Stacy Rost: 2 things to watch with Mariners in the coming weeks

The Seattle Mariners needed to end a skid of three straight series losses, and they did just that by taking the first two games of their three-game set against the Los Angeles Angels. A sweep would certainly feel better, and so too would a win in their next series against the Toronto Blue Jays.

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But would sweeping a horrible Angels team or a struggling Blue Jays squad really make you feel better about the abysmal state of the Mariners’ offense? For a team with World Series aspirations and a disappointing first half, is there really much of anything you can take from such a small sample size?

Yes! Well, sort of. While the Mariners desperately need to stack wins (and any win right now is a good one), simply beating a team or two in consecutive series won’t tell you much. But other indicators might, and there are two in particular we’re tracking over the next couple weeks leading up to the All-Star break.

Slugging from Cal and Julio

Dom Canzone hitting bombs is awesome. Cole Young launching a ball to the moon Monday was a sight to see. But one of the single most important indicators of a real turn for the Mariners’ offense will be extra-base hits from its two most important bats: Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez.

We’ll start with Raleigh. Seattle’s All-Star catcher is slashing .164/.268/.304 – a slugging percentage that was never going to meet last year’s .589, but falls well short of his six-year career average (.468). The Mariners can find home runs without him (the long ball was a massive factor in an eight-game win streak when Raleigh was on the injured list) but a power-hitting Raleigh takes them further.

A turnaround won’t happen overnight; for now, seeing more patience at the plate is progress.

“Even though he’s gotten off to a slow start, the number of fastballs they’re throwing him is way down,” Mariners analyst Angie Mentink told Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy on Tuesday. “They’re not stupid; they know (he) can crush a fastball. And then they’re spinning everything on him. OK, cool, except that he’s chasing out of the strike zone. He’s got to understand what teams are doing to him. So now, over this last handful of starts, he’s walking more and he’s not chasing. And I was like, OK, good, the strike zone is zoning up, now he’s getting his edges.

“And then what I saw (Monday) night, which I just love, is that they’re finally trying to not be so greedy and catch that ball out front. Yes, someone like Julio, we always talk about how he’s got to catch the ball out front, he’s got to lift the ball in the air. Yes, he does, but he goes through a process. And it’s a lot of times why he gets off to that slow start, because he’s letting that ball get deeper. He hits a ton of ground balls, and then he starts catching it a little bit more in the middle and then a little bit more out front. It is a process. A different process for Cal, but I think we’re seeing it. Good strike zone, and where did he go with that hit (Monday)? Left-center field. So, letting the ball get deeper, seeing it longer, and making better swing decisions.”

Rodríguez was crushing in May, with 10 home runs and seven doubles, but those numbers have taken a dip to two home runs and two doubles through June.

‘A killer instinct’

Two of our favorite interviews over the past week were with Mariners analyst Ryan Rowland-Smith and Seattle Times reporter Adam Jude. Leave it to an analyst and reporter to come up with a more creative and fitting answer than “more home runs, please” (I can’t help it!).

Both emphasized watching for things a bit harder to articulate: a killer instinct and adding runs late in games.

“We can talk about the piggyback all we want and bullpen usage, but to me, we have to go back to the offense,” Jude said. “They’ve got to be better. You can’t sit there and wait for a three-run home run every game, but obviously those help and are big ingredients to winning in the regular season and certainly the postseason. But I would like to see a killer instinct out of this lineup as well. It’s just something I don’t think we’ve seen really with any consistency.

“They had opportunities the other day in the top of the eighth against the Guardians to try to add to their lead. Randy Arozarena, the last thing you can do in that situation is hit a ground ball. You just need a fly ball in that situation; that’s just knowing what’s happening there. And it’s not picking on Randy, because he’s been their most consistent offensive producer this year, but it’s just (an example of) knowing where you’re at in the game and in that series. It’s such a different conversation we’re having right now if they’re able to close out that game.”

Cal Raleigh spoke about a need to play a full nine innings. And that’s something that Ryan Rowland-Smith emphasized last week, too.

“One thing you want to see from them in the first game of this series is to show a bit of fight in at-bat number three, at-bat number four,” Rowland-Smith said ahead of Seattle’s series against Cleveland. “If you can do something in the seventh, eighth, ninth inning, against this bullpen, I’m telling you that will be a situation… where you (start) feeling much better about where you’re at.”

The Mariners didn’t do that against the Guardians, but the sentiment remains true. Especially against an Angels bullpen carrying a seventh-worst 4.51 ERA.

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