Salk’s Take: What’s behind Mariners shaking off their slow start

A week ago, everything looked like it was going to be disappointing for the Seattle Mariners. They were well below .500, they weren’t playing their best ball, and everyone was worried that the start they were off to was going to influence or at least affect them over the course of this season.

Two things we know, two we don’t a month into Mariners’ season

Look, baseball is six months for a reason. It has its ups, it has its downs. It’s amazing how often those downs have occurred right at the beginning of the season for these Mariners, and I think there was a realistic expectation that with a better team, a better lineup, a better roster and coming off the ALCS appearance that they weren’t going to experience that this year.

Well, guess what? Here we sit heading into the beginning of May, month No. 2, and the Mariners are… right at .500, one game behind the A’s for first place.

Are they where they want to be? No, of course not. Is their future in any way negatively affected by a mediocre start? No, not at all. And thanks to the last couple of weeks, or at least certainly the last road trip here, where they played much better baseball, you’re looking at it and saying, OK, the two, three and four hitters are starting to hit again.

Every good baseball team that has designs on something impressive needs to get their core guys to live up to their billing, and right now that’s happening. And everyone needs somebody to exceed expectations. Well, enter Cole Young and enter Emerson Hancock, because without those two guys, I think the Mariners would be in a very different spot right now.

It doesn’t mean it’s going to continue for the whole year. Right now, it’s just a month or two and the league will adjust – that happens. But when you get your core guys in your lineup doing what they’re supposed to do, and then you add in somebody going a little farther than expected, a la Cal Raleigh last year, well, that’s when you can start to have something really special.

This post is a transcript of the video at the top of the post. It is edited for clarity. Catch Mike Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.

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