BROCK AND SALK

Scott Servais: Starting pitching will be key if Mariners make a run

Jul 21, 2016, 8:40 AM

The Mariners have traded lefty pitcher Wade Miley to Baltimore after his strong outing Saturday. (A...

The Mariners have traded lefty pitcher Wade Miley to Baltimore after his strong outing Saturday. (AP)

(AP)

LISTEN: Scott Servais on Felix Hernandez returning to the Mariners

Entering the season, the hope was that the Mariners would have one of the better starting rotations in the big leagues, and that an emphasis on being more athletic in the field and on the bases would bear fruit.

Those two things haven’t panned out. Injuries began to derail the starters in late May, and it’s safe to say that strong base-running and defense have not been trademarks of this version of the Mariners. Manager Scott Servais took a look at those aspects during an interview with “Brock and Salk” on Wednesday and didn’t mind acknowledging that the Mariners still have room for improvement.

While talking about ways Seattle could get on another run of success like the team had in April and May, Servais pointed to what he saw during his previous experience working in the front office for the Rangers and Angels.

“I look back (at) my time at Texas (and) Anaheim, I was a part of teams that put together great runs, no doubt. All of those runs were driven by pitching,” Servais said. “And I think that is the key for us to do anything here down the stretch is we’ve got to get consistent outings from our starters.”

Injuries to numerous members of Seattle’s rotation resulted in a bit of a skeleton crew over the last two months, but the Mariners might finally be reaching the light at the end of that tunnel with Felix Hernandez healthy again and the team’s duo of left-handed Wades – LeBlanc and Miley – throwing back-to-back quality starts on Monday and Tuesday. The loss of Mike Montgomery in a trade Wednesday might not even have much of an impact on the Mariners as it likely just canceled a planned move to the bullpen for LeBlanc. He can slide into Montgomery’s spot in a presumed four-man rotation over the upcoming road trip, which features three off days over a 10-day period.

“It’s been pretty good the last couple nights,” Servais said of his starting pitchers’ performances. “I thought Wade LeBlanc hung in there the other night, gave us a chance against a really tough starter (Chris Sale) with the White Sox. We hung in there, pulled something out late. (Tuesday) night I thought Wade Miley threw the ball much better. So there’s some positive signs there. … Obviously we need to get Taijuan Walker (out with right foot tendinitis) back and get (James) Paxton going again, maybe like he was when he first came up.”

Regarding the team’s athleticism, Servais said earlier in the year that he wanted his team to be known for making opponents uncomfortable, but on Wednesday he noted the Mariners are “not where I want to be” in that respect.

“We’ve had games and stretches where we’re tough to get out, we really grind at-bats away, and we’ve had games and stretches where we’re not,” he said. “That’s been a little bit disappointing where we’re at in that spectrum. On the zero-to-10 (scale), 10 being uncomfortable, we’re not close to that yet.”

Servais noted that both an aggressive mindset and having the right kind of players on the roster are required to make up the kind of team he wants the Mariners to be.

“I think coming into the season, where we were at, we needed to get more athletic. You’ve heard that term a lot. In certain places on the field, I think we have gotten more athletic. In other places, maybe we’ve taken a step back athletically in covering ground defensively or how we run the bases or doing the little things more efficiently. It is a process. I’ve said all along that you want to make incremental steps in the right direction, and that’s really the focus for me.”

Servais believes that will be vital not just this season but in the seasons to come as the Mariners try to overtake talented Rangers and Astros teams that are loaded with young, athletic players. Considering how powerful Seattle has been in 2016 and that the team is still struggling to stay above .500, it’s easy to see his point.

“I think it’s very important, and I think if you look at the teams in our division, the teams that are ahead of us, they have a few more of those (athletic) players,” Servais said. “But there’s a lot of different ways to win.

“We have been driven by the home run, and we’ve hit a lot of them this year. And when we hit ’em, we’re really good. And when we don’t, people scratch their head and are like, ‘Are these guys trying?’ They’re trying, trust me. They really are. It’s just not easy to hit home runs every night. You live by it, you can die by it. But if you’re more athletic, you’ve got different ways to score runs and create pressure on your team.”

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