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.

Signs of life

With Bruce and Encarnacion gone the outlines of the new Mariners are slowly becoming visible.  Again, it's all new and very early, but watching Mallex and JP hitting the ball over the place, seeing Vogie hit monster homers, observing Narvaez learn how to frame pitches.  Nothing big or necessarily dramatic, but all pieces that, fitted together, could become a winning team.

Yesterday's loss to the Brewers looked and felt different.  Even the best teams are going to lose 60 games a season.  And this loss felt like one of those.  The M's ran into some good Brewer pitching.  Leake threw one bad pitch.  That stuff happens in baseball all the time.  No five-run innings on either side, no triple errors on a play, no one caught wandering off base.  Just your basic baseball, ultimately forgettable in a string of 162.

But the routine nature of the loss, the absence of gross misplay, the very ordinary quality of it, offers, oddly, a kind of comfort.  This is baseball at neither its worst or best; this is the game.  After what we've been through over the first half of the season, the lack of drama and head-shaking plays is a relief.

Sportstalk chatter

I listen to too much sports talk radio.  But the content, to the degree it has any substance, gives an idea of what people are thinking about.  Last night's win, six out of seven, has people talking and has prompted, of course, new fears.  If radio talk means anything the latest concern is that the Ms will win too many games.

The argument is that the M's could disqualify themselves from one of the top draft picks next year.  

If you think about this for a bit you can make a case for either side, either start winning now, enjoy it and start to build (and live) a victorious culture or dump the season and pick up a high quality player in the next draft.

I lean to winning now.  While it might move the Ms out of the top five draft picks, they're still going to be in the top ten.   And these players learning they can win now is a key part of what they'll be doing together for the next few seasons.

The frustrating thing about this is the argument is bogus.  Yes, the team is playing better now, but this 6 and 1 run is no more realistic than the 13-2 record they had to start season.  Baseball is all about trending to the mean.  They have yet to turn a corner and there are a few more grim losing streaks around that corner.  This is not, in the long run, a .500 team.  It is a better team than Baltimore or KC, maybe even the A's, Rangers and Angels.  But they are a long way from complete.

So enjoy Mallex' bat waking up, JP realizing he really is a major leaguer, the Nationals regretting letting Adams out of the bullpen.  That's all real. And that will mean alot in two years when they are joined by a bunch more winners.  Enjoy it, but don't kid yourself and don't waste time sparring through a debate that has, in the end, no substance or significance.

Marco

I've been concerned with Marco Gonzalez for a few weeks now.  After some rocky starts in May, he appears to have turned it around and has posted three consecutive wins.  I don't usually get a chance to follow a pitcher's start pitch by pitch, but Tuesday the fates intervened and I was able to follow Marco pitch-by-pitch through his whole game.

His line in yesterday’s win against the Brewers was 5-8-3-2-0-4 in 94 pitches.  He started strong, got two quick outs, gave up a double and had a run score on an error.  He cruised through the next three, giving up a couple of more doubles.  In the fifth he didn't look quite right.

I watched closely.  He struck out the number nine batter first.  Then yielded a line drive no-doubt-about it home run to Grandal.  He'd hit 17 already this season, do one more was no big deal, but the pitch he hit bothered me.  It came on a three-two count.  He'd had Grandal at 2-2, gave up a foul, then a ball.  He'd had two chances to put him away and didn't.  Then he grooved a cutter and Grandal hit it 425 on a line.

I written on this before... basic pitching common sense: with two strikes on batter, if even or ahead, get 'em out with a slider, full count, better a walk than a grooved home run.

Ok, next batter.  He gets Yelich to ground out on the next pitch.  Nice bounce back.

Then three singles in a row, two of them struck off a pitch behind a 2-2 count.  I dunno.  I have a feeling the problem is more mental than physical.

In his postgame comments Bill Krueger said Marco tired, but he didn't seem fatigued, in fact I thought he got to those two-strike counts easily, hitting spots with some precision (if the targets offered by Narvaez were correct).  There was no question Milwaukee suddenly started to hit him.  Not bing-bing-bing, but in consecutive at bats after working the count.

Maybe Krueger is right, he just runs out of gas.

And... pitching

Pitching at midseason?  Some brutal games.  Except for ever-steady Mike Leake, the rotation has been unreliable, especially at the top with Gonzalez and Kikuchi.  Both of them have pitched great games, then slumped into four or five starts where they couldn't get through four innings or less.  Marco shows signs of bouncing back; Kikuchi less so, but to be fair, Yusei has a lot to learn.

The questions about Felix appear to be answered.  He's spent all but his first few starts injured and I don't think he's coming back... ever.  A sad end.

Leake and LeBlanc just keep turning the crank, well enough in Leake's case to get some looks from other teams as the trade deadline approaches.  Milone has been a nice surprise, but is not a long term answer.

The bullpen has been bad... a parade of people who can't throw strikes and give up home runs when they do.  Strickland who showed early promise remains injured.  Elias shows promise, sometimes.  This part of the game is a flat-out loss for now.  The M's have enough offense to get a lead, but little chance of holding it.  The bullpen has thrown away a dozen wins for sure.

Experiments with highly touted Sheffield and Swanson show them to need a lot more work.

A reluctant midseason report

I don't want to write one of those midseason reports.  I think that defeats the purpose of writing a daily blog.  If you've had the patience to read this for the last four months you have a pretty good idea as to how I feel about these Mariners and the ways my thinking has evolved.  But everyone else is taking the M's temperature halfway through the season, I feel I owe that to my faithful readers, too.

It helps that Encarnacion and Bruce are gone.  They were nice guys and surely entertaining.  I even think they may have mentored some of the younger, less experienced players.  But they were never part of the future and despite their prodigious displays of power, they could't score enough runs to overcome erratic starting pitching and dreadful work out of the bullpen.

The paints hardly dry on the prospects, but there are some good early signs.  Getting daily playing time is allowing Crawford and Vogelbach to show what they can do.  Both offensively and, Saints preserve us, defensively they are getting the job done.  Bishop and Shed Long in brief glimpses have played well enough to warrant patience as they develop.  Dipoto has packed the minors with promising position players who appear to be a year or two away from the majors... first reports on them are good.

Narvaez and Murphy are not rookies, but young enough that both should fit into the future.  Both are average catchers behind the plate, but quite impressive hitters.

Question marks surround the remaining vets.  Seager, injured for most of the season; playing well on his return, even hitting to the opposite field.  I guess he could be traded, but he solidifies the infield at third and provides a veteran presence.

Gordon.  He's still contributing and is a positive force of energy on the field, in the dugout and clubhouse.  His skill levels are still high enough to be good trade bait.  I'd like to see him stick around another year as this new team comes together.

Beckham. He's gone by the end of July, no big loss.

Healy?  He did a good, not great, job filling in for the injured Seager.  Still needs to prove he can hit consistently.  Could end up as part of a trade package.

Santana.  Great production, a ribbie machine.  Better in right than left, marginally.  Keep or trade?  If you play him in right, you've got to put Haniger in center.  Where does Mallex go?  I think he gets traded, but it so hard to give up that production.  Hard to see where he fits if prospects develop.

Haniger.  Forget the trade talk, set aside the worries that he's hitting below average and striking out a lot.  He's still the center of this team's offense.

Mallex?  Starting to hit like he did last year.  Defense is improving.  Keep him.  Play him in left.

The outfield situation may rest on how Bishop and other prospects materialize.

Pitching tomorrow.

Part Two

Well, I did jinx it.  All it took was my indirect comment and the M's three-game winning streak ground to a halt.  In the last game of the first half of a gut-wrenching season, Milone was cruising along until he gave up a three run blast, then the bullpen started this half pretty much like they finished  the first, yielding five more runs to the O's, allowing them to pull away.  Except for some hot hitting from Santana, the offense never seemed to get in gear, certainly not enough to catch up.

Seattle hadn't won three in a row since April 20.  Four in a row hadn't occurred since the unbelievable games of the 13 and 2 start, so with or without my jinx, a fourth win was a longshot, even against the hapless O's.  But if this season has taught me anything, baseball is a game about hope.  As Sondheim said, "could be, who knows?  It's any day, out of reach, down block, on the beach, maybe tonight!”

Actually, today.  Seattle goes for a series win, sending Kikuchi to the mound in hopes (there's that word again) he'll get back on track after two miserable starts.  Heard Dipoto offer an interesting hypothesis on Yusei recent drubbings:  he likes to experiment with things.  Pitches, deliveries, that sort of things.  Sometimes his new efforts work; sometimes they don't.  And when they fail, he can have a hard time getting back to what he does right.  This would explain the radically different outings we've seen this season.  Here's hoping we see the learned, tested Kikuchi today.

Second half of the season starts today.

A close call

To avoid jinxing it I will acknowledge the most exciting aspect of the M's last three games.  Instead I will complain, once again, about the poor quality of relief pitching.  After watching KC and Baltimore I have to concede the ability to hold leads, much get saves is a disappearing talent in MLB, at least in its worst American League teams.

I believe in analytics, but whatever the numbers, I think the old baseball wisdom to throw strikes and avoid walking batters still holds.  What is this that escapes Cory Gearrin's consciousness?  More than that, what is it that pitching coach Paul Davis can't see?  If the definition of insanity is truly doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result, Davis qualifies for an involuntary commitment at the nearest psych ward.

Nothing personal, I really wish him well, but Gearrin is not big-league ready.  I hope he gets there, but Davis keeps putting him in situations  to fail... and he does.  Single handedly he almost gave away last night's game.  Why is he up here?  He needs to figure this out somewhere else.

Consequences

It was kind of a regular baseball win over the Orioles last night.  Except for another "opener" breakdown, putting the Ms down by two to start, LeBlanc pitched an excellent game. Santana hit one out, the team got some timely hitting and the Bird's bullpen, that could be more incompetent than ours, walked in a run with bases loaded.  To cap it off, Adams and Elias threw two innings of relief.

No stress, no tension, none of that angry discontent that seems to follow M's frequent losses this season.  Great way to start the summer!

We can beat KC

It would have been nice to take the series, but glad to have won the last one easily yesterday. It looks like Marco is back on track, love the back-to-back jacks by Mingo and Vogie.  I could have done with the Gearrin appearance.

Orioles next.

Concerning

What's wrong with Kikuchi?  He's pitching more and more like Corey Gearrin.  Hit-hit-walk-another hit, multiple runs scored.  This is not the same guy we saw at the beginning of the season.  His sharp drop off has to have an explanation.  More importantly, if this Mariners team is to become the one Jerry DiPoto is reimagining, Kikuchi needs to be a solid dependable starter.

Ruling out an injury, my guess is one of three, or a combination of them, explains Yusei's recent shaky starts.

Possibility 1:  loss of confidence.  He began the season well, then come May, he started to see big league hitting.  These guys are good, some are great.  Every line-up has it Mike Trouts or Khris Davis or a bunch of other guys who are great hitters.  This is not the Japanese League, which plays good baseball but not of the quality of US MLB.  He looks tentative on the mound.  His pitches are getting hit and hit hard.  He has major league stuff, but he has to throw it every pitch.  He just looks hittable these day.

Possibility 2:  the mystery is gone.  Batters are figuring him out and they're learning how to hit him.

If the first two possibilities are true, then adjustments must be made and I hold Servais and Davis, along with hIs two catchers, Narvaez and Murphy accountable.  Those guys are calling pitches, they need to take care Kikuchi throws the right pitch at the right time.  And they need to keep his confidence up.  Lately he looks discouraged.

Possibility 3:  He's not prepared.  I'm always suspicious when a pitcher struggles with the first two or three batters.  That tells me his head and/or arm is not ready.  And because I've seen him settle down after he makes a poor start I'm starting to think he needs to do a little extra warming up and reviewing the opponents' line up before throwing his first pitch.

I had written most of this when I heard Shannon Drayer discuss the same topic on John Clayton’s broadcast.  Her theory is a good one: he gets behind too early on too many batters.  Batting averages against Kikuchi when he had two strikes on them is .225.  When he's behind in the count with two balls on the batter? One hundred points higher, .325.

An old lesson needs to be relearned: throw strikes.

Logic of openers?

The Ms have used "openers," relief pitchers employed to pitch the first inning of a game, setting up the scheduled starting pitcher to make his entry in the second inning.  The results have been mixed for the Mariners.  They have tried this ploy seven times, including last night, with mixed success.  Four times the opener has put the Ms in a three or two run hole; three times they have blanked an opponent.

I know this gambit was introduced by Tampa Bay last year,  but I'm not sure why they did it or why it makes sense for Seattle.  The logic, as I understand it, is this.  As the game has evolved starters rarely throw much more than 110-110 pitches, on average around 15 pitches per inning.  A good pitcher will  usually get in seven innings, which figures out to three times through the line-up, before being replaced by a reliever (usually a set-up man who is then replaced  by a closer in the ninth).

More to the point, the best batters usually are at the top of the order.  Using a opener means opponents first three batters, at least, will face a top-notch one-inning reliever and might only get two chances against the starter.  Saving that starter from having to face batters from top of the line-up a third time is a big advantage as, so the logic goes, the more times a hitter sees a pitcher, the more likely he will figure them out.

There's also an argument to be made that avoiding any runs in the first inning, especially in a home game, is advantageous.  No team likes to start in a hole.  That is, however, precisely where this tactic  has failed the Ms.  Ineffective openings have put them behind right from the start.

I don’t understand why the M's are trying this experiment, particularly given the poor quality of the team's relievers.  And why does Servais fo it for some stsrters, like Milone last night, but not other pitchers?

A couple of post-weekend, post road-trip thoughts

They won the roadtrip, 5 to 4 and took two out of three series.  They won their series with the Angels and As, both division rivals, so that made for even better news and maybe a sign they can climb out of the AL West cellar.

These results are particularly encouraging given that just before and towards the end of the trip, the Ms traded away two of their power-hitting starters, Jay Bruce and Edwin Encarnacion.  And Mitch Haniger went on the Injured List.  Even with all that production out of the line-up, the M's scored runs, won and were close in most of the losses until the bullpen collapsed in late innings.  

Leake pitched really well.  Gonzalez came back and pitched effectively after getting lost somewhere. Kikuchi showed signs of returning to his earlier form, too.

The Austin Nola story was heart-warming.  It's always great to see an 8-year minor leaguer get a shot, even better to see him get a hit in his first at-bat.  I'm not sure where he fits in as a 1B/C sub.  But with Bruce and EE gone and Healy still on the IL, they can use him to give Vogie a breather at first.

Royals tonight.  Be nice to win another series, maybe even get a sweep.

And then I woke up

That dream of 2021 didn't last long.  About four batters into Gerson Bautista's opener it was clear I was back with the 2019 Seattle Mariners and they were about to get stomped by the A's 11 to 2.

On top of what, Edwin Encarnacion was traded.  At least he provided some entertainment with a mammoth home run every 14 at bats. He went to the detested Yankees for a former Mariner's discard, Juan Then, who was a throw-in for the 2017 Rumbelow deal (who was released the other day after posting an ERA of 8.13 in Tacoma).

Is DiPoto playing time games here?  So he trades Then to get Rumbelow, then (no pun intended) he trades Encarnacion to get Then back?  Like he never traded Then in the first place?  Do clocks run counter-clockwise in Jerry's world? Can we get Nellie back?  How about Diaz or Paxson?

I thought I was being daring fantasizing about the 2021 season.  I had it all wrong.  Maybe we're taking a do-over of 2018.  Let's see if we can avoid a midseason collapse this time.

A peek behind the curtain?

Maybe, just maybe, last night's 9 to 2 win over the A's provided a glimpse of what the 2021 Mariners will look like.

Pitching?  Marco was right on track.  He threw a lot of pitches in the first few innings, then settled down giving up only one earned run over seven.  He seemed to grow stronger as the game progressed. The bullpen of Adams and Festa, to everyone's amazement, pitched two scoreless innings in a non-save situation.

Offense?  The new guys all the way.  Multiple hit games from Narvaez, Crawford and Williamson.  Dingers from Mallex and Omar.  Two walks and a run scored from Vogie.  All this without Haniger or Encarnacion in the line-up.

Defense.  Eh... a Gordon error on a throw on s tough play he should have just eaten.  Two slick doubleplays both started by JP.

If they play like this they could win some games.

Maybe.

An idea worth considering, at least for this season

Until this season I never realized the high regard I held for pitchers.  Not the starters or the closers, but the blue-collar middle inning guys who, on a good day try to hold the lead for a starter and on bad ones mop up in surrender just to get through nine innings.  My awareness of the value of these laborers comes from seeing what happens when you have a bullpen missing this workaday but essential talent.

Think about this last three games in Minnesota.  The starters, Leake, Milone and Kikuchi did well... against a very potent offense.  Adding in Bautista's one inning open, they pitched 19 innings and gave up 7 earned runs, a respectable, not great, but okay, ERA of 4.77.  The guys who relieved them pitched 5 and 2/3rds and gave up 15 earned runs, a shameful 23.81 ERA.  It's probably not fair to them I took out Elias' scoreless inning for Wednesday's save.  But even if I charitably give them that one scoreless inning, the bullpen's ERA drops to a dismal 20.24.

It is quite possible that these bullpen pitchers, who like the perpetrators of mass shootings will remain unnamed to deny them any acclaim, took wins away and busted a possible sweep for  their team, Leake and Kikuchi.  I try to be understanding and compassionate, but these bullpen meltdowns have occurred all season and some of these pitchers do not appear to be learning from their mistakes (or are incapable of applying the lessons learned).

To avoid insanity, I have adopted a new way of following M's games.  Feel free to try it.  I'm breaking the game into two parts.  The first I call the "starter" part and, for me, this is the real baseball game.  And depending where the game is when the starter departs, I'm awarding him a win, loss or no decision.  The second part of the game I'm calling the "charnel house" and following the rest of the contest  like a mystery waiting to see just exactly who will give up the worst pitch, walk, hit, hit batsman, error, fielding misplay, whatever.  I'm just waiting in suspense with genuine curiosity for the worst to happen and to determine who is responsible.

Kind of like that kid's game, I forget the name, where you try to take apart a stack of blocks, removing one at a time, hoping against hope your move doesn't bring the whole thing down.  Try it.  It can't be any worse than what happened this afternoon.

Not so quick

After blowing a solid pitching outing by Leake last night, the bullpen caved in on Milone.  After putting up a five run lead by the 9th, Gearrin (of course) and Bass gave it all back in the 8th and 9th.  At least the relievers held the Twins to a tie.

For once the M's got a break, a timely double by Gordon, some walks and errors!!! by the Twins, not us, then a rare1–2-3 inning from Elias.  That's how you do it.

Mariners? All stars?

It has been the policy of Major League Baseball to assure the annual mid-season All Star squads select at least one player from each of its leagues' teams.  This has produced plenty of "token" players over the years and this season the Mariners definitely face the prospect of having to sift through the roster of this poorly performing team to find a worthy representative.

Forget the starting  pitchers.  Most likely candidates Gonzalez and Kikuchi have been horrible in some of their starts, simply too unreliable to merit All Star consideration.  The bullpen?  Nevermind.

Position players having outstanding years are limited by injury or underperformance.  Only three candidates realistically qualify to make the team: Edwin Encarnacion, Daniel Vogelbach and Omar Narvaez.  From the perspective of a Mariner's fan, the first two options are problematic:  EE has the numbers but he's s rentaplayer just waiting to be traded and Vogie is in his first full season and his performance so far too fresh and untested to earn an All Star bid.  Narvaez stats are very good, but possibly anomalous, too - plus his defensive skills are less than All Star calibre.

Forced to choose?  I'd go with Encarnacion.  He's earned it.  He'll be forgotten, the answer to a Mariner's trivia question in two years.  He's been selected to three other teams.  A nice return to Cleveland and better times. I feel kind of sorry for him, dead-ended here, hoping to catch on somewhere with chances for a postseason.  Let's just hope, for the M's sake, he doesn't get traded before the big game on July 9.

A baseball life

One of the wonders of the game is the occasion when a relatively unknown and unheralded player has an at-bat, game or a season when, for a moment, they do something that defines their career - no matter how modest the achievements before or after.  For Tom Murphy, the M's backup catcher, the last few games maybe such a moment.  Quite possibly in his next game he'll return to the relative obscurity where he has labored over his last four major league seasons; just as possibly, at the age of 28, in the gentle summer of Seattle, it has finally all come together.

Honestly, before yesterday, I knew next to nothing about Murphy.  A tour through his stats tell a baseball story.  The important thing is he's hit four home runs and driven in 8 in his last three games.  Since May 26 he's batting .423.  En fuego!

Before that?  He came out of SUNY Buffalo and spent all his professional career in the Rockies organization until this spring.  The Giants picked him up on waivers in March who traded him four days later to the M's, two games into their first homestand.  The next day he started against Boston, got a single and two walks in four PAs.  Since then he is batting .304 with seven homers in 79 ABs.  That's a most credible .950 OPS.

You can see since 2015, he's had a couple of cups of coffee with Colorado, usually hitting in the .220s, with streaky flashes around .275, consistent with his minor league performance.  His last couple of call-ups were less impressive.  Hitting 1 for 22 in August in September may explain how he hit the waiver wire at the end of spring training.  He couldn't make the team and was out of options.  Contemporary reporting said the Rockies felt injuries and underperformance kept him from not fulfilling their hopes when he was drafted on the first round.

Well, he's here now and he's hitting like the Rockies hoped he would.  Hard to say how long the spotlight will shine, but he and we can enjoy it while we can.

Back to the new normal

The anticipated show-down between rivals of Japanese baseball, the Mariner Yusei Kikuchi and Angel Shohei Ohtani turned out to be one-sided.  Ohtani smoked him, going 2 for 3, hitting a home run to cap a back-to-back-to-back power outburst in the fourth, leaving Kikuchi hanging his head, perhaps the baseball equivalent of seppeku.

All the joy of the previous night's well played win, quickly disappeared when the Angels used seven hits, one walk, a hit batter and, of course, an error, to score three times before LaStella, Trout and Ohtani started the home run derby.  Kikuchi followed with two more walks before getting yanked for a reliever who, of course, allowed an inherited run to score.

The drama of the three consecutive home runs was intensified by the fact that all this occurred over the course of four pitches.  LaStella hit the first pitch, Trout took a ball before hitting his out, Ohtani hit the next pitch.  It's good there was a mound visit before Ohtani's at bat, or all of this would have unfolded in the course of two minutes.

If this is a learning season, what's to be learned from last night?  Don't ever throw Ohtani a 75-mph hanging curveball.

True to his word

Marco! A win. Five and a third innings, two hits!  Two runs, one shouldn't have happened except for Gearrin allowing an inherited runner score.  Gonzalez didn't even look that sharp at first, but Marco had told us he was taking charge and he did exactly that.

It surely helped that Santana hit two opposite field home runs, his play seemingly invigorated by his move from left to right field.  He appears more comfortable there and made a nifty play snatching a foul pop away from a fan in the stands along the line.

Tom Murphy, whose play is legitimately challenging Narvaez for time in the line-up, continued his hot hitting with a 3-run homer in between Santana's two.

There was a lot to like about this game.  It was a solid bread-and-butter baseball game for the M's, rarely seen this season, a road-trip opening 6-2 win over the Angels.  Maybe, just maybe, Marco has them headed in a better direction.

An important start

Marco Gonzalez has shown us two seasons already.  In March and April, 5 and 0 In a dreadful May and one start in June, 0 and 6.  After his last loss he spoke clearly to his need to exert leadership on this team.  He blamed no one for his poor turn and committed to do better.  At time I speculated an injury, but he denies that.

Without putting more pressure on him, and taking him at his word, his start tonight in Anaheim is important for him and the team.  What he and Haniger, who is injured, need to do is to lead these rebuilding Mariners by example.  Tonight is Marco's opportunity to begin the rebuild of his team, the recovery of his season.

My money is on Marco.  Angels, watch out!

Bullies

C'mon, admit it.  After two months of watching other teams kick the stuffing out of our pitching, there was a perverse delight in doing the same thing to the Astro relievers in the sixth last night.  I felt sorry for the Houston pitchers, whose inadequacy mirrored the ineffectiveness of our bullpen, but my feelings were less sorrow than pity - that kind of disrespectful sneering we have become used to receiving.

Of course, such humiliation may be a single game a season for Houston and an almost daily occurrence for the Ms, but for a moment we had the satisfaction  of watching Houston just give up, handing the ball to their firstbaseman to pitch the bottom of the 8th.  Weinies!  Quitters!  Losers!  Take that!

Today, however, reality returns.  A rainy day game.  Another opportunity to kick sand in the face of those weakling Astros.  They better watch out, I hear Mallex is planning to "pants 'em."

For just a moment

There was one of those sweet, perfect, baseball moments last night.  For just a few seconds an event of such pure satisfaction occurs and your lifelong love and wonder of the game is reinforced.  All the bad baseball is replaced by the magical coincidence of talent and luck that defines what the game is for those who love it.

Bases loaded, down by two runs in the sixth, two outs, Vogie called off the bench to pitch it.  Who of us haven't played this out in our childhood backyards?  Not as dramatic as the bottom of the ninth, but full of all the suspense you could ever want.  Add to that: Houston ups the ante... they go to their bullpen to bring in a leftie, a disadvantage to the left-handed hitting Vogelbach.

What's going to happen?  Guduan throws a strike.  Next pitch Vogie crushes the ball, absolutely demolishes it, with that funny, short, swift swing he has.  He blasts it to right, on a line and hits the wall... hard... just missing a home run; the balls flies past the centerfielder as the rightfielder who races to track it down.

Vogie clears the bases.  Ms take the lead.  Just two feet short of an iconic grand salami, but really sweet, watching those Mariner runners cross the plate in fast succession, one, two, three.

Let's forget for a moment the rest of the game, which ended as so many have, with a loss made possible when relievers Brennan and Biddle manage to give up seven runs.  Too bad, not surprising.

But there was that moment, that instant, when you saw, knew, sensed, Vogie had fulfilled his heroic destiny. Presented with the ultimate challenge, this unlikely barrel of a ballplayer hit the ball hard to put his team on top.  Worth the wait, well worth the patience.  And hope.

Different plot, same story

So part of Servais efforts to change up the step back was on display last night, although the results, another loss, were pretty much the same we've seen for the last month and a half.

The M's decided to go with a one-inning opener.  Corey Gearrin would start, Wade LeBlanc would finish.  Good idea and it kind of worked, LeBlanc was masterful going 8 innings of one-run, three hit ball,  Gearrin, however, turned out to be a disaster, giving up three runs in the first, pitching as bad as he did earlier in the season.

I'm sure one of the analytics jockeys can answer this one, but it seems as though the M's have not only given up a lot of first-inning runs, but often in amounts of three or more.  If that's demoralizing to a fan like me, I can only imagine the grim impact it has to the team.  And, following up on my theme from yesterday, I can't think of anything more likely to cause players to press than being down by three runs before you've ever come to bat.

The question, of course, is why Gearrin was used.  True, he hadn't given up an earned run in three weeks, but I've had doubts about him all season.  He just didn't have it last night and the game was over before it got started.

Even more puzzling was Moore's throw from short to home for a fielder's choice.  Where did Narvaez go?  The runner on third was headed home, Omar was off to back up first base.  Why?  No error charged.  It was just an FC.  But it was just more what Servais correctly dubbed the night before "bad baseball."  I like Narvaez, but he made a mistake I've never seen a catcher make before.

Patience in short supply

According to reports there was booing from the stands during yesterday's dreadful seven-run second inning in yesterday's 13-3 collapse against the Angels.  From his quote after the game, sentiments of dismay were felt in  the dugout, too.  Manager Scott Servais commented, "We've played this game a few times this year.  I've had enough of it quite frankly."

Fans seem to understand the sense of DiPoto's step-back strategy, but what some seem to wonder, myself included, is whether the introduction of young, newer players means play has to be so bad sometimes.  Marco threw plenty of regrettable pitches yesterday, but his efforts to keep a poor inning from balooning into the horrible one it became, was not helped by Mallex Smith's fumbling of a single into a double and Moore's toss to the wrong base.

I began to express my concerns that this team might be learning to how to lose in my post last Thursday (My biggest worry).  I shared that post with my favorite M's reporter, KIRO's Shannon Drayer, who much to my surprise and delight sent back a thoughtful and well-argued reply.  She mostly disagreed with my argument that Servais and Davis' passive coaching was teaching losing not winning.

It's easy for me to defer to Drayer, her ability to understand this team and its players is one of the reasons I respect her reporting.   And I think she's probably right - my call for Lou Pinella-like hatred of losing is out of step with the times:  "Fiery managers are no longer effective with this generation of players.  They are tuned out.  Different game."

Ok.  I'll buy that.  But just what are these coaches doing to eliminate these mistakes?  I guess I had assumed a baseball player who makes it to AAA would have the basics down, especially the fundamentals of hitting, pitching and fielding.  I believed the step to the bigs meant mastering the advanced, nuanced, maybe inner elements of the baseball and adjusting to the speed, pace and intensity of the game played at the highest levels.

Looked at more closely, these mistakes by Moore and Smith, (neither were scored as errors) on plays I would expect competent high school players to make (along with Marco's succession of wrong pitches) suggests perhaps a more serious problem: pressing.

In her reply to my whiny post, Drayer correctly points out, in baseball, "too much emotion does very bad things to a player in the batter's box or on the mound."

Apparently fan patience is a necessary ingredient during step-back times.

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So long, Jay, we hardly knew ye...

Well the rumors were right.  Bruce hit his 300th lifetime home run and barely 24 hours later was off to Philly for a A-level player.  Sic transit and all that.

I'd taken a liking to Bruce in spring training where he could be seen, during games, leaning against the dugout railing usually talking with one of the younger players like Bishop, Murphy or Vogelbach. They must have learned a lot from him.  On his way to 300 he hit some dramatic homers and even though he overall offensive numbers were low, he could still hit the ball hard and far.

He got out of town just in time to miss another drubbing.  Marco with his worst start yet, following two bad ones.  Something's wrong.  No one, particularly Gonzalez pitches that poorly for three games in s row.  I see IL time coming.

Added motivation?

The internet exploded overnight with news about the Mariner's possible trade of Jay Bruce which wasn't really news because anyone who has followed the team since last winter knows that a bunch of players acquired during the off season are likely to be traded by the July 31 deadline.  I guess the fact that we're now in June and Bruce was in the headlines made the Phillies interest in a trade news’s worthy.

Maybe this news fired up Encarnacion, frequently mentioned as potential Mariner trade-bait.  He hit two homers.  Good advertising if you ask me.  Maybe this will inspire some of the other tradable M vets to pad their resumes.

Seems early to get deep into this speculation.  I'm not sure why any team, much less the Phillies would want to make this deal so early.  I think a reporter was looking for a scoop and took what I suspect (and hope) are on-going discussions and puffed them up to mid-July urgency.

As for today's game.  Milone started off rough, then settled and let his offense to catch up to tie 3-3.  Then, same-old, same-old: lousy relief pitching and M's can't hit their was back.