Paxton Shuts Out Astros

The Mariner’s started their opening game of the season at Safeco Field on Monday beating the Houston Astros 6-0. This now makes their record 2-6 on the season.

James Paxton had another above average game pitching for the Mariners going seven innings. He gave up only four hits and struck out eight batters while walking two. After Sunday’s game where the Angels scored seven runs in the ninth inning to win 10-9 Paxton showed that he may be the ace of the starting rotation; this is a kind of game that an ace does his job. When a team is struggling the Mariners have starting off the season the ace comes in and shuts down the other ball club. Most likely we won’t know this until May. Of course all depends on how Felix pitches as well. In fact Felix has done a good job in his two first outings but being the ace may not be in the cards for him any longer. Of course it would be nice if the Mariners could have two aces on the ball club.

Iwakuma pitched a good game on Sunday before the bullpen didn’t do the job in the ninth inning. Actually the bullpen had done a good job in the previous six games. The reason the Mariners had only won one game before Sunday because the offense wasn’t doing well at all. These last two games show us that the offense may be in gear once again. Nelson Cruz got a couple hits on Monday to help the Mariners score their runs. Also Kyle Seager had a single and a sacrifice fly to help score a run to.

The Mariners lost shortstop Jean Segura early in the game because of a hamstring pull. He left the game after being out on a throw to first base. According to manager Servais he hurt the hamstring a little earlier. Right now Segura is day to day. A lot will depend how he looks when he comes to the park on Tuesday. Servais said on post-game remarks that he will talk with Dipoto about adding another infielder and go with one less pitcher. I see this as a good idea. The Mariners can always bring up another pitcher if the bullpen gets overused. I wouldn’t be surprised if this will happen over the course of the season. The work of the starting rotation right now looks like they are going six plus innings so that is a good sign. As long as they can continue on that path then the bullpen should be fine.

It was really nice to see the Mariners play at home in the opener in the manner we were expecting at the beginning of last week.  The Astros haven’t done that much in hitting besides home runs they are struggling right now. The Angels who swept the Mariners in Anaheim are in first place. They have a good offense however will their pitching be able to keep up. This should be an interesting season and the Mariners should be in the hunt despite the awful first week of the season. We will know a lot more when their nine-game home stand ends next Wednesday. Go M’s.

Mariner Continue Slide

 

 What can we say about the seven game road trip where the Mariners went 1-6. Sunday was most brutal having a 9-3 lead going into the ninth inning and the Angels coming back to score seven runs to win 10-9.

What made it frustrating was the Mariners pitching including the bullpen had done a good job going into this game. The offense had trouble in the previous six games and this one looked like the Mariners would win pretty handily before the ninth inning. The ninth inning started with Casey Fien giving up a home run to Albert Pujols.  At this point that was OK however Fien continued to have trouble that closer Edwin Diaz came in the game with the bases loaded.

The problem happened that Diaz had trouble getting outs himself. He was unable to use his slider affective and the Angels were able to hit his fastball. A major problem was that Diaz wasn’t expected to pitch in the game with such a big lead and I am not sure if he had enough warm up time either.

In the previous six games the Mariners bullpen was effective though there was a little trouble before with Nick Vincent and Fien.

The Mariners are expecting to have Tony Zych coming off the disabled list. He did get a little action with Tacoma though they had rainouts in their first two games against Sacramento on the road. I would not be surprised if Zych takes the spot of Fien on the roster. Most likely Zych will pitch in the sixth or seven inning most of the time unless there is a big lead like Sunday in Anaheim. We hope to that Diaz won’t struggle in another game like that for a little while.

The important thing is that the Mariner players keep a good attitude on their shoulders.  We hope that the offense on Sunday will continue and the bullpen especially will correct themselves. The starting pitching had done a pretty good job in all seven games. The Mariners could have won at least three of the games in these seven. We have to keep the faith that they will start winning on a regular basis.

The Mariners start playing a three game series against the Houston in Seattle. We hope that the Mariners could win at least two of the games before facing the Texas Rangers and the Miami Marlins.  Go M’s.

Speed Helps

Thursday night the Seattle Mariners got their first win of the season over the Houston Astros to salvage something out of the series.  The positive side was that they were in every game though the offense struggled through the series. I guess you can give the Astros pitching some credit though we probably agree that the Mariner offense was poor throughout the series.

Thursday night going into the ninth inning the game was tied 2-2. Another tight game we saw hoping that the Mariners would finally come away with a victory. The Mariners Valencia was able to get a walk and catcher Ruiz was hit by a pitch. In both cases they were replaced by pinch runners. Taylor Motter pinched run for Valencia which will be happening a lot this season when he isn’t starting a game. Guillermo Heredia pinched run for Ruiz. The speed that both runners have they both scored easily on hits. It is something that the Mariners did not have much of last season except near the end of the year. With so many games that the Mariners will have close this will help them out dearly.

In this series against the Astros we have seen the speed work well defensively in the outfield most of all. Jarrod Dyson made several catches that last year would have dropped in for hits. These catches have not been fantastic in the most part they have looked more like routine. Whether this is true or not it certainly has helped out the defense.

The series in Houston showed us that the Mariners will be scoring more runs by small ball instead of home runs. Minute Maid Park in Houston is a home run park which we saw the Astros demonstrate. The Mariners on the other hand did not. Mitch Haniger who showed us his hitting in the series hit his first home run of the season in Houston in game four. We did not see a home run out of Nelson Cruz or Kyle Seager or Robinson Cano. We did see some hits out of Cano who hits well in Minute Maid Park. In fact he hit better there than any visitor did last year. He hit a nice double on Thursday that helped the Mariners score one of their first two runs along with Haniger’s homer.

We hope the signs show that the Mariners will get out of their hitting funk in Anaheim against the Angels over this weekend. Yovani Gallardo will make his Mariner debut against the Angels. We hope that he follows suite with the other four starters than what he accomplished during spring training. It is important that he doesn’t struggle in the first inning especially facing Mike Trout who has been giving Mariner pitching a handful. Trout last year was almost the whole offense for the Angels against the Mariners.

I can see the Mariners winning two out of the three games this weekend especially if the pitching continues to hold up and the offense can come alive to some extent. At least they have the speed on the base paths to make a difference in close games. Go M’s.  

 

Mariners Come Up Short Again

 The Mariners fell short in game number 2 because of the offense once again. Of course the pitching was good enough to win as well. Although he gave up two home runs Iwakuma the Astros only had four hits total against him in six innings. He could have pitched better however the Mariners offense isn’t making it easy to win anyway. At least this time they got seven hits in the game. On another positive note the Texas Rangers have lost both of their games as well.

The Mariners offense needs to relax and not think about playing against the Astros. At least the last two games of the series they will face the Astros three and four starters. Going for the Mariners Wednesday night will be James Paxton. Though he is in the lineup as the third starter he is more like a number one or two starter so this is real good for the Mariners.

Outside of home runs in the series the Astros haven’t done much against Hernandez and Iwakuma. Over the season the Mariners should do well if the hitting can come alive. We know that the offense can score five runs a game so they could have won both games if that had happened.

Kyle Seager always starts out slow in April and so far he has one hit. This doesn’t mean much in the first two games but if continues to struggle like he has in other April’s I would look to move him down in the lineup until he gets hot like we know he will. I would switch him to either six or seven in the lineup.

Leonys Martin and Mike Zunino both struck out twice on Tuesday night. Martin left four runners on base while Zunino left three. I am sure that both will be in the lineup again Wednesday night however I would have Heredia and Ruiz playing on Thursday if both of them struggle again.

At this point I like the top three of the rotation for the Mariners. I haven’t made up my mind yet about Gallardo and Miranda although both could have good upside as well as downside. If one of the two does well than I will be pleased. I have mentioned before that I do not really like the five-man rotation. I prefer four-man rotation like they used to back in the seventies and before. The fifth men in the rotation almost always have a losing record. I am sure the Mariners would have made the playoffs last year with a four-man rotation. If a team is on a long road trip than I can understand adding in a fifth starter; they could throw in the long reliever to start a game. I am sure guys like Felix and Paxton can pitch on three-day rest instead of four. Anyway best of luck to the Mariners in the final two games against Houston. We hope that the bats can come alive on Wednesday.

Mariners Shut Out in Opening Game

I am sure all Mariner fans were disappointed because they lost on opening day. King Felix was only about to go five innings because he came down with a groin injury. He expects that he will be able to return for his next start.

In the five innings that he pitched he gave up five hits and two home runs. The first homer was to the leadoff batter Springer. Felix considered it the worst pitch he threw all night. The second homer was to Correa that was considered a good pitch. On the radio post-game show analyst and former Mariner Mike Blowers said that the only other right handed hitter he thought could hit the ball that way in his time was Edgar Martinez. You sometimes have to give the batter credit too. The positive side Felix did not walk a batter in the game either.

The Mariners did get shut out in the game 3-0. The other run given up by the Mariners was by Nick Vincent who struggled somewhat in the game. The Astros starter Keuchel gave up only two hits in seven innings to the Mariners. He was outstanding though he walked two and struck out four. Shortstop Jean Segura got two of the three hits by the Mariners in his Mariner debut including the lead-off hit in the game. He was able to get to second base but was stranded there. The third hit was by Robinson Cano.

Again the Mariners were unable to give Felix running support. We hope that the Mariners will be able to get untracked tonight against the Astros. It would be nice to split the first two games of the series by scoring more runs Tuesday night while Iwakuma goes for the Mariner. It will be more difficult for the Mariners to do something in the series if they lose again Tuesday although a lot easier to hit against the Astros third and fourth starters.

In other local sports Gonzaga lost to North Carolina in the final game of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament 71-65. What made it difficult was that they went like eleven minutes without scoring a point. We will have to see if they can return to the finals again next season. I was very impressed in freshman center Zach Collins who moves very well for a big man and can pass the ball good too. Thank you the Bulldogs to making the people of Washington State proud. We hope in the future the Huskies and Cougars can match up with you.

 

Monday is Here and So is Mariners Opening Day

The Seattle Mariners open 2017 season today Monday April 3 in Houston, Texas against the Astros. They will play a four game series before going to Anaheim to play a three game series against the Angels before starting a home series next Monday against the Astros.

It will not only be important the Mariners start off well in the series against the Astros however that Felix Hernandez pitches a good game to. It would be nice if he can pitch six or seven innings in the game as well. If he can give up no more than three runs in the game the Mariners will have a good chance to win the game.

Another good thing would be if the Mariners can split the series against the Astros at the very least and win two out of three against the Angels. The Mariners have played well against the Angels in most recent years.  

It is critical that the Mariners get off to a good start since the first series on the road and then at home are sixteen games. Thirteen of those games are against division foes. Besides the Astros and Angels they play three against the Rangers.  In between the Astros and Rangers at home they play inter-league series against the Miami Marlins.

At some point during those sixteen games I expect that the Mariners will make some changes in the bullpen and the roster. They are starting with eight relievers in the bullpen along with their five starters and three bench players. Good chance they will do some maneuvering on the roster depending on how they are playing.

 Tony Zych is going to start the season doing a rehab assignment for the Tacoma Rainiers. Depending how the bullpen is going will decide whether he will be called up or not. The Mariners have Steve Cishek and Shae Simmons on the disabled list. They both may do rehab assignments depending on the bullpen as well.

Shawn O’Malley may go on a rehab assignment in a few days or be activated on the roster. This will depend on whether the Mariners want to stay with an eight man bullpen or go back to seven.  Most likely there can be a shift between the bench and the bullpen over the season. The Mariners have three bench players in catcher Carlos Ruiz, utility player Taylor Motter and outfielder Guillermo Heredia right now. Again the change may depend how healthy the players stay and how the regulars are playing especially at first base and the outfield. Go M’s.

 

 

Mariners Opening Day Roster Set

On Friday general manager Jerry Dipoto and manager Scott Servais announced the Mariners opening day roster for the upcoming 2017. There were not too many surprises for the team since the roster was really set when spring training started.

The bullpen was the only area that had some uncertainty since they had several pitchers that looked to start on the disabled list. The two main candidates for the disabled list were Steve Cishek and Tony Zych who were not expected to start the season when spring training started. Shae Simmons got hurt early in spring training so he has been added to the disabled list along with Rob Whalen. Zych has been throwing the ball so he most likely will be the first one available to pitch in a game and he may start on a rehab assignment in Tacoma depending on how the bullpen pitchers are doing.

The Mariners will start the season with eight relievers in the bullpen however at some point they will likely go to seven when the starters are able to go longer in the games.  Dillon Overton who was expected to be a starter in Tacoma when the season started did an excellent job that he will start the season as the Mariners long reliever. The other surprise was another lefty James Pazos who the Mariners picked up from the Yankees during the off-season. So right now the Mariners have three lefties in the bullpen with Marc Rzepczynski as the primary left handed specialist; Pazos will go in against lefties as well. Most likely he will be the first lefty specialist to get into the game in either the sixth or seventh inning while Rzepczynski will come in the eighth or ninth inning ahead of Diaz who will be the closer. Overton will be seen as the long reliever out of the bullpen.

When it comes to right handed relievers the Mariners will have Evan Scribner and Nick Vincent likely the first ones to come out of the bullpen. Casey Fien will be used depending on how much use for Scribner and Vincent. Dan Altavilla most likely pitches the eighth inning until Cishek return. Depending on his success and how much Diaz is being used as closer Altavilla may go two innings as well.

How far the starters can go will depend on how much the bullpen will be used. The Mariners may have to bring up someone from Tacoma if the bullpen is used too much. Speaking of starters the Mariners got bad news that Drew Smyly will be out for six to eight weeks because of his elbow. Ariel Miranda has been brought up from triple A to take his spot.

The Mariners will be going with a small bench with Carlos Ruiz as the backup catcher, Taylor Motter as the utility player and Guillermo Heredia as the fourth outfielder. Things can change on the bench when Shawn O’Malley gets well and comes off the disabled list.

The Mariners do look like an exciting team with better defense and speed this season though they do have question marks in the rotation and bullpen along with how well the hitting will be from the outfielders. Go M’s.