Notebook: Versatile bullpen a plus in Mariners’ must-win situation

Nobody is ducking the scoreboard. The Blue Jays-Orioles game was on the televisions in the clubhouse and on the big board during batting practice. Regardless of what happens on the other fields, however, the Mariners first and foremost have to take care of their own business, and that means beating the A’s.

That is the single focus of manager Scott Servais right now; not a game that could possibly be played next week, not exit interviews, not evaluations for next year. Just Ariel Miranda vs. Kendall Graveman.

“We have nothing to prepare for next week unless we take care of business tonight,” he said Thursday afternoon. “If that goes OK then come tomorrow we will try to get through it again. We need some help along the way but I’m not looking past anything.”

Miranda is coming off a shaky start where his secondary stuff was not there against the Twins. He lasted just four innings before Servais went to the pen. While a quick hook is often the order of this time of the year, it won’t be as easy as that Thursday. A number of the go-to arms in the pen have been taxed with Evan Scribner throwing two crucial innings Wednesday against Houston and Nick Vincent showing signs that he needs a day off. Drew Storen may be leaned on, and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. likes what the Mariners have got from him this year.

“This guy has felt the pressure of the back-end of games,” he said of the former Nationals closer. “There’s a lot of times in the seventh, sixth and sometimes fifth inning of games, you need that guy to come in and slam the door, stop the momentum. He has been outstanding with inherited runners. We feel very comfortable bringing him in.”

There has been an interesting turn of events with the Mariners pen. While at the beginning of August they were getting outs via blowing opponents away the high velocity stuff of Tom Wilhelmsen, Arquimedes Caminero and Edwin Diaz, they have been getting to Diaz in a very different manner in September with the lesser octane stuff of Storen, Evan Scribner, Nick Vincent and Steve Cishek. The mix and match has been effective.

“We will go into a game and pick out spots and try to match our guys up based on guys’ swing path and their stuff,” said Stottlemyre. “In the case of Storen, he’s got two different breaking balls and two different speeds on it. He’s got a feel for pitching, he doesn’t cave into pressure. He has been outstanding.”

The move that brought Storen from the Blue Jays to Seattle was a change-of-scenery trade, and that has worked out well for both teams with Joaquin Benoit allowing just one earned run in 25 appearances before seeing his season ended with a calf injury suffered when he sprinted out of the bullpen for a brawl earlier this week. Storen, after a rocky first appearance with the Mariners, has limited hitters to a .172 average while stranding 10 of 11 inherited runners.

Notes

• With the Orioles’ 4-0 win over the Blue Jays Thursday, both teams now have records of 87-72 and hold onto both Wild Card spots. While there are many different playoff or tiebreaker game scenarios, this is the simplest. For the Mariners to force at least a tie, they will need to sweep the A’s, see Detroit lose a game and have one of Toronto and Baltimore to go no better than 1-2 in their final series.

• Nelson Cruz has been named the Mariners 2016 Heart and Hustle Award recipient by the MLB Players Alumni Association.

• Single-game tickets for potential Mariners playoff games go on sale Friday at noon. Details can be found here.