Due to a scheduling quirk. And some focused ineptitude.
After a couple of shitbird 10-4 losses, the Mariners went up against Yu Darvish in the series finale. While he’s been Ace-like for most of his career, the Mariners have had curious bouts of competence against him, and yesterday was no exception. 5 runs in 5 innings to put the M’s in the driver’s seat. Then, Nick Vincent shut things down after some shaky bullpen work in the seventh, bridging it to the ninth. By then, it was no longer a save situation, but Edwin Diaz still locked down the 7-3 victory to make things not so bad.
Kyle Seager had 3 doubles, 2 runs, and 3 RBI; Ben Gamel continues to hit everything in sight; and Danny Valencia had a 2-run homer in the first to really put the Mariners on solid footing.
Christian Bergman had his final start before both Felix and Iwakuma come off the DL for this weekend’s Astros series. He went 5.2 innings, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits, 2 walks, and 1 strikeout. The question now is: has he done enough to stick around in this rotation?
With Felix and Kuma back, with Miranda and Paxton being too good to take out of the rotation (recent starts notwithstanding), there are now three pitchers for one spot: Bergman, Gaviglio, and Gallardo. Gaviglio and Gallardo will both have starts in this upcoming Tigers series and then a decision will have to be made.
I’m already on record as stating Gallardo needs to go. Of course, he’ll catch on with some other team and absolutely destroy his opponents for the rest of the year, but that’s just the way that goes. If he stays, he’ll continue to suck; we just have to hope he goes to the National League and we get an Out of Sight/Out of Mind situation.
As for the Bergman vs. Gaviglio question, I’ll try to render an opinion after tonight’s start. Oh yes, it’s really that close, and might come down to how Gaviglio looks in a Do Or Die situation. Stay tuned.
In Long Relievers – They’re Just Like Us News: Rob Whalen got the boot in favor of Max Povse (in the process, Dillon Overton got DFA’d to make room on the 40-man). Povse has a ton of upside and is making the jump from AA, so this could be a little more interesting than someone set to eat up a few innings before an immediate demotion (in all likelihood, if Povse does well, I could see him replacing Altavilla, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves here).
Starting tonight, the Mariners enjoy a stretch of 16 of the next 19 at home heading into the All Star Break. For the first time in forever, the Mariners actually get to play a home series immediately preceeding those three days off, so it’s nice that they don’t have to travel if they don’t want to. The time is now: the Mariners REALLY need to do well to get back in this Wild Card hunt, or fucking lose me forever.
Probably not. I’m a sucker for this stupid team.