Mariners Tie Baserunner Game, Lose Baseball Game

When you think of it that way, hey, almost! Tie the other guys in baserunners and you'll win half the time! What do you mean? No, that's all there is to it.

There were, I think, two profound moments in this game. Two images we'll carry with us long after our memories of the other events have passed. They weren't two images we'll carry with us to the end of the season, but they're two difficult images to shake.

The first image was Erik Bedard's face after surrendering Freddie Freeman's go-ahead homer in the seventh. At that point, it was a 1-1 game. Bedard had fought to keep the Mariners in it, and he had one on and one out when the left-handed rookie stepped up to the plate. Bedard gave him a first-pitch fastball up and away in the zone, but Freeman went up and got it and drove it way out to straightaway center. Despite Franklin Gutierrez's best efforts, the Braves went up by two, and Bedard just stood and stared.

Ordinarily it doesn't do us a lot of good to try and analyze a player's expression. Ordinarily that's the sort of thing that just gets us in trouble. It's the sort of thing that makes us think a guy wasn't trying. It's the sort of thing that makes us think another guy is giving it his all. It's the sort of thing that makes us think a guy does or does not have anything left. It's us trying to read deeply into people we don't know based on the way they look for split-seconds on the television screen, with all the accuracy you'd expect.

But here - this is a readable expression. This is the reality of the situation dawning on Erik Bedard. This is Erik Bedard realizing that, even though the game hadn't ended, the game had basically just ended. This is Erik Bedard realizing how much of his hard work had just been negated. This is the expression Sisyphus had, the first time.

The camera zoomed in on Bedard's face after the home run and it held for several seconds before mouthing a "wow". It was a powerful thing, not least because we all understood, and because we were all making a similar expression ourselves.

The second image wasn't so much one single image as it was a collection of images - a real-life .gif, if you will. A moving image showing the Mariners' feeble attempts to hit Craig Kimbrel in the bottom of the ninth. Kimbrel was to face Justin Smoak, Dustin Ackley and Miguel Olivo. Not the worst lineup of hitters for the M's to start a rally. But Smoak struck out on three pitches. Ackley struck out on five pitches. Olivo struck out on four pitches. Combined, those three hitters swung seven times, and those seven swings amounted to six misses and a foul.

Lately, we've seen the Mariners get shut down by some mediocre talent. Chris Volstad. John Lannan. Jason Marquis. Vance Worley. Watching some of the Mariners' at bats against those guys, we all thought to ourselves at some point or another "I don't think they could look much worse." But they could look much worse, and Kimbrel showed just how bad they can look. He dominated the Mariners completely, and even the good hitters didn't stand a chance. Watching that inning - I frequently feel as if the Mariners' hitters look helpless, but I've never seen them look that helpless. It was jarring, if not entirely unexpected.

Look - the Braves are a hell of an opponent. They're a lot like the Mariners, actually, only better. I know a lot of us were terrified of the Phillies series, but this one isn't much easier, if it's easier at all, and tonight's game is exactly what I'm afraid all three games might look like. Considering the Braves can shut down good lineups, really I'm just glad the M's got on the board.

Some quick bullet holes after a game that didn't leave me with much material:

• I didn't like that Adam Kennedy drew the start at DH over Jack Cust, and Kennedy hadn't been a productive hitter for a few weeks coming into this game, so I'm obligated to acknowledge the fact that he scored and drove in the Mariners' only run when he took Brandon Beachy out to right in the fourth. Kennedy's home run swing is the damndest thing. It doesn't look like a powerful swing. It looks like a long, slow, loopy swing that'll result in a fliner to right-center, which are all of Kennedy's balls in play. But it's like sometimes the ball just hits the bat extra funny and carries a little further in the other direction. I don't get it, and I don't get how we wound up in a position where we're looking to Adam Kennedy to produce runs for this offense, but things are what they are so hopefully he doesn't just forget how to hit all of a sudden. Turns out we kind of need you, Adam.
  
  
• It really doesn't feel to me like Mike Carp has been a semi-regular player since getting promoted, but it turns out he kind of has. Carp got into the lineup on June 8th. Since then, the M's have played 18 games, and Carp has started ten of them, while appearing in 13 of them. Over his 38 plate appearances, he has yet to go deep and his AAA hot streak is a distant memory, but he has gotten on base, so it's not like he's been unproductive. Today he ripped a Beachy fastball the other way for a leadoff double in the fifth. How Mike Carp has 38 plate appearances while Carlos Peguero has 127 plate appearances boggles the mind. Or at least, it boggles the mind that understands that Carlos Peguero has bad at bats.
  
  
• Following Carp's leadoff double, Gutierrez moved him over to third on a grounder to the right side, which drew applause. Then Chone Figgins walked up to the plate, which drew boos.
  
  
• The boos only grew louder when Figgins subsequently fouled out to third. They were the loudest boos for Figgins I remember hearing, although I concede that's hardly scientific. One gets the sense that things have advanced to the point where people want to boo Figgins. They can't wait for an opening, and they'll boo him whenever he makes the smallest mistake. This is hard. It's hard because I'm torn between the pro-booing and anti-booing crowd, and it's hard because I don't see this working out. I don't see how Figgins wins people back and becomes a contributing member of the team. So the booing just makes me uncomfortable. I have never seen a player look as lost as Figgins does right now.
  
  
• ...although Figgins has a .481 OPS, and Gutierrez has a .477 OPS. Surprise!
  
  
• The Braves started Julio Lugo tonight, making this my annual reminder that Julio Lugo is still around. Julio Lugo makes for a good example of how a promising midseason trade can work out all funny. In 2006, the Dodgers were 50-55 and on the fringes of the race at the deadline, and in search of infield help. So they acquired Lugo from the Rays. Tampa Bay's starting shortstop, Lugo had posted a 105 OPS+ the previous season, and had a 124 OPS+ at the time of the trade.
  
  After the deal, Lugo batted 164 times for the Dodgers, and posted an OPS+ of 41. The Dodgers also went 38-19 the rest of the way and made the playoffs as the Wild Card. Don't try to figure it out.
  
  
• Sounders...player Fredy Montero was in attendance, and during an in-game interview with Angie Mentink, he talked about his friendship with Jack Wilson, and Wilson's love of playing soccer. I wonder when we're going to start hearing about Jack Cust's other interests. In case he doesn't have any, he might want to get some.
  

Things won't get easier tomorrow, with Tommy Hanson taking the hill. Michael Pineda will also start, which is nice, but I have an idea: in an effort to limit Pineda's innings and spare his arm, Eric Wedge gives the Braves the opportunity to just take three runs scored. If they take it, the Mariners then get nine innings to try to score four runs. I don't see any compelling reason not to do this.