Grading the Mariners' performance in 2-2 series tie vs. Athletics

The Seattle Mariners officially have their first series of the year under their belt. Against an AL West rival in the Athletics, the best way to describe the four-game set would be "turbulent."

After losing two in a row following a win on Opening Day, Seattle escaped with a narrow win on Sunday to even up the score. While the end result is a .500 record in the standings, there are lots of things to fix if they want a chance at cracking the postseason this year.

Series Results

• Thursday, March 27: SEA 4, ATH 2
• Friday, March 28: SEA 0, ATH 7
• Saturday, March 29: SEA 2, ATH 4
• Sunday, March 30: SEA 2, ATH 1

Offense: D

At this point, it feels like beating a dead horse when discussing the poor quality of the Mariners' offense. It has gotten so bad that commentators for other teams have started talking about it on their broadcasts.

The big difference that led to some paltry scores in this series was the lack of apparent star power at the plate. J.P. Crawford went 1-for-11 with two walks. Julio Rodríguez struck out six times and went 2-for-12 with three walks. Just a few days after signing a massive extension, Cal Raleigh went 1-for-12 with three walks.

On the bright side, Jorge Polanco has gotten off to a smoking start, accumulating five hits with a key go-ahead home run on Opening Day and is currently leading the team with a 1.300 OPS.

The Mariners are 24th in MLB in runs scored (8) and and 26th in OPS (.554). It's a small sample size, but it doesn't necessarily stir up optimism for the rest of the season, especially since this isn't totally unexpected. It may take some more time for the heart of the lineup to heat up but if they don't do it soon, they could find themselves falling further and further out of postseason contention.

Pitching and Defense: A

This was not a flawless opening series for the Mariners' vaunted pitching staff. It served up seven home runs in the four games, which only sounds good when compared to the 15 that Milwaukee Brewers hurlers have already coughed up on the season.

Of the starters who went in this series, however, all four went at least five innings and allowed three or fewer earned runs. Logan Gilbert and Bryan Woo particularly shoved, combining for two earned runs allowed over 13 innings. It was likewise a good series for closer Andrés Muñoz, who picked up two saves with two scoreless innings.

Outside of an awkward miscommunication between Raleigh and Bryce Miller in the third game of the series on Saturday, the team's defense was quite good. Ryan Bliss made an especially compelling case for himself to be the squad's starting guy at second base, at least defensively.

The rest of the squad wasn't really tested, with the outfield being as reliable as ever in tracking down fly balls and limiting errors.

Strategy: B

Without the marquee power or newfangled equipment toted by the big market teams, it seems like Seattle's plan for the year is to be as scrappy as possible. Despite their limited opportunities to do so given their lack of baserunners, the Mariners stole five bases against the Athletics. Even Raleigh got in on the fun. It's a good use of the team's given qualities and has already led to important run creation when done correctly.

In addition to stealing, overall aggression on the basepaths seems to be a theme with runners taking every chance to go from first to third and do their best to get into scoring position.

Scrappiness also involves bunting, which is still quite a rough aspect of the team's current play. The several bunt attempts laid down by the Mariners left quite a few questions for Dan Wilson about what the intention behind these moves was. They have 158 more games to iron out the kinks of playing small ball, but it could hopefully have positive effects on run production.

Wilson also made sure to maximize his platoon advantage, swapping in Dylan Moore and Mitch Garver for Rowdy Tellez and Luke Raley against southpaw pitchers. This is of the utmost importance as it leverages the existing depth and flexibility of the roster which is currently blessed with several players capable of playing multiple positions.

The Mariners will now host the Detroit Tigers for a three-game set before embarking on their first brief road trip to San Francisco.