With Houston having their worst start since 1969 and the World Series champion Texas Rangers looking more beatable than last year, Seattle is taking advantage.
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One of the beautiful things about baseball is how few of the narratives are linear. One hundred and sixty two games. In a little less than a month of play it is incredibly easy to say things haven’t really started to matter, not yet. The standings will shift drastically. The roster will churn. And yet… a first series against a division rival, in their home stadium, and the rival most likely to give us trouble. Not only a rival, but the defending World Series Champions. Such a game not only matters, it can set the tone for an entire season. The Seattle Mariners set that tone by battling to a narrow victory, winning game three and the series with a score of 4-3 against the Texas Rangers.
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One firm advantage Seattle has against Texas, and against any team really, lies in the strength of their pitching. The starting rotation was considered by many to be the best in baseball coming into the season, but the actual results in the first week or so of games were more mixed, and further sunk by a lack of any real backing by the offense.
The starter for the Mariners today was Luis Castillo, their rock, La Piedra. He has been a curious case for the Mariners this year in that at times, especially in his first few games, he struggled with some command issues. Overall though, his results have been pretty good, and he has been entrenched in the top ten of pitchers in terms of fWAR. The shakiness to start the season has warmed up to a more concrete form.
