With Felix Hernandez rolling, can the rest of the Mariners break out?
SEATTLE – Until last season Felix Hernandez’s career with the Seattle Mariners could be summed up as such: Hernandez has been great. The team? Not so much.
Then finally, after a decade of his brilliance resulting in little team success, the Mariners finally seemed to break through in 2014. Robinson Cano came over from the New York Yankees and added legitimacy to a lineup in desperate need of a lift. Of course, Hernandez was his usual dominant self, posting a career-best 2.14 ERA and finishing second to Indians right-hander Corey Kluber in AL Cy Young voting.
In the end the Mariners won 87 games but came up one game short of making the playoffs. They entered this season not only carrying the expectation of playing in the postseason for the first time since 2001, but also viewed a strong contenders to reach the World Series for the first time in the franchise’s 39-year history.
Hernandez certainly came ready to do his part. He improved to 6-0 on Sunday after throwing seven strong innings and recording his 2,000th career strikeout in a 4-3 win over Oakland. Through seven starts his ERA is 1.85 and he continues to impress those around him.
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”From afar, when I was on the other side, I knew he was good, but I didn’t know he was this great of a competitor and an even better teammate,” said Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon.
With Hernandez as good as ever and marquee offseason addition Nelson Cruz hitting .344/.394/.738 with an MLB-leading 14 home runs, you would think the Mariners would be off to a flying start. However, that just hasn’t been the case. Half of Seattle’s 14 wins to date have come when Hernandez has started.
Cano and third baseman Kyle Seager haven’t produced at an All-Star level at the plate. The bullpen, a massive strength last season, hasn’t been quite as sharp while young starting pitchers James Paxton and Taijuan Walker are still battling to find consistency on the mound.
The first month has yielded mediocre results, but there’s still plenty of time between now and October. The question is: are the Mariners about to go on a run?
Cruz may cool off a tad, but Cano appears to be finding his groove and Seager can’t be too far behind. If Logan Morrison, Mike Zunino, Dustin Ackley join the party at some point, even better. There’s enough pitching depth in the organization to believe the bullpen issues should sort themselves out soon and right-handed starter Hisashi Iwakuma is slated to return from the DL before the end of May. Paxton, 26, and Walker, 22, are getting more comfortable by the start and there’s reason to be optimistic that they’ll be reliable contributors in the rotations.
“There’s a lot of baseball to be played,” said McClendon. “I say it all the time: Talent will come to the top. We believe we have enough talent to win around here.”
So far it‘s been an all-too familiar story in Seattle. Hernandez has been great. The team? Not so much – at least not yet.
The difference this year is that the potential is there for the Mariners to break out and contend for a playoff spot. Their ace is already leading the way, now it’s up for the rest of the team to follow suit.
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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr
