After the first game of the 2023 season the Seattle Mariners were one game over .500, and at the start of 2023 All-Star Break the Mariners are one game over .500. That's often baseball, those ups and downs, that stasis, but much of the season felt like a struggle to get to .500 and then slipping below the surface again. Hey, we finally made it! Oops. Glug glug glug.

• 4-8 —> 8-8 —> 8-11
• 11-16 —> 17-17 —> 21-20 (!) —> 21-23

We began June two games over .500, then of course lost five of six. How many times last month did we reach .500 only to lose the next game? A lot. June 6, .500; June 7 loss. June 13, .500; June 14 loss. Same with June 16-17, 18-19, and 23-24. You know the Vic Chesnutt song “Flirted With You All My Life”? That was the Mariners and .500 for the first half of 2023.

Going into July we were four games under, so of course we win four in a row. And then of course we lose one. Glug glug. 

That said, we did end the first half by winning series against the Rays, Giants and Astros, all postseason contenders. The last series we lost was to the Nationals, who have the second-worst record in the NL. So it goes.

MLB no longer as the All-Star Game but the All-Star Week, and this week, or this year, it's in Seattle. I'll miss the homerun derby today but will be at the game tomorrow, section 327.