Mariners Earn Home Field Advantage in World Series

Week 16 Recap

Date Away Team Score Home Team Score Result
7/14
7/15 National League 3 American League 5 W
7/16
7/17
7/18 Mariners 2 Angels 3 L/16
7/19 Mariners 3 Angels 2 W/12
7/20 Mariners 5 Angels 6 L

A short week with the All-Star game and the surrounding break early in the week. Felix, Cano, Seager, and Rodney all helped the American League beat the National League in the Midsummer Classic and secured home field advantage for the Mariners in this year’s World Series. (If you want to take a brief look at home field advantage, check out my post on the King’s Court)

The Mariners resumed play with a three game series against the Angels. There was a ton of hype surrounding the three game series against the Athletics right before the break but this Angels series was just as important, if not even moreso. The Mariners and Angels needed ten extra innings to settle these three games and, after two walk-off wins, the Angels emerged triumphant. So this marathon of a series and the Athletics series last weekend have shown us that the Mariners can play competitively with the top two team in the division and AL. We’re not at the point where I’d be confident in a one game playoff but we’re close. The trade deadline is July 31, just a week and a half away. Let’s see if Jack Zduriencik has any more magic up his sleeve.

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Mariners Mid-Season Report Card

Week 15 Recap

Date Away Team Score Home Team Score Result
7/7 Twins 0 Mariners 2 W
7/8 Twins 2 Mariners 0 L
7/9 Twins 8 Mariners 1 L
7/10 Twins 4 Mariners 2 L
7/11 Athletics 2 Mariners 3 W
7/12 Athletics 2 Mariners 6 W
7/13 Athletics 4 Mariners 1 L

The Mariners head into the All-Star break after taking two of three from the division leading Athletics. This week seemed like a good way to gain some momentum for the second half but a stinker of a series against the Twins put a damper on any hope of a hot streak. In the two series against the White Sox and Twins, the Mariners scored a grand total of 9 runs in 7 games. We owe our two wins to excellent pitching performances by Felix, Iwakuma, and the bullpen. The two wins over the Athletics were pretty decisive. It definitely felt good to get two strong wins against the best team in baseball right before the break..

For this week’s recap, I’m going to go through each position group and give a mid-season report. The stats included will be to-date season performances instead of the normal two-week period.

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Mariners Sweep Spacemen, Get Hosed by Sox

Week 14 Recap

Date Away Team Score Home Team Score Result
6/30 Mariners 10 Astros 4 W
7/1 Mariners 13 Astros 2 W
7/2 Mariners 5 Astros 2 W
7/3
7/4 Mariners 1 White Sox 7 L
7/5 Mariners 3 White Sox 2 W/14
7/6 Mariners 0 White Sox 1 L

That road trip felt worse than it actually was. Its probably recency bias because of the terrible time the Mariners had in Chicago.

  • Did you know that the Mariners are just 5-23 when playing the White Sox in Chicago since 2008. Woof.
  • All four runs scored by the Mariners in the series were scored in the ninth inning or later. Yikes.
  • The Mariners were shutout by Hector Noesi. Yes, the same Hector Noesi who ran a 6.13 ERA as a Seattle Mariner. Ugh.

But, hey, at least the Mariners outscored the Astros by twenty runs!

You’ve probably heard about the massive trade between the Cubs and the Athletics. The A’s gained two premier pitchers to bolster their run for the World Series. Of course this is bad news for the Mariners because the A’s are a division rival and we had been in the market for starting pitching depth. But its not as bad as it seems. The Mariners just got Taijuan Walker back from injury and he’s a certain upgrade over Erasmo Ramirez. James Paxton is about a month away from rejoining the team too and that’s another upgrade. Plus the teams who were really looking for starting pitching help are all in the AL East and if the Mariners are going to make it to the playoffs this year, we’re going to have to go through the Wild Card against those teams from the AL East.

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Mariners Crush Defending Champs

Week 13 Recap

Date Away Team Score Home Team Score Result
6/23 Red Sox 3 Mariners 12 W
6/24 Red Sox 2 Mariners 8 W
6/25 Red Sox 5 Mariners 4 L
6/26
6/27 Indians 2 Mariners 3 W
6/28 Indians 5 Mariners 0 L
6/29 Indians 0 Mariners 3 W

 

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Mariners Sweep Away Royalty

Week 12 Recap

Date Away Team Score Home Team Score Result
6/16 Padres 1 Mariners 5 W
6/17 Padres 1 Mariners 6 W
6/18 Mariners 1 Padres 2 L
6/19 Mariners 1 Padres 4 L
6/20 Mariners 7 Royals 5 W
6/21 Mariners 2 Royals 1 W
6/22 Mariners 2 Royals 1 W

Early in the week, the Mariners split a four game, home-away series in which the losing team scored only once in each game. We also gave away another gem of a performance from King Felix (7 IP, 10 K, 3 H) on Wednesday. Over the weekend, we took on the Royals, who had recently been on a 12-game winning streak. The Mariners juggernaut swept away that pitiful band of royalty. We’ve firmly entrenched ourselves in the AL Wild Card race and have refused to give up any ground.

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Mariners Roller Coaster Dips, Lose Five Straight

Week 11 Recap

Date Away Team Score Home Team Score Result
6/9 Mariners 3 Rays 0 W
6/10 Yankees 3 Mariners 2 L
6/11 Yankees 4 Mariners 2 L
6/12 Yankees 6 Mariners 3 L
6/13 Rangers 1 Mariners 0 L
6/14 Rangers 4 Mariners 3 L
6/15 Rangers 1 Mariners 5 W

The pendulum swung the other way for the Mariners this week. We finished our series with the Rays with a win over David Price. We came home to begin our eight game homestand and proceeded to lay an egg against the Yankees and Rangers, losing five straight. One of those losses was a 1-0 defeat where Felix threw 8+ innings of shutout ball but the bullpen–and a Robinson Cano error–coughed up the loss. A five game losing streak isn’t the end of the world, especially with how close the race for the Wild Card is at this point in the season. If we’re able to hang around .500 into August, we’ll have a good shot at contending for the Wild Card in September. All we need is another swing of the pendulum back towards the positive side and we’ll be fine.

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Mariners Winning!? Yes They Are!

Week 10 Recap

Date Away Team Score Home Team Score Result
6/2 Mariners 10 Yankees 2 W
6/3 Mariners 7 Braves 5 W
6/4 Mariners 2 Braves 0 W
6/5
6/6 Mariners 0 Rays 4 L
6/7 Mariners 7 Rays 4 W
6/8 Mariners 5 Rays 0 W

If the season ended today, the Seattle Mariners would be participating in a one game Wild Card playoff against the California Anaheim Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Los Angeles. We’re into mid-June and the Mariners are playing playoff caliber baseball. The last time we we’re this many games over .500 at this point in the season was 2007. That team featured Jose Vidro, Jose Guillen, Yunieski Betancourt, Miguel Batista, and Jeff Weaver. It was also a year before Bill Bavasi was fired and the “success” of the team in 2007 led to a number of failed decisions in 2008 (one name, Bedard). Who knows if 2014 will be Jack Zdurencik’s version of 2007. Maybe this will be the start of a long and healthy run of success for the Mariners. Maybe it’s all a mirage and we’re going to come crashing down in July and August. All I know is that the Mariners are winning and its been really fun to watch.

  • According to FanGraphs, the Mariners playoff odds sit just over 33%. 1 in 3? Sounds good to me!
  • The only two current Mariners who were on that 2007 team: Felix Hernandez and Willie Bloomquist. We’ve come so far.
  • The Mariners rode a 5 game winning streak until losing on Friday. Those five wins were against the Tigers, Yankees, and Braves, all competitive teams with playoff aspirations. After the single loss on Friday, we beat the Rays twice in a row over the weekend.

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Mariners Tame Tigers in Bizarro Week

Week 9 Recap

Date Away Team Score Home Team Score Result
5/26 Angels 1 Mariners 5 W
5/27 Angels 6 Mariners 4 L
5/28 Angels 1 Mariners 3 W
5/29 Angels 7 Mariners 5 L
5/30 Tigers 6 Mariners 3 L
5/31 Tigers 2 Mariners 3 W
6/1 Tigers 0 Mariners 4 W

Well, that was an interesting week. The Mariners split a four game series against the Angels, pretty normal stuff. Over the weeked, the Mariners took on the best team in the AL, the Detroit Tigers, and won two of three. We’re a third of the way through this season and this team continues to surprise.

  • The win on Saturday featured Chris Young holding the Tigers to just two runs and significant contributions from Willie Bloomquist and Cole Gillespie. Of the eight position players who started on Saturday, just three of them also started on Opening Day–Smoak, Seager, and Zunino.
  • The win on Sunday featured a complete game, shutout from Roenis Elias who was making just his twelfth major league start. The lineup included Endy Chavez starting at designated hitter and a Brad Miller home run off the reigning Cy Young winner, Max Scherzer.

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Mariners Wrangle with Teams from Texas

Week 8 Recap

Date Away Team Score Home Team Score Result
5/19
5/20 Mariners 6 Rangers 2 W
5/21 Mariners 3 Rangers 4 L
5/22 Astros 1 Mariners 3 W
5/23 Astros 1 Mariners 6 W
5/24 Astros 9 Mariners 4 L
5/25 Astros 4 Mariners 1 L

Well, howdy there pardner. The Mariners had some BIG games against some BIG teams from Texas this week. But we ended up spinning our wheels like a lassoed bull and ended up right where we started.

Ok, that’s enough of that. The Mariners split both of their series this week. A promising start to the series against the Astros turned sour as Brandon Maurer threw a stinker on Saturday and we ran into Dallas Keuchel, a surprising top-10 pitcher in the AL. Robinson Cano continued his hot streak and actually hit that elusive second home run.

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Mariners Stumble Against Rays, Twins

Week 7 Recap

Date Away Team Score Home Team Score Result
5/12 Rays 5 Mariners 12 W
5/13 Rays 2 Mariners 1 L
5/14 Rays 0 Mariners 2 L
5/15
5/16 Mariners 4 Twins 5 L
5/17 Mariners 3 Twins 4 L
5/18 Mariners 6 Twins 2 W

Well, we’re now more than a quarter of the way through the season and the Mariners sit just a game under .500. A rough week against the Rays and the Twins pushed the Mariners back in the win column but we’re still on the cusp of greatness.

  • After a twelve run offensive outburst on Monday, the Mariners didn’t score for 21 straight innings before scoring a single run in the fifth inning on Thursday. Woof.

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