At the start of the baseball season I had this idea to write a recap of each series the Mariners played. Then the season started and I got busy, tired, sleepy, or lazy. So now here we are, 12 games into the season and I think it’s time to recap what happened so far. If I do that then I could maybe do a series recap starting Thursday! Probably not, but maybe. I’ll keep you on your toes.
For now, I’m going to give you a very short series recap of the 4 series the Mariners have completed and then take a closer look at the lineup. Let’s get started!
March 31-April 2: Three game sweep of the Angels!
What a way to start the season. I hate the Angels so it was nice to pummel them. The offense battled against some pretty good starting pitching and then destroyed a pedestrian bullpen. The pitching was very good all series. The closest game of the series was an 8-3 victory.
Star of the Series: Justin Smoak – Smoak came up big all series long. He hit a big dinger in the first game and rocketed a bases clearing double off of CJ Wilson in the second game.
Goat of the Series: No one – I searched through the box scores. There was no one to pick. Every single position player got on base and no pitcher had some crazy meltdown.
Ted S. Warren
April 3-April 6: 1-2 in a 3 game series against the A’s
The A’s seem to be pretty even with the Mariners, actually probably a little better. This was a strange series. Erasmo threw a clunker. Elias was screwed over by the worst umpiring I’ve ever seen. Felix threw a gem. The Oakland grounds crew did something ridiculous and a game was postponed. The series was annoying and really weird. The offense was able to squeak out 8 runs over the 3 games. The A’s pitching is really good and the offense hasn’t figured them out yet.
Star of the Series: Felix Hernandez – I think Felix is the right choice here. He threw a fantastic game and got the Mariners their only win of the series.
Goat of the Series: Hector Noesi – Noesi threw 2 pitches and gave up a walk off homer. It was as predictable as things could get. He’s now gone. Other goats considered were Sean Barber, Oakland grounds crew, and Coco Crisp (he really was terrible for the Mariners).
April 8-9: 1-1 in a 2 game series against the Angels.
The season opener was electric. Paxton recovered from a rocky first inning and threw a great game before coming out with an injury. Hart had his best game of the season to date, homering twice. The next game was ugly, as the Mariners were shut out by Garret Richardson. Roenis Elias threw well but not well enough to overcome the offense being shut out. That’s pretty much impossible to overcome.
Star of the Series: Corey Hart – He didn’t do much on Wednesday (although he did get on base) but his two dingers won the game on Tuesday.
Goat of the Series: Dustin Ackley – Ackley didn’t record a hit in this series. A small blemish in an otherwise very good year to date.
April 11-13: 1-2 in a 3 game series against the A’s
It sure is annoying playing the A’s all the time. Each game against them feels like a struggle. It really is. They don’t make many mistakes and their pitching is so good that you just have to scratch out some runs. Friday night was an extremely fun baseball game. Saturday and Sunday the Mariners scored a total of 1 run. Thankfully, the Mariners don’t play the A’s very many more times before September.
Star of the Series: Dustin Ackley and Felix Hernandez – After the performance that Felix put up on Friday, I have to include him. Ackley went 5 for 8 in the series with 2 doubles and quickly bounced back from his lackluster series against the Angels.
Goat of the Series: Justin Smoak – Smoak didn’t get a hit all weekend, even though he did hit some balls hard on Friday.
That left the Mariners with a 6-5 record after 11 games. They won tonight (7-5) and I think anyone would have taken a 7-5 record to start the season.
Some thoughts on individual players after the jump. Continue reading
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