HeraldNet: M's-Padres series: Turnaround or a mirage?



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Mariners Blog

May 18, 2008

M's-Padres series: Turnaround or a mirage?

Posted at 12:01 am by By Kirby Arnold

No doubt, the Mariners had to feel better about themselves (as manager John McLaren loves to say) after winning two of three from the Padres and, going back to Wednesday's victory at Texas, three of their last four games.

Before you think this team has fixed its problems, think again. They won a series from the Padres; geez, everybody's doing that.

More important, the Mariners really haven't solved the root of their offensive issues -- poor at-bats and wild swings that wiped out most of the few scoring opportunities they had this weekend. Basically, two swings of the bat gave them two victories over the Padres, Adrian Beltre's two-run homer Saturday and Jose Lopez's two-run double today.

A half-dozen times or more today, Mariners hitters had a 2-0 count only to let the Padres' pitchers back into it by swinging at whatever was thrown their way on the next pitch. The Mariners would either swing and miss or foul off the pitch, eventually letting the pitchers get the count back in their favor, or slap into a weak out.

Opposing teams are well aware of the Mariners' lack of plate discipline, and pitchers aren't afraid to throw something off the plate even when they're behind in the count. They know the M's will be hacking anyway.

You want an example of plate discipline? Look at video of Edgar Martinez's at-bats. Until he had two strikes against him, he'd look for a pitch in a spot the size of a paper cup, something he could drive hard. And, unlike this group of Mariners that seems determined to hit a home run in every at-bat, Martinez almost always focused on driving the ball up the middle.

Thankfully for the Mariners, Erik Bedard and Felix Hernandez gave them a couple of pitching performances that made it possible to win with four runs Saturday night and three today.

Unless the hitters change a season-long pattern of giving away at-bats, the M's will need that kind of pitching the rest of the year if they truly want to feel good about themselves.

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