SEATTLE -- What a difference one week can make, even in the gauntlet of a Major League season.
Since being swept last weekend in San Francisco, the Mariners lost two starting position players to injuries that will require lengthy recoveries, saw the rotation spot for George Kirby create more questions than clarity and struggled to get anything going in a 12-inning loss against the rival Astros in which they went 1-for-19 with runners in scoring position.
Yet as the dust settled on a six-game homestand against their divisional foes from the Lone Star State, Seattle found itself back at .500 after a 3-1 win on Sunday that capped a weekend sweep vs. the Rangers and a 5-1 week at T-Mobile Park. The Mariners also took two of three against Houston, with a Randy Arozarena-driven comeback on Wednesday representing arguably their biggest win in the young season.
The Mariners now head out on a road trip through Cincinnati, Toronto and Boston at 8-8, but 7-3 vs. the American League West.
¡°Down the road especially, yeah I mean these are the games you got to win, especially at home,¡± starter Logan Gilbert said. ¡°We take a lot of pride in that.¡±
Here are four takeaways from the homestand:
Rotation gets by without best stuff
Gilbert bookended the week with five innings of one-run ball on Sunday, his lone blemish coming via a solo homer to Dustin Harris -- which was set up on what appeared to be a catchable foul ball for Arozarena one pitch prior.
Gilbert racked up seven strikeouts and surrendered just three hits, but he labored to 94 pitches by the end of the fifth that prevented him from going deeper, a trend that Texas created throughout the weekend but one that Seattle was able to overcome.
Bryce Miller needed 30 pitches in the first inning on Friday, Bryan Woo threw 27 on Saturday and Gilbert grinded through 26 in the finale, but each were able to vanquish that volume -- Woo in particular, with another career-propelling performance.
¡°It definitely means a lot to kind of have that rough first inning and then build off of it for the rest of the game,¡± Woo said.
Bullpen back on track
A relief corps that was heavily taxed and experienced consistent turnover in the first two weeks was outstanding all homestand, with a 1.78 ERA in 25 1/3 innings and .580 OPS against -- capped by the sixth save from All-Star closer Andr¨¦s Mu?oz on Sunday. Mu?oz froze Josh Jung with a 100.3 mph two-seamer on the lower black to seal the win.
Even in that gut-punch defeat to the Astros, Seattle¡¯s bullpen was mostly nails -- with the game-deciding run in that one scoring via the automatic runner to begin the 12th inning, which went as an unearned run against the man on the mound, Jesse Hahn.
In this stretch, Gabe Speier (0.00 ERA) has solidified himself as a lefty linchpin, with a hitless sixth inning vs. Corey Seager, Josh Smith and Adolis Garc¨ªa, while Carlos Vargas (2.79 ERA) -- who broke camp out of spring as somewhat of a surprise -- has climbed the leverage ladder, with a perfect seventh inning.
¡°You see more and more confidence coming from all of them and getting comfortable where they're throwing,¡± Mariners manager Dan Wilson said.
Cal¡¯s ¡®torpedo¡¯ is here to stay
For the third straight game since it arrived, Cal Raleigh homered with his new ¡°torpedo¡± bat -- and the one in the finale was by far the most telling to the new model¡¯s effectiveness.
The two-run blast off Nathan Eovaldi in the first inning gave Gilbert his earliest run support, by far, in a game this season.
Some Mariners -- notably Julio Rodr¨ªguez -- didn¡¯t like the feel of the ¡°torpedo¡± in batting practice, with Raleigh even calling it ¡°a little funky¡± before its debut on Friday. But it¡¯s clear he¡¯ll continue using it with these results.
Run production beyond the long ball
Raleigh¡¯s three homers headlined the weekend¡¯s offensive output, but the Mariners also found other ways to score, most clearly in Saturday¡¯s breakout, when they plated nine with only one homer.
On Sunday, they loaded the bases in the sixth vs. Eovaldi, then Arozarena was hit by a pitch for another run, though that wound up being their lone score in that sequence.
For the season, 47.5 percent of Seattle¡¯s runs have been via the long ball, fourth highest in MLB. In an ideal world, especially in their home environment, they¡¯ll continue to find more ways to score.