Three stars of Seattle Mariners 6-1 Week 9
Still not scoring many runs, the Seattle Mariners produced a stellar 6-1 record in Week 9. There were plenty of stars, but here are our top three.
After a dismal Week 8, the Seattle Mariners turned it around against a couple of division rivals in Week 9. Now they are sitting back at .500. Six wins in a week are the most “W”s the Mariners had in a Mon-Sun week since 2019.
Even with the uptick, Seattle still has the lowest team batting average in baseball. Worse they are on pace to break the record for lowest batting average in an MLB season. The good news is they improved their average from .199 to .205.
The month of May will already go down as one of the worst-hitting months in franchise history. They need at least 9 hits on the final day of the month to void batting under .200 for the month.
Also, on the sunny side, during Week 9, the pitching staff produced a 2.47 ERA and went 6-1. Their performance brought the team ERA down below 5.00 for the Month. The number is a bit misleading as most of the runs giving up in May were against the Padres last week.
It was a strong week from starters and the bullpen combined. Overall the Mariners did many things right, both offensively and with pitching. So let’s review our stars of the week, starting with the honorable mentions.
Honorable Mention
Kyle Lewis – .269 average, 2 HRs, 7 runs scored, and 4 RBI.
Kyle Lewis continues to increase his overall batting average, which now stands at .246. His five home runs on the season in 126 at-bats is the lowest HR/AB percentage Lewis had at any professional level. But in Week 9, Lewis hit two home runs and scored a bunch of runs. In addition, he made several outstanding plays in centerfield.
Mitch Haniger – .286 average, 4 RBI, 4 Runs, and 3 XBH.
Eight hits improved Mitch Haniger’s average to .261 on the season. It wasn’t his best week by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a step up over the previous week. Mitch is having a bit of a power outage despite having 14 home runs on the season. He’s also struggling with strikeouts and will carry a six-game strikeout streak heading into Memorial Day.
His season numbers are really great. Haniger is on pace, 1/3rd of the way through the season, to hit 42 home runs, with 105 RBI and 108 runs scored. He’s healthy and has been the M’s MVP since opening day.
Justin Dunn – 5.2 Innings, 1 Earned Run, 8 Ks, and only 2 bases on balls
Justin Dunn has continued to be unhittable, with an inability to find the strike zone at times. He struck out eight Rangers in his outing and had one of his highest strike percentages of the season (63%). He also managed to get 15 swings and misses, which represented a season-high. Dunn is 1-2 on the season with the win and leads Mariners starters with a 3.18 ERA. He’s also seeing improvement in his K/BB ratio, which is now at 1.67.