M’s fire hitting coach

So this is what a next-to-last team batting average (.248 ) and league-worst on-base percentage (.305) will get you if you’re earning a living as a major league hitting instructor: unemployment.

Jeff Pentland, the only hold-over from last season’s coaching staff, has been fired by the Mariners, replaced by former big leauge manager Lee Elia, who had been working as a part-time special assistant for John McLaren.

I guess you can only strand two runners on with no outs so many times before it begins to reflect poorly on a team’s hitting coach….

Red Sox series

Well, I guess as Felix was starting one of the three games at Fenway, the Mariners had a chance to win won.  Because it’s pretty clear they aren’t a competitive team with anybody else on the mound.

And what a win it was on Friday, as the offense somehow managed to actually get some hits with runners on, roughing up Boston starter Bartolo Colon for six runs over five innings.  That led to eight runs scored in support of Felix- tying the season high mark in that department- as the team snapped a four game losing streak with an 8-0 shutout victory.  All four losses had come since Felix last picked up a win, tossing seven scoreless two-hit innings against the Tigers.  This means Felix is currently riding a 13 inning scoreless streak, not to mention the 15 inning scoreless streak he is currently riding at Fenway, shutting down one of the game’s most dangerous line-ups in their home ballpark.

Of course, the Red Sox were without Manny or Papi in their line-up Friday night, as their dangerous offense looked rather pedestrian.  That was not the case the rest of the weekend, as Manny returned to the line-up as Boston’s designated hitter.  Saturday’s game saw Miguel Batista continue a dubious streak of his own, as by allowing five runs in four innings, Batista continues a stretch in which he has tossed just one quality start out of his last seven.  Six of Boston’s thirteen hits on Saturday went for extra bases, as the Mariners’ anemic offense compiled six singles and a double.  One of the hits was a home run by J.D. Drew, who also took Sean Green deep on Sunday for the deciding run in a 2-1 decision.

For the first half of May, the Mariners’ starting staff seemed to have a quality start nearly every evening, only to be led down by weak offensive support.  As the month progressed, whenever the Mariners’ offense would put up some runs, it wouldn’t matter as the pitching would allow the opposing team to blow out the game by running up an early lead.  The M’s record when scoring four runs or less for the month of May was a woeful 5-16.  Little seems to have changed as the calendar has flipped to June, with the Mariners dropping all five decisions in which the team has scored four runs or less.

The train wreck continues tonight, heading up north to make a stop in Toronto for the season’s first match up with the Blue Jays.  The M’s will be facing Toronto starter Jesse Litsch, a soft-tossing junkballer who got knocked around by the M’s in his only career start against them last summer, allowing four runs on four hits (including an Adrian Beltre two-run home run) in a 4-2 Mariners’ victory.  However, Jarrod Washburn has struggled in his career against the Blue Jays, dropping seven of nine decisions with a 5.48 ERA and an atrocious 14:10 walk-to-strikeout ratio in 23 career ERA at Rogers Centre, dropping three of four decisions.  The last time Washburn toed the rubber in Toronto, he allowed six runs- including three home runs- in three innings, as the Blue Jays topped the M’s by a 7-5 score.

Litsch may be a soft-tossing right hander, but expect him to shut the M’s offense down.  Final: 4-3, Blue Jays, but even those three runs scored by the M’s might be just wishful thinking….