The Mariners Swept

Most of us I am sure are not surprised the Seattle Mariners were swept by the Houston Astros this weekend in a three-game series.

Friday night the Astros took down the Mariners 10-2. Yusei Kikuchi was only able to go four innings for the Mariners where he gave up four home runs while the Astros scored six runs.

On Saturday Aaron Sanchez acquired by the Astros at the trading deadline on Wednesday started his first game for the Astros. He and three relievers threw a no-hitter against the Mariners with the final score 9-0.

Marco Gonzales went five innings on Saturday for the Mariners giving up four runs. Three of the four runs happened in the first inning so not a good start.  Recently acquired Matt Wisler gave up two runs relieving Gonzales for an inning; however, both the runs were unearned. Gerson Bautista who was recalled from Tacoma on July 31 when Roenis Elias, Hunter Strickland, and Mike Leake were traded gave up three runs when finishing off the game.

On Sunday the Astros beat the Mariners 3-1. Sam Tuivailala was the opener. He was recorded going one inning; however, he walked two batters in the second so Tommy Milone expected to relieve Tuivailala came in with no outs was able to get the Mariners out of it without giving up a run.

Milone was able to go five innings, giving up four hits, two runs, one walk and struck out seven. Against most teams Milone may have gone away with a victory. The Astros scored a third run in the seventh inning on a single followed by a steal, wild pitch, and a sacrifice fly off of Matt Magill. Anthony Bass who has pitched well as of late for the Mariners pitched the eighth inning giving up no runs, no hits, and struck out a batter.

The Mariners recorded their lone run in the seventh inning when Kyle Seager hit a home run off of Justin Verlander. The Mariners had four hits total in the game. Seager had another hit in the game while JP Crawford had a single, and Dylan Moore hit a triple. Verlander went six innings plus. He left the game with no outs in the seventh inning. He gave up three hits including the Seager home run while walking two, and striking out ten.

The Mariners now come home for two against the San Diego Padres followed by three over the weekend against the Tampa Bay Rays. A series you want to come see since the Mariners will be honoring Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez.

There is no announcement who will start for the Mariners on Tuesday against the Padres though we will probably see Wade LeBlanc enter the game in the second or third inning. Wednesday Kikuchi will start hoping to rebound after his poor start against the Astros on Friday.

The Houston Astros now have a record of 73-40 while the Mariners are at 47-67. Say the Mariners win half of the 48 games remaining on the schedule they will end with less wins than the Astros do now.

Right now it doesn’t look as though the Mariners will even win half of their remaining 48 games on the schedule so they will probably have less than 70 wins on the season. This season isn’t important it is what the Mariner players can build on for next season and the year or two after that when they hope to be making the playoffs. Go M’s.