Mariners Opening Series vs. Houston Astros: 3 Up, 3 Down

3 up

With the team entering the season with high playoff hopes, a 1-3 start is tough to swallow. But keep your head up, there is a lot more baseball, and hopefully winning baseball, to be played! In fact, let’s take a look at some of the positives from the four-game series.

The Bullpen

Other than Chase De Jong giving up the walk-off home run to Springer in game three, the bullpen was lights out in Houston.

As a unit, they gave up 6 runs in 15.2 innings while racking up 11 strikeouts. That stat doesn’t sound too overwhelming, but they only gave up one run over nine innings of work besides the 13 inning game.

James Pazos and Edwin Diaz were the highlights on the pen. Pazos totaled 3.2 scoreless innings pitched with a strikeout.

Diaz earned his first save Thursday night after totaling three scoreless innings of work with four strikeouts in the series. Also in Thursday’s game, Dan Altavilla snagged his first major league win.

The Rotation

Yes, Felix hurt himself in his first outing. And yes, the team is 1-3. But each of the four starters who appeared in this series had strong performances.

The starting rotation only allowed six runs in four games, that is 1.5 runs per game. With those performances, the team should have won three of the four games if it weren’t for the weak offense.

Between Felix, Kuma, Paxton and Miranda, they totaled 22 innings of work while surrendering 16 hits and striking out 17.

The only thing that hurt the starters was the long ball. ALL six runs these guys allowed came as a solo home run. Given the Astros strong offense, giving up only solo dingers is a huge accomplishment.

Jean Segura

The Mariner’s new shortstop is the lone bright spot in the lineup. Segura went 6-for-20 over the four games with a home run while driving in three and stealing a bag.

His .300 batting average is by far the best in the rather lackluster lineup thus far. The next best average on the team? .188, shared by Mitch Haniger and Robinson Cano.