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After the first month of the season, who is the Mariners' unsung hero?
Coming out of Spring Training, the bullpen was to be without one of its key cogs with an injured Matt Brash, but someone stepped up big time to take his place
Pitching is what Jerry and Justin have built this franchise around. After shaky starts to season by Luis Castillo and George Kirby, plus the unfortunate loss of Matt Brash to start the season, the pitching was shaping up to be a crap shoot. Losing Brash was cause for concern, as his high strikeout rates, unhittable slider, and his high octane pairing with Andres Munoz, formed a backend bullpen teams fretted to face.
Add in the fact that the newly acquired Gregory Santos wasn't slated to pitch until the end of May at the earliest, and the Mariners were left looking for someone to fill the void left with Brash and Santos on the IL. Who was going to be able to jump in next to Munoz and form that 1-2 punch in the bullpen?
Gabe Speier answered the call, and has done so with authority
Luckily the boys on the pitching staff have turned things around and the Mariners ended April alone atop first place in the AL West. But they couldn’t have got there without the unsung hero of the month. Gabe Speier. Speier has been nails for the bullpen and has provided that lockdown arm that Matt Brash was supposed to provide. Through his first 12 games, Speier has spun 10.2 innings, 15 strikeouts, only given up one earned run, two free passes, and sporting a dazzling 0.84 ERA on the season.
Still early in the season, Speier has been able to be the next man up in the backend of the bullpen that not only is missing Brash but Gregory Santos as well, who was also supposed to fill that high-leverage, late innings in tight games. Proving as an anchor for Scott Servias, Gabe Speier has proven to himself and the team as a whole that he can go out and execute. This might not mean much early, but if Speier can keep this up, the lefty is looking down the barrel of an All-Star nod and hopefully pitching high-leverage innings for the team come the postseason.