{"id":4908,"date":"2017-04-09T14:31:33","date_gmt":"2017-04-09T18:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=4908"},"modified":"2017-04-09T14:31:33","modified_gmt":"2017-04-09T18:31:33","slug":"seattle-mariners-week-one-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2017\/04\/09\/seattle-mariners-week-one-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Seattle Mariners Week One Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\">Seattle Mariners Week One Review<\/h2>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">1-5, Fifth\u00a0Place in the AL West\u2026 OUCH<\/h3>\n<p>So, this week didn\u2019t go as\u00a0planned. The Mariners have struggled mightily out of the gates, falling again Saturday night to the Los Angeles Angels, and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/troutmi01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mike Trout<\/a><\/strong> in particular. Trout, who has never finished worse than second\u00a0in the MVP voting, was doing what he does best.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Felix Hernandez just stuck out Mike Trout looking to end a 14-pitch at-bat. Baseball&#8217;s so great.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TylerKepner\/status\/850900865661751296\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 9, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Even balloons are afraid of the guy:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Even balloons are scared of Mike Trout ? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NmsVRijhNB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/NmsVRijhNB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Baseball Lifestyle\u2122 (@BsbLifestyle__) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BsbLifestyle__\/status\/850920449685028864\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 9, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Mariners opened a four-game series against the Houston Astros, and then a three-game set which wraps up Sunday in Anaheim. They dropped the first three games of the year, for the first time since 2011. Game three went extra innings, and ended with a hanging curveball to <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/springe01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">George Springer<\/a><\/strong> barely making it over the short left field porch.<\/p>\n<p>The starting pitching has been able to keep things within striking distance by working out of jams, and limiting the damage, and giving the offense the chance to get back into the game. However, opposing pitchers figured out early that breaking pitches are the lineup&#8217;s Achilles heel this early in the season. It is something that Edgar Martinez will need to take charge of by getting together with his hitters and making the necessary adjustments.<\/p>\n<p>The problem that is facing the Mariners at this early stage of the season is their three best hitters, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/seageky01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyle Seager<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cruzne02.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nelson Cruz<\/a><\/strong>, and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/canoro01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Robinson Cano<\/a><\/strong>, are a combined 10-66, for an average of .151. They have 20 strikeouts, eight Walks, four RBI, and three extra base hits combined. None of those hits have been home runs, which is not a good sign.<\/p>\n<p>This also goes with the team batting 5-49 with RISP. That comes to a .102 batting average, which isn\u2019t going to win any ball games.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The joy of going to bed after a late inning <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Mariners\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Mariners<\/a> loss&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/P1PWf2ErSF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/P1PWf2ErSF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Russell Hartness (@RussellHartness) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RussellHartness\/status\/849856797506654208\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 6, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Reasons for Hope<\/h3>\n<p>There are two silver lining for the beginning of the year, and they are <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=altavi000dan\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dan Altavilla<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/pazosja01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">James Pazos<\/a><\/strong>. They have combined to pitch 7.1 innings, with seven strikeouts, and no runs allowed. While the starting pitching hasn\u2019t been terrible to start the year, they have combined to give up nine home runs. They have most often been of the solo variety, but they have also been home runs that have forced\u00a0the team to play catch up from the very beginning.<\/p>\n<p>The Mariners will surely get going, they have the ability and the history to do it. However, the time that it will take to get going is what will determine if this team can get turned around. The team is built for a win-now mentality, but they need to play up to their ability. The schedule isn\u2019t getting any easier, so it needs to be sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/664702042\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/664702042?et=_x_Tq--rSAN6dMYypEm70A&amp;tld=com&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=o09vxOJV25k7cfT2oXrHpQDCzLRnEBKQz7kTfVc-gZA=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seattle Mariners Week One Review 1-5, Fifth\u00a0Place in the AL West\u2026 OUCH So, this week didn\u2019t go as\u00a0planned. The Mariners have struggled mightily out of the gates, falling again Saturday night to the Los Angeles Angels, and Mike Trout in particular. Trout, who has never finished worse than second\u00a0in the MVP voting, was doing what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1719,"featured_media":4914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1071],"tags":[627,68,848,548,246,156,69,158],"class_list":["post-4908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mariners","category-mlb","tag-al-west","tag-baseball","tag-edgar-martinez","tag-george-springer","tag-houston-astros","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-mlb","tag-seattle-mariners"],"modified_by":"Josh Greenberg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1719"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}