Seattle Mariners: Don’t overlook the AL West’s darkhorse
It’s that time of year for Major League Baseball fans everywhere to keep one eye on their respective team and the other on the scoreboard. While we have some exciting divisional battles to look forward to today I would like to focus on a team that’s been largely overlooked in the American League West, the Seattle Mariners.
General Manager Jack Zduriencik recognized the need for more offense and acquired Austin Jackson and Chris Denorfia at the deadline while also adding Kendrys Morales and it has paid off in spades for the Mariners as the Mariners have won 10 of their last 13 ballgames and are just 6.5 games behind the Oakland Athletics and the Los Angeles Angels.
August has been particularly kind to Seattle hitters in general and in particular Chris Taylor (.341/.412/.432/.812), Robinson Cano (.333/.446/.611/1.057) and Logan Morrison (.321/.379/.434/.813) have had outstanding August numbers while Kyle Seager (2HR, 10RBI) and Dustin Ackley (3HR, 12RBI) has been doing the heavy lifting. In fact just about every single Mariner has had a good to great August. All one would need to see is the way the Mariners manhandled the pitching staff of the Detroit Tigers this past weekend (17 runs scored) to see this team is no joke with the lumber in their hands.
While the Mariners have been hot with the sticks we can’t fail to mention how well the pitching staff has also fared in August. Chris Young has blown my mind this season and particularly in August where he’s 3-0 with a 2.12 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP. Where all this came from I have no idea especially with an FIP of 4.58 and an xFIP of 5.15 (source) but whatever he’s doing sure seems to be working out, at least for now. On the flip side Roenis Elias has been a tad bit unlucky going 1-2 on the month with a 2.35 ERA with 4 earned runs in 15.1 innings of work. 9 walks have been the culprit here which is above his 3.52 walks per nine season average (source). The rest of the starting staff has also been spectacular and as a unit have allowed just 18 earned runs in 95.1 innings of work in the month of August.
Closer Fernando Rodney hasn’t had the greatest month of his career but he does have 5 saves despite giving up 3 earned runs in 7 innings of work. Unless your last name is Rivera every closer has a tough spell and his FIP of 2.14 and xFIP of 2.94 suggests that a slump is just what that is. Yoervis Medina and Charlie Furbush have been doing a good job this month as well. I’m not a big fan of this bullpen but there are far worse pens out there than the Mariners pen that’s for sure.
The rest of the week should be interesting for the Mariners. They face AJ Burnett and Cole Hamels of the Phillies in Philadelphia on Tuesday and Wednesday. As a team the Mariners are batting .246 against both righties and lefties so they should be good to go in that regard. The only trouble I see is their 22% strikeout rate against lefties facing a strikeout pitcher like Hamels. The Mariners will need their strong pitching and taking the bump on Tuesday will be Hisashi Iwakuma (11-6, 2.72 ERA) and on Wednesday the M’s send out James Paxton (3-0, 2.20 ERA). It doesn’t get much better than this and I see the Mariners taking both games against the Phillies.
The Red Sox will be traipsing out Joe Kelly (2-3, 4.67 ERA) Brandon Workman (1-7, 4.26 ERA) and Allen Webster (3-1, 4.79 ERA) while the Mariners will be sending out their aces in Felix Hernandez, Young and Hisashi Iwakuma. This should be a sweep and a great opportunity to gain some ground on the Oakland Athletics and Los Angeles Angels.
The rest of the month sees the Mariners with a three game home stand against the Texas Rangers beginning Monday the 25th followed by another three game home series with the equally hot Washington Nationals.
It should be an interesting month for the American League West’s forgotten Seattle Mariners.