6 takeaways from the Mariners vs. White Sox series

The Seattle Mariners completed their three games series against the Chicago White Sox and were only able to win one game. The M’s were almost swept by the visiting team but were able to rally in yesterday’s game. Now, Seattle is 3-3 on the season and the series against Chicago taught us a few things about the Mariners. Here are six things I took away from the second series of the season.

Mariners takeaway no. 1 – We can rally, so don’t ever count us out

Let’s start with the good news. The Mariners had a huge rally on Opening Day against the San Francisco Giants and were able to score six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the team a lead. We witnessed a similar thing in yesterday’s matinee. The Mariners were down 4-1 going into the bottom of the sixth inning with no momentum at all.

Dallas Keuchel was dealing and the Mariners had a tough time getting to him. Jose Marmolejos came in for Evan White and started the inning with a walk, followed by a Dylan Moore bloop single. That forced the White Sox to make a change and brought in Matt Foster.

From then on, the Mariners turned the switch on and scored seven runs to give the team a four-run lead. Taylor Trammell got his second hit of the season, Ty France had an incredible at-bat and drew a walk, Kyle Seager hit a double to clear the bases, and other players pitched in as well.

So, my takeaway is that the Mariners can shift the momentum quickly with just one small spark. This inning started with a big walk from Marmo and a lucky hit from D-Moore, and getting Dallas Keuchel out of the game. That opened the floodgates and the Mariners poured it on as they did on Opening Day.

Is it luck or skill? I don’t know, but the Mariners have had two big comeback wins to start 2021. So, don’t count the team out even when all hope is lost.

Now, let’s look at another positive takeaway from the series.

Mariners takeaway no. 2 – The bullpen was fantastic with a few exceptions

One of the things I learned from the Opening Series against the Giants was that the Mariners bullpen was solid. I have the same level of confidence in the M’s bullpen after pitching well against the White Sox. Unfortunately, I can’t say the Mariners bullpen looked elite because there were a few bumpy relief appearances, but overall the group looked good.

In the first game of the series, I was impressed with the two relievers who finished the game after Justus Sheffield’s mediocre outing. Drew Steckenrider had a great bounce-back relief appearance after struggling in his 2021 debut. He threw two scoreless innings. Will Vest also threw two scoreless innings and also didn’t allow a hit in the 6-0 loss.

In game two, this is where things went sideways for the bullpen. James Paxton was pulled from the second inning and Nick Margevicius came in to relieve the injured lefty. Nick to his credit came in without warning so his bad outing isn’t very relevant to the whole bullpen story. Casey Sadler was hit around pretty well in the White Sox series and allowed three hits and two walks in 1.1 innings.

Keynan Middleton also got roughed up. He had a clean seventh inning after replacing Casey Sadler in a high-pressure situation but wasn’t able to contain the White Sox in the eighth inning. He got the first two outs of the inning, hit a batter, walked two in a row, and gave up a grand slam to the White Sox star first baseman, Jose Abreu. After Middleton, Anthony Misiewicz came in to pitch the top of the ninth and he didn’t have the cleanest outing either. He didn’t allow a run but did allow two singles to start the inning.

And finally, in yesterday’s game, the Mariners bullpen did a fantastic job of keeping the door shut on the White Sox after Justin Dunn went just 4.2 innings. Will Vest didn’t have a great outing but was able to minimize his three hits to just one run. After Vest, Kendall Graveman, Anthony Misiewicz, and Rafael Montero all put up zeros to keep the four runs Mariners lead.

Graveman also struggled and allowed two walks and a hit, and didn’t strike a White Sox hitter out. Still, a zero is a zero. Like I said, despite some of the rough bumps in the road, the Mariners bullpen was pretty solid. And let’s remember, the Mariners were facing the Chicago White Sox who are the favorites to win the AL Central.

Now, onto the bad news…

Mariners takeaway no. 4 – The back end of the rotation looks shaky

The opening series against the Giants gave me hope that the front end of the rotation would be good this year, but the most recent series has me worried about the back end. Justus Sheffield took the mound on Monday and he just didn’t get the job done. He threw only 54 of his 92 pitches for strikes and allowed eight hits. Sheffield gave up six runs, four earned, and walked two in five innings of work.

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One of the problems for Sheffield was allowing too many hard-hit balls. The White Sox were on him and hit the ball 95.5 mph on average off of him. He allowed barrel on 11.1% of batted balls and batters posted a .347 xBA and .621 xSLG. To compare, the young lefty minimized xBA to .257 last season, and the average exit velocity off of him was 90.7 mph. I am hoping his first start of the season was a fluke but if it’s not, it’s very worrisome.

James Paxton started game two against Lucas Giolito things were looking very good. He forced Adam Eaton to pop out and struck out Luis Robert and Jose Abreu. In the second inning, he started off with a walk and a ground out, and that was the last we saw of him. The Big Maple was taken out of the game which is a huge loss for the Mariners. It will be interesting to see how Nick Margevicius fills the void, for hopefully just a short while, but only time will tell.

And finally, we have Justin Dunn who threw in the matinee. The young right-hander walked eight batters and allowed one hit. That is not a typo! Justin threw 48 out of 93 pitches for strikes and somehow got away with just allowing three earned runs. Dunn showed glimpses of brilliance but he was just way too inconsistent and fell behind in the count so often.

When you play a team like the White Sox, they are going to take advantage of your control issues, and they certainly did. They honestly should have scored three more runs and knocked Dunn out of the game even earlier. Let’s hope the back end of the rotation gets a little stronger because I have confidence in the first three.

Mariners takeaway no. 5 – We struck out way too many times

One of the biggest concerns for the team this series was the enormous number of strikeouts. The Mariners struck out 37 times in just three games. The White Sox struck out just 26 times.

Granted the Mariners faced some really good pitchers in Lucas Giolito, Dallas Keuchel, and the White Sox bullpen, but 37 strikeouts are unacceptable. I was particularly angry with game one, where the team faced Carlos Rodon who is the White Sox’s fifth starter.

Rodon struck out nine M’s hitters in just five innings, and the bullpen struck out six. A lot of our household names just struggled with two strikes and it symbolized how game one went. Kyle Seager and Dylan Moore struck out three times. Mitch Haniger and Ty France struck out twice. And everyone else in the lineup struck out once.

It was a similar story in the 10-4 loss on Tuesday. Seattle struck out 15 times again and Kyle Seager, Evan White, and Taylor Trammell each had three K’s. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that White and Trammell struck out three times because both have issues with the K, but Seager’s back-to-back games with three strikeouts had me baffled.

Right now, the Mariners are in fifth place with 66 strikeouts. High strikeouts don’t always mean lack of success, but when you are a team that doesn’t hit too many home runs, the tradeoff just doesn’t make sense. The Twins and White Sox have struck out more times than the Mariners this year, but they have each hit eight home runs compared to the Mariners who have hit just two.

The M’s can hit the ball hard so they just need to put the ball in play more often.

Mariners takeaway no. 6 – Seattle just isn’t good enough yet

One of my bigger picture takeaways from the series was noticing the disparity between the Mariners and the White Sox. I was hoping that the M’s would be able to put up a good fight against one of the better teams in the MLB, but frankly, the Mariners weren’t close.

I think you could argue that the Mariners bullpen was pretty close to how good the White Sox pen was, but the M’s hitters weren’t on the same level as the White Sox offense. The Seattle Mariners struck out too much, weren’t able to pull through in the clutch, and didn’t hit any home runs.

Although I should acknowledge that the Mariners faced Chicago’s number one, two, and five starters while they faced our four, five, and six starters. Regardless, the Mariners are still a few years away from becoming a dominant force in the MLB.

Evan White, Taylor Trammell, Jake Fraley, and others still need to improve their offensive game in order for the M’s to be dangerous offensively. The Mariners rotation clearly has some more work to do as well. That being said, don’t expect a playoff run unless we start to see some of the young guys turn things around this summer.