The Month Ahead - If you're cryin', we're July'n

Well, June had its ups and downs, but the Mariners did finally get over the .500 hump (2 games even!) but only to end the month losing 4 games in a row before crushing game one against the Angels. Again, this team can hit the ever living shit out of the ball when they put their minds to it, but the starting pitching continues to be an issue. The bullpen shut it the heck down for most of the month until Diaz had a rough stretch at the end, but overall, the bullpen is pretty dang good. So the team has its strengths. Mike Zunino, for example, remembered how to hit dingers and clubbed 30 RBI for the month, setting a team record for a catcher and matching the best months by Edgar and Junior. Ride it out, Mike. Ride it out.

Since no AL teams are running away with the wild card spots, the Mariners are still very much in the race at 40-41. Staying above .500 sure would be good. Yeah. They should do that. Sports analysis is easy, jerks.

Let's take a look at July, shall we?

So after the Mariners hopefully thrash the Angels, they've got a nice little home stand against the bad Royals and the very bad Oakland Athletics before the All-Star break. Then oh jesus christ shit gets real very fast after a probably crappy White Sox series in Chicago. A 3 game series in Houston followed by a home stand against the unfortunately very good New York Yankees and then the Boston Red Sox. But, hey the Mets are bad so that's nice. Hopefully.

Like I said last month, the margin of error for these Mariners is very slim. Beat the bad teams, battle the good ones. Sounds simple, right? Well, losing two to the Phillies at home was classic bad, slump-bustin' Trashiners, wasn't it? Win both series against the Royals and A's and the team will be sitting pretty for the rest of the month against some very good teams.

Go freakin' Mariners.