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!