Can The Seattle Mariners Pitching Staff Last Another Week Or Two?

With 10 games left in the season the pennant race has turned into a sprint for the two Wild Card spots in the American League. The Seattle Mariners have found themselves in unfamiliar territory. They trail the Oakland Athletics and the Kansas City Royals by a game for the second wild card spot and have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs for the first time since 2001.

The pitching staff has done the majority of the heavy lifting for the Mariners this season and deserve a lot of credit. They lead all of baseball in several categories such as; 3.04 ERA, .228, BAA .293 OPS, hits allowed with 1141 and 1759 TB’s. The pitching staff has been in a lot of close games with stressful innings that will accelerate fatigue over the course of the season.

The pitching staff is gassed. Roenis Elias’ season is likely over. He’s back in Seattle being examined by team doctors with a possible elbow strain and underwent an MRI on Thursday. The Cuban rookie has pitched 161 innings and will be replaced in the rotation by super-prospect Tajuan Walker. Walker is taking the mound Friday in Houston against the Astros.

I’m most concerned about Hisashi Iwakuma. Iwakuma hasn’t pitched well in over a month and the Mariners need him to regain his pre All-Star game form if they want any chance to advance in the playoffs. Iwakuma has been rocked his last two starts. He gave up 11 earned runs in just 13.1 innings. Iwakuma looks fatigued and has hit the wall at the worse time.

Chris Young looks like the journeyman pitcher we signed during the last week of spring training. After missing most of last year due to injury, Young resurrected his career and has pitched well during the first half of the season. Young has a 5.40 ERA for the month of September and hasn’t reached the seventh inning since July 26^th. Young has thrown 162 innings, the most since 2007 when he pitched 173 innings with the San Diego Padres.

Manager Lloyd McClendon has been monitoring Young’s workload and has given him extra days rest to try and keep him fresh. Young is scheduled to pitch Saturday against the Astros. He’ll be facing a quick hook by the Mariners’ skipper if he gets off to a slow start. If Young bombs his next start, McClendon could go with a four-man rotation for the final week.

The silver lining with the under performing starters this past month has been the emergence of lefty James Paxton. Paxton who made the team out of spring training injured his lat muscle during his second start of the year and missed most of this season. Since returning to the Mariners he has picked up where Iwakuma left off. Paxton has pitched like a veteran #2 pitcher. In just 9 starts, Paxton is 6-3 with a 2.06 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP. Not bad for a pitcher with 12 total starts in his major league career.

McClendon has the luxury of 2-3 ace pitchers up his sleeve. We all know that King Felix will rise to the occasion and pitch lights out his last couple of starts. Paxton has been very impressive and will probably take the #2 spot in the rotation. Iwakuma will need to figure things out in a hurry. Walker could be the missing piece. His talent is off the charts all he needs to do is learn how to pitch in the Big Leagues.

Now is the time for the offense to pick up the pitching staff. The offense has gone from abysmal to mediocre in recent months. If they can manufacture one more run a game, I like the Mariners chances to make the playoffs and possibly go deep in October.