I was ready to hit the panic button after the first Houston Astros series with the Mariners winning just one of the three games. As fans we were told by the experts that having Houston in our division would be an easy 19-wins. Apparently someone forgot to tell this to the Mariners.
In their second series with Houston, again they would win only 1 out of the 3 games and come within one loss of being in last place in the AL West. Houston has only 8-wins this season and 4 of those wins are from the Mariners.
The big concern with the Mariners is the same thing it has been for the last five seasons and that is their lack of offense. At one point they went 7-games with only scoring 9 runs. That is when I started calling the Mariner's offense the Mariner's noffense (no offense).
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A big key to their noffense is leaving runners on base in scoring position. One of the biggest culprits is Justin Smoak with four at bats with the bases loaded and he has struck out 3 of the 4 times. I don't mind a player making an out but make it a good out, that at least gets a run across.
Brandon Ryan is still trying to get his average over the Mendoza line with his average at .141. At some point his defense is not going to be worth his lack of offense. Eric Wedge sat him a few games for Robert Andino with a batting average just a few points higher then Ryan's at .179.
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The Mariners have the best one-two punch in starting pitching with Felix Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma. It is the 3-4-5 starters that are still struggling Brandon Maurer, Joe Saunders and Aaron Harang. They have already dropped Blake Beavan as the fifth starter to bring in Aaron Harang who has gone 1-3 in his four starts with an ERA of 8.68. Saunders and Maurer have shown signs of hope with some good outings.
The Mariners have made it through April with only one off-day and a record of 12-17. I swear when they are making the schedules they put together all the other teams and what is left is the Mariners schedule. The month of May they have five days off, 17 road games and only 9 home games. At one point they play Pittsburgh, fly home to take on Oakland for three games then fly out again to play the Yankees.
They have started May off winning 3 out of 4 games and winning their last three series. Even after the slow start they are only 6 games out of first. Now if they can just figure out how to beat those Astros. Go Mariners!
Mariner Tidbits
* Best starting ERA duo in baseball, Felix .160 and Iwakuma .161.
* Joe Saunders pitched the only Mariner's complete game of April.
* New edition Mike Morse has hit a team leading 9-homeruns.
* Seagerlious(Kyle Seager) has 11 doubles which is 4th best in the league.
* Ackley just hit his first grand slam of his career May 4, in Toronto.
* The Mariners are third in the American League in fielding.
* Gutierrez went back on the DL after pulling a hamstring on a diving catch. He will be re-evaluated when the Mariners return from their home stand.