Mariners Take Another Loss To Yankees

When the Mariners need the offense to step up to the plate it failed them once again in the second game of the series against the Yankees losing 4-2.

Andrew McCutchen who the Yankees recently obtained from the San Francisco Giants led off the game with a home run. Some reason the Mariners give up a lot of those including Felix Hernandez who seems to give up homers early in the games. Anyway the Mariners tied the score 1-1 in the third inning on a home run by Mike Zunino who it far over center field fence. Both teams scored a single run in the fifth inning. Felix had to leave the game with no outs in the fifth inning because of a hamstring in his right leg. Shawn Armstrong did a fine job for two innings giving up no hits however Nick Vincent came in the seventh inning and surrendered a home run to catcher Austin Romine the brother of Mariner utility player Andrew Romine. The Yankees got another run in the ninth to take the lead to 4-2.

The Mariners were able to get a double from Mitch Haniger and a walk off of Dellin Betances but he struck out three other Mariners to end the game.

For the Mariners to avoid the sweep and stay in the wild card race the offense must come alive off of C.C. Sabathia and Erasmo Ramirez must pitch a good game for them to win. Ramirez needs to be able to go at least six innings in this game.

It is something to me that when the Mariners need the offense to come alive at a crucial time of the season it continues to sleep and manager Scott Servais continues sending out the same players. I am not sure whether things would be any different if another player or two were added to the lineup or not but something would be nice to be tried. At least Servais said it right when saying “it is a broken record…”.  I don’t understand a team that was playing so well through June suddenly turn into a team we don’t recognize at all. Were they over their heads or run out of steam? Obviously the pressure of being in the wild card race has gotten to them. My mind now is that Dipoto will need to go out and add at least a couple players that can hit consistently over a full season. Right not sure how many more games they will win the rest of the way but a season that looked so promising has now gone to the basement. It shows that it would be nice to have a team like the A’s who started off slow than caught on fire then one that started off good then slowed to almost a stop. The fun we had seeing a team playing for three months has come to a team that we don’t enjoy seeing much at all. Even if they don’t make the playoffs which is most likely going to happen it would be nice to see a team that is having fun once again. Time to see some of the call ups to see where they may fit for next year; one thing for sure these guys are auditioning for next season as well. Go M’s.