SEATTLE — Perhaps the time has come not to bury the Seattle Mariners, but to praise them.

The buzzards were circling over the Mariners as recently as two weeks ago when the injury-ravaged baseball club closed out a home stand with lopsided losses to the Chicago White Sox.

That showing prompted a Puget Sound television sports anchor, who possibly hadn’t seen the club’s massive disabled list, to call out the M’s for subjecting youngsters to such a shoddy product on Little League Day.

There was another Little League Day at Safeco Field on Sunday, but it is doubtful that many in the crowd of 28,579 demanded a refund. With a 7-1 victory, the Mariners completed a three-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays. They’ve won seven of their last eight.

There were some unlikely heroes over the weekend. Journeyman first baseman Danny Valencia improbably tied a club record on Saturday and Sunday by delivering hits in nine consecutive plate appearances.

Wild-swinging catcher Mike Zunino, usually a pretty good bet to not even make contact twice in a game, followed his three-hit, seven-RBI performance on Saturday by producing two more hits and two RBIs in Sunday’s triumph. His bases-loaded single in the fourth inning, through a second-base hole vacated by a shift, was arguably Sunday’s key hit.

Ariel Miranda, the young Cuban-born southpaw who wasn’t even expected to make the team during spring training, authored Seattle’s first complete game of the season.

Matching a career high with nine strikeouts, Miranda allowed only four hits — including an infield single that probably should have been ruled an error and Daniel Robertson’s fly ball that struck Jarrod Dyson in the shoulder and went for a triple after the Mariner center fielder lost the ball in the sun. The latter hit cost Miranda a shutout.

“From where we were six or seven days ago to where we are now says a lot about our team, especially our leadership group,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said Sunday. “I made the comment we were at rock bottom (during the slump) and we were (but) our guys responded.”

Servais should reserve a share of the credit for himself and general manager Jerry Dipoto.

Dipoto has made some questionable moves when it comes to veterans. Curiously for a disciple of analytics, he subscribes to a bounceback formula in acquiring well-seasoned players coming off injuries or disappointing seasons — apparently assuming they’ll regain their previous form.

Most sabermetricians contend that philosophy almost never works. With such Seattle imports as Adam Lind, Steve Cishek, Wade Miley, Leonys Martin and Yovani Gallardo, you can remove the “almost” from the previous statement.

Dipoto, however, has displayed a much surer hand with young talent, obtaining the likes of Mitch Haniger, Ben Gamel, Guillermo Heredia and James Pazos in trades. For that matter, Miranda was acquired from Baltimore in exchange for Miley last summer.

The Mariner general manager has succeeded in his goal in making the club younger and more athletic. The M’s finally seem suited to their spacious home park. Although only 28-30 overall, they have a 17-10 record at home.

More importantly, Dipoto has replenished the farm system to the extent that the M’s can bring in adequate reinforcements when their front-line talent goes down.

Like many observers, I initially attributed Dipoto’s hiring of longtime associate Servais as field manager to cronyism. Servais had never managed before and his appointment came at the expense of Lloyd McClendon, who had done a decent job in his two years at the helm.

McClendon, however, was something of an apologist for his players and once famously declared that he didn’t believe in making major personnel moves until the season was 50 games old. By that time, the proverbial horse is often out the door.

In contrast, Dipoto and Servais have been decisive in addressing problems immediately. If the enigmatic Zunino ever reaches his potential, it could be due to the team’s willingness to send him to the minors to work on hitting flaws.

Servais seems to have a good rapport with his players without relinquishing control. Surprisingly for someone without managerial experience, he also has a pretty good flair for game strategy.

As encouraging as the sweep was for Mariner fans, it needs to be kept in perspective.

The Houston Astros, playing at a pace that would threaten the Mariners’ American League record 116 wins from 2001, are all but uncatchable in the AL West. Although (as of Monday), the M’s are only 2 1/2 games out of a wild-card berth, there are six wild-card contenders ahead of them.

As Seattle Times columnist Larry Stone suggested last week, that increases the chances that the Mariners will be sellers at the August trading deadline.

While dealing quality players may be inevitable, Dipoto needs to keep the core of the club he has carefully constructed. Fire sales and five-year plans work about as often as the bounceback formula.

My favorite story in that vein concerns the legendary baseball executive Branch Rickey. At the twilight of his historic career, Rickey was tapped to run the woebegone Pittsburgh Pirates prior to the 1951 season.

Rickey immediately proclaimed the cellar-dwelling Pirates pennant contenders — in 1955.

“That’s when the bells will ring and the red wagon comes down the street,” he proclaimed in typically grandiloquent fashion. “That’s when Pittsburgh folks will shout, ‘By George, this is it.’”

Rickey made some good moves during his Pittsburgh tenure, including pirating (pun intended) future Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente from the Dodger organization.

But if Pittsburgh fans were doing any shouting in 1955, it was something along the lines of “By George, this team is terrible.” The Pirates went 60-94 that season.

By 1956, there were precious few sightings of Branch Rickey — with or without his red wagon — in Pittsburgh. He was fired following the season that he had projected as a landmark.