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Thursday August 08, 2024
The Debacle This Time: Tigers 6, Ms 2
“Why is our DH hitting .212?”
That was my friend Evan at the Mariners game last night.
I looked up at the scoreboard. “That's Cal Raleigh. He's our catcher normally. He's leading the team in homers.”
“Oh. So it makes sense.”
“Yes. Also, one of the last times I was here? Our DH was Mitch Garver.”
Evan scanned the scoreboard. “.166.”
“I think he was about .176 then.”
So it goes for M's fans.
Last night was my first M's game since the trade deadline—when we picked up Randy Arozarena, ALCS MVP with the Rays in 2020; and ginger bear gay icon Justin Turner, NLCS MVP in 2017. Turner turns 40 in November and is no longer the .300/.400/.500 guy he was but he's a better hittter than most current Mariners. Arozarena, at 25, set the world on fire in the 2020 postseason, with OPSes above 1.000 at all four stages, along with slashing a .364/.462/.773 line in the World Series. The next year he was Rookie of the Year and the world seemed his oyster. And then not so much. He's a .200/.300/.400 guy, and this season was .200/.300/.300 with the Rays when we picked him up. But again, better than what we got. I was excited to see them.
In the bottom of the 4th, shortly after Evan asked me about our DH, Arozarena reached on an infield single and that .212 DH went deep to cut the Tigers' lead to 3-2. That was fun. Turns out that was our fun. Garver doubled with two outs in the 5th, Arozarena and Turner spaced their walks between three Mariner outs in the 6th, we went 1-2-3 in the 7th. In the 8th, still 3-2, Arozarena doubled with two outs and then Raleigh drove one to the deepest part of the park, over the centerfield wall, but the Tigers' Parker Meadows brought it back. (Kid, next time show the ball, don't leave us all on tenterhooks.) That would've given us the lead. Instead, top nine, Scott Servais trotted out Jonathan Hernandez, whom we'd selected off waivers from the Texas Rangers on August 2, and he couldn't find the plate: walk, walk. Then he could: fly out to deep left, both runners move up. Single to plate the first. New reliever. Thornton. K. SB. Single to plate two. Now it was 6-2. Evan had smartly already left, and I soon followed. What I missed? Two more singles and a play at the plate to nail the runner for the third out. Bottom nine, Turner led off with a single, was erased in a Jorge Polanco DP, and perennial .200 hitter Dylan Moore struck out swinging. So I didn't miss anything.
Newbie M's shortstop Leo Rivas made a nice over-the-shoulder grab on a shallow popup in the 7th. I liked that. But it continues to be dispiriting. Julio is still injured, J.P. is still injured. The crowd was sparse. Because of the debacle last time, I arrived early and ate stadium food. Maybe that was their strategy all along.
This was our third loss in a row and it knocked us out of first place in the AL West (again), a spot we didn't deserve. We're three games over .500, +18 run differential, exact middle in the AL in terms of record: 8th of 15 teams. We have the second-worst batting average in the Majors, .217, and only the truly abysmal Chicago White Sox at .216 keep us from last place. Third worst? The A's at .230. Bit of a gap. That's how bad we are. Last night, our new guys went 3-6 with two walks while the rest of the M's lineup went 2-25 with no walks. I guess Turner and Arozarena just haven't learned Mariners baseball yet.