For a franchise that’s known the pain of trying to address starting pitching deficiencies on the fly, the Mariners have to be enjoying this run of stability and success from their starting rotation.
In their last 27 games, the club’s starting pitchers have allowed three or fewer runs 26 times. The latest example occurred in the team’s 9-3 victory over the Orioles on Wednesday at T-Mobile Park.
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Chris Flexen got the victory, allowing three runs over six innings. It was the 36th quality start of the season for Seattle, which ranks third in all of baseball.
This blissful stretch is almost — I said almost — enough to make you forget the team gave Robert Dugger four starts last summer, and 10 forgettable starts to Erasmo Ramírez in 2018.
“When you start flipping guys out (of the rotation) because of injury or lack of performance, it can be hard for pitching coaches, it’s hard for the catchers with continuity. It’s just hard to keep it rolling,” said Mariners manager Scott Servais.
The Mariners haven’t had that problem of late because four of the Mariners’ five starters — Robbie Ray, Logan Gilbert, Marco Gonzales and Flexen — have made all of their scheduled starts this season.
The fifth spot in the rotation has actually been fairly static as well. It was first covered by Matt Brash (five starts) and is now occupied by fellow rookie George Kirby (10 starts). The only outlier came when reliever Penn Murfee served as the opener for one game of a doubleheader on June 18.
Ray, Gonzales, Flexen and Gilbert are on pace to make all of their starts. If that happens, it will mark the first time in franchise history since 2003 that four or more Seattle starters have made 30-plus starts.
That 2003 staff of Ryan Franklin, Freddy Garcia, Gil Meche, Jamie Moyer and Joel Piñeiro include the only group of five pitchers to make all of their starts in a single season in big-league history.
The Mariners can’t reach that mark, though there’s no reason to think they can’t come close with the way these guys are throwing this month, as they’ve posted the fifth-best ERA (3.24) in baseball in June.
“It all starts with health, keeping your starting pitching healthy. Hopefully we continue to do that throughout the season. The difference-maker for me is I think our pitching coaches do an outstanding job being in-tune with our pitchers,” Servais said.
Robbie Ray spun a 𝙂𝙚𝙢 💎
7 IP | 0 R | 1 H | 8 K | 98 pitches pic.twitter.com/dtSoAVhksv
— ROOT SPORTS™ | NW (@ROOTSPORTS_NW) June 29, 2022
It helps to have pitchers who pound the strike zone and, generally, don’t issue a lot of walks. Ray, Gilbert and Kirby have strikeout rates over 22 percent with Gonzales at 14 percent and Flexen at 17 percent. Flexen’s 9 percent walk rate is the highest on the staff.
“We’re just getting after it, as far as pitchers coming out trying to win a ball game,” Flexen said Wednesday. “And being competitive every single pitch and trying to get as deep (in the game) as we can.”
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The starters have generally been durable as well, as evidenced by the number of quality starts and that reinforcements have not been needed, changes necessitated by injury or poor performance.
Working deeper into games has meant Servais hasn’t had to reach down as often into his bullpen, a unit that has not been nearly as reliable as a year ago.
“The guys on the mound have just been awesome, keeping us in games,” Servais said. “I give those guys a lot of credit, because it’s hard to go out there and not get a lot of run support. Just the margin for error is so small.
“But these guys just keep going out and pounding the strike zone, putting up zeroes.”
None more so than the guy who took the mound Tuesday. Ray allowed one hit over seven shutout innings. In his last four starts, he has a scant 0.67 ERA. That run has coincided with the introduction of his two-seamer fastball, which has become a big weapon for him.
“A pretty special dude. I’m glad we got him,” Servais said.
Everyone knew about Ray’s Cy Young Award he won last season with the Jays. What Servais and the staff didn’t know was how receptive he was going to be to the team’s analytic approach or his interest in diving into the numbers.
“Robbie pitched last night and the first thing he does this morning (Wednesday) is knock on my door and he wants to sit down and go through his start last night,” Servais said. “Not just the video, but the breakdown with the numbers … how much the movement was on his two-seamer, what the slider looked like.”
Ray’s ears perked up when the Mariners talked to him over Zoom while courting him last winter. He wanted to hear just what the team did, how they could help pitchers and, of course, how they could help him.
The growth mindset, seeking anything and everything that can help, is shared by Ray’s fellow rotation mates. That’s part of this equation of success, too.
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“It’s not like, ‘Hey you’re good, we’re going to leave you alone.’ They don’t operate like that. It’s like, ‘What can we do to get better?’” Servais said.
On Wednesday, the Mariners — at times starved for offense this month — put up a crooked number in the fourth inning, scoring six runs. They had three sacrifice flies, which Servais called “the highlight of the day.”
While the offense might have carried the day, it’s clear to Servais what the storyline with this team has been of late.
“That’s the name of the game,” Servais said. “It’s all about pitching.”
(Photo of Chris Flexen: Steven Bisig / USA Today)
