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    Thiel: Mariners too thin to win right now

    Art ThielBy Art ThielJune 26, 201617 Comments4 Mins Read
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    Scott Servais received no satisfaction from umpire Gerry Davis after he already had been tossed — for the first time in his managerial career — by home plate umpire Carlos Torres. / Alan Chitlik, Sportspress Northwest

    A  couple of Sundays ago, Scott Servais was feeling good pre-game. The Mariners were 34-28 and the manager had seen upticks from starting pitchers James Paxton and Taijuan Walker.

    “I think we’re on the brink of putting together a really good streak here,” he said. “Streaks are driven by starting pitching, and you talk about winning eight out of 10 or nine out of 11, I really feel we’re about to go off on one of those runs.”

    Since that morning, the Mariners have lost 11 of 15, including an 11-6 defeat to St. Cardinals Sunday (box) that was notably cringe-worthy because of six Cardinals home runs.

    But Paxton didn’t give up any dingers.

    Instead, in the fifth inning, four consecutive batters went double-double-double-triple off him. After Paxton was pulled after 101 pitches, five relievers combined to give up the half-dozen jacks. By the sixth, the mild-mannered Servais had his first career managerial ejection. Even that was lame: Home plate umpire Carlos Torres simply stared him down and walked away.

    Skipper, about that prediction?

    “Bad prediction,” he said.

    Indeed. Rookie mistake. Managers can’t be in the prediction business. That’s for bookies, media and fans. Stuff happens, as Servais knows well.

    “That was before the injuries set in,” he said, referring to the plague that has helped sweep the Mariners away from the division lead. “You talk about streaks, and it’s driven by starting pitching. We’ve gone the other way.

    “Our consistency in getting into the sixth and seventh innings with starters takes a load off your bullpen.”

    A night earlier, the bullpen was nearly flawless, pitching the final four innings scorelessly in a 5-4 win despite starter Nathan Karns doing what Paxton did — needing 97 pitches to go five. No teams survive by burning though bullpens at a four-innings-a-game clip.

    Still, the Mariners won the series over a solid St. Louis team 2-1 and, at 38-38, are no one’s definition of bad. Nearly everyone who watched the Mariners in spring said it was a .500 team, give or take, which represented improvement.

    What’s noteworthy about the slide from first place at 28-18 to now is how desperately bereft of major-league-average talent the organization is. Beyond the starting nine and Dae-Ho Lee, the Mariners have little position-player help. And aside from relief pitcher Edwin Diaz, 22, who has much learning ahead, the pitching is so thin that general manager Jerry Dipoto is turning over every rock in baseball’s stream bed for arms.

    While it’s true that every team has injuries, and reports are that Walker (foot tendon) will pitch this week and Wade Miley (shoulder impingement) will be off the disabled list soon, much ground was lost swiftly.

    The Texas Rangers suddenly have three starters (Yu Darvish, Colby Lewis and Derek Holland) on the disabled list, but the Rangers over the past two seasons have had more injuries than any team in baseball and seem to find solutions from within the organization.

    The problem in Seattle is nothing Dipoto can fix in-season; repairing the Bavasi-Zduriencik legacy will take much heavy construction equipment and dump-truck loads of fill.

    All that the fan base, which was nearly out-performed by red-clad zealots among the 110,000-plus who showed up over the weekend, can do is adopt the posture that Torres assumed after ejecting Servais and submitting to his lecture — a cold, dead stare.

    “I said I thought he missed the call and he would not respond,” said Servais. “That was very frustrating.”

    Torres simply walked away, checking his feelings.

    Mariners fans know about frustration too. They heard the Servais optimism a couple weeks ago. The injuries are certainly a reason, not an excuse, for the decline. But when Paxton and Karns, both healthy, can’t get to the sixth inning, while emergency hire Wade LeBlanc deals six shutout innings in Friday’s win, the annoyance level grows.

    Wishing for good health is a particularly fruitless exercise. Temporarily, perhaps the cold, dead stare is the best tool for managing emotions.

     

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    17 Comments

    1. Bayview Herb on June 26, 2016 8:47 pm

      I’m thinking that it isn’t just pitching. the middle of the order just is leaving way to many runners on base and in scoring position, too.

      • art thiel on June 27, 2016 9:21 am

        Cano grounding out in the second with the bases loaded was a game-killer.

        • SeaRaays on June 27, 2016 9:44 pm

          Yes …and The DP’s Cruz has been hitting into the last couple of weeks.

    2. jafabian on June 26, 2016 9:43 pm

      Injuries are a part of the game. Not only have the Rangers have been without 3 starters but also Shin-Soo Choo and still they chug along at the top of the division. And they’ve had bullpen issues as well like the M’s. (Um, Tom Wilhelmsen anyone?) The M’s have still had their core of Cano, Cruz and Seager plus a solid platoon at 1B with Lind and Lee and a good closer in Cishek. IMO, they’re better than what’s been on the field the past few weeks. If they’re not careful they’ll find themselves in a hold too big to get out of come September.

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      • art thiel on June 27, 2016 9:21 am

        They will do better with the Smith/Gutierrez platoon in left than anything provided by Aoki. It allows Lind and Lee to play at the same time.

        Beyond that, I’d suggest that Seager catching the ball at third would be a help.

        • SeaRaays on June 27, 2016 9:42 pm

          I have noticed his lack of even slowing down the ball coming into his space. Good thing he already received a gold glove. Right now he is in the middle of the pack if that. I am glad his bat has improved from the beginning of the season. Which nobody would argue keep him at 3rd for.

          • art thiel on June 28, 2016 12:23 pm

            Hard to explain Seager’s 3B miscues.

        • sabasarge on June 30, 2016 4:09 pm

          Wow Art, Seager is having pretty much a gold glove season (not only my opinion) and one misjudged groundball and now he’s part of the problem? A bit harsh methinks.

    3. Paul Harmening on June 27, 2016 10:18 am

      With the farm not having much if any beef ready to go now and presumably very little next year as well, a lot more Dipoto action needs to continue after the season to get stronger on the bench. I guess we (fans) went after fools gold. Hurts.

      • art thiel on June 28, 2016 12:22 pm

        Most of the newbies came as one-year patches to be competitive. So they are competitive. If health returns, contention is within reason.

    4. ll9956 on June 27, 2016 2:23 pm

      I’ve been thinking about Servais’s bold prediction, so I’m glad you wrote this, Art. The outcome, 2-8, was the mirror image of the prediction, 8-2. Methinks Servais will avoid future predictions. I have to agree that the M’s are a .500 team, basically winning a few, losing a few. They just don’t have the horsepower to be much better.

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      • art thiel on June 28, 2016 12:20 pm

        The 10-over .500 mark suggests some horsepower, but as I wrote, everyone has to be healthy. There’s no depth.

    5. MrPrimeMinister on June 28, 2016 9:57 am

      Isn’t this the traditional time of year where the season starts slipping away for this ballclub? Like a clock.

      • art thiel on June 28, 2016 12:17 pm

        Actually, that’s usually Memorial Day. They’re still in the WC hunt nearing the halfway mark. Itsy bitsy progress.

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