Mariners: Taylor Trammell get his first hit, but strikes out again

Yesterday marked another big day for Taylor Trammell and will be a day he will remember forever. The Mariners prospect finally got his first hit in the big leagues in the bottom of the fourth inning against Logan Webb. Trammell drove a low and outside changeup into the right-center gap and jogged into second base. The 23-year-old’s exit velocity on the double was 101.7 mph.

The first hit in the MLB is one of the biggest things for rookies, but Trammell has already crossed a few things off his list. On Opening Day, he recorded his first RBI, walk, run, and outfield assist.

https://twitter.com/Mariners/status/1378537969770885120?s=20

Taylor Trammell still has room for improvement

It was awesome to watch Trammell’s first hit on TV, but there are still things he is struggling with. On Opening Day he put together some good at-bats and struck out just once. In game two of the series, Trammell K’d three times in four plate appearances. Yesterday, Taylor struck out twice. His large amount of strikeouts in Spring Training were well documented and it seems to be carrying over into the regular season.

I honestly don’t have an answer for his high strikeout rate early in the season, but he is getting picked apart when pitchers get ahead. Logan Webb blew a fastball by him in the bottom of the first inning to strike him out after throwing three changeups in a row.

But in his next at-bat, he was able to stay with Logan Webb’s 0-2 changeup for his first MLB hit. In the bottom of the sixth, Webb was able to prevail and forced Trammell to chase a 2-2 changeup.

So, if you put all of that together, Taylor Trammell has struck out six times in just three games. That’s not exactly what we want to be seeing, but he is a rookie so we can cut him some slack. Hopefully getting that first hit will ease some tension he might have had and unleash the Taylor Trammell we saw in Spring Training.