11-17, Augh

by Jeff Sullivan on May 7, 2010 1:38 AM PDT in Seattle Mariners Game Recaps

The worst part is that I can sit here and rationalize so much of all this.

So we got swept by the White Sox. We lost three games by a total of three runs. We had leads in each of them, and handed one over to our closer. Nobody likes to get swept, but with an extra few breaks, the M's come away from that series with two or even three wins.

So we got swept by the Rangers. We lost three games by a total of seven runs. Two of them went to extra innings, and the one that didn't came down to some flukily bad defense and ended with the tying run at the plate in the person of Milton Bradley. Nobody likes to get swept, but with an extra few breaks, the M's come away from that series with two or even three wins.

So we got swept by the Rays. It's the Rays. The Rays are the best team in baseball, at 21-7. The Rays slaughtered the Red Sox in a four-game series at Fenway. The Rays are really good, and though we lost by 16 total runs, we had a chance in the first one with Bradley and Griffey batting with the bases loaded, we had a chance in the second one when we handed a lead to Cliff Lee, and, hey, tonight, who knows what happens if Rob Johnson gets a call. Nobody likes to get swept, but with an extra few breaks, the M's come away from this series with one or two wins.

At some point, though, it's not enough to be able to rationalize a loss. You want to celebrate a win. And the M's haven't won over a non-Royals ballclub since April 21st. We know they're talented, and they know they're talented, but so what? What does that matter? Can you even envision what a successful weekend series against the Angels would look like? Can they? Everyone, I imagine, is high on knowledge but low on faith. We know that the M's were projected pretty well and that a single month doesn't really change a whole lot, but there aren't many people who'd want to put money on the M's playing better than .500 baseball the rest of the way right now. People are panicking. And they're panicking because, while we can rationalize the team's recent spate of losing, the games themselves feel straight out of a different era. A recent era. An era we'd rather not recall.

The good news is that we play in the AL West. In the Central, we'd be 7.5 back of Minnesota. In the East, we'd be ten back of Tampa Bay. In the NL, we'd be...well we'd probably be undefeated, but this is the AL, and the luxury of playing in the AL West is that we're still somehow only 3.5 behind first place. It's a luxury because, while the rest of us are buying out convenient stores and stocking our bomb shelters, Wak can still rationalize. He can remind his team that it's been in nearly every game. He can remind his team that it doesn't need to do everything perfect to win. He can attempt to keep spirits high, because the team probably doesn't deserve to have suffered through three sweeps, and they really haven't been that far from taking some games that they've lost.

So the good news is that, despite everything, the M's are still very much in the hunt. For all we know, they could turn things around tomorrow. The first sixth of the season has been rough, but we haven't been buried.

Still, there's an air of embittered negativity surrounding this team the likes of which I never thought we'd experience, and while those of us on the outside may have a certain flair for the overdramatic, one wonders how long it'll be before the players start to get down on themselves, if they haven't already. They're still close, and Wak will remind them of that, but these losses have been frustrating, and they've recently trended towards lifeless. When are we going to see a spark? Are we ever going to see a spark?

The Mariners need a win. They need a lot of wins. But, first, they need one. Not a close loss. Not an understandable loss. A win. Any kind of win. Just something to relieve the pressure a little bit. They'll feel better, and we'll feel better. The reason I get so pissed off is because I know in my heart that this is a pretty good ballclub that's playing below its potential, and I could really stand to see things get turned around here, because there's nothing I dread more than another gentle slide into passive indifference.

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When w're 17-17 in a week.

We’re all gonna look back on this and laugh.

by Hopefulmsfan on May 7, 2010 1:40 AM PDT reply actions

Crap.

we’re*

by Hopefulmsfan on May 7, 2010 1:40 AM PDT up reply actions

Just in time to face the Rays again.

by TWownsU on May 7, 2010 2:01 AM PDT up reply actions

My friend txted me during the game saying simply "So who are the top draft prospects in 2011?"

The sad thing is this question seemed entirely valid and I wanted to know as well.

by SethGrandpa on May 7, 2010 1:49 AM PDT reply actions

Anthony Rendon

ROB JOHNSON IS THE WORST PERSON EVER

by I Lick Squirrels on May 7, 2010 1:56 AM PDT up reply actions

Yep.

by SethGrandpa on May 7, 2010 3:04 AM PDT up reply actions

Unfortunately, I feel more bemused than anguished right now.

Maybe that slide’s already starting. Give me a handhold, M’s.

by Decatur on May 7, 2010 1:53 AM PDT reply actions

During the 7th inning stretch at some point early this week or last week

Some guys in front of me sang “….root root root for the Mariners, if they don’t win it’s the same….” and it kind of bugged me. And now it feels so appropriate. Ooof.

Hey at least we got swept by the best team in baseball and the Angels got swept (in 4) by the Sox who are…not quite as good as the DRays.

Mariners/D Broncos/BSU Broncos fan in Seattle
The first rule of Lookout Landing is...

by appleshampoo on May 7, 2010 1:56 AM PDT reply actions

It's seemingly becoming a race to the bottom.

Whoever gets swept the least makes it to October.

by doublemazaa on May 7, 2010 2:07 AM PDT up reply actions

I picked a shitty week to go to a bunch of games.

I’ve been amazed how vocal the crowd has been in voicing their displeasure with the team. I don’t recall hearing that many boos from the crowd even when the teams had really bad seasons in recent years.

by ScottBrowne on May 7, 2010 1:57 AM PDT reply actions

Expectations are dangerous things.

by MT Olson on May 7, 2010 2:20 AM PDT up reply actions

The danger of listening to the podcast is that...

…whenever i read your writing I hear your voice. GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!

With that said, I’m glad I’m currently in Colorado where Ms games are not broadcast.

by doublemazaa on May 7, 2010 2:05 AM PDT reply actions

Regarding the Ranger series:

Nobody likes to get swept, but with an extra few breaks, the M’s come away from that series with two or even three wins.

(I don’t like to be an old record, but it has to be said)
If Wak hadn’t played Byrnes, odds are that a non-subnormal person would not have shied away from the sacrifice bunt, would not have been petrified watching the strikes go by when we could have scored an insurance run with 1 out bases loaded in the Fister game.

If only a non-subnormal player had been out there instead of Byrnes this whole funk wouldn’t exist.

But of course you also got Lowe gettng 3 losses. What if League/Kelley had been out there throwing first? Would we have got away with 1 loss, 0 loss?
This is on Wak again for using poor players in important situations.

No big roster change, no big bat magically appearing from somewhere, just Byrnes+Lowe appearing in 5 important single situations where they had no business of being, might have cost us 5 wins being changed to losses. Instead of 11-17 we could have easily been at 16-12.

by Sam Regens on May 7, 2010 2:21 AM PDT reply actions

And if Mike Sweeney doesn't GIDP on the first pitch,

Byrnes never even bats in the 11th. You’re forgetting everyone else that has failed and painting the blame on two players appearing in five situations. There’s a lot more that goes into winning and losing than just those individual plays and players.

by Matthew on May 7, 2010 10:52 AM PDT up reply actions

My main intent was to show how razor thin our funk is from respectability (although it is true I blame those 2 players being used)

Regarding other players, if even Figgins and Lopez were hitting like they were expected to, or Sweeney and Griffey not be this terrible, then of course we would be winning a lot.

But those are rather big changes and over a period of time. I just wanted to show a quick fix (in the past) with no big roster change, no expectation for all underperkorming players to step it up, etc.

by Sam Regens on May 7, 2010 5:13 PM PDT up reply actions

I'm not even worried.

I have a hard time believing this will continue for much longer. Scoring runs will always be a concern with the current roster but I can’t see us losing Felix and Cliff Lee pitched games for much longer. Some team we’ll face is going to have trouble scoring runs against this team.

I knew things would be tough trying to bounce back while the Rays are in town. They’re an excellent team. On top of that, their hot streak has been fueled by hitting with men on base at an absurd rate. We just came off a series in which we’ve stranded runners all over the place. We follow that up by facing a team with strong offense, defense, and pitching? Chances of scraping away one win from this series were already slim given the circumstances. Then we ended up losing Milton Bradley AND Jack Wilson.

This team was supposed to have the advantage in low-scoring games and our style of play was supposed to annoy the daylights out of the other team. Instead, more often than not, our team is getting shown up in that department. Successful stolen bases, bloops, bunts, squeeze-plays. That’s supposed to be us, not them. Watching the Rays execute a squeeze-play was painful knowing how badly botched the one against Texas was.

I don’t feel hopeless. I feel impatient. Things are going to get better, but it’s the waiting-until-it-does-bit that gets irritating.

by ThundaPC on May 7, 2010 2:46 AM PDT reply actions

That squeeze to put Tampa up 4 was kindof the icing on the shit cake for me tonight.

This is reminding me of that 20 game win streak that Oakland had several years back. Every time they won, I got this strangely positive feeling that, well, no team goes and wins 20 games in a row, so they’re bound to lose the next one. And then they kept not losing the next one, and soon enough we found ourselves on the outside looking in.

Now, I look at some of the stats, and particularly home runs. Do we really expect the M’s to only hit 56 HR’s this year as a team (or whatever number, exactly)? No way. At the end of every game, it’s like “okay, tomorrow’s going to be the day,” and then tomorrow ISN’T the day, again, and I spend an hour or two thinking about how long I give the team before I seriously adjust my season-long expectations of them, and I go to bed and wake up the next morning and do it again.

Except for when Byrnes fucked up that bunt. I was pissed for several days after that one.

Charter Member: Dave Sims Sweet Hat Club

by Two Rs and Two Ls on May 7, 2010 3:10 AM PDT up reply actions

This team has to have a good run in them yet though.

And agree, the Byrnes failed squeeze is the game that’s really stuck with me. Seems like that started this whole streak. That game made me feel sick and angry. Felix has to be the one to stop the streak tonight right?

by Hopefulmsfan on May 7, 2010 3:16 AM PDT up reply actions

M's don't need clubhouse chemistry

They need baseball chemistry. And it starts with the DH, who is in the game for one reason – to HIT!!! Lots of people say you can’t put it all on Griffey/Sweeney, and I agree it’s been a bunch of things, from others not hitting to sloppy defense. But I also think it starts with Griffey/Sweeney, not only as the DH combo, but also the middle of the order combo. It’s a black hole that is swallowing up the rest of the team.

by PackBob on May 7, 2010 2:51 AM PDT reply actions

Big as Griff is, he's gonna need a lot more soda before he collapses in on himself.

by waldo rojas on May 7, 2010 9:40 AM PDT up reply actions

I'm done with this shit

Dear Mariners,

Please play real baseball.

Thanks

Right now I'm dreaming of Carl Crawford. Maybe next year...(or this year at the trade deadline)...

by SeaKoala on May 7, 2010 3:14 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs

Ty Wigginton has as many homeruns as our team.

by SethGrandpa on May 7, 2010 3:19 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs

At a certain point though, it becomes comical

I’m actually just about to that point. If they go and lose Felix’s start tomorrow 1-0 or something, I mean, that’s funny. What are the odds? What are the odds any baseball team could go out there and be this bad offensively over a week+ stretch? Nobody’s that bad. Tacoma’s roster probably couldn’t have performed worse offensively had we swapped them out for the week. It’s just one of those weird things in baseball. At some point this season the M’s will probably pull a reverse of this and for a week go on a rampage of hitting where when it’s over, we’re shocked when they don’t score 7 or 8 runs a game.

One thing about these sort of weird streaks is that usually when they are about to end, you start to see little things that change, while the results stay the same. I could be wrong, because I haven’t looked it up to verify, just going off what I saw without keeping real track, but it seemed to me the M’s hitters yesterday were hitting an awful lot of balls hard, but right at people. So maybe it’s all about to turn around…

Maybe it’s just the impending Felix day that has me feeling optimistic, but I’m feeling pretty good about Friday’s game. And if we can take game 1, with Saunders pitching for the Halos in game 2, I feel pretty good about that one. Game 3 also seems pretty winnable. Plus, winning game 1 would demoralize the Halo’s just as much as losing it would demoralize the M’s, which might help out in game 2 and then the two combined could tip the balance in game 3. And it all starts with Felix, which is a good place to start.

Sweeping the Halos here, just might bury them for the season too. Hard to come back from 12-21, even in a weak division.

Happy Felix Day!

by hiskeyd on May 7, 2010 4:50 AM PDT reply actions

I don't recall seeing that many hard hit balls yesterday. Unless you are talking about the ones between my legs.

Damn, my eyeball tastes good.

by Gekko Mojo on May 7, 2010 7:00 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

Kotchman stung a few pretty hard and I think Gutz got into one.

But sadly, those are the only ones I remember.

Karma police, arrest this man.

by wyte_lightning on May 7, 2010 8:59 AM PDT up reply actions

Trying to look at the bright side of things,

at least Felix has 2 wins and we’ve won 4 of his 6 starts (he has a 3.10 ERA by the way).

He could have been like Zack Greinke, who has a 2.27 ERA and only given up 2 runs or less in 5 of his 6 starts, only to be rewarded with a 0 wins, 3 loss record, and the team somehow managing to lose 5 of his 6 starts.

At least things aren’t that bad. Yet.

by Sam Regens on May 7, 2010 5:03 AM PDT reply actions

The most frustrating aspect to me is that they're not a bad team.

Bad teams don’t get all the chances these guys create, but the Mariners just can’t seem to turn runners in scoring position into runs on the board. Every time the Mariners load the bases I tell myself this is the breaking point, this is where it all changes.

Then Sweeney grounds into a double play on the first pitch, or Byrnes fails a suicide squeeze then strikes out looking, or both Griffey and Bradley strike out, or Rob Johnson gets called out looking on a ball that was inside from a pitcher that had just thrown 11 consecutive balls. With the Mariners luck this season, of course he got that call. All of those things occurring in a month would be bad, but that’s all last week.

This can’t possibly be sustainable, right? Someone please tell me this isn’t sustainable.

by David Sarmento on May 7, 2010 8:25 AM PDT reply actions