Mariners Lose Game, Win Friends

I assume that Trevor Cahill will be their friend, on account of how nice they were to him. I also assume that members of Trevor Cahill's family will be their friends, since Trevor Cahill looks like the kind of guy who has a nice, friendly family. Maybe Trevor's dad thinks Trevor's a little weird - Trevor's dad probably thinks Trevor's a little weird - but a friend of Trevor is a friend of the Cahills, that's what they always say. It isn't what they always say, but they say it, sometimes.

Maybe you don't remember, but Cahill got off to an incredible start this season. Through his first ten starts, he had a 1.79 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 65.1 innings, which was a lot of strikeouts for him. Then he fell on harder times. He came into action tonight with a 5.52 ERA ever since, and 88 strikeouts to go with 61 walks. Cahill hadn't been terrible, since he was still getting groundballs, but for a long stretch he was inconsistent and, overall, pretty bad.

Tonight: splendid. Tonight, no runs. Tonight, one walk, and seven whiffs. Tonight, Cahill recorded a game score of 75, which is his highest since April 17th. It's his first north of 55 since the end of July. Tonight, Trevor Cahill got to finish a frustrating season on a positive note, which means at least somebody got something out of this contest.

The desire is to recap the shit out of this game. That's always the desire, even if it seldom works out that way, but the desire surges in intensity over the season's final few days. I mean, this is it, right? I should give it everything that I have left, shouldn't I? I've referred before to the final stretch of a competitive run, when a good runner will sprint to the finish on whatever fumes remain in his tank, and this isn't too dissimilar a situation.

But then: why? I always come back to the question of why. What's the use? Unlike a runner in a race, I'm not done running when the M's are done playing. And more importantly, why kill myself covering an afterthought? I can see the traffic numbers here. I can get an idea of the traffic numbers elsewhere. And I have a pretty good understanding of what goes on inside my own head. These games are pointless, and there's less reason to go nuts now than at any other point in the year. Recapping the shit out of these games would only prove a point to me, and that point would be that sometimes I make bad use of my time.

These were the thoughts on my mind around the fifth or sixth inning. Come the ninth inning, I ate dinner and watched something else. Once that was over, I walked to the room where I do most of my writing, I sat down to write, and I thought, "now what?"

Now this, I guess, whatever this is. I quite literally don't know what to say. I could talk more about the game, but who cares about the game? We've seen this game. It is a stupid game. And from this game we learned nothing. I could talk about something else, something more meaningful, but what's more meaningful? That the season's almost over? I tried to tell people last night to savor the Mariners baseball they had left, but then the Mariners went and did this.

It is an awkward position when the season is over, but just not quite over. We've all been looking forward to tomorrow. We've all been wishing the season would hurry up and get to the point where we can be sad that the season is finished. You will be less sad than you think, and then, in time, much much more.