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.