Five Stats that Stand Out from the Mariners Best Month in Team History

Reason #5: No Sewald, No Problem

This year's trade deadline was a very odd one for Mariners fans to try and get a grasp on. The rumors were swirling that we were going to trade our "power" bat and closer. Teoscar, as mentioned early, stayed put. However, the Mariners went to Arizona for a road series and ended up leaving the closer there, trading Paul Sewald to the Diamondbacks.

Usually, moves like this would be done by a team looking to the future and having given up on the current season. Why get rid of your arguably best reliever while trying to make the playoffs? Well, this is Jerry and Justin we are talking about, and they seem to find a way to proverbially kill two birds with one stone.

The Mariners haven't missed a beat since Sewald was dealt. Check out the ERA's on some of these relievers since he left, and I'll even throw Sewalds August in as well.

Andres Munoz - 1.93 ERA
Matt Brash - 3.65 ERA
Gabe Speier - 3.12 ERA
Trent Thornton - 1.84 ERA
Justin Topa - 0.73 ERA
Isaiah Campbell - 2.31 ERA
Paul Sewald - 4.66 ERA

Speier is the only one under 10 innings, and everyone else cleared that mark in August. Relievers can have a bad outing and instantly crush their numbers (Taylor Saucedo's five runs in 0.0 innings as exhibit A), and that is sort of what happened with Sewald, giving up 5 combined runs across two appearances.

That's a lot of relievers having a good month for the Mariners, and it makes it hard for anyone to come back against your team when everyone you are throwing is doing well. Sure, there is going to be regression in September. Shoot, we've seen that already. However, all of those played a huge role in the Mariners wonderful month of August, and it made for a great time to be a fan. Go Mariners!