The 2016 Seattle Mariners (Official season edition)

[kearly]

Part of it might be due to this umpires ridiculous strike zone but yeah.

I get what you are saying, but Martin and Marte going 0-11 with 8 K's. I'd put maybe 2 of those on bad calls from the ump. He didn't help, but it was definitely a rough night for the offense.

Then Seager ripped their heart out, twice. It's so awesome to be on the good side of a game like this for a change.

 

[kearly]

Years from now I'll remember this game. So much futility, yet so clutch.

 

[Hawk-Lock]

LOL I watched the entire game only to have the broadcast get shut off on me right before the final pitch. Apparently they shut off the HD broadcast at midnight in my area.

I aint even mad.

Haha that sucks. But think of it this way, it's better to not see the Mariners win than to see them lose.

 

[kearly]

LOL I watched the entire game only to have the broadcast get shut off on me right before the final pitch. Apparently they shut off the HD broadcast at midnight in my area.

I aint even mad.

Haha that sucks. But think of it this way, it's better to not see the Mariners win than to see them lose.

I was watching live as it happened. It took me about 20 seconds to figure out was happening, so I switched to the non-HD broadcast as quickly as I could, knowing that I only had missed at most 1 pitch. I said to myself "Man I won't even be mad if I come in and Zunino is high-fiving everyone" and that's exactly what I came into when I switched channels.

 

[kearly]

It's kind of sad, but the Mariners current 5 game win streak is the longest of the season.

What's pretty cool is that four of those five wins were comebacks. I don't want to give Diaz too much credit but the mentality of this team is night and day ever since he replaced Cishek as closer.

 

[Hawker]

The pitching has carried the team of late. Our hitting has been clutch at times - yet so very cold throughout most of the recent comeback games.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

So has this team gotten a mental lift from the demotion of Cishek?

 

[Atradees]

suddenly. the bullpen is fixed.....way to bounce back

 

[sutz]

suddenly. the bullpen is fixed.....way to bounce back

A big part of that, beyond the obvious transactions, was having a string of about 15 out of 18 games or so when the starters went 6 innings or more. Really helps keep the bullpen fresh.

Of course, now we have a shortage of lefties in the bullpen. Still have something to gripe about.

 

[2_0_6]

If the M's make the playoffs this year, myself along with 1000's of others will be enjoying a crow dinner

 

[Ruminator]

It's nearing the middle of August, and things are super tight both in the division standings and in the wild card race. In the AL West, the second-place Ms are ahead of the third-place Astros by just 1.5 games. (Which is strangely a lot closer than it feels right now -- at least to me.)

While the Ms have a chance to end their long postseason drought this season, because things are so damn tight both in their own division and in the wild card race, even a moderate lapse between now and the end of September could keep that from happening. Not to be Captain Obvious here, but that's how critical wins are right now.

 

[sutz]

It's nearing the middle of August, and things are super tight both in the division standings and in the wild card race. In the AL West, the second-place Ms are ahead of the third-place Astros by just 1.5 games. (Which is strangely a lot closer than it feels right now -- at least to me.)

While the Ms have a chance to end their long postseason drought this season, because things are so damn tight both in their own division and in the wild card race, even a moderate lapse between now and the end of September could keep that from happening. Not to be Captain Obvious here, but that's how critical wins are right now.

No doubt, but the flip side is that we are playing a lot of games down the stretch with the very teams we are competing with for those playoff spots. Every win we dig out is worth almost a game and a half in the standings. Ofc, the same could be said of the losses, too.

 

[getnasty]

It's time for Felix to snap out of his funk and throw
a gem tonight. Not worried about the offense but I think the key to the rest of the season is Walker. We can probably get by with one glaring hole in the rotation but two will be tough to overcome.

 

[sutz]

It's time for Felix to snap out of his funk and throw
a gem tonight. Not worried about the offense but I think the key to the rest of the season is Walker. We can probably get by with one glaring hole in the rotation but two will be tough to overcome.

Walker was sent down this week to work on his stuff, and maybe his head. No telling how long that will be, but if you figure at least 2-4 starts, it could be September before we see him called back up.

Pitching actually hasn't been that bad this month, aside from some slow starts that give up early leads. Would love to see that end. While the bats have bailed the team out lately, they have been woefully inconsistent, and perhaps depending too much on the long ball. Would love to see them get some more small hits, moving runners, playing small ball basically. And for dog's sake, quit flailing at pitches in the dirt and striking out with the bases loaded. At least put the ball in play. :34853_doh:

 

[Crizilla]

Need a gem tonight from Felix. Not much left in the bullpen for tonight!

 

[Hawk-Lock]

It's about time this team is able to put some kind of hot streak together. It would be really nice to get a sweep tonight, lucky me, I get to go to the game tonight.

As nice as it is to catch up on the Tigers, in the end I've always felt that the teams we need to catch are the three AL East teams. On a good note, I expect all the AL East teams to beat up on each other, so I doubt any of them really run away from us. Whereas we play in a division where we can beat up on two really bad teams in the A's and Angels.

The key to this win streak has been a few things. Obviously the schedule has softened up quite a bit, and gets very favorable for the rest of the month. The starting pitching has been great, which lets our bullpen rest. But I like the new look of our bullpen. Diaz as the closer. I like the hard throwing guy we got from the Pirates a couple days ago. And even Storen looked really good last night, I think he can get back to his old ways as a really effective pitcher. I'm curious to see if Miranda still starts Friday after throwing just one inning last night out of the bullpen.

I'm not worried about the hitting at all. They will go through their small slumps like every team does, but for the most part they should be able to get us at least 3-4 runs a game. We know what we have in Felix, Iwakuma and Paxton, three very good starters. Who is our #1, #2 and #3 at this point, I don't know. But all can be very effective. It will be key to get good innings out of LeBlanc and whoever the #5 is (at this point it looks like Miranda). It will be interesting to see how long they leave Walker down in the minors.

 

[kearly]

The bullpen hadn't allowed a single run during this winning streak, until Miranda (a starting pitcher appearing in the game as an emergency measure) allowed that solo HR to Vmart in the 15th. (Naturally, Miranda earns the win).

We've gotten very lucky with our bullpen this past week. I've lost track of how many times one of our relievers gave up scorching line drives that were caught for outs. Diaz and maybe Wilhelmsen aside, it's been more luck than skill, but it's about damn time the Mariners had an inkling of good luck. They've been due for some all season.

 

[kearly]

The Mariners are 10th in runs scored, and it seems like their offense is slipping from great towards good towards average as the season goes along. But one thing I do like about our offense is how rarely it gets shut out. Almost every night we have a couple of hitters come through for us, even from the bottom of the order at times. One thing I have to give Dipoto a lot of credit for is that he has erased the black holes in the lineup that constantly plagued Jack Z's teams.

 

[Chapow]

Not much left in the bullpen for tonight!

Same can be said for the Tigers too though. Both teams bullpens went 10 innings last night.

 

[Sports Hernia]

The game isn't even over yet, and the Mariners have already struck out 16 times. I wonder what the team record is?

16Ks is an unbelievable number, given that they faced a mediocre starter and then some of the Tiger's worst relievers. Some nights you just don't have it. It's amazing that Seattle has a chance to win a game like this.

A young Roger Clemens struck at 20 M's in Fenway in the mid 80's, ump had an expanding strikezone like the goober behind the plate last night.