Seattle Mariners: 3 stars of the M’s 5-2 Week 3 (April 12-18)
The Seattle Mariners had a strong Week 3, winning 3-of-4 from the Orioles and 2-of-3 from Houston. Here are the M’s 3 Stars of the Week.
What a wacky week for the Seattle Mariners. It featured not one but two double-headers. Despite the odd schedule, it was also a very successful week for the M’s. They took three of four from the Orioles and won the Astros series. Before we get into the stars of the week, there was a lot of discussion about the depleted Astros. While it is true, it’s also myopic.
The Mariners are also short-handed after losing James Paxton for the season and with 2020 unanimous Rookie of the Year yet to return. While not as short-handed as Houston, the Mariners went with their seventh starter (Nick Margevicius) and the unproven yet effective Chris Flexen pitch over the weekend.
Seattle needed a comeback against proven relievers to beat the Astros on Friday night. No Bregman, Altuve, or Alvarez definitely had an impact on the Astros offense. But Houston’s starting pitching was relatively untouched. The Mariners did a great job working counts to get to the pen, where they did their damage.
In a week where the Mariners went 5-2, it’s tough to pinpoint down to just three stars for the week. Nearly the entire bullpen deserves to be on this list, but so do several starting pitchers, and multiple bats had a great week.
Honorable Mention
J.P. Crawford – .350 BA, .809 OPS, 4 runs
J.P. Crawford really got the bat going this week, turning around a rough start to the season. He finished the week 7-for-20 (.350 avg) with a double, and 4 runs scored. The shortstop only had one RBI, but it was a big RBI during the comeback against the Astros on Friday. He scored a bunch of runs, primarily due to the great week the top of the Mariners lineup had.
Evan White – .333 BA, .945 OPS, 1 HR
It was only in 15 at-bats, but they were a successful 15 trips to the dish for Evan White. He only struck out 4 times, which is a considerable improvement over last year’s 41 percent strikeout rate.
Justin Dunn – 1.80 ERA, 6Ks in 5 IP, 2 BB.
Against Baltimore, Justin Dunn looked unhittable at points and finally showed a bit more control. The righty balanced a steady diet of fastballs that danced along the edges of the strike zone, without the control issues he had to this start. Instead, only two Orioles batters got a free pass. So far, Dunn issued 10 walks in 9.2 innings, so this was an outing he really needed. He did get a win this week.