The Seattle Mariners have almost played 50 games now.
But with all the drama, adversity, distractions, injuries and eagle encounters, it’s felt a bit closer to 100.
“It feels like a movie or a soap opera, huh?” Nelson Cruz said before laughing.
Not much earlier the Mariners’ DH showed off how his right ankle was only slightly more swollen than his left after fouling a pitch off of it.
And only a day earlier Cruz learned along with the rest of the baseball world that his friend and teammate Robinson Cano had been suspended 80 games after testing positive for a diuretic, which MLB ruled was used to mask performance-enhancing drugs.
That also makes Cano ineligible for the playoffs — even if the Mariners do find a way to end their 16-year postseason drought.
As if the Mariners hadn’t gone through enough already these first two months.
Yet, they headed into Monday’s off day at a season-high eight games above .500 at 27-19, two games back of the reigning World Series-champion Astros and 1.5 games ahead of the Angels.
“Every team has to deal with different things. No excuses. No excuses here,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “You have injuries, guys get hit by pitches, things happen throughout the course of the season. You just deal with it and move forward. Just continue to move forward. What happens in the past has happened and you got to let it go.”
They held a 2-1 lead in Thursday’s series opener against the Tigers before allowing two runs in the eighth — something of a trend for the Mariners bullpen to that point — in the 3-2 loss. They were without their 2017 All-Stars in No. 3 hitter Cano, and No. 4 hitter Cruz (ankle), and Cruz has been so snake-bit that he hasn’t seemed to go more than three days without slipping on a dugout step, being hit by a pitch or playing through the flu.
So in their next-day team meeting, catcher Mike Zunino said they “had a good talk” about players not trying to do it all on their own.
They’ve since won their past three games, and in dramatic fashion.
“It’s hard when you got your third-hole and fourth (hitter) out of the lineup and you come here and grind every day and win without those people,” shortstop Jean Segura said. “It tells you what kind of team you have. What kind of guys you have in the clubhouse, every day grinding out every at-bat. It’s amazing how we go out there and battle, especially without those guys.”
The Mariners have not only endured these almost first two months, they’ve excelled thanks to clutch hits, a sometimes really good — other times not — bullpen, James Paxton’s unhittable stretch and a legit Wade LeBlanc.
Nine of Mitch Haniger’s 11 home runs have come in the seventh inning or later, Dee Gordon leads the American League in stolen bases, and Segura leads the majors in hits with runners in scoring position (22) and RBI (29).
“We’ve had a lot of stuff go on and we’re still in reach of the top of the division,” Haniger said. “And the way we’ve come back and battled shows a lot about the guys in the clubhouse. Everyone is just pulling together for each other.”
But the Mariners aren’t out of the woods.
Gordon re-aggravated a toe injury that kept him from starting a game last week in Sunday’s comeback win. Servais said they will re-evaluate him and determine whether he will need to miss Tuesday’s game.
“I think we’ve been through a lot the past three years,” Cruz said. “Last year was the same thing with all of the injuries and pitchers up and down. But as a player you can’t try to do too much. You just have to go out there and play. We let Jerry and Scott decide how they are going to fill the spots, you just have to focus and control what you can control and that’s playing and helping the team.”
Here’s five crazy moments from the Mariners’ first two month:
Cano suspended
Cano’s finger fractured when he hit by a pitch May 13 against the Tigers, which required surgery. But two days later MLB slammed an 80-game drug suspension on the 35-year-old.
That not only cost him almost $12 million in salary and will keep him out until mid-August, but he’s also ineligible for the playoffs per an amendment passed in 2014. And it’s possible the suspension hurts his legacy and chances at the Hall of Fame, based on how writers have voted in years past for players connected to performance-enhancing drugs.
Paxton meets eagle
There’s now a stuffed eagle near James Paxton’s clubhouse locker thanks to Kyle Seager and Manny Acta.
But a bald eagle digging its talons into the shoulder of the Mariners’ star pitcher during the national anthem in Minnesota didn’t seem like much of a joke at the time, even though Paxton had was unfazed by the interaction. It didn’t hurt his pitching, either.
Player to personnel
The Mariners signed 44-year-old Ichiro to play the outfield while Ben Gamel was expected to be out until at least May with a strained oblique.
Ichiro did rob the Indians of a home run, but he hadn’t done much with his bat and it started to get awkward when the Mariners kept him — and optioned Guillermo Heredia, who out-produced Ichiron in every facet — to Triple-A Tacoma.
But a day after starting against the Athletics on May 2, Ichiro was surprisingly still on the team just not on the Mariners’ roster. He still suits up in his game uniform, but he’s now a “special assistant to the chairman” and he said he’s not retiring until he needs a cane.
Hurt how?
The Mariners used a franchise-record 40 pitchers because of injuries a season ago (second-most in MLB history). Spring training started with another slew of injures and turned almost comical when Cruz, in the second game of the season, slipped on the dugout step and injured his ankle after a two-run home run.
That was after Zunino strained his oblique on the final swing of batting practice the day before Opening Day, and Ryon Healy sprained his ankle the next week in a postgame workout, leaving the Mariners without three starters, all lost to non-game injuries.
Then, the hit-by-pitches. The Mariners are tied with the Chicago Cubs for most times hit by pitch this season. Cruz leads the American League with seven hit-by-pitches. One fractured Cano’s hand and another gave Cruz a bad bone bruise in his ankle — the same one he sprained.
Weather the storm
The Mariners played their coldest game in team history in Minnesota on April 7, playing in 27-degree weather.
Seattle played in 13 games in under-40-degree temperatures since 1988, according to Baseball-Reference, and two of them were against the Twins before their series finale was snowed out (thought it didn’t actually snow).
They then traveled to freezing Kansas City.
And that cold-out meant they had to make the game up last week, after playing a double-header against the Tigers two days before. It was delayed almost two hours because of rain, meaning they didn’t get home to play their next game against the Rangers until 3 a.m.
They beat the Rangers in extra-innings and then turned around to play a morning game.
In short: The Mariners had a much-needed off day Monday.
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