A week ago Friday, the Mariners limped into San Diego to play three games against the hottest team in baseball, having lost eight of their previous 11 games.
If that wasn’t bad enough (it was, really), the club announced that day that four relievers had landed on the COVID-19 injured list, depleting the one area of strength that had continually kept them (reasonably) afloat in April and May.
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That night, starting pitcher Chris Flexen laid an egg at about the worst possible time. With the Mariners desperately needing innings from their starter, Flexen didn’t even deliver two of them, as he allowed eight earned runs on 10 hits while getting just five outs.
“I threw a lot of horseshit pitches over the middle of the plate, and I got hammered,” Flexen said after the game.
Five Seattle relievers had to cover the final 6 1/3 innings in a 16-1 loss, which hamstrung manager Scott Servais’ options for the final two games of that series — both of which resulted in losses.
Six days later, Flexen came up big for the Mariners, who still aren’t 100 percent in the bullpen but got a reprieve on this night, as the right-hander threw seven scoreless innings in a 5-0 victory over the Rangers at T-Mobile Park.
Seattle has thrown the 10th-most bullpen innings this season in baseball. Any respite now, with four-plus months remaining in the season, is surely welcome.
“He was certainly disappointed and frustrated with his last outing,” Servais said. “He got banged around pretty good, obviously by a very good team. But he came in tonight very focused and was really going to get after it with the cutter.”
Flexen’s best pitch, his cutter, which had essentially gone AWOL this month, returned in a big way against the free-swinging Rangers. Flexen allowed three hits, struck out six and walked one. It marked the second time in nine starts that he completed seven innings.
In five starts at @TMobilePark this season, Chris Flexen has a 1.63 ERA (5 ER, 27.2 IP) 💪 pic.twitter.com/CigOivDPfL
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) May 28, 2021
“I thought probably the best game of the year that Chris Flexen has had,” Servais said. “I thought that was the best cutter he had, he located the fastball at the top of the zone (and) the changeup was really a big pitch for him tonight. Very efficient. He gave us seven shutout innings tonight and was in complete control.”
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In that dud against the Padres, Flexen got only five swinging strikes — and none on his cutter — in his short stint. But Thursday was a totally different story, as he got four swinging strikes on the pitch and 12 swinging strikes altogether. The fastball up in the zone and the cutter opened up the strike zone for Flexen’s other offerings — his curveball and his changeup — which were also effective.
“That’s definitely a big pitch for me,” Flexen said of the cutter. “And I was able to have all four (pitches) going tonight. I thought (catcher Tom Murphy) did a great job mixing all four, and we were able to execute the big pitches when we needed to.”
Flexen’s start Thursday certainly helps a rotation that’s been decimated by injuries. The team has used 11 starting pitchers already and we’re not even to June. Three of them either won’t pitch again or likely won’t pitch again in 2021 — James Paxton, Ljay Newsome and Nick Margevicius. Marco Gonzales, the team’s Opening Day starter, has been on the injured list since April 29 with a left forearm strain.
Gonzales is expected to jump back into the rotation on Tuesday against the A’s, helping solidify a unit that certainly needs it. Getting more starts like the one Flexen turned in against the Rangers will certainly help as well.
“That was really special for Flex,” said Mariners catcher Tom Murphy. “As a catcher, that’s the type of outing you dream of.”
The Mariners are still without three of their top relievers, as Will Vest, Drew Steckenrider and Kendall Graveman remain quarantined at a San Diego hotel. But the Mariners (24-27) have pressed on, winning two of three games in Oakland this week and topping the Rangers in the series opener.
Seattle is now 3-1 early in a stretch of 14 consecutive games against its American League West Division brethren, and while no one is suggesting this team is better at this point than the A’s or the Astros, they certainly have an opportunity to prove otherwise over the next 10 days.
(Photo of Chris Flexen: Elaine Thompson / Associated Press)