Cal Raleigh addresses Mariners’ recent struggles

The vibes are not very high when it comes to the Seattle Mariners right now.

Three changes the struggling Seattle Mariners can make now

After a strong start to the year led to an early division lead, the M’s have struggled through an 11-20 stretch, which includes a 1-8 record and three straight series losses in their past nine games. After crushing 5-2 loss to the Diamondbacks on Wednesday – which featured a go-ahead grand slam by ex-Mariners slugger Eugenio Suárez – the team enters Friday 4 1/2 games back in the AL West and below .500 for the first time since it was 8-9 on April 15.

On the latest edition of The Cal Raleigh show, the Mariners’ star catcher addressed the club’s recent struggles in a conversation Seattle Sports insider Shannon Drayer.

“Obviously injuries have piled up and nobody ever wants those, but it’s kind of part of the game,” Raleigh said. “All 30 teams deal with this, so you can’t really use it as an excuse. Got to kind of have that next guy next-guy-up mentality, and obviously (we) just haven’t been playing as well as we would have liked.”

Injuries have ravaged the roster through the first 2 1/2 months of the season. The Mariners are currently without outfielder Luke Raley and Victor Robles, second baseman Ryan Bliss, and starting pitchers Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller. George Kirby also spent eight weeks on the injured list to start the season, and reliever Matt Brash missed just over a month at the start of the year.

The M’s were able to overcome many of the injuries they faced early while building a lead as high as 3 1/2 games in division and reaching as many as eight games above .500 five separate times. However, that hasn’t been the case of late.

“I think it’s just one of those stretches where we hit, but we don’t pitch. And then we pitch, but we don’t hit,” Raleigh said. “Just some kind of unfortunate kind of series of events that way. So we’re trying to get it back on track, and like I said, getting a few of these guys back healthy and on the field is definitely going to help us. It’s kind of how we’re seeing it right now, and guys gotta get this thing kind of moving in the right direction.”

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Drayer asked Raleigh how the club can start trending in the right direction.

“I think just putting together a full nine innings with the guys,” Raleigh said. “To me, we’re playing some good games early or late. We just got to put it all together, put the full nine (innings together), and that’s everybody included. It’s position players, pitchers, everybody included.

“So getting the full nine and putting the pressure on (the opponent) for nine innings, I think that’s the biggest thing I see right now. Just two, three hours, give it all you got (for) a full nine and then go from there.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. The Cal Raleigh Show airs each Thursday at 5 p.m. during Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob. 

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