To say that Andrew Albers鈥� two latest outings for the Seattle Mariners were different from the norm would be an understatement.
After earning his second straight victory for his new team Monday against the Atlanta Braves, the North Battleford product suffered his first loss of the 2017 MLB season against the New York Yankees Sunday.
The 31-year-old left-hander now has a 2-1 record with a 4.20 earned run average in 15 innings of work.
Albers didn鈥檛 get a lot of help from his teammates in the opening frame Sunday as the Mariners committed five errors to fall behind 6-1.
He bounced back from that over the last four innings with four strikeouts and two walks for the afternoon as the Mariners ended up losing 10-1.
Although he gave up eight runs, only three of those were earned.
鈥淲hen things kind of spiral like they did in the first, you feel like things are going against you,鈥� Albers said Sunday.
鈥淏ut for me, I鈥檝e been pretty fortunate in my last nine or 10 times out that things have gone my way. This game has a funny way of turning around on you. Today is one of those days.鈥�
Monday鈥檚 start on the road against the Braves was an interesting one as Albers went up against the team he started the season for and had spent most of the year in the minors with prior to being traded to the Mariners earlier this month.
It was another solid outing for Albers as he gave up four runs, struck out three batters and walked two in five innings of work in an eventual 6-5 victory.
He also had a chance to bat for the first time in his big league career in the second inning, and he helped himself out with an RBI double.
鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty neat,鈥� Albers said afterwards. 鈥淚鈥檓 not a very good hitter. I got pretty lucky there.
鈥淚 was just happy to put the ball in play and it worked out. It helped I had some at-bats down in Triple A this year and that was the first time I鈥檇 hit in 12 years. It was starting to feel that I could at least be competitive at the plate.鈥�
Following Sunday鈥檚 game, which was the second straight loss for the team, the Mariners have a 66-65 record and are tied with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for second place in the American League West division.
Although both clubs are well back of the Houston Astros in the race for the pennant, they are still in the hunt for one of the two Wild Card spots in the AL.
In what is turning out to be an increasingly tight race with a number of teams, the Mariners and Angels are 1.5 games back of the Minnesota Twins for the second wild card spot.
Albers鈥� next scheduled start is tentatively slated for Saturday in Seattle against the Oakland Athletics.
