5 storylines to watch in the Mariners’ final 20 games
The Mariners are entering the home stretch of this truncated regular season — 40 games down, 20 to go.
Where are they at two thirds of the way through this 60-game sprint?
“Starting to get the results that we want to see,” rookie starter Justin Dunn said following the club’s fifth consecutive win Sunday. “I think it’s all starting to come together.”
With three weeks to play, these young Mariners (18-22) are riding their best stretch of the season, having won 11 of their past 15 games.
And, they’re back to playing meaningful baseball in September. Entering Monday’s homestand finale against the Rangers, Seattle is sitting in third place in the American League West, only three games removed from a playoff spot with plenty of time remaining to make a late push.
Perhaps shortstop J.P. Crawford most aptly described this season in a video call with reporters less than a week into July’s summer camp: “It’s a sprint,” he said then. “Anything can happen.”
Here are five Mariners storylines to watch these final three weeks of the regular season:
Seattle is — suddenly — in the playoff hunt
The Mariners have quietly worked their way into contention with this stellar stretch these past two weeks.
They haven’t lost a series in that span, and locked up their fourth series win of the season with Sunday’s victory over the scuffling Rangers. They wrap up this homestand with the chance to sweep Texas on Monday afternoon, hit the road for five days in San Francisco and Arizona — both of those opponents have losing records — and have a final 10-game homestand coming up before ending the season on the road with four games in Oakland.
Meanwhile, the second-place Astros (21-19) are on a four-game skid, having been swept by the Angels over the weekend, and have seven games on the road against the AL West-leading A’s and National League West-leading Dodgers looming.
The simple version: With 20 games left to play, the Mariners have an opening to catch and pass the Astros for the division’s second playoff berth.
They’re also now in the thick of the Wild Card race, trailing the Yankees (21-19), who have dropped six of their past eight, also by three games for the second spot. Baltimore, Detroit and the Angels, two games back of the Mariners, are also in the hunt.
For Seattle, 2020 is still about giving young players opportunity to play, evaluating how they perform at the big league level and figuring out how they fit into the club’s plans moving forward, but to see this success from such a young group is certainly encouraging.
“We continue to play well driven by our starting pitching and our defense,” manager Scott Servais said on a video call with reporters Sunday. “We’ve seen guys get hot with the bat. I think our lineup is getting longer, as far as what we can do damage-wise at the bottom of the lineup than maybe we were 20 days ago, which is good.
“ … Again, we stick with the course here. The plan was to give young players tons of opportunity, watch them grow, help them along the way. They’re going to learn a lot and we’re also going to learn a lot about them, and we will stick with that plan throughout the season.”
Right now, the plan seems to be working for both developmental and competitive purposes. The Mariners haven’t made this sudden run behind a sudden influx of veteran players, they’ve done it with one of the youngest groups in baseball, who have grown and adapted along the way.
“I think we’ve been throwing the ball really well,” Mariners veteran third baseman Kyle Seager said following Sunday’s win. “I think our starters have been doing a really good job. Especially them. I think they’ve been going out there and just absolutely doing great. The bullpen’s been good. I think the defense has been pretty good. … I think that’s what we’ve really been doing well lately.”
Seattle’s rotation is among the best in the big leagues right now
Speaking of the starting rotation, it’s one of the best in the big leagues over the past two weeks.
In this most recent span of 15 games, the Mariners have a collective 3.49 ERA among their starters, which ranks sixth-best in the majors, fourth-best in the AL, second-best among teams in the West — behind only the Dodgers (2.68) — and best in the AL West. Seattle’s starters also have the most wins in the majors (nine) in this stretch.
Dunn, who recorded his third consecutive quality start in a win Sunday, said the six-man rotation — which currently includes ace Marco Gonzales, Yusei Kikuchi, rookie Justus Sheffield, Dunn, Nick Margevicius and Ljay Newsome, and also included Taijuan Walker, who was traded to the Blue Jays at the deadline, and Kendall Graveman, now in a bullpen role, at the beginning of the season — feeds off each other.
Sheffield, Dunn, Margevicius and Newsome have also tallied a majors-leading 10 quality starts this season among pitchers 24 years old or younger, and have a 3.26 ERA over their past combined eight starts.
“I think that’s a credit to Marco, Tai when he was here, and Gravy when he was in the rotation, and Yusei, and the older guys kind of putting the pressure on us to really try to stay consistent,” Dunn said. “The game starts with us. We set the tone for the series, set the tone for the game that day, so we’ve tried to be as consistent as possible and giving our team a chance to win the game. That’s been our big thing.
“We’ve got some really good bats in our lineup, and if we can get them back in the dugout and let them do their job and give them a shutdown inning after they grind to get us a couple runs, we’ll be in a good place. So, we take a lot of pride in what we’re doing every six days going out and giving our team a chance to win.”
The Mariners are letting the kids play — and they’re playing well
The kids, many of them getting significant experience in the big leagues for the first time, have been more than alright this season, and none have been more exciting to watch than rookie outfielder Kyle Lewis.
The 25-year-old has not only solidified himself as the Mariners’ every day center fielder in the first 40 games, but he remains a front runner in the AL Rookie of the Year race.
Through his first 39 games, Lewis is slashing at .315/.400/.517 with two doubles, nine homers, 23 RBI, two stolen bases and 21 walks to 42 strikeouts. He continues to lead all qualified AL rookies in nearly every category.
Other rookies are making their mark with the Mariners, too. First baseman Evan White has been flashing his elite glove all season, and has elevated Seattle’s much improved defense.
“I can’t say enough about what Evan White brings defensively,” Servais said recently. “It’s been really, really good.”
Lately, so has his bat. After a slow start this season, White has posted a .279/.367/.628 slash line with three doubles, four homers and 15 RBI, and is settling in offensively.
“Really looking forward to him finishing strong … and really end the season on a high note with everything he went through early on,” Servais said recently. “It’s a win. It’s a win for him, it’s a win for us, and he goes forward knowing he’s ready to compete every day in this league.”
New additions making a quick impact
The Mariners made a few deals at the trade deadline, the most impactful being a seven-player trade with the Padres that brought four new additions to Seattle.
Two of them — catcher Luis Torrens and infielder Ty France — have made immediate impacts for the Mariners.
Torrens is expected to get the bulk of the catching reps down the stretch, and has already impressed Seattle’s coaching staff with his ability to learn his new pitchers quickly.
“He’s a young player, but he gets it and he wants to learn,” Servais said recently. “He’s asking good questions. You can see the reaction on his face in conversations, in between innings in the dugout, and I’m excited. I’m excited to see him play here the rest of the season.”
France, meanwhile, has contributed immediately on offense, hitting 3-for-9 with two RBI and three walks in his first three games, while appearing at second base, third and designated hitter.
Seattle has also recently claimed three players — right-handers Walker Lockett and Casey Sadler, and outfielder Phillip Ervin — off waivers. Lockett and Sadler hadn’t appeared yet entering Monday, but Ervin drove in a late run with a double in his first game Saturday, and has been in the starting lineup since he’s been activated.
The bullpen continues to evolve
How the bullpen would shake out was one of the biggest questions the Mariners had entering the year, and it has continued to evolve as the season has progressed.
The overall numbers aren’t particularly great. Seattle has used 20 different players in relief this season, and has a combined 6.27 ERA that is the worst in the AL in third-worst in the majors.
The Mariners also have eight relievers currently on the injured list, and traded away three of their more experienced arms to the Padres in Austin Adams, Dan Altavilla and Taylor Williams.
But, there have still been bright spots through these first 40 games.
Rookies like Anthony Misiewicz (3.68 ERA in 14 appearances) and Joey Gerber (3.60 in 11) have shown consistency, and Rule 5 Draft pick Yohan Ramirez (3.21 in nine) has impressed with a bullpen-leading 22 strikeouts as he begins to pitch in higher leverage situations.
Yoshihisa Hirano and Graveman have also brought veteran presence to the back end as of late.
Graveman’s transition to a bullpen role, in particular, could be pivotal for the Mariners down the stretch.
A starter most of his career, Graveman returned from a month-long stint on the IL last week in a relief role in hopes of remaining healthy through the end of the season as he continues to deal with a benign bone tumor in his neck. In two relief appearances since his return, he has tossed two scoreless innings and maintained the mid-to-upper 90s sinker velocity the Mariners saw in the spring and early summer.
“With the medical history, they say with time what I have will eventually burn off and stop producing pain,” Graveman said last week. “But, we don’t know what that is, so right now I know what I can do. A lot of this has been trial and error, and right now pitching in shorter stints, what I did tonight, I’m able to, one help the team and two feel healthy.
“I told Skip, I told Woody (pitching coach Pete Woodworth), one inning or two innings are better than no innings in my book. I just want to be able to pitch. I have a passion for this game. I want to be around guys.
“I believe that we’re young in the bullpen, but I believe we have a chance to be really good in the bullpen. So, I hope that I can help with that, and help the learning process and the learning curve for some guys, and let’s go attack hitters and see what happens.”
