Three things: Is Taijuan Walker giving the Mariners what they need?

With a huge three-game set in Texas to take on the division-leading Rangers on tap, the Mariners it at 68-62 on the year after a week where they failed to gain ground in the playoff race.

Here are three things to keep in mind this week about the Mariners:

1. Taijuan Walker: Almost but not quite.

The expectations for Seattle’s talented 24-year-old right-hander were ramped up last week, as it suddenly became clear that the Mariners really needed Walker to find his groove and get late into games to help out their weary bullpen if their playoff dreams were to become a reality. Two starts into his return from Triple-A, the results are good but not great. Walker took the loss on both occasions, giving up four runs (three earned) in 5 2/3 innings on Aug. 23 vs. the Yankees, then allowing four runs again (all earned) over 7 1/3 innings on Sunday in Chicago. Neither were quality starts, and that’s the biggest thing the Mariners need right now, because it essentially quantifies that a starting pitcher is giving his offense a chance to win the game. In that respect, Walker is close, but there’s an old adage about the two situations when close counts, and baseball isn’t one of them.

2. Bad times in the land of offense.

Remember the run-scoring juggernaut that led the Mariners along their big run in the first half of August? That was not present over the recent stretch where they dropped five of six games. Seattle scored three runs or less in five of those games, one run or less in three of them, and the cruel irony is that the one game where they exploded for six runs still wasn’t a win. Part of the problem was that the Mariners faced a lot of left-handed pitching over that time, and that’s not particularly a strength of theirs. Even though they lead the majors in runs scored vs. lefties, they also have the most at-bats with 1,547, the second-most being San Francisco’s 1,399. Their OPS against southpaws is just .730 on the year, which is 22nd in the MLB and fifth from the bottom in the American League. Certainly not helping matters was that Kyle Seager missed three games with a bruised foot, or that Adam Lind was the only option as first base at a time when Seattle really needed some right-handed help, or that Mike Zunino enters Monday 0 for his last 15. There’s no doubt the Mariners hope the ball will be flying better off their bats during their three-game set in Texas.

3. It’s getting a little crowded in here.

It’s been a few weeks since the Mariners made their last push up the standings in the playoff race, moving into the first tier of teams battling to take shots at the two holders of the American League Wild Card spots, Boston and Baltimore. Unfortunately for Seattle, it failed to capitalize on that 11-2 run from Aug. 2 through Aug. 15, having gone 5-8 since then and falling back into a jumble of teams in the hunt. Entering Monday’s slate of games, Detroit is above the Mariners by a game, while the Royals and Astros are tied with them at three games back of the second Wild Card spot. The fact that Houston is back even with Seattle is especially an issue, as it gives the Mariners tough competition in the AL West should Texas stumble down the stretch and provide an opening. Then there’s the surprising Yankees, who took two of three in Seattle last week and are now just a half-game behind the M’s. The Mariners had a chance to make things easier on themselves, but that didn’t come to pass, so now they’ll be in a dog fight the rest of the way as they try to get into the postseason.

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