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First-place Mariners built to stay there this season

This is not, if you'll remember, unfamiliar territory for the Seattle Mariners. At the end of May last season, they were up three games in their division. By the end of June, they were up 3 ½. They were still leading the American League West last year with July in the rearview mirror.

Yes, they hit the wall after the All-Star break and missed out on the postseason, despite winning 93 games. But, the point is, no one should be surprised that the Mariners are doing what the Mariners are doing. Which is tearing up just about everything and everybody in sight.

The Mariners, in fact, are the American League's best team right now. It's not even close.

This weekend, the sizzling M's get a chance to measure just how good they are when they play the only team in baseball that has out-sizzled them. The Mariners and Atlanta Braves meet in a three-game interleague series in Seattle starting Friday.

It's way too early to call any series important, especially one that's both out of division and out of league.

But if any mid-June series qualifies, it's this one.

"It's sort of an … interesting series," said Seattle general manager Pat Gillick. "For a midseason series, I think there's a lot of excitement."

All three games at Safeco Field are sold out in what some people are calling, way prematurely, a possible World Series preview. But it does promise to be … interesting.

The thing about the Mariners and Braves is, as good as these teams have been in recent years, no one would have fainted if their runs had come to an end this season. The Braves took a huge hit in their pitching staff in the offseason, losing Tom Glavine, Kevin Millwood, Damian Moss and a lot of good relievers.

The Mariners changed managers, with Lou Piniella going to the Devil Rays, and made only a few, mostly under-the-radar offseason moves. With stiff competition in the AL West from the defending World Series champion Anaheim Angels and the pitching-strong Oakland A's, many wondered whether the M's had the stuff to make the postseason.

Yet here we are, with Nos. 1 and 1A. The Braves, the National League East leaders, are winning because of a smashing offense, one that has clubbed a baseball-best 106 home runs in 64 games. The Mariners enjoy a big lead in the West (eight games over the A's) because they have the pitching (second in the AL at 3.65), the hitting (third at .288) and the defense (first, with a .989 fielding percentage). And they're on an undeniable roll.

The Mariners just lost two of three to the Montreal Expos, but before that blip they had pulled off one of the most successful road trips in franchise history, going 11-1 against the Royals, Twins, Phillies and Mets. They hit a gaudy .339 on the trip, their pitchers had a 2.52 ERA, and the team made just two errors -- two! -- in the 12 games. The one game they lost was by a run to the Mets.

None of this is a fluke. The Mariners, remember, won 116 games two years ago. They led the division for more than half of last season. They're used to this. Their fans are used to it.

The question with the Mariners has been their legs. They faded down the stretch last season under intense pressure from the A's and Angels. That prompted Gillick, in concert with new manager Bob Melvin, to strengthen his bench with guys like Greg Colbrunn and John Mabry.

A deep bench, which also includes super-sub Mark McLemore and rookie Willie Bloomquist, should help the Mariners stay on top longer. But there are at least a couple more reasons they're winning now and why they're better now than they were last year.

"The three things, if you want to list them, and it's hard," said Gillick, "are Gil Meche, Randy Winn and the bench."

Meche, the team's first-round selection in 1996, has rebounded from rotator-cuff surgery and solidifies a starting rotation that also includes Jamie Moyer, Freddy Garcia, Ryan Franklin and Joel Pineiro. Only Oakland's starting rotation has a better ERA than Seattle's. Meche is 8-3 with a 3.32 ERA.

Winn, an All-Star last season with the Devil Rays, came over in the deal that got Piniella to Tampa Bay. He's become the everyday left fielder in what Gillick likes to think is the best defensive outfield in the game. Winn is hitting .295 -- .328 with runners in scoring position.

And the bench has, so far, done just what was intended: It has made the Mariners a very versatile team, giving plenty of choices to manager Melvin and a little extra rest to the regulars for what promises to be a long, long road ahead.

The Mariners, so far, have been everything they could have hoped for. Right fielder Ichiro Suzuki is hitting (.332), second baseman Bret Boone is again playing like an All-Star (.315, with 17 home runs and 50 RBIs), Carlos Guillen has been nearly as good as the higher-profile shortstops in the league, and designated hitter Edgar Martinez keeps doing his thing (.319, 14 homers, 47 RBIs).

After the 11-1 road trip, some even started comparing the Mariners to the 2001 M's, who tied the major-league record with those 116 wins. That may be going a bit far. But …

"I think that that's really sort of a quick impulse, coming off of an 11-1 road trip," Gillick said. "I think there's always that feeling that you're going to accomplish something that's similar to the 2001 season after something like that.

"But the things that happened in 2001, over the course of the season -- there were a lot of out-of-the-ordinary things. For us to even approach [the 116 wins], we'd have to have some similar occurrences. I'm not sure that will happen."

Probably not. But don't be surprised if the Mariners are riding high again at the end of the season.

John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.

Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.

 

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