The Mariner Monitor

June has been a nice month to be a Mariners fan.  After a sweep over the Red Sox, the Mariners have now had two seperate five game winning streaks and then a four game winning streak to make them 16-9 in June.  I know that six game losing streak was tough but the Mariners now sit just five games back of the Angels and three games ahead of the A’s in what’s turning out to be the best division in the American League.  Heck, even the Rangers have gotten hot.

Man, did the Mariners get some good pitching yesterday.  Ryan Feierabend had his best start of the season (and really his only “good” start) and then the pen took over.  Jason Davis picked up the win with two scoreless frames but this was definitely a team pitching effort.  And then Jose Lopez comes up with the big hit to win it.

Richie Sexson is still struggling at the plate and if the Mariners expect to make a run, he needs to be one of their horses.  A .733 OPS isn’t going to cut it and while the homeruns are there, the rest of the package really isn’t.  And the same goes for Adrian Beltre, who’s on pace to put up numbers around what he had last year.  Not bad, but not nearly enough for what we’re paying him.

Ichiro on the other hand has gotten it done.  He had two more hits yesterday and he’s back up to .364.  He’s on pace to rack up more hits in a season then he has since he set the record back in 2004.  And he’s well on his way to another 110 runs and 45 steals.  In fact, if the season ended today, his .885 OPS would be a career high.

I’m not sure what happened to Jeff Weaver but I like it.  He’s had two nice starts in a row and his last four have been solid.  Right now though, there really is no leader in the rotation.  Jarrod Washburn has been their best pitcher but he’s only 6-6.  And even he’s been shaky in June (6.39 ERA with a .346 batting average against).

The Mariners finish their homestand this weekend with three against the visit Blue Jays.  It’ll be Washburn going up against Dustin McGowan so hopefully Washburn can get it done because Saturday, the Mariners will have to face Roy Halladay.

The Mariners have recovered nicely from their six game losing streak and they’ve now pieced together two straight wins.  Probably the most surprising game was that shutout by Jeff Weaver, who finally notched his first win of the season.  And then Felix Hernandez did it last night and you hope he’s back for good.  Anyway, the Mariners are four games back of the Tigers for the Wild Card and unless they can put a dent into that Angels lead, it’s the Wild Card that we should all be looking at.

Ichiro’s batting average is now up to .358 and he’s hitting an awesome .415 in June.  This is a guy who needs to be there if the Mariners are going to make a run.  And who would have thought we’d be talking about him being the corner stone of a playoff team because a lot of people expected him to be a trade deadline casualty with he Mariners getting little respect.  Anyway, he has a 16 game hitting streak where he’s boosted his batting average by 30 points.

The good news is, the Mariners have a three game series against a pretty poor Reds team.  The bad news is, the Mariners have the Red Sox right after that.  Tonight it’ll be the return of Ken Griffey, Jr. and Ryan Feierabend will take on Reds ace Aaron Harang.  After this though, I like our chances in the final two games so another series win could be in the works.

The Mariners won their fifth straight game and their ninth in ten game with a nice win over the Cubs.  This came after a sweep of the Padres.  The only bad news is that the Angels have won seven of ten and the A’s eight of ten so all of a sudden, the West is the division with all of the winners (okay, no comment on the Rangers).

Ichiro is his steady old self.  He’s hit in eight straight and his batting average has hovered in the .330s since the later part of May.  And his 48 runs are good for fifth in the American League.  He’s drawing a few more walks then he usually does, which is also encouraging and he’s pretty close to matching his 49 RBIs from last year.

Jarod Washburn is finally pitching like the guy we’d hope back when the Mariners signed him.  He’s only 5-5 but he leads the team in innings and ERA.  He’s also done a nice job of keeping the ball down and he’s given up just five homeruns.

The concern is Felix Hernandez who still doesn’t come close to resembling his old early April self.  He hasn’t thrown more then six innings since coming back and while he’s done okay in most of his starts, he’s hardly been the shut down pitcher we were hoping for.

J.J. Putz should be close to having his name mentioned as an elite closer.  He’s doing even better then he did after an very impressive 2006 season and his WHIP is a microscopic 0.66 with a batting average against of .139.  Against righties, he has a mind boggling .085 batting average against.  Three of the four runs he’s given up have oddly come on solo homeruns.

The Mariners look to make it six in a row tonight with Miguel Batista throwing against Sean Marshall.  The Cubs starter has been solid since getting called up but I still like our chances.