2017 Mariners Misery Tracker
- Drew Smyly – 60 day DL
- Steve Cishek – still on DL from offseason hip surgery
- Tony Zych – starts season on DL, since returned
- Jean Segura – On DL for 2 weeks in April
- Mitch Haniger – On DL for approx 1 month
- Felix Hernandez – On DL for approx 1 month
- James Paxton – On DL for at least 10 days
- Evan Scribner – On DL for who knows how long
- Evan Marshall – 60 day DL
- Hisashi Iwakuma – On DL with shoulder issues
Yes. That’s Smyly, Felix, Paxton, and now Kuma all on the DL at the exact same time. Having been replaced by Ariel Miranda, Chase De Jong, Christian Bergman, and TBD.
With this latest injury, we don’t really have a timetable on Kuma’s return, but at some point we’re running into a situation where the replacement players aren’t all that worse than the guys going down. It’s one thing to lose Paxton for a spell, he’s been one of the very best pitchers in all of baseball this season. But, it’s another issue altogether when you’re talking about Iwakuma’s 84 mph fastball going on the DL. Is he remarkably better than whoever we call up to put in his spot in the rotation? I doubt it.
But, at least Kuma is a known quantity. Please, for the love of all that is holy, let some of these guys start coming back and playing well.
As has been the case for a while now, though, the offense has carried the mail. This time, with 11 runs to beat the Phillies by 5 and sweep the 2-game series.
Cano and Valencia: 4 hits each, 1 homer apiece, with Valencia tacking on a double. So much for Cano’s sore quad, I guess. They combined for 5 RBI and 4 runs scored on the day.
Ben Gamel reached base 4 times, scoring twice. Kyle Seager got on 3 times, scoring one and plating another. Heredia added a couple more hits to the pile; Chooch had a hit and 4 RBI to please his adoring Phillies fans; and even Yovani Gallardo got a hit in his five innings of work.
I wouldn’t say Gallardo did anything of note; he gave up 3 runs in those five innings and ate a No Decision sandwich. The Mariners didn’t really pour it on until the 7th and 8th innings, scoring 8 of their 11 runs in that span. Zych and Scrabble worked scoreless innings apiece (Zych getting his second win of the season); Altavilla and Overton gave up 3 combined runs in their two innings to finish it out, ultimately not blowing the game, so good on ’em I guess.
Look, I’ll say it: the Mariners are just flat out better than the Phillies, and anything less than sweeping this 2-game series was going to be a huge disappointment. Particularly with how terrible the Mariners have been on the road. Between them and the four games in Toronto starting today, the time to right the ship (as far as Road Record is concerned) is now.
Let’s face it, you’d never wish to see the grip of injuries the Mariners have had to endure at the moment, but if it HAD to happen, then A) why not let it all happen at once and get it out of the way (faulty logic, I know), and B) might as well be now, when we’re playing so many bad teams. Starting with the Angels at the beginning of the month and running through the next homestand against the White Sox, there are (and have been) nothing but mediocre teams on the docket. You never want to go out there as the Tacoma Rainiers, for all intents and purposes (at least, as far as the pitching staff is concerned), but since that’s the world we’re living in right now, at least we can still plausibly win a lot of these games.
The offense is going to have to keep showing up, though. And the bullpen is going to have to continue to tighten its grip. I’d like to see that unit really settle down and gel by the time we start getting our REAL starting pitchers back, so this team can go on a nice, long, protracted run of brilliance.
It’s days like this, though, were we can really sit back and reflect a little bit. Yeah, there’s a long way to go, and as we’ve seen thus far, just about ANYTHING can happen, but how crazy is it that the Mariners have been able to get back to .500 for the first time since they were 0-0 this season? With all these injuries??? With a lot of this pitching staff really underperforming on top of that?
I think we’re starting to make good on some of that pre-season promise. I know I’m not the only Mariners fan who came into this season believing they had a real shot at getting back to the post-season, and we’re starting to see that dream become more of a reality. Again, super early and all that, but what did we say before the season? The offense is legit, one of the best in the A.L. The bullpen would be a big wild card. And the rotation just needs to be good enough to keep us in ballgames and allow that offense to eventually take over. You hope for things, like Felix bouncing back, Paxton taking the next step towards being this team’s future Ace, maybe Smyly making good on his early-career promise. Well, the offense is there, the bullpen is very much a wild card, and the rotation so far gets an Incomplete as it’s been incomplete since Spring Training.
Nevertheless, this is the mark of a quality baseball team. Just gotta keep going out there and taking care of business.