The Mariner Monitor

Well, you knew it was going to happen but the Angels clinched the AL West yesterday.  Still the Mariners should win around 85 games and they played some meaningful games in September, which was unthinkable to a lot of people at the beginning of the season.  Now, they just have to make sure their recent success doesn’t slip through their fingers.

The pitching staff has to be the biggest disappointment on the team.  Miguel Batista has 15 wins but a 1.56 WHIP means he had his share of run support.  Felix Hernandez looked like he was going to break out before he got hurt and settled back into being just good and then you had disappointments like Jeff Weaver and his 6.00+ ERA.

The hitting was surprisingly good.  The Mariners battiner average is second to just the Yankees in all of baseball and that’s due in part to the slick of hitting if Ichiro.  I guess I’m not too excited they threw all that money at him, but he’s not a bad guy to have.  Adrian Beltre, while still not worth that monster deal we gave him, is showing some returns and he should walk away with a gold glove this year to go along with his team leading 25 homers.

The Angels aren’t going to go away though and the Athletics have a way of getting better when you least expect so this offseason is an important one.  They need to round out their rotation and also continue to work with King Felix so he can become the ace that we all know he is.  And while you always hate to say, “Wait until next year,” Mariners actually have a little hope in that regard.

I wish I could say I had no major complaints regarding the first half of the season.  The Mariners are firmly entrenched in second place and they’re still knocking on the door of the Angels just three games back (and two games back in the loss column).  The Mariners even split a four game series against the best road team in baseball.  My complaint has been Felix Hernandez.  I know he couldn’t help getting injured, but we had about two months of mediocre (or no) Felix Hernandez and it’s nice to see him getting back to his old form.

The Ichiro injury could hurt as well.  Ichiro is a tough guy to replace and you can pretty much bank on him getting on base once or twice every game.  He’s playing tonight, but for a guy who relies on his speed, a bruised thigh could cost him a base now and then and I don’t see him stealing a lot of bases until it heals up.

Jose Guillen is starting to heat up.  He had two homers in the Detroit series and he has a six game hitting streak.  He’s had five multi-hit games in his last ten and he’s scored a run in nine of his last ten games.    He’s also seen his batting average come up close to 20 points in the past couple of weeks as well.

And the start on Thursday by Felix Hernandez was an encouraging one.  The Tigers have the best offense in baseball and Felix held him to two runs.  He gave up his share of hits but he also struck out a batter an inning and that made three solid starts in a row. 

The Mariners have the Orioles this week and Horacio Ramirez makes his first start since going on the disabled list in late May.  The Orioles send Brian Burres to the mound. 

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.

First off, I apologize for not writing.  The Baseball Historians network had some system wide net problems that prevented us from posting so I was kind of in the dark for a while.  Things are fixed though so it’s back to work.

And just in time because Felix Hernandez made his return.  He threw two shutout innings before giving up a run in the third and then two more in the fourth.  He ended up throwing 78 pitches, which was right around what his pitch count was set at and while the end result wasn’t all that great, just getting Hernandez on the mound is big news.  He couldn’t work most of his pitches other then his fastball and once the Angels saw him a second time, they began to hit him.

The good news is, the Mariners put eleven runs on the board in the 11-3 win.  And while the Mariners sit a game out of first, they’re two UP in the loss column.  With two more games against the Angels this week, now is the time to get it done.

Ichiro had a huge day with five hits and that bumps his batting average back over .300.  He now has an eight game hitting streak in which he’s scored eight runs and his batting average has climbed from .260 all the way to .312.

Still, the Mariners are playing pretty much .500 ball and if they want to break away from the pack, they need to pick it up.  Cha Seung Beck gets the start tonight and he’ll face a tough John Lackey.

Well, Oakland is in first place no longer.  The Mariners carried their win on Monday over Texas into a three game winning streak with two straight against the Athletics. 

Jarrod Washburn had his best start of the season yesterday as he threw a three hit shutout.  He walked two and struck out two and it was his first win of the season.  Jose Guillen and Kenji Johjima each hit solo homers in the 2-0 win.

Then today, the Mariners got some more solid pitching and this time it was Miguel Batista.  He gave up two runs on five hits and two walks with six strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings and the win improved his record to 2-2.  Jose Vidro had three hits, a run and an RBI while Jose Lopez helped out with a two run shot that put the Mariners ahead in the sixth inning.  Final was 4-2.

And next up is three against the Royals, who are one of the worst teams in baseball.  A series win would push the Mariners back to .500 and at this point, if you’re .500, you’re within striking distance.

The Mariners finally picked up a win and it turned out to being the only game against the Rangers this time around because the game was postponed and it’ll be made up in late July.

Cha Seung Baek didn’t have his best stuff as he filled in for Felix Hernandez.  Fortunately, the pen and the hitters picked him up and the Mariners walked away with a 5-4 win.  He gave up four runs on eight hits and two walks with one strikeout in 4 1/3.  Rookie Brandon Morrow had a very nice outing and he picked up his first career win.  He struck out two in 3 1/3 shutout innings and J.J. Putz got the final four batters out and he picked up his first save.

Ichiro was the hitting star and he picked up three hits and he drove in three.   Jose Lopez finished with three hits, a run and an RBI.

Next up is two against the first place Athletics.   If the Mariners take both, they’ll be tied with Oakland.  And of course the bad news is that Felix Hernandez was placed on the DL although he sounds like he’s progressing fine.   He’ll be eligible to pitch on May 4th and that day can’t come any quicker.

The Mariners went to Anaheim and left with their tails between their legs after suffering a three game sweep.  When the series began, the Mariners were in first place.  Now they’re in last.  The good news is, they’re just two games back so anyone who puts together a winning streak in the AL West can make a move.

Miguel Batista took it on the chin on Friday. He gave up six runs on ten hits and a walk with two strikeouts in six innings.  The loss drops his record to 1-2 this year.  Adrian Beltre was the hitting star.  He finished with two hits and he both scored and drove in a run in the 8-4 win.

Saturday’s game saw the Mariners attempt to come back from a 7-0 deficit only to fall one run short and lost it 7-6.  Ben Broussard hit his first homerun of the season and Ichiro had two hits and an RBI.  Horacio Ramirez took the loss and he gave up six runs on seven hits and six walks in just four innings.

Then yesterday was more of the same as the Mariners were shut down on just one run on six hits.  The lone Mariner run came in the seventh inning off of Adrian Beltre’s solo homerun.  And Jeff Weaver dropped to 0-3 with another bad start.  He gave up three runs on seven hits in just three innings of work in the 6-1 loss.

The Mariners head to Texas for two games and hopefully hey can get back on track there.  Cha Seung Baek will make his first start of the season in tonights opener.

Well, nobody said it would last and after the Twins rolled into town and took three games, the Mariners went from first place to a losing record in a hurry.  And to make it worse, Felix Hernandez is going to miss at least a couple of starts with his elbow injury.

Tuesday was the worst beating with Jeff Weaver having another rough start.  He gave up seven runs on ten hits and a walk with three strikeouts in six innings.  Jose Lopez finished with two hits and he both scored and drove in a run in the 11-2 loss.

Yesterday was the scariest because of Felix Hernandez leaving the game in the first inning after calling for the trainer.  It looks like a strain and Felix will be shut down for five days to see if that helps.  In total, it’s expected that he’ll miss two or three starts.  Anyway, Hernandez gave up three runs and Jake Woods two as the Twins scored all of their runs in the first two frames.  The Mariners tried to come back but they fell a run short.  Richie Sexson hit a three run homer in the 5-4 loss.

Today’s game wasn’t as close as the 6-5 record indicated because the Mariners scored three in the ninth.  Jarrod Washburn took the loss and he gave up four runs in 6 1/3 innings.  Raul Ibanez was the hitting star. He homered and drove in four of the Mariners five runs.  The other run came on a solo homerun by Yuniesky Betancourt.

The Mariners face another struggling team next with three against the Angels in Anaheim.  Miguel Batista starts tomorrow and hopefully he can right the ship.