Is it good news the Mariners have had 4 pitchers record saves in 4 nights?

With seven wins in their first eight games, the Mariners have already seen five pitchers record a save. Hunter Strickland saved Seattle’s first two wins over the A’s in Japan, but he blew a save last Friday and landed on the 60-day injured list with a right lat strain. As a result, each of the Mariners’ last four victories have been closed out by a different pitcher.

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On Saturday, Nick Rumbelow faced two batters, getting a Xander Bogaerts strikeout with two runners on to seal a 6-5 win over the Red Sox.

Sunday, it was Chasen Bradford who got the final two outs after Cory Gearrin walked the bases loaded in the ninth inning of Seattle’s 10-8 victory over Boston.

Monday night, Roenis Elías threw a welcome uneventful ninth inning, retiring the Angels 1-2-3 to lock up a 6-3 M’s win.

And on Tuesday, veteran Anthony Swarzak was pressed into duty with one out, the tying run at third and the winning run at first, in his first outing back from the injured list, and struck out Albert Pujols and got Jonathan Lucroy to ground out to second baseman Dee Gordon to complete a 2-1 decision in Seattle’s favor.

That's how you end Dee game. ⚡#TrueToTheBlue x @FlashGJr pic.twitter.com/DkYJMldKcR

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) April 3, 2019

“That was great news. To see (Swarzak) come in, first and third, game on the line, you’re up a run with one out, he strikes out Pujols,” 710 ESPN Seattle’s Brock Huard said during Brock and Salk’s Good News, Bad News, No News segment on Wednesday morning. “And hey, by the way, welcome to the Mariners. You’re gonna get Pujols with first and third and one out, and he gets him to strike out, and Dee makes a tremendous play to finish it off. And that’s the fourth different Mariner with the fourth different save in the fourth different night for the first-place, best franchise start ever Seattle Mariners.”

With Swarzak now in the mix following his recovery from a right shoulder impingement, the Mariners appear to have a prime candidate to close while Strickland is on the IL. While the 33-year-old Swarzak struggled last season with the Mets, he’s only a year removed from his best MLB campaign when he posted a 2.33 ERA with 27 holds and a 2.7 WAR in 2017.

“He’s gonna end up being the closer for the short-term,” show producer James “Boy Howdy” Osborn chipped in to the conversation.

“Is he? I don’t know,” responded Mike Salk. “Elías looked good, they had four guys save games in four straight, which is bizarre. … (But) you’re probably right.”

“I mean, he now has seven career saves, so he’s got the track record,” quipped Huard.

Swarzak took over in the ninth for Mariners starter Marco Gonzales, who was making a run at the first complete game in the big leagues this year. But when two of the first three batters of the inning reached base, manager Scott Servais opted to throw Swarzak into the fire in his season debut.

“It’s not encouraging when Marco comes out last night and you’re like, oh, the new guy’s coming in, he hasn’t really had any at-bats against Major Leaguers (this year) and you get to see his 6.51 ERA from last year sitting out there,” Salk said. “(But his) slider looked really good. Great win for the Mariners last night.”

You can find the full segment starting around the 36-minute mark in the embedded player in this post or at this link.

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