Mariners can’t capitalize on vintage Felix start, fall 4-1

The Mariners came into Thursday’s contest with the Yankees riding high. Winners of 5 of their last 6, coming off of a series win against Houston, Seattle came in looking to sneak within a half game of the second Wild Card spot.

Felix Hernandez went out and gave the Mariners his best outings of the year, lasting seven innings while giving up just one run. He also notched nine strikeouts. His one slip up was a solo homer to Brett Gardner in the sixth inning.

Yet, one run should’ve been few enough that the bullpen could hold them scoreless over three innings, and the M’s would pull out the win. The problem was, the Seattle offense laid an absolute egg with runners on base. They left 22 runners on, a staggering number for any team, let alone the M’s who boast one of the best offenses in the league.

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Luis Severino dominated the Mariners for seven innings of his own. Even when he slipped up, he weaseled his way out of jams like nobody’s business.

The biggest moment the M’s missed on came in the fourth inning when they put runners on the corners with no outs, but Severino battled and got Haniger to pop out, Dyson to fly out to center, and after walking Zunino, got Jean Segura to ground out weakly.

So ultimately, it was just a really off night for the M’s, but what does that mean for them for the rest of the weekend?

Well, honestly, Seattle isn’t in the worst spot. They had a bad night, but this team knows how to rebound. They can score with the best of them, and the pitching can be lights out at times.

The keywords in that sentence are “can” and “at times.” If Seattle plays their best, they are almost unbeatable, but all too often, they shoot themselves in the foot by not scoring, or blowing leads.

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The M’s need to have Andrew Moore pitch like he did in his first two outings of 2017 and regain some momentum Friday night. If they can shell CC Sabathia who has a 3.54 ERA and a WHIP of 1.27, Seattle could really reset the tone for the rest of the series.

Here’s to hoping the Mariners pull out a big win on Friday and regain the ground they lost Thursday.