Some patterns are starting to emerge:
1. Offensively streaky. When their bats get hot, they get rolling. Young players feed off each other and when the Ms start hitting they just keep on going until they crash into a wall. They seem to lose confidence until they heat up again.
2. Good pitching is the wall. I haven't figured of what good pitchers do to shut down the Ms, but whatever they're doing it works very well.
3. Bad pitching sets the line-up on fire. Last night they terrorized Ranger pitching, and it's not just homers. They just start hitting and walking. Last night? 14 hits plus 8 walks.
4. It comes down to 3-2 pitches. Against good pitchers those full counts end up as strike-outs, often called. Against mediocre pitches full counts lead to a walk or a cripple pitch.
5. Hate to say this, but I think the team's undoing is the fact that pitching is irrelevant, which is too bad. Already we've seen some beautifully thrown games wasted because the bats didn't show up. Recent 1-0 losses for veteran Felix and rookie Swanson are perfect examples. When the offense is bashing out 8, 9, 10 runs, it doesn't make any difference who the Ms have on the mound. In low run, tight games, too often we've seen a good pitching effort unrewarded.
Let me be clear here. The Mariners can win close games, they cannot win pitching duels.
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