MARINERS 101

The Seattle Mariners dropped the rubber match against the Toronto Blue Jays Sunday despite Chone Figgins second home run of the season and a good outing from starter Jason Vargas.  The loss puts the Mariners at 4-2 on the current 10 game road trip.

Looking back at the weekend, the Mariners offense died down immensely after piling up the run count against the Detroit Tigers. They continued that trend into game one of the series against the Jays but only managed to score just two runs in the last two games of the series. Just throwing this one out here, but Miguel Olivo is quietly on a six-game hitting streak.

Olivo, who is still only hitting .195 on the season, is 7-for-25 with two home-runs in his last seven games.  His defense Sunday however was about as disappointing as the resent news that left-handed reliever George Sherrill needs season ending elbow surgery.  We'll save that for another story.

Looking forward at the upcoming week, the Mariners take on the Tampa Bay Rays in a four game series before returning back to Safeco Field for series against the Minnesota Twins.  

The Mariners need to regain momentum before heading back to Seattle in order to climb the hill that is a huge lack of offensive production at home.  Consistency from hitters one through nine has been a problem all season, especially with holes in the four and nine spot. Justin Smoak and Brendan Ryan were given the day off Sunday as their early season struggles have put a damper on the Mariners ability to "string it together."

With Felix Hernandez on the mound today against Tampa's Jeremy Hellickson, the Mariners can get back on track with a good start from their ace as well as scoring him some runs. Easier said than down however against a tough customer in Hellickson who is off to a 3-0 start with a 2.84 ERA and Tampa's offense that is fifth in the American league in runs-scored and fourth in home-runs.

In other news the Mariners101 podcast will return to you devoted listeners soon, this time in it's new an improved fashion. We'll keep you updated on that but in the meantime you can check us out on Facebook and follow along on Twitter. Go Mariners!

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Tags: Baseball, Chone Figgins, Felix Hernandez, George Sherrill, Jason Vargas, Jeremy Hellickson, Miguel Olivo, MLB, Seattle, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Rays

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