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A season of watching major league baseball, one team, the 2019 Seattle Mariners at least, left some deep impressions.

I've loved the game in it first entered my consciousness, which, my earliest memory suggests was when I was nine, Willie Mays' over-the-shoulder catch in the 1954 World Series.  Since then, surely since the 1958 arrival of the Brooklyn Dodgers, in Los Angeles, much of my life has been lived with baseball as a consistent and continuing background.  It is as deeply rooted in who I am as my fanily heritage, religious faith and political affiliation.

I wondered what how an intense look at the game would impact me, in what would become my 74th year, 

I still love it.  There's more there than I realized.  My 65 years of adoration have not been wasted.  And I look forward with great anticipation to the whatever seasons I have left.

I hear the criticisms: the slow-pace of the game, the greedy owners and narcissistic players, the juiced balls, the obsession with analytics.  I even agree with them, although none strongly.  Maybe because when I took a long look at this past season, at least for one team, I saw much more than the speed of the game and the corrosiveness of free-agency.

Maybe because I came to (and into) the game when I was young, the vestiges of first-blush love are still there.  And the basic joy of playing catch with a son or daughter, so perfectly captured in Field of Dreams, is always present, just below the surface.  Maybe these earlier experiences immunize me from the gloom and doom I hear frequently expressed about the game.  And maybe, in the end, I don't care where MLB falls within the media ratings war.  I'm not sure I care if the game survives.  I'm not a big believer in the eternal existence of anything not divine.

I do know the impact the game has had on me and I am confident humans are sufficiently creative and intelligent to invent new ways to experience the joys of common social experience and carefully choreographed play that baseball has provided me.

The many layers of the game still fascinate me and this close-look through the 2019 taught me a lot.  I see more, understand better, the game at the pitch-by-pitch level.  I don’t think this idea that baseball can be seen, understood, enjoyed in terms of a game-inside-a-game-inside-a-game is unique.  Any game, certainly a team sport, can be appreciated from one level of abstraction to the next, but for me these new revelations have been the real joy of the work.

Finally, I appreciate those of you who joined me on this journey.  It was hard on all of us, but we made it through the season.

Time to look at the calendar for the February date in 2019 for pitchers and catchers to report to spring training.  I'll see you then.

189 posts later

I'll keep this blog open and make an occasional post when the need moves me and I may continue daily reports when spring training begins in February, but for now I'm taking a break from the daily affairs of the Seattle Mariners.

And I'm ready to step back from the team for awhile.  I'm tired, not physically, but attentively and not about the game...I am casually watching the playoffs and, depending on the contenders, plan to follow the World Series with real interest.  But I'm tired of the 2019 Seattle Mariners.

Not that there isn't plenty to talk about.  The team is still in the midst of a major rebuild and there's a lot left to do.  My concluding batting and pitching summaries list what I think the Ms should attend to.  I'm sure Dipoto has his own list and it's probably much longer than mine... let's hope so.

I do need, at the end of this run, to comment about the experience of doing this.  My motivation for focusing on the Ms this season came from dual sources.  First, I wanted to follow a single team through a full season, game by game.  Informally I'd done this all my life, starting with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958, through to the Mariners today.  I wanted to try this with more focus, greater  discipline.

My other motivation was to recreate, as much as I could, the life of a beat writer.  I'd started out to be a journalist in high school.  My career wandered into academia, but part of me still feels like a sportswriter.  I wanted to see what it really felt like to do it as a job.  Obviously there were many differences in the way I covered the Ms from my armchair than the stalwarts who really do this work professionally.  But I got enough of s taste to understand  what the full meal must be like.

So how was it?  What did I learn?  Any surprises?

The beat writer's experience first.  It was work.  No surprise there.  I always known writing was work, but it something I've always enjoyed doing and l'm lucky it comes easily for me.  Not necessarily well or gracefully written, but I can convert thoughts to words on paper quickly, efficiently.  And it was never hard to find a subject.  Indeed, there was plenty more for me to write about than I had time.

I think you could fairly criticize my coverage of team for jumping around, lacking focus.  I wrote whatever came to my mind that morning... a player profile here, a game recap there, an occasional autobiographical piece, a few commentaries on the game.  No real theme, not much focus, but I did keep it about the Ms.  And I did discover, to my surprise, something of an editorial voice which increasingly came down against "bad baseball," which this team offered in abundance in 2019.

Paying close attention to the awful pitches, at bats, plays and games were the hardiest part of the job.  During the worst stretch of the season I just couldn't write about it any more.  To do continue to write about the poor play was boring to do and even more tedious to read.  Worse it became truly depressing. Kathleen will tell you, much to her consternation, my mood will swing with Mariner and Seahawk games... up with a win, down with a loss.  I simply could not separate my general state of mind from the success of the team.

Around mid-August I began to cheat on my roleplay.  I stopped writing after every game.  I simply lacked the appetite or interest in writing about something so badly flawed and unsatisfying.  I could barely watch it, much less find any new to say about the mindless base-running or the pitching decisions that defied commonsense.

My admiration for everyone on the broadcast team only rose as the season slowly fell apart.  Maybe all this poor play advanced Dipoto's process of reimagination, it certainly put to test the ability of Rizz, Sims, Blowers, Hill, Goldsmith and the ex-Ms who added color in the booth along with the folks in the studio and ballpark who handled pre and post game stuff.  I marvelled how they keep me interested in something so fundamentally frustrating.

And I must admit, that I operated without some of the disadvantaged the media covering the team faced on a regular basis.  My exercise lacked many of the unpleasant realities of being a real beat reporter.  I wasn't on the road half the time, I had no pressure of a hard deadline, I didn't need to meet an editor’s stylistic or subject matter expectations.

I did learn that my regard for the folks who actually do this professionally is well placed.  The labor of writing (or broadcasting) on a daily business wasn't that hard for me or, I suspect, for them.  What is hard and what they do consummately well is survive the grind with the all-encompassing nature of the team and the endless stream of personal and team ups-and-downs the game presents.

As for my experience watching the game so closely... watch this space.  I'll post my reflections in the next day or two.

So, in the end...

Probably 40 games into the season I began to wonder if choosing 2019 was the worst or best year to chronicle the Mariners in a blog.  I had wanted to do this since I was a kid, follow one team through every game, starting with the first in spring training all the way to, it was hoped, the last out of the World Series.  And I did, although the last out came with game 162... no post-season games for a team that struggled to record just 68 wins, 13 shy of break-even, 19 short of the wildcard, 39 back of the  division-leading Houston Astros.  A long season with many more losses than wins.

Now, here at the end I'm still not sure if my choice wasn't remarkably wise or dumb.  Clearly 2019 will go down as the end of one era (Cano, Cruz and Hernandez) and the beginning of... .  Of?  What? Something started this year.  I have no idea what it will become or where it will end.  I do know I decided to follow  a team through a season that marked, at least, a rebuilding, at most, what GM Jerry Dipoto has called, a reimagining.

So?  How did it turn out?  No question this was a new team.  The 2018 Ms, winners of 89 games, just 8 short of the wildcard, performed much better than their 2019 brothers.  But most of them were gone by the middle of this season.  Only ten of the players on the 40-man roster played for the Ms in 2018.  The slate was pretty much wiped clean.  Indeed, during the course of this season another 27 players were listed on the 40-man roster.  They were traded or waived or sent back to the minors or released outright... that's 27 players, a full team in its own regard.

Except for September teams only have 25 players on their active roster.  That means 2019 provided the opportunity to follow 67 players, nearly three teamfuls.  Give me a break.  Looking back over the list I barely recognize some of them.  And, to tell the truth, at some point I pretty much stopped caring.  If they didn't make an immediate good impression, they were gone in my mind (as they were soon enough in reality).

But some stuck and some, like Crawford and Nola, did the kind of things that make me love the game and those who work so hard to master it.  I'm a sucker for line-drive hitters.  I can't get enough of them.

I waited this long to write my last piece about the team (there's one more autobiographical piece in the waiting) because I wanted to read what the rest of my more learned colleagues had to say.  Having reviewed their conclusions, all in high agreeance, I'm confident I saw what they saw.  An ugly season of rebuilding with lots of unfinished business.  Too early to tell if Dipoto has collected the right pieces.  More rebuilding next year with hopes for greater progress.

It would have been great to see more things fall in place.

A couple of other reflections.  Following this team so closely caused me to learn some things about the game.  I expounded on them at the time, I won't bore you again.  But the power of strikes and the damage of balls really caught my attention.  And the impact of opportunities, lost, taken, given or received, right down to a specific pitch in a particular at-bat, caused me to see the game differently.  And to respect pitchers, hitters, fielders and base-runners in a new light.

I am an analytics guy, a follower of Bill James before the word sabremetrics was coined.  But this season's long intimate look at the game left me less impressed with the numbers than with the moments.  It is a given player's reaction in that moment that left the deepest impressions.  And my favorite moment this season?

Dylan Moore provided it.  And I bet if you watched Felix' last game you remember it, too.  Felix was, once again, struggling.  Behind in the score, pitch count mounting, runners in scoring position.  The inevitable and ugly end just peeking over the outfield fence.  The batter hits the ball sharply on a line to left-center... where Moore is filling in as he has at almost every position this year..  The same Moore who made four errors at third in one inning earlier in the season.

Moore takes off, tracking the ball.  He's running hard to his left, following the flight of the drive over his right shoulder.  It's a race.  The ball looks headed for the gap, a sure run-scoring double.  He and the ball converge, his glove poised in front of his face turned sideways.  He bends back.  He's over-run it.  The ball is actually headed behind him.

Still running full speed, he bends backwards, stretching out with his backhanded glove, his arm across his face.

He makes the catch.  He saves Felix' inning.  Dylan Moore is a baseball player.

Batting wrap up

Getting a finger on Mariner hitting is 2019 because they really put up three general offenses.  In the early season the team was all about veteran power.  Then the trades came and they started shedding those older power hitters like Encarnacion and Bruce, relying on new power from Vogelbach.  By the end of season the line up was almost totally new faces.  Add to that injury distorted everything: Seager missed most of the first half of the year, then Haniger missed over half of the backend and, except for the first quarter, Ryon Healy was gone.  Both Gordon and Santana pulled IR stretches, too.
I'm not sure I ever saw a line-up that looked anything like what's hoped gor in 2020.

What we did see was streakiness.  A string of games marked by explosive power, followed by another bunch where they were shut out if not totally shut down.  They were no-hit twice and just missed a season-record breaking third.  The first part of the year they did break records for the most home runs to start the season.  Patterns for sure, but a week of slugfests would be followed by a week of low scoring contests.  Over and over.

So, I'm not sure what the M's have for hitting. Depends on the week I guess.  But here's a closer look at batters starting kind of, in order Servais set on through September.

Lead off:  Shed Long.  Seems to be getting stronger as he works through each challenge.  GOT ood contact line drive hitter, even has some power.  I just don't know about leading off... OBP of .333 not all that impressive, but if Mallex is batting ninth, maybe that's the real top of the line-up as you work through the game.  He's aggressive and confident.  Works for me.

In the two-hole: J.P. Crawford.  He needs to get that BA above .226.  He is impressive with his composure at the plate... just an amazing level of concentration.  Again line drives all over, some power.  A project, but he has a lot of potential.

In third spot right now, Austin Nola, but I expect when he comes back from his injury I expect qnd want to see Mitch Haniger here.  Before he got hurt Haniger, another line-drive hitter with power this time, was having an off season with a low average and lots of strike outs.  He's not a .220 hitter.  I think he was pressing.  Dipoto put a lot on his shoulders when he tapped Mitch (and Marco) as the models for the future.  That's a lot to take on, especially when he's asked to do what Cano and Nelly did in seasons past.  I think he tried to do too much and that affected his patience at the plate.  Average dropped 65 points, OBP 52.  I expect his future to look more like 2018 than '19.

Kyle Seager ended batting at clean-up, a no-brainer given the August he had.  His extra-hot bat cooled some in September, but he's still legit in the fout-hole.  The shift means nothing on fly balls. And he seems to be adjusting to the shift.  He missed the first part of the season after an promising spring, restarted cold, exploded, then shifted into normal. He's always been streaky good. Can he be the heart of the line-up?  We'll see.  His contract makes trading him unlikely, his glove is still golden. Let's hope he can be the guy.

If he isn't, Domingo Santana or Daniel Vogelbach seem most disposed to bat fourth, probably as designated hitters.  If not as clean-up hitters either is likely to bat fifth or sixth.  Santana has legit power and drove in so many runs during the first half of the season, he was, for awhile number two in the league in ribbies, then he cooled off and got injured.  Vogie hit mammoth homers up to his selection to the All-Star squad, then he went stone cold for two months.  These guys feel like a lot of unsolved problems.

More likely at fifth is catcher Omar Narvaez or, much to everyone's surprise his back-up, Tom Murphy, or to even more people's surprise, his back-up, minor league vet, Austin Nola.  All three can hit and they all have some power, Nola turned out to be a versatile sub at first-base.  I think he finally got above the radar, albeit late in his career, and could be a handy plug-in tool next year.

Then, except for Dee Gordon, who I am sure will be traded before spring training, there are a bunch of prospects who have shown hope, but not enough long enough to raise hopes a lot.  Interestingly, each did things here and there, but for now Kyle Lewis, despite his dramatic start with six homers in eight games, Brandon Brennan, Tim Lopes, Jake Fraley, Donny Walton and Kevon Broxton all kind of look like the same guy.

Two who don't?  Mallex Smith.  Batting first or ninth, he gets on base and runs well... when he is thinking.  And super-sub Dylan Moore.

I find it hard to conclude much about the Mariners hitting: inconsistent, streaky, some power when it's there, no runs when it isn't.  Vulnerable to front line pitching.

This team needs maturity born of experience and lots of ABs.  I look for next season to be a lot like this one just concluded but with progress and, in cases like Vogelbach, Santana and Healy, some resolution.

Pitching wrap-up

Some promising, much dreadful would be a fair summary of the Mariner's pitching over the 2019 season.  More promise from the starters than the horror presented by all but a couple of relievers.

I've recently written at length about the fine season Marco Gonzalez put together, I won't repeat myself.  He's good and only looks to get better.  And while he is undeniably a leader, I'm not convinced he's an ace.  He's not overpowering or intimidating.  He's smart, wily; he has an arsenal of deceiving pitches, but he doesn't blow anyone away.  He's much more Jamie Moyer, not Randy Johnson.  That's good, with a better bullpen and a little more offense he could have won twenty this year and should next.

Who's #2?  That's the question.  Kikuchi looked like the guy, but he had such an inconsistent season I'm keeping my expectations in check for 2020.  There are lots of theories that try to reconcile a couple of stellar starts with a bunch of stinkers.  Maybe they're all right.  My suspicion since early in the season has been that Paul Davis was the wrong pitching coach to help Yusei make this transition.  He needed a pitching dad, not an analytical college professor.

Felix?  Sorry but he's finished and gone.  Sad, but an inevitable part of the game.  At least it ended well and the organization and fans gave him the grateful send-off he earnec.

Leake?  I'd bring him back in a heartbeat.  A terrific #3, no more, no less.  Out-Moyered Moyer.

Leblanc and Milone deserve thanks for their dependable service.  They are average, very average back of the rotation pitchers.  I don't expect much from either next season.

The new starters, Sheffield and Dunne.  Both showed them good stuff.  Now they need a season of development and all that implies as they discipline their talent to learn how to be frontline starters.  On a limited basis they showed some good stuff.  Sheffield's slider is naaaaassssty.  They aren't ready yet, who knows that they ever will be?  But they are on the right track.

Relievers?  Tuivailala, Altavilla, McClain, Adams, Guilbeau, Brennan, Swanson maybe Magill and Bass, by the end of the season started to look like a real bullpen.  The rest better forgotten.

It's all over

Well, the Mariner's season, at least.  It's too early for my end-of-season really round-up.  I need a couple of days to lay out my final conclusions.  Don't worry, I will.

For now, it's satisfying to look back over my shoulder and reflect, with some, wonder at the significance at a full season taken as a whole.  However it turns out a season is a remarkable thing snd no two are alike.  Even if you started all over again, with exactly the same players, it wouldn't be the same.  It can't be repeated.

That's the wonderful part of it.  Every season is unique.  A set of an events that can never be, will never be, exactly repeated.  For better or worse, the Ms 2019 season is like none that preceded it and any that will will ever follow.

And that is the wonder of it.  We will never see this season again. There may be, let's hope not, some like it, but this odd combination of Vogie and Mallex and Marco, even if they all come back together next season cannot repeat what we just experienced.

Look back.  You'll never see this again.

The last game

I never thought it would be otherwise, but coming to the end of the 2019 season and knowing it's over for the M's, that other teams will play on into October, arrives with a sense of sadness and loss.  94 losses to be exact.  If we watch, and we will because baseball is in our blood, we'll have to see our rivals, the A's and 'stro's play on.  Indeed, I expect to see Houston go all the way.  Their fans went through three seasons of what we just experienced not long ago.  They know the humiliation of 100 gamed lost.  Three of them!  Less than ten years ago.    Believe me, they earned their current success.

So after this afternoon the competitive side of Seattle's operations shuts down for a few months.  I can feel the chill of winter setting in already.  I'm sure of GM Jerry Dipoto will be active in the off-season, there are still plenty of holes to fill, especially in the starting rotation.  I fully expect to see some of the more veteran players I've followed this year fed into the system of trades and waivers.  Best bets to go, sadly, Dee Gordon, Austin Nola, Santana, Leblanc, Tom Murphy, maybe even Vogie.

Sometime in February thoughts, hopes, for the 2020 season will replace the frustrations of this one that ends today.  The game, like life, follows an inevitable cycle, paralleling the seasons, from spring-like renewal through to the slowing days of autumn.  And then, like today, the end.

One more game for us, then farewell to the various memories of 2019 and the breathless prospects of 2020.  I like even-numbered years... or the ones that end in 5.

Marco's turn

Marco Gonzalez' last two starts have been superb, ace written all over them.  14 innings, four runs... unfortunately two losses.  M's offense fell asleep on him both times.  Indeed, his last four starts were all strong, 28 innings, 5 runs.  Yes, that's a 1.60 ERA.

He showed a lot this season and lived up to Dipoto’s expectation as a model for the new Ms.  There were a couple of down moments, a particularly immature midseason meltdown over an ump's bad call that set up a loss, but he apologized for that and settled down and acted like the leader his team needs the rest of the way.

He could have easily notched 20 wins.  Six of his losses were by one-run.  He's not over-powering, but he mixes up his pitches and gets the job done.  He's young to be a veteran, but on this team he is.  This was an important season for him, a time when he was asked to step up, not just as the head of the rotation but as a team leader.  He did just that.

Job well done!

Farewell Felix

Watching Felix' last Mariner game, much like viewing Ichiro's retirement, touched me emotionally.  Win or lose, these players become part of the team's identity and their achievements, over the long haul, provide parallel and supportive narratives to that of the team itself.  The history of the Mariners is inextricably bound up with the unfolding career of any of its players, especially true in the case of Felix.

And Felix went out of his way to invite the fans along on the ride, expressing his emotions openly and freely.  The King's Court, that yellow-shirted section (last night several sections along the left-field line) reacted, as Hernandez did, to each strike, ball, hit and out... most particularly his strikeouts.

Last night Felix prompted tears, laughter, tears and an evening full of sentimentality.

It was something to see him point to the King's Court in acknowledgement of each of his Ks, a most uncharacteristic gesture to fans rarely seen in professional sports, even for Felix.  The mutual love was there for all to see.

I've written about this before: Felix was kind of a hard-luck pitcher.  He had 180+ quality starts but around 50 wins to show for it.  Never enough run support to get him a lead after he had given up only two runs over seven innings.  Too bad, really.

And last night, despite the sentiment and energy, was actually no different.  He struggled a little and gave up three... another home run... the M's pushed across only one.  He walked off the field carrying one more loss in his back pocket.

Is he done?  Probably not.  Odds are some team will invite him to spring training.  I hope he passes up on the opportunity and retires.  He just isn't the pitcher he was and age and I suspect a degree of stubbornness preclude a renaissance.

He did and accomplished much.  Being just one of 24 to pitch a perfect game is a historic achievement. Thanks for the contribution, the effort and the memories.

The last (home) stand

The hitting woes that started in Baltimore continued into the first game of the Mariners final homestand of the season.  Houston's Derrick Cole is a terrific pitcher and he was calibrated for the post-season soon to come.  He just overpowered the Ms.

One note.  Mallex Smith is beginning to win me over.  He has speed and he's learning how to use it.  I've seen an intensity in him that is impressive and I've watched him work hard all season to improve.  He might fit into the reimagined Ms roster.

Another cup of that yummy Kool-Aid please

Marco looked pretty good shutting out Pittsburgh over seven innings.  No walks!  A 6-0 win, nicely done.

Homer galore.  Think back to the beginning of the season, would you have expected the sluggers to be Narvaez, Nola and Long?  Narvaez?  Maybe.  Long?  That little guy in the swim goggles?  I don't know.  Nola?  Who?

No errors.  No caught stealing,  but Narvy shoots down two of theirs.

Then Tui and MacClain shut the door decisively.

Tui has a 1.86 ERA.  Narvaez has 22 home runs, Nola ten!

And if Lewis had to strike out four times... and we knew he would... this was the game to do it.

A lot to like here.  Much to think about when the future comes.

Sunshine through September showers

If back-to-back walk off wins can't get you excited about the Mariners next season, nothing will.  But the most encouraging thing was Sheffield's start.  I know, he fell apart in the fifth after an error behind him, but up til then he looked good, really good, throwing ace stuff, one of the nastiest sliders I've ever seen.  It's clear he's learning and he got a lot to learn, but the signs are positive.  He has something special.

2020 Spring Training comes early

The last two games, losses to the Reds and White Sox, by big scores, 11 to 5 and 9 to 7, feel different, not that there isn't a lot of resemblance to the previous 86 clobberings the Ms have been given and the fans have endured this season.  There have been the usual bullpen meltdowns and another puzzling start where Yusei just can't get the car in gear.

Maybe it's all the faces and the faint whiff of spring, even as the very first Pacific Northwest autumn rains mark the end of summer.  Even those rains seem unfamiliar, accompanied by the flash and bang of thunder and lightning rarely seen in this reason.  I'm not sure about some of the pitchers, but there were probably a dozen rookies who hit of threw for the M's last night.

This is not last year's line-up.  This isn't even last April’s.  And, if Dipoto's vision for a whole new team is sound, the difference in the line-ups is encouraging news, truly prospects of better things to come.   And our vigilant appraisal of minor-league seasons in Tacoma, Modesto and far flung Alabama (Go Nuts!) suggest even more pleasant surprises over the next couple of seasons.

Okay, okay, I know I'm letting the hot hitting of Kyle Lewis cloud my judgment. I know big league pitchers will soon enough figure out Lewis and have him swinging as wildly and missing as Daniel Vogelbach.  But maybe, just maybe, Vogie and Kikuchi will figure it out and a host of talented Mariner pitchers and hitters will flood the line-up... so many of them that opposing teams will have to constantly scramble to keep up with the parade of fresh, eager players.

I don't miss Zunino of Beckham at all, or Encarnacion  or any of the others, even Cano (maybe Nellie a little), not when I can watch Shed and JP, Kyle and Dylan, or even Narvaez and Murphy.  Maybe a full moon Friday the 13th is omen of good things to come.

Of course

Two words...  Kyle Lewis.  One more word, wow!

Lollipops, rainbows and unicorns... right here!

Maybe, just maybe, the payoffs from the Dipoto led and inspired rebuilding of the Seattle Mariners was seen in last night's victory against the Cincinnati Reds.  Maybe.

This season has seen a lot of major league debuts, but I've really looked forward to Kyle Lewis.  He lived up to the hype.  He hit the ball hard in a groundout in his first at bat, then blasted a home run to left-center for his first hit ever.  He looked comfortable at the plate, less so in the field, but altogether a symbolic and encouraging start.  Only makes me more excited to see Kellenic, J-Rod and Evan White.  Maybe.

Less maybe, more probably, Justus Sheffield made his fourth start and pitched well.  This kid has an mlb slider and he gave up one run in six strong innings.   Each time he looks a little better and it's speculating how high his ceiling may be.  Here's hoping Dunn, who should pitch soon, is just as good.

Ah c'mon

When I decided to use this blog to follow the M's through a whole season I never anticipated things would get so bad I would lose any appetite for writing about something I've loved following since my early teens.  But yesterday's game finally exhausted any desire to report on these Mariners.

Houston's four game series sweep was bad enough.  But the last game, the final of a ten game roadtrip that yielded exactly one Seattle victory, was the worst... historically so.  The 21 to 1 difference was the biggest loss the M's have ever suffered.  On top of that they were held to one hit, for the second time this season (after getting no-hit twice).  

The whole team just collapsed, hitting and pitching, all at once, altogether.  It's probably fitting that the total collapse began with Felix on the mound, his late career comeback pretty much failed.  He never got out of the third and, if I counted correctly, five doubles, a walk and a hit batsman before he and Servais threw in the towel.

Just a disaster. I need time to recover.

September Blues

The trip to Houston has started with two disappointing games and the Ms haven’t even faced Justin Verlander yet.  Verlander, who is making his first start since pitching a no-hitter, must be licking his chops to go after the Mariners who have already been the victim of two no-hit games.

It could be a chore for Verlander, since arriving in Houston the Mariners offense seems to have awakened.  This revival, however, has been accompanied by a simultaneous collapse in the pitching. The first two games have seen encouraging first-inning leads quickly erased.

There's no way around the conclusion that this team is hard to root for.  Dipoto's strategy for reimagining the Ms is just another was of extending spring training through a full season of interchangeable players, many easily forgotten after their brief moment in the spotlight.  A series of meaningless games everyone of them full of lots of learning opportunities but none of them having an significance in the overall scheme of things.

So this has become a season of moments, some significant and remarkable, others, many, hardly worth notice or memory.  And that's what it was last night: Vogie's 30th homer to the opposite field.  The night before Kyle Seager became the first M to hit twenty home runs in eight consecutive seasons.  Good stuff, but just a few tasty nuggets in a really watery stew.

Kind of discouraging

I hope these new reimagined Mariners are learning from their mistakes, because there are plenty of them.  For awhile, blessedly, the blown saves, careless base-running, errant throws and poor pitching decisions had diminished, but the start of the ill-fated Yankee series, saw the return on bad baseball.

Yesterday's loss to the Cubs took a well-pitched Justus Sheffield game (he knows how to pitch) into another bullpen disaster.  Sorry for the pissy mood, but I just didn't want to see it.  A corollary to the test for insanity of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a new result is watching the same plot unfold and imagining a late inning big run rally.  It ain't gonna happen.

One more game with Chicago, then back to Texas for a four game set with Houston.  Time to get it back on track.

Now the fun begins

Not that the game lacks for daily surprises, in the next few days major league baseball's equivalent to Christmas presents under the tree will unfold, as "September callup-ups" flood the team rosters with new players invited to join the "big" club now that minor league play is finished.  Since most teams are well out of play-off contention fan attention will shift to evaluating the quality of these new players, most getting their shot in the majors for the first time.

As hard as I try I cannot recall a single remarkable September call-up in a life time of following, first, the Los Angeles Dodgers, second, the Ms.  I'm sure I have seen some, but the memory of none sticks... which probably tells you how seriously I take a look at these prospects.

For me, September baseball, except for contending teams, is only slight more real than spring training.  I just don't trust the numbers and for good reason: seeing a AAA batter go against a AA pitcher in a major league ballpark doesn't tell you much, except for how a player handles pressure.

Of course, this season for the Ms has felt like endless September as one new player after another has flooded (flushed?) through Seattle.

......

The split of a four-game series in Texas showed some good things.  Except for a blown save loss they could have taken three of four from the Rangers and had they avoided some base-running errors it would have been a good showing and bounce-back after the pasting by the Yankees.

Off to Wrigley for a two-game set.

Forget it Jake, it's the Yankees

I've chosen to rewrite the cynical last line of Chinatown to reflect the inevitable frustration the M's face when ever they face the New York Yankees.  Maybe it's payback for the Mariners amazing comeback in the 1995 playoffs against NY.  It seems like the Yankees just pick apart Seattle like vultures tearing through their prey.

What had been four encouraging series prior to this one, the Yankees came into town, grabbed an early lead and held it in the first game and coasted to a win in the second behind the surgically precise pitching of Masahiro Tanaka (who gave a master lesson to his countryman, Yusei Kikuchi, who returned to grooving home run balls.

22 strikeouts in two games probably didn't help either, along with getting just two hit in 15 opportunities with runners in scoring position.  

Revenge game today: Paxton returns to face his former team and to pitch against the guy he was traded for, Sheffield.  The season just grinds on.

Felix gets left behind again

Felix' return to the mound after a couple of months rehabbing on the IL went quite well.  He made it deep into the 5th, gave up only two runs on three hits.  He's not the same power-pitcher he was and, finally, seems to recognize that changing up his pitches and relying on his breaking ball are what he needs to do in the latter stage of his career.

But the real story is how the game ended.  He left with a three run lead, only to watch the bullpen blow it, leaving him with a no decision and the M's with a loss.  His whole career with the Mariners was encapsulated in this one game.  Whatever unlucky star he was born under sentenced him to pitch for a team that, for years, couldn't score runs for him and wasn't able to hold leads.

As he left the mound, to a deserved standing O, I'm sure his thoughts were the same as the 414 starts he made: "I gave it my all, that's all I can do."  That thinking it what has caused such fan support for the King.  He just worked so damn hard for his team and the fans of Seattle and he couldn't get the wins.

In the last couple of seasons his popularity waned, probably because he seemed to resist making the changes in his pitching style as the velo and effectiveness of his fastball declined.  He seemed stubborn and petulant last year, reluctant to try pitching out of the bullpen.  That's too bad, because, at his best, he is up there with Seattle's top pitchers ever, Randy Johnson, Jamie Moyer and Mark Langston.

A most welcome homecoming

Last night's big story was supposed to be the first major league start for Justus Sheffield, but some potent and relentless hitting and all around good play, much of it from the newer Ms, stole the headlines.

Sheffield didn't look great, but more importantly, he didn't look bad. He gave up two runs on four hits in the first inning, but he wasn't hit hard.  Two line drives and two ground ball singles, but nothing to the fence.  It took nearly 40 pitches, but he worked through it and stopped the bleeding with a strike out.  There's no give in this kid.  He kept his composure and got through it.  He gave up one more run over the next three innings and bounced back to show command of his pitches.

Meanwhile, the team just picked up hits and, thanks to Toronto's own feeble bullpen, eight walks.  And they scored runs, despite batting a frustrating 1 for 18 with runners in scoring position, leaving 13 on base.  But they were getting on base and six different Ms scored the winning 7 runs.  Again, relative unknowns like Crawford, Nola, Lopes and, in his second game, Fraley, added to the offensive attack led by the veterans Seager, Narvaez and Gordon.

Five innings of one-run relief by a swarm of relievers surely helped, too.  

The crowd, full of visiting Blue Jay fans was disappointed, but the small cluster of local Ms loyalists were happy to see this team come home.

A pretty good roadtrip

Except for a walk-off loss in the last game against Tampa yesterday, the Ms had a terrific road trip, the best stretch of baseball they've played this season, better in many way to that false 13-2 fast start they got off to starting with their first series in Tokyo.  It's far to early to declare these last nine games  the "New Ms," but these guys are surely a much improved version.  6 and 3 is a most respectable start.

The pitching stabilized.  A bullpen of largely unknown pitchers emerged.  Enough so that seven out of the 'pen pitched together to win a game all by themselves.  The offense flourished.  Kyle Seager emerged from a two-year shift induced constipation to hit like he used to, but better.  Then Austin Nola and Tom Murphy started ripping line-drives like Ancestry dot com had proven them to be born from the same gene pool as Mitch Haniger.

Way too early to rejoice, much less get excited.  But encouraging.  The 13 wins in the first 15 games of the season was illusion, all bubble, gonfalon of the highest order.  What we've seen over the last nine games is winning baseball... authentic... surely temporary, but proof that this team can win and win the right way.

More on this later.  I believe Scott Servais' benching of Mallex Smith for his careless play in the field and on the basepaths played an important part in helping this team find its footing.

What we've been waiting for

The game Yusei Kikuchi's pitched against Toronto today was one everybody has been waiting for since January 1 when he signed with the Mariners.  It only took 230 days for him to live up to all the excited talk that signaled his arrival in Seattle.  Over the months, deeper into the season, that excitement turned into frustration, disappointment and doubt he'd ever live up to his hype.

A 4 and 8 record and no wins since June 23 only fueled the growing fear that, once again, the  Ms had made a poor choice and wasted millions on a dud starter.   Ranking second in yielding home runs didn't help.

Patience, lots of coaching and some hard work and real discipline on his part paid off, at last.  Today's line tells the story: a 9-inning complete game, no runs, two hits, one walk and eight strikeouts.  A so-called Maddux, a game named after Hall of Famer known for throwing CG shutouts in less than 100 pitches.  Kikuchi needed only 96.

Another promising sign for 2020.

A new-time kinda win

This might be a game worth noting.  The Ms squeaked out a 4-3 win over Toronto employing devices this reimagined team has been working on for months, utilizing players few of us knew about 45 days ago.

Here's how.  For the third game in a row, the Mariners used an "opener" in place of a starter.   And for the third time, the opener held the heart of the opponent's line-up scoreless.

A bullpen that has been one of the worst in the league showed up, six more Mariner pitchers holding the potent Blue Jays to three runs.

Yes, the won the game on an old-time Kyle Seager home run, but they grabbed and held the lead thanks to a homer by Austin Nola and two, yes two, run scoring sacrifice flies be Keon Broxton.  He may only be hitting .178, but with a runner on third he's money in the bank.

Not your grandfather's baseball, but it worked.

Toothless Tigers

The Tigers are such a feeble team the Ms have been abe to take 6 of 7 from them this season.  Better than that, they've become home to the Mariner rejects, namely reliever David McKay.  He pitched against his former teammates and looked just as bad as he did when he was an M.  Meanwhile, the Ms slugged out a dozen hits, saw some solid pitching and took off for Toronto.

I just hope as many obnoxious M's fan show up for tomorrow’s game as irritating Blue Jay fans come to support their team in Seattle.

Don't blink, you'll miss it

After tortuous days of no offense a trip to Detroit was all the Mariners needed to wake up their bsts from the deep sleep the Rays' pitching induced.  Eleven hits, five of them homers, three by Seager, two by Murphy, overcame a lackluster Kikuchi start to gain another win, five in a row now, against the Tigers.

The Ms have Detroit's number and they just beat on them.  It was fun to watch us do to them what others have done to us all season.  Sadistic, yet satisfying.

More missed opportunities

For the third time this season the M's lost a 1-0 game.  At least they didn't get no-hit, but they only mustered three feeble hits and never got a runner past first against the Rays.  Not much of a tribute to Edgar on the weekend honoring his entry into the Hall of Fame.

All this has only caused me to think more about the importance of picking up opportunities during a game and the absolute necessity of never giving opponents any additional ones.  Last time I fumed over balls and walks, today let me add my disgust at errors.

With Crawford at short, Seager back in the line-up and Santana off the field things have gotten better, but the Ms have led the majors in errors, now at 108, all season.  That's in 118 games.  Errors are given-away opportunities and they allow an opponent to extend an inning, move runners, score them, just do all sorts of damage, most notably exhaust and demoralize pitchers.  Outs are hard to come by. Imagine how deflating it is to pitch to a tough batter, think you've gotten them out only to realize a boot by a fielder has taken away the out, put a runner on base and brought up a new batter.  This has two be particularly exasperating when a third out gets lost to an error or an inning-ending double play falls apart.

Errors and walks, which I now realize could be the subtitle of the Mariners 2019 season, just kill a team.  And when an inning starts with a walk and doesn't end due to an error, nothing good is going to happen.  But as much as giving opportunities to the hitting team pisses me off, watching my team on offense give away opportunities is enough to surely frost my noogies.

I've expounded on this before.  In my mind there is no excuse for getting called out on strikes, especially on a 3-2 count.  And getting picked off base or thrown out on a running blunder is a black mark in my book.

It comes down to this:  Duke's Rule #3... never give an opportunity up or away.  Each pitch is an opportunity, treat them with care.

A game of opportunity

Watching the Mariners so closely this season has given me a fresh perspective on a game I've loved since childhood.  I think I'm a fairly knowledgeable fan, even acquainted with the fundamentals of analytics, but lately I've started to look at the game in a different way.

Witnessing another bullpen failure in the top of the ninth inning of last night's loss to the Rays, seeing a bases-loaded walk give Tampa the lead in a tight 2-2, suffering through 8 runners left on base and a woeful 2 for 12 hitting with runners in scoring position prompts these thoughts.

As I've written before, this season has sensitized me to the damage walks can do.  I'm going further today, from a pitching perspective I've come to hate balls.  Balls are nothing but trouble and except in very extreme circumstances, a ball is a problem on any time unless it is tempting waste pitch in a 0-2 or 1-2 count.

Here's what I've come to realize.  At its most basic level, baseball is a game of opportunities.  Before the contest starts, a team is given 27 chances, three per inning, to win the game.  And any at-bat provides, at minimum three more opportunities (strikes).  In that sense, any given inning is, fundamentally, like a carnival game where you are handed three balls and given a chance to knock over a small pyramid of milk bottles.  Each throw is an opportunity. You get three and that's it.

In baseball the game boils down, offensively, to adding opportunities to the three given chances to swing, defensively, to taking away the batter's opportunities.  A pitcher should always avoid giving his opponent an additional opportunity... stop them from getting another at bat or swing.  A ball to any batter or a walk, hit, error or batsman hit gives an additional opportunity beyond the allotted three strikes and outs.  As I see it, the whole idea of any pitch is to eliminate offensive opportunities (likewise, getting a hit, taking a walk, even fouling off a pitch is the offense's way of adding opportunities).

Applying this logic I understand better why I hate balls and their legacy, walks.  Balls and walks literally give away the game, handing over to an  opponent just that many more opportunities to get hits that guarantee the scoring of runs that will beat you.

Pitchers throw balls for two reasons, either technical incompetence or trying to fool the batter into swinging at bad pitches, known in the game as being "cute."  If walking batters and falling behind in the count is a matter of competence, a pitcher shouldn't be in the bigs.  If it's a matter of being cute I think a pitcher might want to weigh carefully the risks in giving batters more opportunities.

A no drama win

This far into this season a well-pitched 3-2 win is bright spot indeed.  After six dreadful starts, Kikuchi put together five solid innings.  And then, amazingly, a cohort of relievers held on long enough for the Ms to squeeze across the go-ahead run.

Not a lot of hitting, but that was to be expected with Padres' Luchessi on the mound.  But a revived Kyle Seager handled Luchessi's stuff, driving in runs with a homer and a ground-out.  The last three relievers looked very good, especially Tuivailala.

The season lurches forward.

 

Another losing streak

There was a moment in the seventh inning of last night's loss to San Diego when it looked as though the Mariners were about to be no-hit for the third time this season.  Some timely hitting, too late and too little to change the outcome,  but enough, saved the Ms from being embarrassed once again.  Seeing any hits, and runs, is enough for joy these days.  And watching another first MLB hit, a home run by Tim Lopes, is a treat we've enjoyed many times this season.  I guess that makes it a good night.

Looks like Beckham is gone.  His 80 suspension for steroids takes him into the next season, and I truly hope he's gone by then.  He had a great start to the season... player of the week and he produced some clutch hits, including a dramatic grandslam a few days ago.  But he was a dreadful fielder at short and never seemed to me to take any of this seriously enough.   The loss of Beckham for drug use doesn't mean much, alongside the unraveling of this team through trades and injuries.

I miss Nelson Cruz.

The pain continues

I couldn't bear to write about the Mariners getting no hits, again, last night, gambling they'd bounce back this Sunday.  They didn't.  Milone and the bullpen (!) pitched well enough to hold the Astros to five hits and three runs, but the Ms could only score one.

At one point in this series Seattle went nearly 16 innings without a hit.  I was surprised to hear Ryan Rowland-Smith describe the M's offense as "broken" but I guess there's no better way to describe it.  Admittedly the three losses came against Houston, the best of the American League.  Seattle just couldn't and didn't compete.

M's get a day off to travel home and start again, against San Diego, Tuesday.  Could be a long month.

,

Houston homers

Thanks to the Ms, the Astros have a new record: six home runs, by six different players in one game. In eight innings no less.  Four of those shots came off Kikuchi whose tends to groove these pitches.  I'm beginning to think that some of what worked for him Japan is less effective here.

Vogelbach added his own home run, but the Mariners were down nine by then, so it was a footnote to another unsatisfying loss.

Rabbit Rabbit

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I am a pretty superstitious person.  I take that stuff seriously, so much so I'll cover my ears if I'm about to hear a new one.  I've already got plenty to dictate the course of my daily life.  Many years ago I was making a purchase at the counter of Barnes and Noble.  When  I enquired the date to write a check, the clerk replied, "It's the first! Rabbit Rabbit!"  Puzzled I looked up and asked, "Huh?"  She went on to explain you had to start each month, every month with the exclamation, to which someone was expected to reply "Hare Hare!"  Thus it started and, along with a number of other goofy rituals, I pass it on to you.  Who knows, maybe this simple utterance will turn the M's around.

The trade deadline arrivzed and passed with minimal drama.  As Brock and Salk would say, "no news," among the options of good, bad or no news.  Leake's move was expected, as was Elias'.  The trade of Strickland was a typical July 31 surprise.  I thought we were going to get him back.  Elias had become an okay closer and Strickland was a proven product on his way hack from months on the IL.  I was looking forward to some saves what's left of the season.  Guess not.

The July 31 trade cutoff is always a little melancholy.  I get attached to players and it's hard to see them go.  I liked Leake.  It was a tough competitor and a smart pitcher.  He could throw a lot of different things and he knew how to mix them up.  He kept batters off balance with clever variations in speed and movement.  The trade to Arizona gives him a (low) chance a play-off game... he has certainly earned it.  But I'll miss him and his steady game.

The deeper sadness, however, comes from the inescapable, but hardly surprising, realization that as "sellers" in the trading market the Mariner’s season is over.  They're giving up.  We knew this not long after the 13-2 euphoria ended.  This season these games don't count.  You just hope people are learning things from these games that will pay off in a winning future.

So long Detroit, hate to see you go

Thanks to the generosity of the Detroit Tigers, the Ms won five straight.  Now they go on the road to play Texas with the trade deadline looming overhead.  As we saw with free agency, decisions about signing or moving players is increasingly pushed closer to the last minute.  Since so much of the Mariner's future has been attached to these late trades, the tension grows.

Update:  six in a row!  The Ms beat up the Rangers, scoring early and big.  Mike Leake pitched like a guy with a plane to catch, five shutout innings, then he crashed.  But the Mariners kept scoring run and gave Tuivailala a win.  Big hitting by Kyle Seager... at last.

So, 15 hours to the trade deadline.  What next?  Seventh win?

Going for five

The M's haven't won five in s row since April 11th, but then they haven’t had the good fortune to play the hapless Detroit Tigers that much this season.  The competition may be light, still it's good to win some games.  Maybe this is a sign the new Mariners are birthing.

Before I get too carried away, though, it's sensible to note that the recent heroes in the box score have had names like Nola and Court, Lopes and Negron.  These are not the "step-up" kids Dipoto has been imagining, those guys are still in the minors, these are journeyman baseball players who have been banging around in the minors for a few years, who thanks to the M's ineptitude and a rash of injuries are getting their MLB chance.

I don't think I've ever lived a season when I've ever seen so many "first major league" hits.  And it's fun to see.  The stories of long climbs to top, like Ryan Court's, are heart-warming and meaningful for those of us who love the game.  But these players are part of the transition, not the future... those guys are in Tacoma and Arkansas, maybe Everett.

I'll happily take these wins and salute the replacement victors, but I'm not going to get too excited until the lineup card and headlines carry names like Kellenic, Rodriguez and Lewis.  And to that end, I'm already big time impressed with J.P. Crawford.  What a play!  Pure shortstop.  For now and the future.

Three in a row

Not since June have the Ms won three in a row, but Detroit is in town and that means magic is in the air for Seattle: Mallex Smith drives a walk-off single to win 3 to 2.  The game featured a much needed and reassuring start by Kikuchi, a late inning tying homer by Tom Murphy (who is less and less surprising) and a first-rate, gold-glove stop and throw by J. P. Crawford.

Good stuff.  Encouraging.  Only two of the guys in last night's starting line-up were in there opening day, four weren't even on the team.  Nola, whose super stretch at first, made Crawford's incredible play credible has turned out to be a good example of what the Tacoma call-ups can do.

It's been early April since the Ms won four straight, right at the end of their now mythic 13-2 start of the season.  Marco goes for his twelfth win today.  He's 6 and 2 over his last eight starts, maybe!

Patterns

So what does it mean when you beat teams like Detroit, who are a lot worse than you, and Texas, who are pretty even?  I guess it's reassuring.  There is, it appears, a bottom lower than the Ms are playing at.  In this case, misery does not love company, it actually feels good to know there are teams more miserable than us.

And some comfort can be taken that the team seems kind of stabilized after trading away Encarnacion and Bruce and suffering a bunch of injuries to key players.   All in all things could be worse and there are signs they might get better; the Ms can actually put together a two-game win streak.

Some of the kids, like Nola and Negron or Lopes, maybe they have a little kick in them... these minor league call up give a chance for players who have something to prove to actually show it.  So far this has looked truer for position players than pitchers, but there are still chances for some good arms at AAA and AA to make this team.

Fingers crossed, let's for three!

Doppelgänger

Watching the Texas Rangers is much like observing the Seattle Mariners.  Both score lots of runs when they hit, only problem is they don't hit consistently.  Both have some good starting pitching, but it too is inconsistent.  Relief pitching for both teams is pretty consistent, mostly for the bad.

There's not much good baseball to see here and some truly bad examples of the game.  My conclusion is hardly remarkable but bears repeating: in baseball, in all sports for that matter, the skill to be mastered is to work to achieve consistent levels of performance.  And here's the important part... performance doesn't have to be at the highest levels to win, it has to be consistent enough to structure one's (or a team's) full game around it.

In other words, a team with bad pitching can win, if it is predictable and consistent.  Consistently bad pitching can be adjusted to by consistently good hitting.  Vice versa is just as true (look at the Koufax and Drysdale Dodgers).  

Anyone who has ever played golf seriously understands the truth of this principle.  Bad off the tee?  Better have a good short game?  Lousy putter?  You can overcome that by hitting balls that get on the green as possible.  The secret here is to overcome inconsistencies in one area with absolute consistency in another.

The worst circumstance is what is seen in these teams, inconsistency everywhere.  And Dipoto better figure this out quickly.  

A disappointing finish

The old new Ms were on display yesterday, a wobbly start, too few hits too late.  Another loss, more Angel home runs.  Hardly recognizable as the same team that took perfect game into the ninth Friday.  After Edgar's induction and his moving, heartfelt speech in the morning, it almost felt like an insult to see them play such a poor game in the afternoon.  Kind of a let down.  I would have thought the excitement of Edgar's induction would have inspired the team, but it obviously didn't.

I want to support Servais... he's certainly been presented with a thankless task, navigating this team through this rebuilding season of many downs and few ups, but still I wonder.  Is this new team getting pushed hard enough to improve, to stop making the same dumb mistakes?  If they couldn't summon up enough passion to play full out on the day one of the team's iconic players was honored, will they ever?

Edgar Day

There's not much I can add to the deserved praise Edgar Martinez is receiving in the lead up to his induction in the baseball Hall of Fame today.  I do, of course, have a fan's perspective to add but first I need to note last night's loss to the Angels.

Once again a tight, well-pitched contest went from a 2-2 tie in the seventh inning to a 6-2 loss by the end.  Two base-running mistakes, by Dylan Moore and Mallex Smith, in the fateful seventh unraveled a promising rally.  No error was charged in the top of the ninth, but there were plenty of culprits on a misplayed infield pop-up, followed by  a home run to Mike Trout from a Roenis Elias grooved fatball (no misspelling), who shows signs of being a closer except when he doesn't.

Edgar.  He was just good, always good.  If he ever had a bad night at the plate I don't remember it.  He was the definition of clutch.  Those wonderful highlights they've been showing of his heroics in the critical fourth and fifth games of the 1995 championship series against the Yankees could have been drawn from any two games in the 18 years he played.

He had the misfortune of playing in the shadow one of the game's all-time greatest hitters, Griffey, Jr., and alongside some other clutch hitters - Buhner, Tino Martinez, a young Arod. There were times when his exceptional steady clutch hitting could get lost in the line-up, but he was undeniably the key to countless Mariner offensive rallies.

He also suffered from being, for most of his career, a designated hitter, a role many of the games purists short-sightedly dismiss as not "real baseball."

Some of Edgar's greatness was concealed by the modest and unassuming personality he expressed both on and off the field.  He gave the impression of a guy just doing a job, cranking out line-drive doubles and home runs to every field under every condition.  He never drew attention to himself.  Even in the weeks preceding this HOF moment, he has maintained his soft-spoken, genuine humility.

He was my wife, Kathleen's, favorite player.  At the time I could never understand why.  She's not a big baseball fan and certainly not one to have "favorites."  Over the seasons we would sit in Section 109 as we good-naturedly debated her choice over my list of nominations.  History has proven her right.  Today he'll take his place right alongside Junior, right where he belongs.

A big fat rainbow

He'll probably be traded soon.  I hope so, he's earned the chance to play on a contending team this year.  Mike Leake pitched a gem.  Eight perfect no-hit innings.  Only gave up a single through the hole in the ninth.  A masterful game.  Never reached a three ball count until just after the hit.  This guy is a true pitcher's pitcher.  Lots of movement, lot a changes in speed.

Vogie hit two three run blasts and almost hit a third.

This losing streak ends at six.  Let's go for two tomorrow.

The bottom just in sight?

Given a long view the collapse of this Mariners team, following the cruel dreams inspired by their 13 and 2 start, it's possible to see what's happened.

First, the bullpen fell apart.  Despite some good hitting and decent starting pitching, the team started losing games by blowing leads from the sixth inning.

Then the starting pitching, even with the novel use of openers, began to stumble.  These games started with ugly three-four-five run deficits through the first couple of innings.  For awhile the Ms offense would claw back, once again to have their efforts cancelled out by non-existent relief pitching.

Then the hitting started to dry up and in the games since the AllStar break, the power has disappeared.  A total collapse.  That's how you get four successive bleak losses of 2-9, 3-6, 2-9, 2-10.

What next?  Well, it appears we've reached the full extent of the step back.  Sometime, somewhere we should see new team.  Until then the slow-motion nightmare unfolds.

Oh well

I watched.  Well past the first inning.  Things, of course, fell apart.  I did not commit suicide.  I didn't even think about it.  There were, however, two new unpleasant wrinkles that added to my lousy mood.  

First, Marco Gonzalez' meltdown after the ump's missed call on what have been a third strike was understandable, but a waste of time.  If he's going to become the ace starter the Ms need, he's got to figure out how to handle missed calls.  For all his umbrage, what Marco conveniently leaves out of his complaint is that he was the one who, following the bad call, served up back to back home run pitches.  He's got to control what he can, including his frustrations.  

Second, the collision between Nola and Santana was totally avoidable and looked like a rookie mistake on the first baseman's part.  The unsettling part of the collision is the fact that a rook with slim prospects for starting, much less sticking with the club, took out a high producing starter with a future role with this team or as trade bait .  Nothing against Nola, who has played hard and esrned credit for his contributions, but Santana's too valuable to risk a bad injury to a scrubeenie.

They strap 'em on again in an hour.  I'll watch until my patience runs out.

A warning

I'm letting you know, right off, this has been a challenging day... nothing dreadful, just the usual frustrations of a person who owns two homes, the stuff of a failing septic field and a sinking foundation.  I know this, my fuse however, is very short and if the M's struggle through the first inning in Oakland tonight, I'm turning if off.  I'm in no mood to watch the Ms get off to another bad start, even if they recover and pull out a dramatic win.  Not tonight.

Day off

Three games into the second part of the season and the Ms have a much-needed day off. The Angels swept them winning the last game with another late-inning three-run home run.  Time to regroup, again.

It's still 2019

The Seattle Times Larry Stone's tweet last night sums it up nicely:  The #Mariners have now played 81 games since their 13-2 start -- the equivalent of exactly half a season. They are 26-55 in those games, meaning that after their aberrational first two weeks, they have played at a 110-loss pace for the next three months.

Another loss to the Angels, not as ugly as the 13-0 no-hitter the night before, but plenty bad enough.  Pujols beat 'em up last night, but Trout continued to demolish M's pitching, hitting another home run. The Mariners did get some hits and a couple of runs, but too little too late to overcome a six run deficit and, then, as usual another M's reliever gave up three more runs to strangle any thoughts of a comeback.

Hope in short supply in Anaheim this weekend.

Not again

The first game of the second part of the Mariner's 2019 season bore such a resemblance to the the whole of the first part that it might have been mistaken for a low-lights reel of the year so far.  No hits.  No runs.  Three errors.   13 Angel runs, seven of them in the first inning off the ever-reliable, soon-to-be-traded Mike Leake.  Leake may hurt it trade prospects with an unimpressive array of 45 pitches in the two-thirds of the first inning.

The Angels all wore Tyler Skaggs jerseys in remembrance of the recent sudden death of their teammate, but they could have just as legitimately donned M's unis if the night was about honoring the deceased.  It was if someone had frantically awakened the Mariner's 30 minutes before the game, reminding them, "Hey guys, get up!  Did you forget you had a game tonight?"

The highlight of the game?  Omar Narvaez drew a walk in the fifth.  That's it.  It was that bad.

Back to work

I needed that time off.  Following a team this closely is a tough job, made more so during a rebuilding season marked by so many growing pains.  I took on this project because I was curious as to what it would be like to be a beat writer for a team.  If I've learned anything it is to hold those who do it, the Drayer's and Divish's and many more, in greater respect.  There is a grind in writing everyday about a team and I am impressed with the talent these folks have for telling a story and doing it well and, above all, keeping it fresh, informative and entertaining.

There are some other lessons I've learned, some surprising things, about a game I followed closely since I was eight or nine.  Here they are:

1.  Little things make a big difference.  When you watch the game closely it's surprising how often a single pitch or at bat ends up having a big impact on the final outcome.  For a batter to extend his opportunity for one more pitch with a foul tip.  For a pitcher to get a batter end an inning swinging at a single bad pitch.  That stuff adds up and makes a difference.

2.  You can't ever let up.  It just astounds me how often pitchers seem to lose concentration after getting to a two-strike count.  It's like, "that was easy; I can throw just anything up there now."  It works just the opposite.  With two strikes you've got to bear down and get the third strike.  Some batters seem to zone out with two strikes on them, too.  I'm similarly astounded at the number of called strikeouts.

3.  Never give the opposing team an extra out.  Likewise, never give away an out.  A two or four out inning really changes the nature of the game.  Errors and base-running mistakes are the most common ways to add or subtract outs from an inning.

4.  Don't panic.  Baseball is a game of averages.  Don't over react to extreme events.  Don't mistake streaks, good or bad, for anything other than what they are, anomalies.  Just wait.  A batter's two home run game is much more likely to be followed the next day by an oferfour than two more dingers.

5.  Enjoy it.  It is a beautiful game played in idyllic settings.  Take it in.  Soak in the sun.  Watch the arc of the white ball against the blue of the sky.  See that curveball drop right on the lower corner of the strike zone.  Admire a well struck ball whether it falls for a hit or not.  Let your mind get lost, just for a minute in nothing but balls and strikes.

On vacation until after the All-Star break amigos!

Vogelbach

I would have preferred Santana to be the taken as the token Mariners All Star in this year's game, but I'm fine with Vogie and it is probably a fan-favorite choice.  This guarantees his participation in the home run contest and that should be fun to watch.  He's never been a wild, free-swinger, so I'm not too worried about him getting carried away and out of his groove.  Congrats to the big guy!

Encouraging losses?

No way around it, the M's are playing the Astros tough.  It's hard to lose two extra inning games, but reassuring to look at what they had to do to play even with the 'Stos for ten innings twice in a row.  In the first game, they held on to a slim lead for most of the game, getting tied and defeated late on.  In the second game they got behind by five runs early, but held on, battled back, tied it, then lost.

These are games with better relief pitching and clutch hitting they can and will win if not next season, surely the one after that.  Lessons are being given; ways to win are being learned.

The highlight of the season

Even in the best of season and, believe me this is a long way from even a good one, there are only a few moments that capture the essence of the game.  It may be a single pitch, but in that split-second you learn something about the character of a player or a team, you see past all of the movement and complexity of the game to grasp what baseball is all about.

Despite the tough extra-inning loss to the Astros last night there was, for me, one of those revelatory moments. So pure and exhilarating that I was left, for the first time this season, that the team Dipoto and Servais are reimagining might just become winners, dare I say it champions.

Here's what happened.  For six innings the M's nursed a one-run, 1 to 0 lead fueled my Austin Nola's first major league home run.  Pitching on both sides was strong but after Carisiti's open, Milone was pulled after five scoreless innings.  He'd only thrown 84 pitches and seemed fine in the sixth, but Servais had a reason, however mysterious, and only added to the suspense by bringing in the ever-unreliable Cory Gearrin.

I have no animus towards Gearrin, but he is just awful.  I dread seeing him pitch and he quickly validated my fears.  In Gearrin-like style he got two quick strikes on Chirinos then, in fulfillment of my total lack of confidence, walked him!  He does get a 3-6 fielder's choice, gives up a stolen base and lets Marisnick single to tie the game.  Another stellar third of an inning.

Time for a pitching change... it's Austin Number Two, Austin Adams.  He's shown some good stuff lately and is unafraid to throws nasty slider in any sort of situation.  But he's pitched a lot lately and he is not sharp, walking Springer in five pitches.  Time to face Altuve.  Ball, ball, ball.  3 and 0 to this guy who routinely beats the Ms.  Sensing his moment, Altuve is not taking.  He hits into a contact play out at home.  And then, as if it's what you just do, he struck out Bregman on three pitches.

Adams' intensity was impressive.  He came off that mound roaring like the winner he is and the winner this team is going to be if Adams has anything to do with it.