Kendall Graveman, Seattle Mariners.
The Seattle Mariners went 3-2 in only five games. There were three dominating efforts by three different pitchers. Their bats are waking up as the team batting average improved to .217. It was also a week where the M’s depended on the bullpen due to some unfortunate bad luck and an iffy call by the umpires.
Taylor Trammell – 3 for 7 (.429), .600 OBP, 3 home runs and 4 strikeouts
All three of Taylor’s hits were home runs. He raised his batting average by 14 points from .154 to .168. It’s not great, but it’s improving. Sadly, it was 100 percent or nothing with Trammell. He only put the ball in play three times. In the rest of his plate appearances, he struck out four times, walked twice, and was hit by a pitch. Not a single out was made from his bat. It’s an improvement overall though. Servais seems to be putting the rookie in more situations where he can be successful.
J.P. Crawford – .261 average, ended a season-long 12 game hitting streak.
Crawford has been a batting machine in the month of June (.347 average, .394 OBP, .925 OPS). His batting average and hit totals are among the league leaders for the month of June as well. He’s going to turn in the best month of his career and is batting .327 since moving to the leadoff spot.
Crawford is also one of the few Mariners that benefit from swinging at the first pitch (.361 average, .941 OPS). He’s also batting .360 with runners in scoring position. The M’s shortstop has been absolutely clutch all season.
Mitch Haniger – .272 average (current three-game multiple hit streak, 6 hits in last three games)
Mitch struggled against the Rockies, going 0-8 with two strikeouts. He rebounded nicely in Chicago. Against the White Sox, Haniger registered two hits in each of the games. His double in the final game of the series broke a ChiSox no-hit bid. Then he hit a line drive over the left field wall for a three-run home run to give the Mariners a bit of hope in the top of the seventh.
Haniger didn’t make the next round of the All-Star voting, despite giving plenty of reasons to be voted in. He’s currently on pace for 35 home runs, 90+ RBI, and nearly 100 runs scored. His current streak also indicates that he has broken his slump and might be back to the Haniger we saw early on this season.
Win, 5.2 innings, 6 Ks, 1 run, 2 hits.
For the 10th consecutive start, Yusei Kikuchi gave up three runs or less and dropped his overall ERA to 3.34, which puts him at #10 overall in the American League. His WHIP comes in at 1.04 for the season which now ranks sixth in the American League and would be the lowest WHIP by a Mariner since Felix Hernandez was the Cy Young runner up in 2014 (0.92). Although Marco Gonzalez had a 0.95 WHIP in 2020 in 11 starts, it’s hard to count the shortened season. This would put Kikuchi’s effort as one of the top 5 seasons ever by a Mariners pitcher.
While he was still very efficient in his game against the White Sox, Kikuchi didn’t need to be overly efficient. He only gave up six base-runners in 5 2/3 innings. The Mariners took an early lead and extended it to 5-1 before Kikuchi started the sixth inning. However, in the sixth, he walked three batters and got the hook. Up until that point Kikuchi was cruising and dominating. and Servais saw an opportunity to pull his ace with the lead.
Kikuchi’s average against currently ranks fourth in the American League at .194. Only one Mariners hurler ever had a season with a batting average against of .200 or under. In 1997, Randy Johnson was 20-4 with a 2.28 ERA and a .194 BAA. The Big Unit finished the season as the A.L. Cy Young runner-up, but it was possibly his best season as a Seattle Mariner.
2 games, 2 saves, 2 innings, 1 base runner
The time for Graveman to be the closer for the M’s has finally arrived and it appears that Servais is fully committed. The right-handed veteran was called upon in both save situations the M’s had this week and he was stellar. He earned two saves to tie Montero for the team lead in saves, but that should change this week.
Graveman was efficient about it too. In the first game, he threw only 9 pitches to get the three outs and in the second game, he gave up a hit and only threw 11 pitches. That kind of efficiency keeps him available when needed versus needing to rest him because he’s thrown too many pitches.
Graveman is a converted starter after the discovery of a benign tumor on his spine. His conversion to closer though is something more recent due to Montero’s ineffectiveness in save situations (8.86 ERA). The velocity on his fastball has increased by 3-4 MPH since moving to the bullpen. Most converted starters see this, but Graveman has been able to keep his patented movement and that has made him nearly unhittable (.147 BAA) while only walking 4 (0.66 WHIP). In fact, Graveman has only allowed 17 base runners in 22.2 innings.
2-0, 3 games, 2.1 innings, no-hits, 1 base runner.
The 31-year-old veteran right-handed reliever is having an incredible season. Prior to the 2021 campaign, Paul Sewald was 1-14 with a 5.50 ERA over parts of four seasons with the Mets. His move to Seattle has proven to be an excellent one. He is 5-2 with a 1.86 ERA, but it’s other numbers that are incredible, even for a reliever.
During week 13 action, Sewald extended his no-hits in an appearance streak to seven games, which includes 6.1 innings pitched. He also has 10 Ks over that span. For the season he has been well over his career strikeouts-per-nine numbers and that’s either an anomaly or he’s evolving.
Looking over his velocity, movement, and spin rates and you see that Sewald now relies more on a high-spin rate slider which has enhanced his 4-seam fastball. He’s also keeping his slider down in the zone.
Aside from improved placement, Sewald’s slider changed from a side-to-side sweeping movement to a ball that drops vertically by nearly five inches. He also completely abandoned a change-up and only throws two pitches now.
While the velocity on both of his premier pitches has remained relatively unchanged, he has improved greatly. due to a shift in the direction of his slider, which forces batters to react while in the zone instead of being able to drop the barrel of the bat and sweep through the zone and make decent contact on a side-to-side slider. As a result, there is more value to a fastball that he controls really well in the zone.
The jury is still out on whether 2021 is an anomaly for Sewald or he’s truly evolved, but for now, the Seattle Mariners need to ride his arm.
Joe Swenson is an award-winning playwright, author, director, producer, and lifelong Seattle sports fan.