Marco Gonzales Continues Positive

The Mariners pitching has been up and down all season long. The problem has been mainly in the bullpen but the starters have been inconsistent as well.

Marco Gonzales has been the Mariners most consistent starter though he has been up and down as well. He started out with a good March and April, however, May wasn’t good at all for him as most of the team. Marco though recovered for a good June and July.

Last year Marco had a record of 13-9 and right now he stands at 11-8 this season. He has started 22 games for the Mariners this season while last year he started 29 games. So he should be able to match last year’s starts at least which means seven more starts the minimum. Say Marco wins at least three games he will have won 14 games. This is good on a team re-tooling who will probably have more than 90 losses.

Monday night Marco Gonzales went seven innings giving up seven hits, two runs, no walks, and four strikeouts. The no walks were a good sign because Marco has 33 walks which is one more than he had all last season.  Marco should have had one run against him because a foul ball was caught by a fan who was wearing a Texas Rangers jersey who took the ball away from Kyle Seager. The ball was going into Seager’s glove when the fan stuck his in taking the ball away. The home plate umpire should have called fan’s interference but I guess he felt all things go in the stands. If the fan was wearing a Mariner jersey I would have more been for it though still upsetting. Had Seager been able to make the catch it would have been the third out instead the batter drove in the runner.

The Rangers had a two-run lead going into the bottom of the second inning when first baseman Austin Nola hit the big blow of the game with a three-run homer his third since being called up from Tacoma on June 16. Nola is hitting very well having a batting average of .349 and is fielding well at first base without having an error so far. We should expect seeing more of him at first base. He can catch as well since he caught a lot in Tacoma before being promoted. Having him on the roster allows the Mariners using catcher Omar Narvaez at DH on occasion with Tom Murphy behind the plate so if an injury occurs they still have Nola to backup.

Besides Nola’s home run Kyle Seager had a home run as well in the eighth inning. The Rangers had a one home run in the game to in the 9^th inning. The score ended 7-3.

The Seattle Mariners now have a record of 41-62 and are 10 ½ games behind the fourth-place Rangers. The Rangers to have struggled since the all-star break with both teams going 2-8 in their last ten. The Mariners two wins were Friday’s almost perfect game by Mike Leake and Monday’s game.

With the Rangers struggling as well we hope the Mariners can end up winning this series. At home, the Mariners are 21-31 while 20-31 on the road. This homestand should be a good one since they do take on the Detroit Tigers over the weekend who has a worse record than the Mariners. The Tigers are 30-65.

Tuesday night the Mariners will start Tommy Milone instead of going with an opener. Mike Leake will follow on Wednesday afternoon. It would be nice if he could almost match his last outing. The Mariners do have a good chance in winning this series. Let’s do it Tuesday night. Go M’s.