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.
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