Seattle Mariners: What To Watch For This Weekend

4- The Rested Bullpen

The Seattle Mariners bullpen needed a rest. They got it on Thursday with the travel day to Minnesota. In fact, they didn’t have much work on Tuesday with Hisashi Iwakuma pitching eight scoreless. Fernando Rodney came in and destroyed that, but the bullpen had a nice rest overall in the Tampa series.

Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

I fully expect that all three starters in this series against the Twins can go at least seven innings. In baseball, anything can happen, but I’m confident that the rested bullpen will get even more rest this weekend.

Speaking of the bullpen: What has gotten into Charlie Furbush? Mariners fans loved to pile the hate onto Furbush early in the season and he has done a complete 180 of late.

In his last four appearances, dating back to May 5, Furbush has pitched 2.2 IP, has allowed two walks and nothing else. No hits, no runs, just two walks to go with four strikeouts.

I have a running theory as to what may have corrected the troubles of one Mr. Furbush, but I have to keep it under wraps for now. Stay tuned.