Seattle rotation is coming around, but offense has vanished
After a long streak of bleak performances from starting pitchers, the Seattle Mariners have started to turn it around.
In the past three games, Felix Hernandez, Hector Noesi and Erasmo Ramirez have combined to throw 21 innings and allow just four runs.
The Mariners being the Mariners, they lost two of the three games, including Monday's 1-0 loss to the Oakland A's to open a homestand.
But Seattle at least is happy to see that the starters are beginning to pitch back to form after a two-week stretch in which they didn't have a win and put together an ERA that pushed 8.00.
The offense, however, continues to be a major sore point. Seattle has been shut out nine times this season, and after ending the road trip Sunday with a 2-0 loss in San Diego, the Mariners have been shut out in back-to-back games for the first time in 2012.
Manager Eric Wedge keeps waiting for the bats to unload, but the first three months have been a series of misfires up and down the lineup.
Monday saw Seattle outhit the A's 7-3, but Oakland got a solo homer from Seth Smith in the second inning, and the Mariners came up short, hitting into two double plays and going hitless the only two times they got a runner into scoring position.
"We've got to get this offense going here at home," Wedge said. "I feel like we've got a lot of guys who are in pretty good position (to hit)."
Seattle is hitting .203 at home and a somewhat more respectable .259 on the road.
The Mariners have lost three 1-0 games in their first 75 games.
