat the Los Angeles Angels two nights in a row this time shutting them out 5-0.

The Mariners went with the bullpen starting Roenis Elias in place of James Paxton who was down with an illness. He is expected now to meet the team in Anaheim or when they get to Texas.  When he will pitch might be in regular turn or before if he is ready to go. Elias went three and a third innings giving up one hit and a walk while striking out four.

He was replaced by Adam Warren in the fourth inning with one out. Before Elias left the game the Mariners did score three runs in the fourth inning with four straight hits that included an rbi by Robinson Cano and two by Ryon Healy who has been hitting well as of late.

Dee Gordon whose bat does seem to be coming alive recently drove in the last two runs in the seventh inning. Also he made an outstanding catch robbing Mike Trout of a home run.

In total the Mariners used six pitchers in the game giving up a total of six hits and walking three batters. Adam Warren got the victory since Elias didn’t go the five innings that was required to get the win.

The Mariners now have 81 wins so that means they will have a winning record for the season. The losses against the Padres I was wondering if they were going to win another game for the season. With fifteen games remaining in the season the A’s will make the wild card with seven wins or seven Mariner losses. The Mariners can still win 90 games however not make the playoffs. In fact the A’s are already at 90 wins.

When looking at end of the season it will seem like a successful season but most of us will look at all the ifs after a bad second half. Of course doesn’t help that the A’s got on a three-month rampage winning at a rate around 70 per cent and the Mariners bats decided to disappear for two months.  I am not sure who could fix why this happened after doing so well for three months. Too much pressure or did they play above their talent. We will never know and it will be Dipoto’s job to see about fixing it for next season.