Oakland Takes Series

The Mariners continue to lose series which I guess we expected at the beginning of the season though they did get off to a great start. The important thing is to improve while the season is going on which isn’t always easy to find.

The Mariners won the middle of the three games series 6-3 behind the pitching of Marco Gonzales who has pitched well for the past month. Also, had home runs from Dan Vogelbach (Mr. All-Star) and Kyle Seager.

Sunday though the game started off not so good with opener Matt Carasiti going only a third of an inning giving up five runs; three of the runs were right away on a home run by first baseman Matt Olson.

Wade LeBlanc came in as scheduled. He had an excellent game going six and two-third innings giving up one run which was a home run in the second inning. Matt Wisler made his Mariner debut on Sunday giving up one run a homer in the eighth inning. Matt Festa finished the game in the 9^th inning. He gave up no hits in his one inning.

The player of the game for the Mariners was catcher Omar Narvaez who had two home runs in his four hits and drove in all four of the Mariner runs. I would say that is a career day. He now has 14 home runs which is a career high for him in a season. He is leading the Mariners in hitting with average of .296.

The final score was 7-4. Now the players can relax over the all-star break. We hope to see more improvement in the second half though they have played more than 81 games so far.

Mike Leake is scheduled to start Friday against the Angels. Saturday’s game they have no announced starter yet however I expect it will be the opener whoever that might be. Sunday Yusei Kikuchi will finish the series. The Mariners have Monday off which is strange after the all-star break. They will be in Oakland taking on the A’s next week with Marco Gonzales going on Tuesday.

I will give you a break on the Mariners this week except let you know how Vogelbach does in the all-star game and who the Mariners trade if anyone.  I know there are other sports to write about too.  Have fun!