Adam Jones Does Good Baseball Things, Mariners Do Fewer In Loss

It's down to a science, now, whenever Ms. Jeff and I go out for dinner. She will pick up the menu and, because she's a woman, she will study it thoroughly, picking out a few possible entrees and then going back and forth between them in her mind. After some time she'll ask me to help make her decision for some reason even though we both know full well my opinion doesn't matter. Finally, the server will come by, maybe for the second or third time, and Ms. Jeff will make her choice.

She'll usually like her choice. Seldom does she end up selecting something she doesn't enjoy. She knows what she likes, and she knows how ingredients will come together. But oftentimes I end up ordering one of her other possibilities, or somebody seated near us ends up ordering one of her other possibilities, and she'll look at it longingly, wondering what she's missed out on by choosing the way she did. If it's me, I'll give her a taste, but if it's someone else, they will not,* and she'll just have to imagine.

I think this is kind of what it's like to watch Adam Jones.

* this is a joke that in time may become not a joke

The easy storyline for this game is that the Mariners lost to the Orioles after Jamey Wright allowed Adam Jones to club a tie-breaking homer. And that's fair, because that's exactly what happened. Jones came to bat with the score 1-1 and stopped batting with the score 2-1, and that's how the game wound up.

But the bigger story here is less about what did happen, and more about what didn't happen, since the M's finished with one run. They scraped together five hits, they didn't draw a walk, and they didn't do any real damage against a guy fresh off the DL and a completely mediocre closer. With Michael Pineda on the mound, the Mariners had an opportunity for a sweep, but they couldn't pull it off because they couldn't score enough runs.

The occasional clunker is fine. The best offenses will have days that make them look like the worst offenses, and the Mariners are never going to be a juggernaut. But this is clearly a pattern, since the M's have a team OPS just over .600 since the beginning of May. They have a winning record over the same span of time, but that's because the run prevention has been otherworldly. That's not going to keep up at the same pace.

Of course, just as regression should strike the pitching staff, it should strike the lineup, too. But since the M's are actually hanging in the race as a competitive baseball team, there's more pressure on them to maximize their roster than if they were eight or ten games out, as there's an opportunity here for them to make a run. And I'm not convinced the M's have maximized their roster.

Dustin Ackley's imminent promotion should help, both because it'll get Ackley into the lineup, and Chone Figgins out of it a little more often. But I don't know what the M's are going to do about their left field situation, which is currently giving outs away like AOL CD-ROMs. Left field isn't sinking the entire lineup, but it sure as hell isn't helping, and it stings extra bad on days like this.

The upside of the Mariners contending is that the Mariners are contending. The downside of the Mariners contending is that we get a new assortment of worries, and things to complain about. With the lights shining so bright, it's becoming increasingly difficult for guys like Carlos Peguero, Mike Wilson and Michael Saunders to hide. The outfield needs help.

A selection of bullet holes:

• If there were any concerns at all over Michael Pineda after his start against the Yankees - and I'm not sure there should've been - you can go ahead and throw them out the window, as he got right back into his comfort zone this afternoon. Pineda finished with a classically him kind of line, with seven strikeouts and one walk over seven one-run innings. He threw a lot of strikes, he missed a lot of bats, and his final pitch was one of his best, a 96mph high and tight fastball to whiff Robert Andino with two runners on. Pineda threw a season- and therefore career-high 106 pitches, but he made most of them count, and finished strong.
  
  Given Pineda's performance today, I think we can chalk the wildness against New York up to disciplined hitters and a little extra adrenaline. The adrenaline should calm down over subsequent starts against the Yankees - not because Pineda will have gained experience, but because Pineda will get older, and older people get less excited over things. I remember when I last looked forward to something. It was a lollipop, and I was 12.
  
  
• In their first meeting, J.J. Hardy took Pineda deep on a fastball. Today, J.J. Hardy took Pineda deep on a slider. All J.J. Hardy has left to do is take Pineda deep on a changeup, which he will probably never get the opportunity to do ever.
  
  
• Adam Jones hit the tie-breaking homer, but his more impressive feat was a catch to rob Miguel Olivo of extra bases in the bottom of the fourth, which you can watch here. Olivo drilled a ball to straightaway center that sent Jones running towards the wall on a line, but after a last-second adjustment, Jones made an over-the-shoulder catch on the track and didn't so much crash into the wall as push off of it. Willie Mays never got to the wall when he made his famous catch. And unlike with so many miraculous Jim Edmonds catches, Adam Jones didn't kill himself. Safeco's center field has seen some unbelievable plays.
  
  
• In the bottom of the fifth, Jack Wilson got a hanging curveball, put a perfect swing on it, and flew out to the track in left-center. Off the bat I was thinking extra bases, which might reflect more on me than it does on Jack Wilson.
  
  
• I first noticed the flashing, multicolored signs and boards around Safeco when Root Sports would use its ultra-mo replay. Then today, I noticed them when Root Sports used a regular, full-speed replay. Now I'm convinced that all of the signs look like that in real life, and nobody talks about them because they've been hypnotized to not talk about them, and to only talk about Trader Joe's.
  
  
• The home run allowed by Jamey Wright was only the sixth home run allowed by a Mariners reliever all season. Brandon League held out until May 13th. Aaron Laffey held out until May 23rd. Wright held out until June 1st. David Pauley is next. You never know when it's going to happen, but it's probably going to cost these guys a ballgame, and it's probably going to be hit by Adam Jones or Jeff Mathis.

Tomorrow brings James Shields and the Rays to kick off a four-game series. The Rays are in third place and the M's are in second place so this should probably be a breeze.