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.
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