The jury is still out on which way the Seattle Mariners are headed. The interesting thought is that they may not even know themselves right now.
The Mariners have won 21 of their past 24 going into the break, climbing to 51-42 on the season. This means the team was 30-39 before their recent success began just a few weeks ago. The Mariners still sit nine games behind the Houston Astros in the American League West, without the benefit of a trash can or buzzer.
We get to see how far Seattle has come, when they open a three game set in Houston on Friday.
First baseman Ty France is hitting a team-leading .308, while the Mariners already have four players with at least 10 home runs. Leading the way is All Star center fielder Julio Rodriguez. We saw Rodriguez hit 32 home runs in the opening round of Monday’s Home Run Derby, where he defeated Texas’ Corey Seager 32-24. Rodriguez followed up with an upset over two-time defending champion Pete Alonso of the New York Mets (31-24) in the semifinals. Going first in the finals against Washington’s Juan Soto proved to be the downfall, losing 19-18.
Rodriguez leads the Mariners with 52 RBIs, 22 stolen bases and 165 total bases. His .275 average is second only to France. Keep in mind that Rodriguez is only 21 years old.
Seattle is also getting phenomenal performances from their pitching staff. Logan Gilbert leads the club with a 10-3 record over 19 starts, 104 strikeouts and a 2.76 ERA. Only Robbie Ray has more strikeouts (135) through the same number of starts. Ray only has an 8-6 record, despite averaging 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings. Seattle’s 3.53 ERA as a team is the fifth-best in all of baseball. Their 44 quality starts are third-best.
If there is one drawback with Mariner pitching, it has to be the perpetuity to give up the long ball. With 114 home runs allowed, Seattle has the fourth-worst mark in all of baseball. The only teams worse are basement-dwelling Cincinnati, Washington and the Chicago Cubs.
Seattle has given up 262 walks, while drawing a fourth-best 336, showing just how patient their young talent has become at the dish.
What has really stood out for Seattle in 2022 without question has been their defense. Aside from their stellar pitching, the Mariners have committed only 31 errors all season. That’s one error every three games! The next closest team is San Diego with 38. The Mariners have an astonishing .990 save percentage, which again places them atop the MLB rankings. Think about that for a moment…
The St. Louis Cardinals are second (.889), with Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt. The Padres (.889) are third, with Eric Hosmer and Manny Machado. Atlanta (.988) is fourth, running “human vacuum cleaner” Dansby Swanson out every night. The Mariners are above all of them.
The Mariners are a game clear of Toronto for the second Wild Card in the American League, and just a half game back of Tampa for hosting that Wild Card game. The +36 run differential is best among the American League teams not currently leading a division. With the fashion that Cleveland, Baltimore and Seattle have accelerated their growth in 2022, the final two-and-a-half months of the regular season are shaping up to be more entertaining than any of us would have thought at the outset.
If nothing else, this interjects new blood into the playoff race, in an effort to bring Houston and New York back to Earth.
-JC24