Seattle Mariners posts

Except for a makeup doubleheader this afternoon between the Mets and Braves (currently tied for the second wild card spot with identical 88-72 records), the 2024 regular season is now over. Amazing things happened: things that have never happened (50-50) or rarely (Jarren Duran leading the league in doubles + triples). But one thing remained dully the same. 

This is a list of teams with the best record in the American League who fell short of the postseason:

• 2020: Seattle Mariners
• 2021: Toronto Blue Jays (Mariners second)
• 2022: Baltimore Orioles (Mariners make the postseason for the first time since 2001!!!)
• 2023: Seattle Mariners
• 2024: Seattle Mariners

Cue Seinfeld: “Of all the losers, you came in first—of that group. You're the No. 1 ... loser.”

The world's biggest pop star when the Mariners last won. (Paul Skenes photo unavailable.)

The Seattle Mariners led the AL West for much of the summer, shockingly, since they were not that good, but everyone else in the division was even worse. Until they weren't. Until the Astros started Astroing and took over the lead again in ... was it August? I guess July and August. Just Googled it and got this via Daniel Kramer at MLB.com:

The Mariners carried a 10-game lead atop the AL West entering June 19 before squandering it on July 19 in just 24 games, the shortest span — by far, per Elias — for any team to lose a double-digit lead in the divisional era (since 1969). A more elongated stretch of struggles pushed Seattle from occupying sole possession of a playoff spot since Aug. 7.

And last night, the Astros clinched—for the seventh time in eight seasons—and fittingly against the Mariners. Care to guess who won the division the time the Astros didn't? It was 2019, 'Stros were wild card and wound up in the World Series, but the division winner was ... the Oakland A's. Soon to be Vegas or Sacramento A's. Or Portland A's? That would make way more sense but MLB is into the gambling these days. There's no addiction they won't push on fans already addicted to baseball.

Anyway, while figuring out the A's answer, I came across this Wiki page on the AL West and its winners: all that strata, all those epochs. I could go into the usual on how much time has passed since the Mariners last won it in 2001: eggs cost this, Kamala Harris worked for the city attorney in San Fran, Taylor Swift was 11, Paul Skenes was in utero. The Astros weren't even in the division at the time, and wouldn't be for another 10+ years. Meanwhile, the A's were being followed by Michael Lewis, and the Angels were just beginning their phase of going through about 12 name changes before deciding on ... I can't even remember. The Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles in California?

Here, let's just focus on the stats since 2002. It ain't pretty:

* since 2013 

Seriously, heads in Seattle should be rolling. Like 10 years ago.

My favorite bit on the Poscast the other day was this exchange:

Joe: [After updating us on the rise of the Astros, the fall of the Mariners, and the general lousiness of Mariners hitting] So the Mariners are playing for their playoff lives, and ... Man, is this going to happen again? Are the Mariners going to just fall short AGAIN?
Mike: Yeah.

It's the way Michael Schur says it—with a “no duh” quality to his voice: “Isn't it obvious? Are you an idiot? What happened to my smart friend Joe?” And the chef's kiss is that Mike's answer was immediately echoed, in the exact same tone, by their guest Justin Halpern, who is a showrunner for the TV series “Abbott Elementary” and a big San Diego Padres fan. 

This has been a theme throughout the year, by the way. Joe keeps pushing for the M's and the M's keep disappointing. Basically the M's are Joe's fetch. He keeps trying to make them happen. And yeah, they're not happening. 

As if to underscore this point, M's manager Scott Servais was fired by the club today. Don't know if other heads will roll. They should. As I said earlier this month, fire the hitting instruction team up and down the org. Whatever hitting philosophy we have, it's a bad one. 2024 numbers:

• Batting average: .216 (30th of 30 teams)
• OBP: .301 (26th)
• SLG: .365 (29th)
• Hits: 903 (30th)
• Doubles: 170 (29th)
• Triples: 12 (28th)
• Ks: 1,308 (1st)

We're also middle of the road in homers (15th). Basically the only good thing we're good at is walks: 5th-best there. We walk a lot, strike out a ton, barely put the ball in play. All walks and many Ks make the M's a dull team.

Interestingly, Halpern is on the Poscast because of the surprising resurgence of his team, who are the opposite of that. They're fun. Someone in the Poscast described them as akin to the 2014-15 KC Royals: a team that doesn't strike out, doesn't walk, puts the ball in play. Amen! I've been waiting for another 2014-15 Royals team to cheer on. Maybe this year's Padres are it. 

When the Servais news broke I immediately texted my friend Tim, who responded with this touching eulogy, borne of watching Servais mismanage the ballclub for the past nine years: “About fucking time.” 

Former Mariners catcher Dan Wilson is purportedly taking over. He has no experience as a big-league coach or a manager at any level. At the same time, he doesn't seem like a bad choice.

ADDENDUM: Hitting instructor Jarret DeHart was also let go and will be replaced by Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez. Per Wiki, DeHart was promoted to M's hitting coach and director of hitting strategy on November 15, 2021. M's team batting averages under his tenure: .230 (27th), .242 (22nd), .216 (30th).

• Tim's take 
• Poz's take

“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.

I usually don't go to two Mariners games in a week, and certainly not from the same series, but Tim had an extra ticket Monday to see the Angels, and when I accepted I forgot I already had a ticket to Wednesday's getaway game against the Angels.

The sad part was how shockingly similar the games were. 

Monday night, the M's squeaked a run across in the first, Bryce Miller pitched seven shutout innings, but the Angels pushed across one in the eighth and two in the ninth and won 3-1.

Wednesday afternoon, the M's got a run off a Mitch Haniger homer in the second, Luis Castillo pitched six shutout innings, but the Angels pushed across two in the eighth and won 2-1.

Some thoughts from the series:

• The M's scored one run each game against the team with the second-worst ERA in the Majors. (Only Colorado, for obvious reasons, allows more runs.) What happens when the team with the second-worst ERA in the Majors meets the team with the worst batting average in the Majors? Now we know.
• The M's starting pitchers gave up a total of one earned run, combined, over three games. And we still got swept. 
• Yesterday the Rockies beat the Red Sox 20-7 and an M's fan posted that the Rockies scored more runs in that one game than the M's scored in all of July. It's not correct, I checked, but it feels correct.

I showed up late to the Wednesday game and left early. I showed up late because of work and I left early because it was a huge crowd and I didn't feel like fighting them to see a bunch of .220 hitters that I don't even know strike out or pop out. I was also still angry. I figured arriving late (top of the second) would mean a quicker entry but it was the opposite. I arrived to lines stretching down the block. Both blocks. It was insane. It was chaos. Weekday afternoon games used to be calm affairs but the M's org seems to be selling cheaply to tons of groups, particularly kids groups (they were very obedient when the scoreboard told them to make noise). Which is fine. The M's should be selling cheaply to kids groups. They're the future. But then hire enough people so you can funnel them through. I don't care if everyone shows up at the same time, it's your job—M's management—to anticipate this and ameliorate the situation. But the situation was so bad when I arrived, so seemingly hopeless, that I repaired, as they say, across the street to a bar for a drink. I saw Haniger's homer on TV. I didn't sit down at the stadium until the bottom of the third. 

Meaning I watched four innings and saw nobody score. Some of it was just bad luck. Bottom four, Jorge Polanco led off with a double, Haniger followed with a walk, and Jason Vosler (who???) singled over the second baseman's glove to load the bases. Up stepped Tyler Locklear (who???). Per the scoreboard, he'd struck out swinging his first time up. “Don't strike out!” I shouted. He didn't. He ground into a double play. That was the bad luck. It was a bullet down the third base line, but Luis Rengifo (who???) gloved it, stepped on the bag, and threw home to get Polanco. Then Luke Raley struck out swinging to end the rally.

And so it went. Bottom five, leadoff walk that never advanced. Bottom six, leadoff walk eliminated in DP. Bottom seven, one-out single followed by two Ks. Maybe M's management did me a favor by keeping me from the park for three innings.

Tim and I played a game within the game at Mariners Park last night: Could we find a fan in stands who was wearing the jersey of a player—Mariners or Angels—who was actually on the field? 

Most Angels fans wore the jersey of Mike Trout, who's been MIA most of the season—and most of most recent seasons. He hasn't played 130+ games since 2019. On the field, in his stead, and the stead of Shohei Ohtani, the star of stars who fled for the other So Cal team last off-season, were a lot of .220 hitters whose very names sounded hopeless. Neto, as in young shortstop Zach, sounds like a compression of “Net zero”; Schanuel, as in young first baseman Nolan, sounds like something you'd say if you disagreed that Charlie Manuel was the best Phillies manager of all time (Manuel Schanuel); while Drury, as in journeyman Brandon, aptly described last night's weather: overcast and chilly after several weeks of 80 degrees and blue skies. I think eventually we saw a kid wearing an O'Hoppe jersey, as in Logan, as in their catcher leading the team in hitting with a .277 BA and .800 OPS. Smart kid. No other choice, really, except maybe their starter for the game: All-Star selectee Tyler Anderson, whose record was a very Angels 8-8.

On the Mariners side, we caught the usual Griffey 24s and Ichiro 51s, though the most popular continued to be Julio 44, who is having an off-season, or maybe an off-career, and anyway was out with an ankle sprain from the day before. MRIs had been announced. Walking in, we saw a few Ty France jerseys, possibly worn in protest, since he was waived earlier in the day, and nearby we saw a few J.P. Crawford jerseys. At least he started the game. In fact he scored its first run—after being hit by a pitch in the bottom of the first that got him pulled from the game in the top of the second. By the time we played our game, he was no longer on the field. (Update: hairline pinkie fracture for J.P.; probably a stint on the IL.)

I'll cut to the chase: the dude on the field with the most fans in the stands wearing his jersey was probably Cal Raleigh, Mariners catcher, currently leading the team in homeruns (20) and RBI (62). Not many other options. Mitch Garver? Dylan Moore? Jorge Polanco? The game-within-the-game demonstrated both past glory and current paucity for both teams.

As did the game. Tim called it the most Mariners game of all. We got seven shutout innings from starter Bryce Miller, who left with a 1-0 lead. The reliever they brought in? Ryne “Time to Panic” Stanek, who walked the Angels' #9 hitter on four pitches, walked the Angels' leadoff hitter on five pitches, then, on a 3-2 pitch, got Schanuel for a called third strike that was so iffy it got Schanuel tossed from the game. At this point, the M's went to the 'pen again for ace All-Star closer Andres Munoz, who looked a bit shaky himself. Worse, Angels pulled off a double steal, Turner Ward hit a long fly to center, and the game was suddenly tied.

Were we doomed to extras? No, thank god. Top of the ninth, M's reliever Trent Thornton promptly retired the first two batters, then promptly walked the next two, allowing #9 hitter (but oddly their top RBI man) Jo Adell to lace a single to center to put them on top. Trying to nab runner #1, mayhem ensued, allowing runner #2 to score as well. It was the most exciting play of the game.

And in the bottom of the ninth for the M's? After Cal Raleigh flied out, the next two guys up were Mitch Garver and Dylan Moore, both of whom, I shit you not, had already completed baseball's ignominious hattrick: each had struck out three times. In the ninth, Garver managed a fly out but Moore came through for us: he struck out to end the game. Fourpeat.

Tim thinks the hitting coaches up and down the Mariners organization need to be fired, and he's not wrong. We're currently last in the Majors in team batting, with a .217 average, two points behind the dismal Chicago White Sox. We're also first in strikeouts with 1,052, nearly 100 ahead of the second-place A's. Not a good combo. I returned home to find out that Teoscar Hernandez, who underperformed for us last season, and was a starting All-Star for the LA Dodgers this season, drove in all three runs in a 3-2 Dodgers victory over the SF Giants. How refreshing. Not drury at all.

“Walks it off”: A nubber to the pitcher and an errant throw.

I found myself rooting for the Twins.

I spent most of June in Minnesota visiting my 92-year-ol father in M. Hospital or R. Hospital, where he was trying to recover from a stroke, and during that time we watched a lot of Twins games so I got to know them a bit. Meanwhile, I kind of lost track of my M's. Were they still in first place in the AL West? Apparently so. Nine games over .500. Had Julio become Julio again? No, he hadn't. And we still weren't hitting? No, we weren't. Pre-game, we were 29th of 30 teams in batting average, 25th in OBP, 25th in SLG. Among our regulars, Julio led in batting with a .252 average. We had pitching and not much else.

Meanwhile, the Twins had this kid, Royce Lewis, who couldn't sneeze without hitting a homerun. A few weeks back I checked and his SLG was .900. .900! For slugging. Barry Bonds looks at that and goes WTF? Twins also had superstar shortstop Carlos Correa who was beautiful to watch. Everyone on the field is a top tier athlete but some guys are just top top-tier and he was one of those. He made everything look smooth. I remember watching an at-bat in Minnesota where the ball landed in front of homeplate and Correa reached down and flipped it to the catcher in one smooth motion. The day before yesterday, I got worried when in the late innings of a Twins shellacking of Arizona, Correa got pegged in the forearm, grimaced, shook his forearm, and immediately walked off the field. He was injury prone but was finally coming back from all that. He was having a helluva June. So was he down again? No. Not a fracture. His hand went numb but feeling returned in the Twins locker room and he said he'd be in the lineup the next day, which was last night. He was. 

I went with my wife Patricia. We got there slightly late—Correa was already on first with a one-out single—which meant we'd missed the first round of boos. I should've anticipated that. I was loving Correa now but he'd been on the 2017 Houston Astros, who cheated by stealing signs with high-tech gear and sent signals via trash-can lids, and Mariners fans, and pretty much all fans, continued to boo the stars of that team. Even a guy like Kyle Tucker, who wasn't on the '17 squad, who didn't make his MLB debut until July 2018 and didn't play a full season until 2021, even he gets booed like he's Simon Legree. So it goes. Me, I'm already passed it. Plus it's boring. So when the M's faithful booed Correa lustily in his next at-bat, I took the opposite tack: I cheered lustily. I cheered even louder when, in the top of the sixth, with the M's ahead 1-0, Correa hit a 2-run homer into the bullpen in left field. The only one who said anything was a Twins fan sitting behind me. He looked confused, pointing to my M's cap. Yeah, long story, pal.

Correa, by the way, was the only guy on either team with an average north of .300, but the Twins had five guys with averages better than Julio's, which, again, is the best on the M's. Just embarassing. Our leadoff hitter (J.P. Crawford) was near .200, our No. 3 hitter (Cal Raleigh) just scaped above .200, while our cleanup hitter (Mitch Garver) was significantly below .200. Again, we're 29th of 30. Thank god for the White Sox.

Mariners Park was packed for the first time in a long time. Because they'd just gotten back from a successful road trip? No, they'd gone 3-6 against the Guardians, Marlins and Rays. Because it was J.P. Crawford bobblehead night? Maybe. It was also Filipino Heritage Night, so that helped. It helped make it a rare midsummer sellout. Just when I didn't want to be near people.

After Correa's homer, the M's went down 1-2-3 in the sixth and seventh, but in the bottom of the eighth they got the first two guys on via walk and single. Then bobblehead guy J.P. tried to bunt but popped it up to third. Then Julio hit a slow roller to third, which Twins third baseman Jose Miranda, cousin to Lin Manuel, rushed a throw to first, which first baseman Carlos Santana tried to dig out but couldn't. A run scored and the game was tied. It stayed that way until the bottom of the tenth when we scored our ghost runner on a groundout to short (moving him to third) and a nubber back to the pitcher, whose hurried throw home sailed past the catcher. So we won on two errant throws. So it goes.

The weather was nice anyway.

The man who thought the M's would be great this year—or, more accurately, wanted the M's to be great this year—has cooled on them a bit. From Joe Posnanski's SubStack the other day, “Who's Winning (and Losing), and Why,” in which he went over each division and gave us what, where and why as of May 14:

American League West
Leading: Seattle (23-19)

Why they're winning: They're not exactly winning, but they're in first place because they're getting some good starting pitching—this team has the second-best strikeout-to-walk ratio in the league—and they're taking most of the close games. With the early emergence of Bryce Miller, to go along with Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert and George Kirby, this does look like one of the best four-man rotations in the league. But the offense: Bleh. They're 13th in the league in runs scored and are striking out more than any team. We keep waiting for Julio Rodriguez to ignite.

Confidence level: Medium, I guess. The offense has to get better, I would think, and that starting rotation is stout. Still, the Rangers seem to have a lot more firepower.

His “Confidence level” is how confident he is they'll stay in that position. I'm with him. The offense has to get better. The Mariners are currently 25th in the Majors in team batting, 21st in team OPS. We're first in strikeouts and 19th in walks. Ninth in homers, we're dead last in doubles, with 52 on the season, which is nine away from the next team, so not even close. What is it the M's do? We hit poorly but occasionally hit it out. And our pitching is good. That's neither a formula for success or excitement.

And the crowd went wild

The announced attendance last night was 14,984 but it felt way sparser than that. It felt like a mid-September game: starting temps in the low 60s dropping into the chilly 50s as the game went on; a handful of fans trying to amuse themselves with scoreboard antics or hydro races; two teams with nowhere players going nowhere fast.

Both teams are actually doing well. Or well-ish. The Mariners, predicted to win the West by some, are in fact in first place in the AL West (by half a game at gamestart), while the Royals, whom nobody predicted to go anywhere, are third in the AL Central but with a better record: 25-17 vs. 22-19. So why wasn't there more excitement?

On the M's side, it's partly that record. We're only in first because everyone else in the division is falling on their faces. We're like the normal guy at the klutz convention, but no one is mistaking us for Fred Astaire. It's also our offense—or lack of it. Halfway through the game, our second baseman and No. 3 hitter Jorge Polanco had to leave with a hamstring pull, and in the reshuffling the new third baseman, Luis Urias, wound up in the three spot. I nudged my friend Tim. “Look at that. Means we have a No. 3 hitter batting below .200.” Then I realized the awful truth. “I guess we began the game that way, didn't we?” In fact three of our starters were below Mendoza: Polanco and the two Mitches—Haniger and Garver—while seven of our starting nine were hitting below .250, and one of those, supposed star Julio Rodriguez, was barely that. In the game he went 1-4 with a single and now sports a .255/.309/.321 line, for a .630 OPS. I know he's a slow starter (a year ago he was at .214/.280./403), but all of that helps account for the meh reaction. This is a meh team. The Mariners are 25th in the Majors in batting (.226) and OBP (.302). The reason we're first in the West is because our starting pitching is superlative: No. 1 in the Majors in quality starts, No. 1 in WHIP, sixth in ERA.

Last night, starter George (“Summer of George!”) Kirby was shaky in the early going. With one out, Bobby Witt Jr. dunked a single to right, then Kirby seemed to lose control: he plunked the next two guys to load the bases. A mound visit seemed to do good for a change: he struck out the next guy, Michael Massey, on three pitches, then got a 6-3 to end the inning. But after two innings he'd thrown 43 pitches and you figured he wasn't long for the game. Except he turned it around. He had a couple of 1-2-3, throwing just 10 and 7 pitches, and he left after seven, ahead 4-0. He threw more than 100 pitches. Can't remember the last guy I saw who threw more than 100 pitches.

Our big bat was Lonesome Luke Raley, a 29-year-old left fielder acquired in the off-season from Tampa Bay, who hit a 2-run homer to dead center in the 2nd. He's an upswing guy—in that last year was his best year by far. He's the opposite of what Jerry DiPoto keeps doing with second base: getting one-time All-Stars who've had bad seasons, thinking they can turn it around. That was Kolten Wong in 2023, Polanco now. In our resumed SubStack the other day, Tim and I went over the black hole that was left field for the 1990s Seattle Mariners and last night we agreed that's now second base. Here are our main second-baggers playing opposite J.P. Crawford for the past few years, along with their OPSes:

• 2024: Jorge Polanco, .606
• 2023: Kolten Wong, .468; Jose Caballero, .663
• 2022: Adam Frazier, .612
• 2021: Abraham Toro, .695
• 2020: Shed Long, Jr., .533
• 2019: Dee Gordon, .663

So Abraham Toro was the high point. Who knew?

M's got two more runs in the 3rd, stringing three singles along. It should've been two singles and a double but when Cal Raleigh's deep drive to center went off the fielder's glove, Polanco, who'd been on first, wasn't ready to run, and could only get to second, stymying Raleigh. Maybe that's when he pulled the hammy? With his bad baserunning? Either way, after Lonesome Luke plated another, it stayed 4-0 until the 8th, when both teams got two: theirs off reliever Ryne “Time to panic” Stanek, ours when Tyrus Raymond France dunked a long fly into the left-field bleachers.

To me, the best-looking player of the game was Bobby Witt, Jr., who went only 1-4 but seemed everywhere: going first to third, running everything out, and with wheels. Right now he's hitting .304/.369/.518, and he's second in the Majors in WAR to Mookie Betts. Those are big boy numbers. Ah yes, I remember them well.

Pinch-hitting for Superman

The last time I saw Chris Sale pitch in person was in July 2017. He was tall and lean and calm, and he dealt with the Mariners at Safeco Field rather handily: 3 hits over 7 innings, one walk, 11 Ks. It was his 13th victory that season—his first season with the Red Sox after seven with the White Sox—and the 87th of his super-promising young career.

Wednesday afternoon I saw him again, a 35-year-old in a Braves uniform, and his interim, like a lot of ours, hasn't exactly been stellar. I guess 37-27 is nothing to sneeze at, but it's over 6+ seasons, which rounds out to about 6-4 per, and that's including a pretty good romp in 2018 when he went 12-4. Injuries, of course, a way-too-common contemporary baseball storyline, are the reason. But is he back? Wednesday he handled the Mariners well enough, allowing 1 run over 5 innings, with zero walks and 9 strikeouts, as the Braves avoided a sweep with a 5-2 victory. He's now 4-1 on the season with a 3.44 ERA and a 0.95 WHIP. More power to him. I miss the days when the best pitchers in baseball stuck around for more than a few years. 

The Mariners, for their part, threw out 24-year-old Emerson Hancock for the ninth start of his career, but a lot of that five-spot wasn't his fault. Yes, he kept walking guys. In fact, in the 1st, the Braves didn't even put the ball in play: K, BB, BB, K, K. I yelled: TRUST THE GUYS BEHIND YOU! Bad advice, it turned out. The game got away from us in the 4th, when, with one out, shortstop Orlando Arcia lofted a high popup into shallow right, and three guys converged. It was RF Mitch Haniger's, but for some reason he didn't seem to be tracking it well, and the ball plopped out of his glove for a two-base error. It was as close to a Charlie Brown moment as you'll see at the professional level. If he'd caught it, Hancock would've had a 1-2-3 inning. Instead, with two outs, Ronald Acuna Jr. singled to left and Arcia scored from second. Then Ozzie Albies singled. Then Austin Riley tripled over Haniger's head—a tougher play, but another where he got his glove on the ball—and that was it for Emerson.

Hancock wasn't stellar but a lot of the loss belongs to Haniger. Besides the Charlie Brown play, he went 0-5 with three strikeouts, and now his season line is down to .217/.278/.368. Mid-April, he was .300/.382/.500. Since April 17, he's got four hits in 41 at-bats. Ouch. Is he injured? Either way, should he be batting second, Scott Servais?

I went to the game with my friend Tim, never a Servais fan, who noticed that the Braves kept tossing left-handers at us: Sale, Dylan Lee, A.J. Minter. And then in the 8th, they tapped rightie Joe Jimenez to face our 6-8 guys, none of whom are hitting above .200, and who bat rightie, rightie, and switch. Tim assumed it was a good time for a lefty pinch-hitter like Josh Rojas, who's been knocking the cover off the ball. Which is exactly what happened. For the switch-hitter. 

“Does that make any sense?” Tim asked the air.

“Maybe he's weaker from the left side?” I offered.

And he is: .211. But the others aren't exactly great shakes against righties, either: .218, .197. Plus the switch-hitter was EL.com favorite Sam Haggerty, he of the “Godfather” walkup music, who made a nice Superman catch earlier in the game. Now that I think about it, so did the No. 6 guy, Dylan Moore, our shortstop. The Braves did blister the ball. I guess we were lucky it was only 5-2. 

Bryce, Bryce, baby. 

Well, that's a little better. 

Two weeks ago, I attended my first Mariners game of the season, an 8-0 drubbing at the hands of Cleveland, in which our D kept booting the ball and our O couldn't move a man past second even if he led off with a double. That loss, to a team who did poorly last year but is currently one of the top teams in baseball, dropped the Mariners to one game below .500.

In yesterday's afternoon game, on a super-sunny, mid-50s mid-April day, the Reds and Mariners traded solo shots in the 2nd (Elly de la Cruz for them, Cal Raleigh for the good guys, a no-doubter), then there was nothing for several innings. Immediately after Cal, with two outs, Dylan Moore hit a triple thanks to a misplay by Reds centerfielder Stuart Fairchild, but he was stranded at third. With one out in the bottom of the 3rd,  Julio Rodriguez, off to an abysmal start (sub-.300 everything), ripped a double off the glove of Fairchild but was also stranded at third. Stranding at third seemed our lot. 

Then in the bottom of the 6th, we got another solo shot, this one from clean-up hitter Mitch Garver. Was that our lot? The solo shot? Because in the bottom of the 7th we got another one, from lead-off pinch-hitter Josh Rojas, making it 3-1. Four solo shots, four runs. That inning, though, finally gave way to another way to score. Newbie whippersnapper Jonatan Clase walked, stole second, and scored on a Mitch Haniger line single to left. Fun! Then Reds pitchers couldn't find the plate. Less fun! With two outs, Garver walked, and France walked to load them. Would Cal Raleigh get out the rye bread and mustard? No, he walked, too. Could Dylan Moore hit another triple to clear the bases? No, he struck out. But now we were up 5-1.  

It was my friend Jeff who pointed out that the Reds weren't exactly hitting. Meaning beyond de la Cruz's homer, they didn't have any other hits. 

“Did they even walk?” I wondered aloud. “I guess they're two over the minimum right now, so they must've walked.” They did: catcher Tyler Stephenson immediately after de la Cruz's homer. Those turned out to be the Reds' only baserunners for the day. Every other inning: three up, three down. Bryce Miller pitched six and got the win. Our first series win of the season was a series sweep, and it raised the Mariners record to .... right, one game below .500. This again. But I'll take the W.

Throughout the game, Jeff and I kept moving to stay in the sun. We began on the first-base side of the 300-level and wound up in shallow left field, but I still felt cold and stiff at the end. Maybe I'm getting too old for this shit? I screwed up the game time, too—thought it was a 12:40 start rather than 1:10—but was rewarded with a Griffey bobblehead doll. I normally say no to bobbleheads but I couldn't say no to that.

On the day that Joe Posnanski predicted the Seattle Mariners would be the fifth-best team in baseball, I attended my first game of the 2024 season, where the Mariners did a brilliant job of showing Joe he's not exactly Nostradamus.

We trotted out young ace George Kirby, who finished eighth in Cy Young balloting last season, and began this season by shutting down the Boston Red Sox in a 1-0 victory. Here, against the Cleveland Guardians (nee Indians) in the first inning, Kirby gave up a seeing-eye single to Steve Kwan, an HBP to Andres Gimenez, and a ringing double in the right-field corner to Jose Ramirez. 1-0. Then our defense fell apart. Josh Naylor grounded sharply to Ty France at first, who stepped on the bag but lost control of the ball—bloop—trying to complete the DP at home. 2-0. Will Brennan then grounded to drawn-in second baseman Jorge Polanco, our “big” off-season acquisition, and bloop again: the ball shot up in the air. 3-0. Brennan stole second as backup catcher Seby Zavala (part of the Eugenio deal) aired it into center. Kirby got the next batter, Bo Naylor, to strike out, but the ball bounced away from Zavala, and Naylor took first. Mercifully we got a pop out and a groundout to end it, but the next inning they got two more. In the 4th, they got three more, 8-0, the first on another Ramirez double. The Guardians kept repeating themselves that way. The most obvious example is when Bo Naylor struck out again in the 7th but got to first again when the ball bounced away from Zavala. I rarely see that once in a game anymore—taking first on a dropped third strike—let alone twice by the same player.

Mariner bats, meanwhile, strung together two doubles and three singles over nine innings and never managed to get a guy to third. The highlight of the game, for Mariners fans, was the top of the 9th when backup infielder Josh Rojas (part of the Sewald deal) pitched. I first noticed when a curveball floated in at 64 mph. Apparently he'd pitched last season with Arizona, two one-inning stints, getting shelled the first time, giving up a hit and no runs the second. Yesterday? No hits, no runs, just a walk, then a foul out (to himself), and a 6-3 DP. What remained of the crowd roared its approval.

So we're having Salmon Runs this season? That's the innovation? A between-inning race between four dudes dressed as different types of salmon? And this is how many years after Milwaukee was doing brat battles?

After the game, I listened to the latest Poscast and their 98.6% accurate predictions, in which Joe, again, said the Mariners would win the division. Then this admission: “I just want it so badly. I might not even be thinking straight, but I want Julio to win the MVP, I just want that team to be great.” Yes, it's pretty to think so.

Yesterday, the Seattle Mariners were eliminated on the second-to-last game of the season, and I watched most of it because it was on network TV. I'd watched nothing of the two previous very exciting games (a walk-off two-run double from J.P. Crawford and an 8-0 win capped by a grand slam from J.P. Crawford) since they were on cable, and who has cable in 2023? One of these days I'll set up a VPN yadda yadda so I can watch the baseball games Major League Baseball won't let me watch—won't let me pay to watch—unless, of course, I pay an exorbitant sum like $90 a month. To recap: The entire MLB package is about $30 a month but of course the Mariners are blacked out in Seattle, so I'd need a special streaming service which costs like $90 per month to see those games. I refuse. But if I just VPNed it with a different zip code I'd be good. Next year. Wait till next year. 

Anyway, it was interesting seeing the Mariners on big-screen TV—“Oh, so that's what Sam Haggerty looks like”—but mostly it was just depressing. Luis Castillo's slider kept sliding out of the strike zone, tempting no one, and in the 3rd, the second time through the order, he gave up a leadoff walk to Marcus Semien, then got Seager to fly out and Grossman to strike out ... and that was his last out of the 2023 season. After that, nickel and diming. An infield roller to third that Eugenio Suarez made a nice one-handed play on but safe. Single up the middle to plate a run, a walk to reload the bases, a single to right, a single to right, then another walk to reload the bases, and that was it for Luis. We brought in Matt Brash to face Semien again, and, as they say, Brash got his man: a line shot to right that Dylan Moore made a beautiful Superman catch on, which mercifully ended the inning.

We had a chance in the 5th. Single, fly out, single, and then it was J.P. again, down 5-0, but he blooped one into center right and slammed his bat in frustration. Except it was perfectly placed: second base, right field and center field all converged and missed, and Siemen kind of hurt himself in the tumble, and it reminded me of J.P.'s hit last October in our incredible victory against the Blue Jays. Could it happen again? It couldn't. Julio, who's been lax in September, hit a 1-0 can-of-corn to left, then Gino grounded out and there went the season. We got two more hits: A two-out Kelenic single in the 6th and a Gino solo shot in the 8th, but mostly we went without a struggle, 6-1. I missed the very end, opting to see the 1977 movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” at SIFF Egyptian.

Joe Posnanski, who, in March, threw caution to the wind and predicted a Mariners pennant, summed it up thus:

And the Mariners' roller coaster season, which looked so blah (they had a losing record on July 15) and then looked so promising (they were in first place for 11 lovely days in late August and early September) will now end. If they were in the American League Central, they would have clinched the division title days ago. If they were in the National League, they would be the No. 2 wild card. But they are neither of those things, and if my dog could talk, I'd be a TV star.

I think Joe means if the Mariners were in the AL Central without the Twins, since the two teams have identical records, but otherwise yes. Once again we have the best record for any team not going to the postseason—and a better record than a few going:

Cold comfort. In a way, it's amazing we did as well as we did. Not much of a fan of the manager, Scott Servais, and while I like our young core lineup (Julio, Cal, J.P.), overall the Mariners strike out too much, are a bit streaky, and the role players don't play enough of a role. We have too many role players and need better ones. Next year. Wait till next year.

A friend offered us three free tickets to the Mariners game today, and we got rooked.

We sat in the sun in the left-field bleachers, row 2, good seats, but I've never been much of a bleacher bum and age 60 is the wrong time to start. I squinted a lot and didn't always pick up the ball. Neither did the Mariners. It was the third game of a three-game series with the Dodgers and we were trying to avoid the sweep. Their lineup suggested they were, too. It was their B squad, the getaway game group. No Mookie, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy or Will Smith. It was LA saying, “We'll take ya with one hands tied behind our backs!”

And they did.

We had our third-best pitcher on the mound, Logan Gilbert, and they went the opener route: Shelby Miller pitched an inning, then Ryan Yarbrough for 4.2, then a kid named Gavin Stone for the rest. Logan gave up a first-inning solo shot to Jason Heyward and Jarred Kelenic dropped a ball, Charlie Brown style, in the left-field corner, but at least it didn't do any damage. Plus J.P. Crawford led off our half with a double. HERE WE COME! And there we go: pop out, strikeout, line out. In the top of the second, they scored three more. Bottom two, with one out, Gino walked, Mike Ford singled and Ty France singled. Speed on the basepaths! Ah, but Rojas struck out. But wait! Single from J.P. to plate a run! And we had Julio up with the bases juiced!

And he grounded out to the pitcher.

That was pretty much it. That was our shot. The final was 6-1, Dodgers. 

Again, the Dodgers didn't start their four best hitters and put second-hand goods on the mound, and they still clobbered us. Gavin Stone has pitched seven games this year and in terms of earned runs has given up: 4, 5, 7, 1, 4, 7. Against us, on this day, he pitched 3.1, gave up one hit and zero runs. Zero. He had an ERA over 10 when he showed up and now I think it's south of that. He got his first save. Way to go, kid.

On the way home, I complimented my wife on how gungho she was during the game. 

“I don't feel gungho now. I feel dispirited.” 

“You know that makes you?”

“What?”

“A Mariners' fan. Welcome to the party, pal.”

The M's touted Julio's 4-hit streak pre-game, announced him in the starting lineup, but he wasn't there. 

Is it me? I'm beginning to think it's me. 

The last game I'd gone to was the infamous Felix game, where they inducted King Felix Hernandez into the Mariners Hall of Fame and then truly honored his Mariners career by scoring zero runs, wasting a great start by George Kirby, and losing 1-0 in 10 innings. 

They wound up losing the next two games, too, including one against a not-good KC squad; but after that they went on a truly blistering hot streak, winning 12 of the next 13, with Julio Rodriguez setting a MLB record with 17 hits over a four-game stretch. He was suddenly everything we'd hope he'd be. For August, he's slashed a .429/.474/.724 line, and was national news, and the Mariners, who had been creeping toward a wild-card spot, were taking the '95 Buhner approach and saying screw the wild card, we want the division. And they TOOK it. They leaped past both Texas teams and it felt a bit like '95 again. PLUS, in last night's game, we were starting George Kirby, our No. 2 and maybe even No. 1 pitcher. PLUS we were playing the Oakland Athletics, who, at 38-94, were not just the worst team in baseball but one of the worst teams in basebally history. PLUS they were starting a guy with an ERA over 6.00! So I was feeling about as confident as I've ever felt about a Mariners game as I walked to the park last night in the pregame drizzle.

And then I see our starting pitcher. “Wait, that's not George Kirby. Where's George Kirby?”

“Out,” Jeff said. “Undisclosed illness.” 

“And this is...?”

“Luke Weaver.”

“Who is...?”

“Some callup, I think.” 

[Editor's note: We picked him up August 22, a few days after he was released by the Cincinnati Reds, and since then he'd pitched three innings in relief, giving up 1 run. But for the season his ERA was over 6.00.]

They hit him early and often. Even the outs were tagged. One of them went to the warning track but our centerfielder settled under it.

“Wait, that's not Julio. Didn't they announce Julio was starting?” I looked at the scoreboard. Eugenio Suarez was batting second. No Julio. “Where's Julio? What happened?” 

Jeff got out his phone and went to a Lookout Landing thread. Sore left foot. And suddenly, without George and Julio, our mighty team didn't seem so mighty. After two innings it was 3-0, A's, and we were lucky it was only 3-0. We didn't get our first hit until the the bottom of the 4th, a leadoff single by Teoscar Hernandez. Then we mixed in some outs with some walks. Then Cade Marlowe walked with the bases loaded for a run. Then Jose Caballero popped to short for the third out.

And that, it turned out, was the ballgame. 

The A's kept bringing in pitchers with ERAs over 5.00 and we kept doing nothing with them. We didn't get our second hit until the bottom of the 8th—an infield single from Mike Ford. We didn't get our third hit until the bottom of the ninth with two outs—a bloop single to right by Jose (Who?) Rojas. Then J.P. Crawford followed with a double to left and the place was on its feet. A base hit would tie it! A homerun would win it! All would be right with the world again!

And on the seventh pitch Eugenio Suarez struck out. And there went the game and the recent 4-game win streak. 

It's me, isn't it?

Final sad note: Last night is probably the last time I get to see the Oakland A's, the team that ruled the baseball world with their long hair and staches when I was a kid. Next season they're supposedly moving to Las Vegas to play in a dinky stadium in 110-degree heat before hungover gambling tourists. The national pastime. Somewhere, Shoeless Joe is spinning in his grave.