Yusei Kikuchi, Seattle Mariners (photo by Moto Club4AG Miwa, via Wikimedia)
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.
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.
7 innings pitched, 0 runs allowed, 3 hits, and 6 Ks
Righty Chris Flexen was efficient and in control from start to finish against the Rangers. His 5-0 victory was the first victory in Seattle’s four-game sweep.
He completed 7 innings using 87 pitches, 60 of which were strikes. That makes for a season-high strike percentage of 69. The seven shutout innings represented the first time since April 3 that Flexen held an opponent scoreless for his entire outing. The game also brought his ERA back down to 4.34 after San Diego blew him up on May 21st for eight runs.
The win pushed Flexen’s record to 5-2 in 2021, and his 1.9 walks per 9 innings lead all Mariners starters. Flexen’s journey from the Mets to the Korean Baseball Organization to the Mariners has been a lengthy one, but he’s showing that he belongs in a Major League rotation.
.375 average, 9 hits, and 5 RBI.
Ty France returned from the injured list just in time to interject some much-needed offense into the Mariners line-up. Last week, France led Seattle in hits and RBI. The former Padres prospect played lots of first base in Week 9. He turned in a really nice week defensively for someone not known for his play in the field.
When France went on the IL, he was batting .229 and mired in a massive slump. His batting average dropped, or more accurately fell off a cliff, from his high of .325 on April 26th.
His nine hits this week moved his overall average up to .252. France went hitless only once but reached base in every game.
France’s return coincided with an improvement in Seattle’s offensive production. When he’s in the lineup, the M’s are 24-20 and 3-7 without him. He didn’t have much pop, two of his nine hits went for extra bases (doubles), so his overall OPS didn’t move much. Once France’s power returns, then the Mariners’ offense should take off as well.
2 starts, 2 wins, 2 quality starts, 7 hits allowed, 3 earned runs, and 8 Ks in 12.2 innings pitched.
Yusei Kikuchi continues to establish himself as the Mariners de facto ace of the rotation. Since April 29, he’s had six consecutive quality starts (at least 6 innings pitched with 3 or fewer earned runs given up). This week, he did it two more times in wins against Oakland and Texas. Each by an identical 4-2 score.
The veteran lefty still has lapses in control, leading to more walks than the M’s would like. However, Kikuchi is getting much more efficient. His 70.2 strike percentage on Sunday was the best since his first start of the season.
Since back-to-back outings with giving up 5 runs each ballooned his ERA to a season-high 5.70 on April 23, he’s gone 3-2 with a 2.76 ERA over 6 starts. This represents the best six-start span of his career. His improvement is coming at a time when the Mariners continue to work out offensive issues.
In a recent article, my Pacific Northwest Sports colleague, Chris Phillips, raised the question of whether Kikuchi is the Mariners’ ace or not. Looking at the rest of the rotation, Marco Gonzalez is due back on Tuesday. Hopefully returns to his 2020 form. Justin Dunn leads the starters in ERA, while Chris Flexen has a 5-2 record. That leaves Logan Gilbert and Justus Sheffield to continue their paths of improvement after rough starts.
Is Kikuchi the ace of the Mariners? He’s definitely been the most dominant at times. While it might be too soon to anoint anyone as the ace of the Mariners, the magic 8-ball says “signs point to yes.”
Joe Swenson is a lifelong Seattle Sports fan, award-winning playwright, director, producer, and author of the Young Adult book series, The Ten Letters trilogy. Book two of the trilogy is due out in October 2021.