Don’t look now, but the Seattle Mariners are on a bit of a roll.
With an 8-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday, the M’s have won four straight series. They’re 4-2 through first six games of a nine-game road trip, and after a 3-7 start to the season, they’ve won nine of their past 12 games.
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At 12-10 overall, Seattle is now second in the AL West and one game behind the 13-9 Texas Rangers.
Here are three things that stand out after the series win in Toronto.
Rowdy’s big weekend
Maybe a trip back to where his big league career began was what Rowdy Tellez needed to break out of his prolonged slump?
Tellez earned a spot on the roster with a strong spring training, but the slugging first baseman hadn’t provided much in his first few weeks in a Mariners uniform. He finally delivered some needed offensive punch against his former team in Toronto.
Tellez homered in all three games during the series, including the a mammoth, 430-foot grand slam in the 12th inning during Saturday’s 8-4 win. Tellez also hit a solo home run in the series opener and a pinch-hit two-run blast in the seventh inning Sunday.
Tellez had a hit in Thursday’s series finale in Cincinnati and has a season-best four-game hitting streak going. Before the streak started, he was 3 for 34 (.088 batting average) with one home run in 12 games.
With Luke Raley needed more in right field due to Victor Robles’ injury, the M’s need more of what they got this weekend from Tellez moving forward.
Bullpen picks up rotation
The strength of the Mariners is supposed to be their starting rotation, yet they haven’t gotten much length from a group that MLB in innings pitched last season.
Bryan Woo provided some much-needed distance with a seven-inning start in the series opener Friday, but Seattle got just 9 2/3 innings from Logan Gilbert and Luis Castillo the next two games. That follows an early-season development for the staff.
Outside of Woo, who has gone at least six innings in all four of his starts, the M’s have gotten just two starts of six innings or more in their remaining 18 games. Gilbert and Castillo each went seven innings one time, Bryce Miller has yet to go deeper than 5 2/3 innings in his four starts, and Emerson Hancock and Luis F. Castillo have combined for just 12 2/3 innings in their four starts in place of injured right-hander George Kirby.
The result is that the Mariners’ bullpen has thrown the second-most innings in baseball at 90, which has led to a revolving door of relievers going back and forth between the big league club and Triple-A Tacoma.
There’s been some rocky moments, but to the bullpen’s credit, it’s been pretty solid considering the circumstances. The group’s 3.30 ERA is sixth in MLB and third in the AL, and it’s done that with high-leverage arm Matt Brash still rehabbing from last year’s Tommy John surgery.
This weekend’s series was perhaps the best that bullpen has had all season. It covered 12 1/3 innings and allowed just two runs (one earned) on six hits and four walks. That included four shutout innings Sunday and 7 1/3 innings of two-run ball on Saturday.
After allowing 10 runs in the prior three-game series against the Reds, it was a big bounce back for the group as well.
Cal continues tormenting Toronto
It may be getting to the point where they won’t let him in the country anymore.
All jokes aside, Cal Raleigh continued to torture Blue Jays pitching with another big series against the team north of the border. The M’s switch-hitting catcher checked in with a hit in all three games, went 4 for 12 with three walks and capped the series off with yet another home run at Rogers Centre in the first inning on Sunday.
Raleigh upped his career home run to 11 against the Blue Jays in 23 games including the playoffs, which trails only his 12 in 47 career games against the Athletics for his most against any team. His seven home runs in 11 regular season games at Rogers Centre are his most of any road ballpark, which doesn’t include his home run there in the 2022 postseason.
Raleigh’s home run on Sunday tied Athletics first baseman Tyler Soderstrom for the MLB lead at nine. He’s homered seven times in his past nine games.
Related: Why red-hot Cal Raleigh is using torpedo bat from left side only
Maybe the best Raleigh moment from over the weekend came Saturday. After an out was made to end the fourth inning, Blue Jays starter Jose Berrios exchanged words with Raleigh as he walked back to the dugout, and it was enough for the benches clear for a brief moment.
In his next at-bat, Raleigh clubbed a two-run double off Berrios to take a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning.
After the game, Berrios said he suspected Raleigh was relaying pitch information while he was on second base in the fourth. Raleigh denied that he was relaying pitches, but said he understood Berrios’ reaction. So nothing much came of the incident. However, Raleigh’s retaliation at the plate made for a great don’t-poke-the-bear moment.
Seattle Mariners coverage
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