Grading dominant Seattle Mariners slump-busting 3-0 sweep vs. the San Diego Padres

Last week didn't get off to the greatest start, as the Seattle Mariners dropped back-to-back series at home after winning nine series in a row. However, it ended on a much better note after the team kicked off the newly legitimized Vedder Cup with three dominant wins against the San Diego Padres.

Seemingly unbothered by dropping five out of six games to the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees, everything was clicking well as Seattle dominated on both sides of the ball. So without further delay, let's get deeper into the series and grade the Mariners' performance in all facets of the game

Mariners vs. Padres Breakdown and Grades: Series Results

• Friday, May 16: SEA 5, SDP 1
• Saturday, May 17: SEA 4, SDP 1
• Sunday, May 18: SEA 6, SDP 1

Grading the Mariners’ Offense: A-

The slate of starting pitchers the Padres had on offer in this series was a challenging one, but the Mariners lineup was up to the challenge.

The approach against Michael King on Sunday was particularly effective as despite his recent success, Seattle was able to put up six hits and four runs against the righty in 5.1 innings. Three of these four runs came in the fourth inning after a Randy Arozarena solo homer finally broke the game open for the Mariners.

Rowdy Tellez and Cal Raleigh also found success in the series, both homering in the first game on Friday to put four runs on the board.

Raleigh has been great all year and has been one of the best hitters on the team for the past few years. With his strong performance this weekend, Tellez pushed his OPS from .660 heading into play on May 16 to .744 following the conclusion of the series. His career has seen quite a few ups and downs over the past few years, but it seems like he's finally coming out on the other side as an improved hitter.

Grading the Mariners’ Defense: B+

Overall, the Mariners' fielding was solid in this series. There weren't too many chances to make dazzling plays, but in the few opportunities they did get, they showed up and showed out.

On Friday, Arozarena got things started with a great catch to take a hit away from Xander Bogaerts.

Later in the same game, J.P. Crawford got involved by turning a double play almost single-handedly after Manny Machado sent a ground ball his way.

Perhaps feeling a little excluded, Leo Rivas flashed some of his range in the final game of the series by getting to a ground ball up the middle and making the play at first before a speedy Jackson Merrill could safely reach the bag.

Defense hasn't exactly been Seattle's strong suit this year, as their Defensive Runs Saved of -2 currently places them 21st in MLB. Much of this is due to constant shuffles around the infield and at right field, but this series showed that they have the potential to be a decent group of gloves.

Grading the Mariners’ Pitching: A+

Even though the Padres have a pretty good lineup stacked with notable names, Seattle's pitching staff held them to just three combined runs over the course of the series.

Logan Evans was dominant in his fourth start of the year, needing just 89 pitches to throw six scoreless innings. He only had three strikeouts, but it was an efficient day of work for the rookie. His ERA for the season is now 2.57 over 21 innings.

Emerson Hancock toed the slab in the second game and put up similar numbers over 4.2 innings, striking out three and conceding one earned run after giving up a solo homer to Gavin Sheets. Nonetheless, it was a strong outing and encouraging sign for Hancock, who has struggled to put it together in the big leagues this year. He now has a 6.21 ERA over 33.1 innings this season.

Last but absolutely not least, Bryan Woo got the ball in the final game of the series and did not disappoint. We had already sung his praises heading into Sunday's game and he backed us up by tossing seven innings and giving up a single earned run. He needed just 87 pitches to dismantle San Diego, and the lineup took care of the rest.

In other news, Andrés Muñoz had a four-out save in his sole appearance in this series and maintained his perfect 0.00 ERA, continuing his hot streak against his former team. It was a key part of a broadly excellent performance by the bullpen, which permitted only one run in the series.

Grading the Mariners’ Strategy: A

While baseball is full of complex, nuanced, subtle decisions, it seemed like this series was simpler than most. One thing that was apparent was how much trust Dan Wilson placed in the starting pitching.

Both Evans and Woo were allowed to get their pitch counts close to 90 and despite some early damage in both of their starts, they stayed the course and kept it business as usual. If Hancock had been able to get a few more outs at the same pitch count, he likely would've remained in the game but he had thrown 88 pitches by the time Gabe Speier came through in the fifth inning to relieve him of his duties.

The same goes for the management of the bullpen. Evans and Woo left little to be pitched, but with Hancock's truncated outing, Wilson allowed both Speier and Muñoz to stay in the game for more than one inning, a first for both relievers this season. While some modern high-leverage relievers refuse to get more than three outs (for a fair reason), it looks like Wilson's bet that his guys would do what was needed for the team to win paid off.

Offensively, it looks like the approach was to stay aggressive and trust in their ability to win small battles here and there. The Mariners struck out a total of 32 times across the series, but their aggression was rewarded with offense.

Interestingly, despite having the sixth-most stolen bases in MLB (45), Seattle didn't attempt a single steal. This may have been out of respect to catcher Elias Díaz who has done a respectable job of limiting the run game. Or, it could have been the result of the situation never creating an opportune time to do so. Either way, they got their scoring done fair and square so it wouldn't have been necessary to take on additional risk.

All in all, it was an outstanding set of games for the Mariners and they'll now head to Chicago to take on the White Sox. If they manage to carry this positive momentum through the remainder of the road trip, it'll put them in a dominant position in the AL West. Hopefully they'll have a lead that's too big to blow within a month's time.