Who’s getting it done for the Mariners? Everyone

This morning I came across the following tweet:

Since April 13th @Mariners own the best record in MLB- 24-11

Allowed fewest runs in AL- 117

Tied for 2nd most runs scored in AL- 173

— Gary Hill (@GaryHillJr) May 23, 2016

Those are some gaudy numbers, and the run differential suggests the record is for real. Anyway, that got me to thinking. Which players are responsible for this scorching stretch? Let’s examine the Mariners’ individual stats over the past 30 days to find out.

First, here’s the triple slash lines of Seattle’s primary starters at each position. These are also the team’s top nine in plate appearances during the period:

C – Chris Iannetta .221/.333/.353

1B – Adam Lind .203/.247/.348

2B – Robinson Cano .313/.355/.554

3B – Kyle Seager .327/.395/.634

SS – Ketel Marte .308/.330/.462

LF – Norichika Aoki .236/.355/.270

CF – Leonys Martin .272/.365/.506

RF – Seth Smith .208/.322/.338

DH – Nelson Cruz .278/.402/.500

What stands out most to me about these stats are just how many players are getting on base at a substantially higher clip than their batting averages. There are players like Cruz and Seager who are getting on base at elite rates to go along with good batting averages. But even players with lousy batting averages like Iannetta, Aoki and Smith are still getting themselves on base a reasonable percentage of the time, and as a result they are still scoring runs — over the past month the Mariners have seven different players who have scored 13 runs or more. It seems manager Scott Servais’ control-the-zone philosophy has taken hold.

In the counting stats, four different players are tied for the team lead in homers with six (Seager, Cano, Cruz, Smith). Cano (25), Seager (20) and Cruz (19) drove in the most runs, while Cano and Aoki are tied for scoring the most runs (18).

It’s good to see Seager back on track after his slow start.

Marte is showing his cameo from last season was no fluke. However, he’s now on the disabled list with a sprained thumb, so we’ll see if the Mariners can maintain their momentum with Shawn O’Malley and Chris Taylor shouldering the load at shortstop.

Now here’s the numbers for the pitchers who had either five starts or 10 relief appearances during the period (W-L, ERA, IP, BB, SO):

SP – Felix Hernandez 3-2, 2.77, 39.0, 12, 27

SP – Hisashi Iwakuma 2-2, 4.91, 29.1, 10, 26

SP – Wade Miley 5-0, 3.12, 40.1, 9, 25

SP – Taijuan Walker 1-3, 4.01, 24.2, 6, 27

SP – Nathan Karns 3-0, 2.35, 30.2, 9, 30

CL – Steve Cishek 1-2, 4.05, 13.1, 6, 17

RP – Mike Montgomery 1-0, 0.60, 15.0, 3, 11

RP – Nick Vincent 1-0, 0.71, 12.2, 2, 16

RP – Vidal Nuno 0-0, 1.04, 8.2, 1, 11

RP – Joel Peralta 0-0, 6.10, 10.1, 3, 15

What immediately jumps out to me here is how much heavy lifting is being done by players who were not heralded members of the pitching staff coming into the season. Miley and Karns were seemingly acquired to simply fill out spots in the rotation, but they’ve performed above their lot over the past month. Meanwhlle, a bullpen that was overhauled completely during the offseason has been excellent.

The two numbers I look at most to evaluate pitchers are strikeouts per nine innings and strikeout-to-walk ratio. How do the M’s stack up? On the one hand, Miley’s strikeout data suggests his record is better than how he’s performed. On the other, Walker has probably pitched better than his numbers, and the bullpen’s strikeout data supports its excellent numbers. If Hernandez and Iwakuma, both of whom have fantastic track records in that regard, get their strikeout and walk numbers back to their norms, the Mariners are more than equipped to deal with any potential regression.

So who’s getting it done for the Mariners?

The numbers say the answer is everyone.