(Tony Gutierrez / The Associated Press)
Many of us thought it couldn’t get worse than last year, but it has. The Seattle Mariners are now 7-13 on the season and dead last in the American League West. The series against Texas started off well enough with a drubbing of the Rangers on Wednesday; however the bats went quiet and the bullpen had yet another meltdown as the rebuilding Mariners serve as fodder for other teams.
8/12 @ Rangers L 7-4
Well we all knew the Mariners bullpen wasn’t very good. It was proved again as the 8th inning saw a severe meltdown as Erik Swanson came into the game and got shelled for 5 runs off 23 pitches. The Mariners actually jumped to a 4-0 lead before the horrifying 8th inning came along.
To be fair a new rule in baseball requires a pitcher face at least 3 batters. It was evident that Swanson didn’t have the stuff this evening, but without an option to remove him, manager Scott Servais could do little but allow the horrific result to escalate out of control.
8/11 @ Rangers L 4-2
Game two saw a man named Nick Solak come up big against the M’s. Solak singled 3 times and drove in 3 runs to push the Rangers past the M’s. The Mariners did make a comeback in the 5th inning when JP Crawford knocked in Dee Gordon and Tim Lopes scored on an error.
Unfortunately, aside from that offensive outburst, the M’s could muster just 4 hits on the day. Starter Marco Gonzales did not have his stuff as he gave up 4 runs in 5 innings.
8/10 @ Rangers W 10-2
On Monday, it was a promising start. Hot hitting Kyle Seager hit a grand salami, while Kyle Lewis and Dylan Moore got in the act with homers of their own. Seager got to break in the new Globe Life Field which had its roof open for the 1st time. That served the M’s well as everybody in the line up got a hit.
“If you snake it just right down the line, you can get it,” Seager said about his homer. “But I don’t think there was a park that was going to hold either Lewis or Dylan. They hammered the ball.”
It has been suggested of starter Justin Dunn that perhaps he should move to the bullpen. Dunn went 6 uneven innings with 7 hits on 90 pitches. He did however only give up 2 runs and it is hard to argue with as a win is a win. This brings Dunn to 1-1 on the season with 8 runs allowed over 13 innings. It seems a little early to write the book on this guy.
The two Kyles combined for 5-10 hitting with 7 RBIs. These 2 have been the few shining stars on a team mired in mediocrity. Seager is now hitting .292 with 3 homers and 18 RBI while rookie Kyle Lewis is batting .338 with 14 RBI and 4 homers.
