They’ve had a pleasant start to the season. Last year, they were to be a playoff contender and never got it started. This year is a rebuilding year and they seem to be having some better results in the early going.
Jarrod Washburn has really not been the dominant pitching the Mariners hoped they’d be getting when they signed him after the 2005 season. He was hurt last year which minimized his innings and his effectiveness, but his first start this season was very impressive. It’s tough to take a lot from the first start of the season, except it shows that he still has talent. He went 8 innings and did not break the 100 pitch count. He was efficient, effective, and did not allow any runs to the Minnesota Twins. The Twins aren’t the greatest team, but they have some good hitters.
Mark Lowe had his first full big league season last year with plenty of ups and downs. I am not here to say that this is over, but he’s yet to give up a run in two innings, which doesn’t sound terribly impressive, but I’ll continue. His first outing, he blew away the Twins facing 3 batters and striking out 2. His second outing against Oakland wasn’t as dominating, but the key to relieving is being about to pitch out of trouble and make the pitches to get the proper results. After allowing a hit and a walk to the first two batters of the eighth inning with the tying run in the batter’s box, he induced a double play followed by a ground out. Although, he worked into trouble, he had the capability to get himself out of trouble taking advantage of the good defense behind him.
Adrian Beltre is not blowing the cover off the ball with overwhelming statistics, but he’s been involved in winning for the Mariners. I had low expectations for him and he’s been better than that. Also, I never took into account it’s another contract year. His last contract year, he was phenomenal hitting .334 with 48 HR and 121 RBI, all three being career highs that he’s never come close to any other season. It’s only been one week and I’m sure he’ll regress a little from his decent start but he’s a player to take not of on this team.
Erik Bedard has had a good start to the year. He had a decent start his first time out and a dominating start afterwards. He was hurt last year and never was able to string together quality results. Now he looks healthy and possible poised to return to his form of two years ago, before his late season injury. He threw 102 pitches in 8-1/3 innings while not giving up a run. This the Erik Bedard the Mariners were hoping to get last year.
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