The Fate Of The Seattle Mariners ; Upcoming Road Trip

As of right now, the Seattle Mariners are a game over .500, 2.5 games behind Texas and LA/Anaheim. They are set to play the Padres and gain more ground.

However, the direction of present and future Mariners lies in what happens the next 10 days.

That's right, the road trip from hell.

After the team's series with the Padres, Seattle will go down to LA for a three—game series with the best team in baseball. After a travel day on Monday, the Mariners head to the Bronx for a shindig with Yankees at their place.

They close it out with a meeting with the Sox at Fenway.

The Dodgers boast a home record of 25-10. Seattle will try to overcome that record while facing Clayton Kershaw, Eric Milton, and Hiroki Kuroda. All three pitchers are beatable, but the Ms must be patient and take pitches to beat them, especially Kershaw.

Seattle then heads to the New Yankee Stadium, an extremely offensive park, with an anemic offense. While the Yankees haven't been playing their best ball lately, the Mariners' offense has not been spectacular itself. The pitching will have to remain stellar and the offense will need to take pitches and get to the bullpen.

The Red Sox have been throwing up crooked numbers lately, thus winning by large margins. Seattle will M's have to keep the ball down and get to the bullpen early.

It's as simple as this. If the team can come out of the road trip with at least six wins, the future looks bright. If we lay an egg, management should think of our future and build for next year.

With a four-game series at home against the Rangers after trip, the future of the Mariners should be set by the All-Star break.