Mariners' Bullpen is Killing Them

Felix Hernandez pitched a great game Thursday night. He pitched seven innings of shut out ball, giving up only six hits while walking two and striking out six. Aardsma came in and pitched a strong inning. One inning, one strikeout and that was it. Then the Mariners brought in Brandon (There's always to) Morrow. Goodbye 2-0 lead. Goodbye ball game.

Morrow only got one out in the bottom of the ninth. The rest were three hits, two of them homers. It's the team's seventh blown save in sixteen tries. It's not like the starters have been terrific either. Bedard has been good. Vargas had one good start. Hernandez has his ERA under 4.00 and Jarrod Washburn has been decent. Silva and Jakubauskas (in the running for the most difficult name in the sport) have been awful.

But the relievers have really done poorly. Here's a run down:

- Shawn Kelley: Has been very good. Has good numbers but his two runs given up caused a blown save.

- David Aardsma: Batters have only hit .148 against him and his ERA is excellent. But he's given up 11 walks in 16.2 innings. That will bite you in the end.

- Sean White: Better than league-average ERA, but again, 10 walks in 15+ innings. Has blown a save.

- Miguel Batista: Has a better than league-average ERA, but has given up 30 base runners in 17.2 innings including 10 walks.

- Mark Lowe: Blown save, 27 base runners in 15.1 innings.

- Brandon Morrow: 19 base runners in 8.1 innings. 10 walks, 9 hits. Two blown saves.

- Roy Corcoran: 22 base runners in 8.2 innings including 9 walks. One blown save.

- Denny Stark: 10 base runners in only 3.2 innings including 4 walks.

The consistent thing you see up and down the relief corp is walks. As a team, the relievers have surrendered 64 walks in 102 innings of work.

The Fan suggests at this point that Shawn Kelley be given a shot at closer for a while. He's the only one of the group that throws strikes consistently and has only walked one in 11.2 innings of work. He couldn't be any worse than Morrow. Power arms are nice for the closer position, but if they can't find the plate or have no command of what they are throwing, then all the manager is doing is demoralizing his starters and his players.