Welcome back to the life that you live! Here are the big Mariners stories that you missed over the three-day weekend. And by "you" I mean "I". This is basically me catching myself up and generating front page content at the same time. Take notes, aspiring bloggers.
(1) The Mariners scored five runs in three games and went 2-1
You could also go with 11, four, and 3-1 in case you were busy Friday night as well. The hitters are still wearing their dancing shoes instead of their hitting shoes, and so the run production remains totally absent. The M's haven't scored at least four runs in consecutive games since June 2nd and 3rd. However, they didn't need to score runs this weekend, because they played the Padres and the A's, who are basically the Mariners but worse. After the successful weekend, the M's find themselves 2.5 games out of first. They were two out of first on May 3rd. It feels like the last two months have been up and down, but the M's haven't been more than four back since May 18th. Of course, any excitement is tempered by the fact that the Pirates are currently 1.5 back in the NL Central. Is anybody buying the Pirates?
(2) Mike Carp is back in Tacoma, Carlos Peguero is not, and Chris Gimenez is on the 60-day DL
For Gimenez, it's a shit break, although the severity of the injury makes the fact that he finished that one game all the more impressive. For the team, I imagine Josh Bard is at least as good, if not better. More importantly, we have Carp and Peguero. Carp came up, didn't play much, and got on base a decent amount. Not good enough, apparently. He'll be back, and he'll be back soon, but this is just another indication that the team seems to like Peguero more than it probably ought to. A total of 356 batters have come to the plate at least 100 times this season. Peguero's OBP ranks 329th, despite being platooned. I get that the threat of a home run exists, but with other players there exists a lesser threat that they'll make an out three-quarters of the time.
(3) Blake Beavan came up and was good
Granted, Beavan made his debut start against the Padres in Safeco Field, but relative to making his debut start against the Padres in Petco Park, this was a tough task, and Beavan excelled, allowing a run over seven innings while throwing 71% of his pitches for strikes. More impressively, he generated 12 missed bats with his fastball and pumped a few into the mid-90s. This is why you never want to make too big a deal of a likely short DL stint. Sure, Erik Bedard is hurt, and Bedard being hurt makes the Mariners worse, but look what Beavan just did as his replacement. You just can't ever know how one or two games are going to go, regardless of the matchup. Also, hey, awesome for Beavan, who probably has it in him to make a career out of at least being last year's Doug Fister.
(4) Doug Fister got no run support again
Fister allowed a run in nine innings against the Padres and lost. He has allowed three runs over 25 innings in his last three starts and failed to earn a single win. He is 3-9 with a 3.02 ERA, and his run support is the lowest in baseball, a hair ahead of - or behind - Dustin Moseley. The pitchers with the highest run support in baseball: CC Sabathia and Jon Lester. Yeah, that's necessary. Fister was the starter that one time the M's clobbered the Tigers 13-3. In Fister's other 16 games, the M's have scored 29 total runs. The Mariners hate Doug Fister. They hate him. They hate the 24-year-olds in the beer garden who shout out his name. They hate that he's taller than Michael Pineda. They hate his hair and his attempts at a beard. They hate him, and to show it, they don't score runs. The Mariners also hate all their other pitchers.
(5) Fister lost after he walked a guy on three balls
That was the story on Saturday. Fister walked Cameron Maybin on three balls, Maybin scored, and the Padres won 1-0. All those people, and no one said a word. Nevermind the dugout and the coaching staff. Doug Fister was throwing the pitches, and he didn't notice. Josh Bard was catching the pitches, and he didn't notice. The umpire was calling the pitches, and he deferred to the scoreboard, which was wrong. There are so many different ways to go with jokes here that I'm stuck at the trailhead, reading all the signs. What's funny is I know I wouldn't have noticed, either. Baseball has too many details.
(6) Felix Hernandez and Brandon League made the All-Star team while Ichiro did not
Okie dokie