MARINERS: Home opening series preview

Sorry for the serious lack of posts the last couple of days, me and Matthew had some mid-term finals this week and couldn’t get around to writing about the Texas Rangers series. There wasn’t much to talk about, as the M’s lost every game, only averaged 3 runs over the series, and blew decent pitching performances from Erik Bedard, Michael Pineda, and Felix.

The 2-4 Mariners now come back to Seattle for the home opener vs. the Cleveland Indians. You knew the Mariners would have to honor Dave Niehaus somehow during the pregame festivities, so Garfield High alum Macklemoore will be performing his Dave Niehaus tribute song, “My oh My”, before the game.

Here’s the starting pitching matchups:

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Game 1: MARINERS: Jason Vargas(0-0, 1.35 ERA, 6 SO). Vargas performed well in the second game of the season vs. Oakland, throwing 6 2/3 innings and only

CLEVELAND: RHP Carlos Carrasco (0-1, 9.45 ERA, 2 SO). He blew up in his first start of the season, giving up 7 runs in 6 2/3 innings. And he was on my fantasy team (since dropped), so, I hope he blows up again.

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Game 2: SEATTLE: RHP Doug Fister (0-1, 3.18 ERA, 2 SO) is going to start for the Mariners. He gave up 8 hits and two earned runs in 5 2/3 innings during a 7-1 setback at Oakland on Sunday. The righty pitches well at Safeco, where his career ERA is 3.64 vs. 4.86 on the road.

CLEVELAND: RHP Justin Masterson (1-0, 1.29 ERA, 0 SO). A good outing by Masterson in his first start of the season vs. Chicago, throwing 7 solid innings and only giving up 1 run.

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Game 3: SEATTLE: Erik Bedard (0-1, 5.40 ERA, 3 SO). If you want to pick the worst oppeonent and venue for your first start in 20 months, it would be the Texas Rangers at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington (props for the totally original name). So, facing the deepest lineup in the majors, Bedard pitched 5 innings while giving up 3 runs.

CLEVELAND: Josh Tomlin (1-0, 1.29 ERA, 3 SO). Tomlin gave up 1 run in 7 innings vs. The Boston Red Sox last Tuesday.

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Mariners Keys to the series:

1) Don’t get frazzled by the home opener hysteria. This especially goes for starting pitcher Jason Vargas, who can’t get behind with how unproductive the Mariners offense is.

2) Make sure the starting pitchers go at least 6 innings. The bullpen has already imploded two times this season, and will again if guys like Erik Bedard and Doug Fister can’t stretch their innings.

3) The Red Hydro can’t win. Why you ask? At the last second, that evil red hydro ALWAYS steals the win from the unsuspecting yellow hydro while riding the back of an Orca Whale. If it wins, the Mariners lose.

Check it.

Reach Nathan Parsons at nathanparsons98@yahoo.com