Mariners notebook: Offense putting up numbers in July

Stop me if you have heard this before: Offense is picking up, bullpen is taxed. Some quick hits on both and then notes.

We saw Carson Smith struggle for a second straight outing Monday night. Mike Zunino noticed the mechanical flaws right away and tried to fix them on the fly.

“I think he was just flying open,” Zunino said after the Mariners’ 4-3 loss to Arizona. “I have just got to tell him to stay on me, keep that front shoulder to me, drive the ball to me. I went out there and told him that and he threw a couple of good pitches in a row. He just had one fastball that hit Welington (Castillo) that got away from him and that was just enough to get him out of there.”

For Lloyd McClendon, it quickly became apparent that his young closer did not have much.

“He was flying open and trying to create velocity,” McClendon said. “That’s the first sign that a pitcher is tired. He was trying to dig deep, but nothing was there.”

For Smith, it was his fifth appearance in seven days and that stretch included just his second three-in-a-row this year. McClendon would like to give him up to two days off but said that if he showed good stuff in his early work Tuesday, we could see him in this game.

As for the offense, we are seeing something very different in the month of July. Robinson Cano is second in baseball in hits for the month, Kyle Seager is fifth, Nelson Cruz is seventh. Mark Trumbo after a slow start has hit .309 with an .812 OPS in July. As a team, the Mariners’ 71 extra-base hits this month rank second in the majors behind the Tigers.

Plenty of good with the offense this month.

Lineup!

Austin Jackson, CF
Kyle Seager, 3B
Nelson Cruz, DH
Robinson Cano, 2B
Seth Smith, RF
Mark Trumbo, 1B
Brad Miller, SS
Mike Zunino, C
Dustin Ackley, LF

Hisashi Iwakuma, RHP

Notes

• Before the All-Star break, McClendon said that if he didn’t see improvement with the offense there would be changes. One change of note is what you don’t see in the lineup Tuesday. After starting 82 of 89 games in the first half, Logan Morrison has started eight of 12 since the break. Since the middle of June, Morrison has hit just .144 with a .523 OPS.

• Charlie Furbush threw from the mound Tuesday for the first time since going on the disabled list with biceps tendinitis. Furbush threw around 25 pitches – half from flat ground, half from the mound, all fastballs – and reported that all went well after.

• The Baseball Hall of Fame announced a change in voter eligibility. Writers who have been been inactive for 10 years will no longer be eligible to vote.

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