All the breaks, but bad ones

If it wasn’t for bad luck, the Seattle Mariners might not have any luck at all in 2017.

The injury bug has hovered over the team since Opening Day, biting the M’s right when you think they’re going to start making a run.

Well, maybe not?

INJURIES HAPPEN during the course of the season, it’s just going to happen no matter who you play for.

But losing a projected four starters — Felix Hernandez, Hisashi Iwakuma, James Paxton and Drew Smyly — for a bit of the season is just the beginning of the team’s problems in 2017.

Other injuries to starting shortstop Jean Segura and second baseman Robinson Cano have seemed to disrupt the team’s momentum a bit as well.

If the team even had any going for it to begin with.

You can make the excuse that the team has been on the road a bunch this season, but it’s just an excuse.

When they’ve been inside the friendly confines of Safeco Field, the team has played a little better, but have still lost five of its last six games in Seattle.

Maybe getting back home for a good portion of the month of June can turn out to be a good thing, and with a few of those starting pitchers beginning to return shortly, who knows where the season goes.

WITH PLENTY of time left in the season, there’s still hope the team can pull off some miracle and get back into contention.

Maybe not enough to quite catch the Houston Astros for the division title, and maybe they’ll have to have to play some of the best baseball that fans have seen in franchise history, but there’s time.

They’re not going to get anywhere with a revolving door in the starting rotation, where the lone starter to make all of his scheduled starts has been Yovani Gallardo, who fell to 2-6 on the season. Other than him, it has been a “who’s who” and “who are you” rotation as the team does its best just to field a team.

In Houston’s first trip to the World Series in 2005, one the Astros would eventually lose to the Chicago White Sox, they were 15-30 in late May. They eventually got hot, going 42-17 in June and July and clinched a wild-card spot to the National League playoffs.

Having Seattle at 25-30 after Thursday’s loss to Colorado, which ended a four-game win streak, shows signs the Mariners might be close to getting things together. Getting those starters back, in addition to the offense continuing to be a little more consistent, they’ve got a shot to be right where they thought they’d be come October.

Baseball is a crazy game sometimes, and there’s a good chance things will be a lot more fun to watch within a few weeks.

Hopefully that will include the team from the Northwest, in some much better health.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.