Mariners Week in Review: How sweep it is 4/18-25

One of my favorite small, simple pleasures is cuing up the highlights of a Mariners win and watching them before I go to bed (studies* show this is excellent sleep hygiene). There is perhaps no more damning indictment of my Mariners fandom than the fact that I just want to make absolutely certain that I wring every last bit of joy possible from each M’s victory. So, in the interest of prolonging the Good Vibes (must credit Eugenio Suarez), I thought it might be nice to start a weekly review - sort of a Moose Tracks-meets-charts-meets-game-recaps. In keeping with the theme of the 2022 baseball season, this is also - obviously - a delayed start, but if there’s interest the plan will be to have this as a recurring column on Monday mornings (or, in the case of Monday off-days, Tuesday morning). Obviously not every week will be as fun to reflect on as last week, but this is a big season for the team and it deserves as much good documentation as we can muster.

This is, of course, a work in progress, so please don’t hesitate to let me know of any categories you’d like to see added! And do weigh in on the title in the poll at the end.

Record for the week:

5-1. Bookended with two Monday off-days, they wrestled two out of three from Texas and, of course, swept the Royals in heart-palpitating fashion - and largely without their usual skipper. They’ve flung themselves to the top of the division, and join the Yankees and Blue Jays in a tie for best record in the American League at 10-6.

Run differential:

38-24, +12.

Player of the week:

Ty France was literally Player of the Week this week, sharing the award somewhat arbitrarily with Miguel Cabrera, despite the fact it seems like a rather useless accolade to receive relative to joining the 3,000 hit club. But I digress. France now leads MLB in hits, and went a comical .500 on the week, including an incroyable 1.436 OPS. John Trupin has a great write-up on what could be contributing to the California kid’s precipitous rise.

Play of the week:

Jarred Kelenic’s 92 MPH laser from right field.

At-bat of the week:

This was a certifiable Big Boy at-bat. And the cherry on top is his little look-back of seeming disbelief. Yes, Julio. Sometimes umpires will call balls balls.

“I knew it was a ball, but I was like, ‘Man, if you call that right now, we’re going to have some words.’ I feel like that would’ve been the time where you would see me get fired up.”

Nemesis of the week:

Salvador Pérez. When the Royals come to town, it’s Salvy’s series. One of the best in the game and a joy to watch for years, I fully endorse intentionally walking him for all future plate appearances.

*Please note that umpires are not eligible for this recognition, on the grounds of it being simply too obvious.

Favorite Mariners content:

Addie’s recap of Saturday night’s wild game is one of the best this site has ever published, and we’re so fortunate she shares her voice with us. The final paragraph will echo in my mind all season.

My apologies to all who missed the game: you cannot get it back. The hour is past, its transcendence confined to the memory of those who witnessed it. I wish it weren’t so, I wish with all my heart that I could take you, reader, back to the moment in which exclaiming “finally, finally, finally” at an RBI double felt like the collective exorcism of demons weeks or decades in the making, depending on how you look at it. I cannot on this side of eternity. You’ll just have to take my word for it.

Beyond LL, I’ve returned to this photo on multiple occasions already, and it makes me laugh each time. Castillo has resting “oh shit” face on the mound, and if you look at this photo long enough you can hear him whisper “help me.”

Favorite thing I ate while watching/listening to a game:

Frankie and Jo’s Carrot Cake ice cream. It is vegan, gluten free and approximately the cost of the down payment for a studio in Seattle, but worth every penny.

Bold prediction for next week:

Can I do one happy and one sad? Of course I can, I’m creating this thing. The happy: Kelenic dingers twice (at worst, it looks like they’ll face just one LHP starter in each series - though who knows what the Rays are going to do on Wednesday). The sad: Drew Steckenrider to the 10-day IL (dude looks, well, borked).

Looking forward:

The Mariners travel to Florida this week, where they’ll play three games each against the Rays (9-7) and the Marlins (7-8). As always, be sure to check out Jake Mailhot’s Series Previews, which are the unheralded MVPs of this site and guaranteed to make you sound smarter to all your game-watching compatriots. The last time they squared off against Miami, Félix Hernández went six and a third innings, Mitch Haniger was a rookie and Ichiro was in the starting lineup. Incidentally...

This week in Mariners history:

Five years ago Seattle lost its mind on an opposing players’ ninth inning home run.

Lastly, please weigh in on what you think the name for this feature should be moving forward! (Note that a potential compromise could be to identify the Player of the Week as the Weekly Keelhauler (keelhauling: a form of corporal punishment that was formerly practiced as a punishment in the Dutch and English Navies)).

*It’s me. I am “studies.”