Jerry Dipoto says Mariners are ‘quite embarrassed’ by 2-8 start
Apr 13, 2017, 6:05 PM | Updated: Apr 14, 2017, 10:03 am
General manager Jerry Dipoto’s first comments during his weekly appearance with “Danny, Dave and Moore” on Thursday acknowledged what is one of the few positives from a dispiriting start to the Mariners’ season:
It’s early.
After all, 10 games in a 162-game MLB season is the equivalent of one game in the NFL.
But what the Mariners have done over those 10 games – posting a 2-8 record while struggling to hold leads and hit with runners in scoring position, among other things – led Dipoto to describe Seattle’s start in some pretty frank terms.
Stecker: After another blown lead, the M’s need bullpen help — fast
“But the reality is, we are off to a bad start. None of us are thrilled with it. We’re quite embarrassed by the way we’ve played, and it’s been fairly complete,” Dipoto said. “Last week it was our offense, this week it’s been bullpen struggles and we’ve not been able to hit on multiple cylinders during the course of a game to this point.
“But it is a long season and we’re going to rely on the length of our season to be our salvation in this event. But we’ve got to turn it around, and there’s no question it’s going to take all 25 guys to collectively pull themselves together. We’ve got a handful of guys that are off to great starts and some young guys who are doing some really good things that are particularly exciting.
“But as a group, we’ve just not done enough of those things, clearly, to win games. Your expectation in a 10-game stretch is not to go 8-2, but 2-8 is certainly not what this team is capable of, and like I said, it’s been an embarrassing start.”
Dipoto also talked about the importance of the off day Thursday and how he wanted the Mariners to spend it, the statuses of relievers Tony Zych and Steve Cishek, center fielder Leonys Martin’s struggles at the plate and more.
The conversation is embedded in the picture atop this post and can also be heard through this link.