remaining in the season. Eighteen of
the games are against either the Astros
or the A's. They play two series against
the Arizona Diamondbacks and the
Kansas City Royals. A series at home
and another on the road. They play the
LA Angels in weekend series on the
road before finishing at home against
the A's.
The Mariners currently have a record
of 63-56; they are five games behind
the A's for second place in the division.
They play nine games the rest of the
way against the A's with seven being
at the end of the season. The Mariners
will either being fighting still for the
wild card or not. The chances would
be great against still being in the race
at that point. If they are then it will be
great baseball. The Mariners will have
to win most of those games against
the A's to by pass them in the standings.
Even then making the wild card will
still be hard to make it.
I have looked at the schedule coming
up including the series starting Tuesday
against the Rangers. I see the Mariners
maybe winning 19 of the 43 games
remaining which would give them a
record of 82-80. They would have to
play some pretty good baseball to win
more than that because of who they
are playing.
The pitching has been pretty good for
the most part with a few minor set backs.
The problem still has to do with the
offense not able to score a lot of runs.
The key for the Mariners is continue
winning a lot of one run games or
increasing run production to more than
four runs a game. The Mariners have
a good record when scoring at least
four runs. It is a must for them to win
more than 19 games.
The Mariners play the Kansas City
Royals seven times with four at home.
The Royals have the worst record in
the American League Central. I figure
the Mariners will win four out of the
seven games. If they can win one more
game then that would be a plus. The
Mariners will have to do the same
against a few other teams on their
schedule as well to have any real
chance to make the playoffs including
sweeping at least one series which
I didn't put into account either.
Paul Sewald has returned to the
bullpen after taking several days
off for paternity leave. This means
in Texas Sewald along with Drew
Steckenrider and Diego Castillo
will be the big three in the final
couple innings of the game. How
they do will see how the Mariners
do to.
Would not be surprised the Mariners
have several one run games in this
eight game road trip. It will be
important they take care of those
games and not let them slide away.
Being Tuesday it will be important
to beat the Rangers to start off.
Kyle Seager always seems to play
well against the Rangers in Texas
so for the Mariners he needs to do
it again. Also, be important JP
Crawford and Mitch Haniger get
on ahead of Seager too. Ty France
who has to be the Mariners most
valuable player of the season will
continue what he does. Expect
good things out of Abraham Toro
once again. Whatever they get
out of the bottom of the batting
order will be a plus. I hope Cal
Raleigh and Jake Fraley get more
time at the plate then Tom Murphy
and Dylan Moore. I don't mind
seeing Murphy and Moore in
one of the games against the
Rangers along with the Astros.
I am sure we will see Murphy
at least twice in those two series
since he is a catcher. I want to
see Raleigh in four of those
games. He needs to have playing
time and Murphy doesn't add
anything special to the lineup
other than giving Raleigh a
breather.
I hope the Mariners split the
six games against the Rangers
and Astros at the very least.
I look forward to a good home
coming for Toro against the
Astros. Go M's.
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