Mariners: Snell Has Encouraging Debut

Ian Snell looked competitive and showed resilience in his Mariners debut.  He lasted six innings, giving up two runs on only three hits, while striking out four.  Although Texas took the game from Seattle in the seventh inning, Snell gave his team a chance to win, which is an encouraging sign to Mariners fans.    He did surrender three walks, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he was struggling with his control.  None of the past batters came around to score, and walking a batter in Arlington, a hitter’s friendly ballpark, can definitely be more constructive then allowing the long-ball hitting home team, to capitalize on a hitter’s count.  His two earned runs both came on mistakes leading to solo homeruns.  The first against, DH three spot hitter, David Murphy on a fastball left over the middle of the plate, with two out in the first.  Then Michael Young tallied his 17th jack on the year, on a hanging inside slider, with ...