Mariners look to stay above .500 as they head home to face the Giants

I'll be blunt. It sucks being a Mariners fan right now. Yeah, we've had a long and storied history when it comes to being bad, so you think that we would be used to it as a fan base. Knowing you are going to be bad is one thing. Starting out the season poorly and just hovering around (or under) .500 is less heartbreaking as a fan.

Watching a 10-game lead not just disappear, but begin to turn in the other direction as you fall further and further out of the playoff race, that's just one of the most gut-wrenching feelings there is for a baseball fan. It would be like watching your favorite football team start 7-3, only to finish the season 8-9. That's what it feels like right now. I don't know about you, but I just have little hope each night that the Mariners are going to do anything productive.

The Mariners need to save their season

However, I'm trying to leave those feelings behind, just like I'm hoping the Mariners leave their struggles in California. They're heading home to play the Giants for a three-game series, and while the Giants are not an easy team by any means, it's a chance for the Mariners to get on the right foot for these last 34 games and make a late season push.

There was a hope that we would see Robbie Ray from the Giants, just for the fact of seeing a familiar face that used to pitch for the Mariners. He isn't slated to throw in this series, but the Mariners are going to see Blake Snell, so at least we finally get to see the pitcher that literally every fan wanted to see in T-Mobile pitch there, even if it is going to be in a different uniform.

The Mariners have been awful on offense. Even with the signing of Robles and the trades for Arozarena and Turner, the team has the second-worst offense in all of baseball leading just the White Sox, who aren't even trying to field a major league level team. We all know that the Mariners have a chance in every game because of their starting pitching, and throwing Castillo-Kirby-Woo makes you feel really good about their chances... they just need to score 3-4 runs, which is easier said than done.

Let's bounce back to Snell a minute before we finish this up. Kirby vs Snell. Kirby is getting plenty of insane matchups, already having to go head-to-head against Skubal twice in the last month. Now, he gets Blake Snell. Snell has been one of the best pitchers in baseball since coming off the IL on July 9th. Through those eight starts, he has a 1.03 ERA, a no-hitter, and opponents are hitting just .117/.193/.170 against him. I'm worried he just might throw his second no-hitter of the year against the Mariners.

If anything, we are going to get to see an incredible pitching matchup in game two of the series. Birdsong opens the series for the Giants with a 5.01 ERA and Harrison closes it out with a 4.00 ERA. The Mariners best chance might be their first one, but we all know that this team shows up at the most random of times. Let's hope that this Giants series is the start of something good, and that the Mariners can get back on track now that they are home in Seattle.