Seattle Mariners 3 Heroes of the Week – through 8/2/20
This article is the second installment of our Mariners Three Heroes of the Week for 2020. We honor the M’s best players over the previous seven days (or in this case six).
Week 2 of the 2020 Major League Baseball season went much better for the Seattle Mariners than the opening week did. They went 3–3 and it very easily could have been 5–1 if the M’s could have generated more offense after the seventh inning the past two days.
This week the heroes weren’t as obvious as last week, aside from our first hero. It was more a team effort as the Mariners received contributions from many different sources. Even so, some players stood out over their peers.
Dishonorable Mention – Bryan Shaw, Dan Altavilla, and Nick Margevicius
Originally, this was going to be the entire relief staff not named Williams and Ramirez. Upon further investigation, these three relievers, Bryan Shaw, Dan Altavilla, and Nick Margevicius were awful last week. The trio pitched 9 of Seattle’s 24 bullpen innings. They gave up 13 earned runs on 13 hits with four home runs. On the bright side, the M’s have no shortage of batting practice pitchers.
Honorable Mention – Taijuan Walker
It’s hard to include someone who appeared in one game during the playing week. So when someone makes this list, rest assured that one performance was outstanding. Case in point, Taijuan Walker‘s outing in Friday’s home opener. Walker was lights out against Oakland in the Seattle Mariners 5–3 win. He pitched seven shutout innings, allowing only one hit with eight strikeouts and a pair of walks.
No. 3 Hero – Taylor Williams
It was a tough call this week but “closer” Taylor Williams got the nod over Dylan Moore and Kyle Seager. The local product from Camas, Washington has been one of the few steady arms in an often unsteady bullpen. He made a pair of appearances during the week allowing just one hit and earned his second save of 2020.
No. 2 Hero – Shed Long Jr.
Seattle Mariners second baseman Shed Long Jr. turned it up a notch next week. He hit .300 on 6-for-20 with a double, home run, three runs scored and a pair of RBI.
Certainly, the Angels won’t look forward to seeing him again. Long scored the tying run in Seattle’s 10–7 come from behind win on Wednesday. Then Friday he gave the Mariners a much-needed insurance run when he hit a ninth-inning homer That began a five-run onslaught which sealed the deal on an 8–5 win.
No. 1 Hero – Kyle Lewis
Once again our number one hero Kyle Lewis was a beast last week. The Major League leader in hits and oWAR put on another show at the plate. As hard as it is to believe Lewis raised his batting average from .400 to .425 with an impressive 11-for-25 at the plate that included four multi-hit games. Additionally, he scored three runs and drove in five.
This week it wasn’t about power for Lewis, 10 of his 11 hits were singles. Lewis did hit a home run, which was a 420-foot blast off Yusmeiro Petit in the eighth inning on Sunday.
Editor’s Note: Normally, we consider the baseball week to cover Monday through Sunday. We used the Mainers game from Monday, July 27 as part of our opening weekend heroes.