Starting pitching: What a relief!

When we last left the Mariners, they had dragged themselves home dog-tired from a grueling road trip and the starting pitching — what else? — continued to be the biggest question mark on the team.

Then the starters overwhelmed a young Pirates team that had such a free-swinging mentality that they made even the Mariners’ hitters look patient. The Reds weren’t much different, and the M’s went into their measuring-stick series against the Red Sox still with a lot to prove.

Jeff Weaver, Felix Hernandez and Ryan Feierabend started those games against Boston and didn’t exactly show that they’re everything a team needs down the stretch of a division race. But they kept the games close and allowed the hitters to do their thing, and the Mariners pulled off a sweep.

Barring a trade to bring a bona-fide No. 1 starter to Seattle, this appears to be what the Mariners have the rest of the season — a group of starters capable of going six innings and keeping the game from getting out of hand. With this bullpen and the potential to score a lot of runs, that could be enough to make the rest of this season really, really interesting.