Robinson Cano is finally back, and not a moment too soon! The superstar infielder has come back and immediately looked like himself, going 3-9 in his first two games, while playing good defense at first and second base. Will he save the Mariners’ season? Who knows! But he is back, and that certainly can’t hurt.
Of course, it wouldn’t be peak Mariners without something bad happening–on the same day Cano returned, James Paxton took a line drive off his pitching arm, and has been placed on the 10-day DL. It looks as though he’ll miss a start or two, if everything goes well. If there’s a silver lining, though, it’s that Felix Hernandez looked pretty good in relief of Paxton, and will likely get a start or two in his absence to audition for a return to the rotation. As a sixth starter in case of injury, you could do worse than a diminished Felix Hernandez.
Since we last recorded, the Mariners went 5-2, largely on the back of a four-game sweep in Houston. So, while losing the Oakland series is a bummer, the M’s actually didn’t lose any ground to Oakland. We look back on the sweep, analyzing Scott Servais’ lineup change, and Erasmo Ramirez’s excellent return to the rotation from the DL.
Is it time to end Kyle Seager, number five hitter no matter what? What are the odds he bounces back to become something close to the guy he’s been all his career? We spend a few minutes talking about that.
Mitch Haniger has been on fire lately, and we give you some numbers. They’re very good numbers!
Dee Gordon hit the game-winning home run today (yes, seriously) but would the team be better off giving him some time to rest his injured toe now that Robinson Cano is back? How bad has his slump really been? We’ll feed you, baby birds.
We wrap up with some Seahawks and College football notes. We know you’re all starved for football, and once more significant things start happening, we’ll be sure to ramp up the football talk.
Finally, we give out our swelmet of the week. There were two or three deserving candidates, so you’ll have to find out which way we went with it…by listening!
