Astros Drown Flailing Mariners

We’ve been repeating the mantras. It’s still early. It’s a small sample size. The bats will heat up with the weather. The Astros are a good team. The AL West is a good division. The pieces are in place. The team will click eventually.

We’ve been repeating the mantras. We’ve been trying to stay positive. Baseball is weird. Baseball is strange.

Baseball will make you think it is out to destroy you.

Tonight hurts. It’s not the first night of the season to hurt. It won’t be the last.

There are different types of Mariner fans, and we all deal with losing differently. If you need to dwell on this, dwell on it for a bit. If you want to brush it off and move on, you can do that too. You can “well, actually” and nitpick the details of the game and convince yourself the results don’t reflect the process. That’s fine to do. It’s also fine to mope because this really sucks.

I was so optimistic coming in to the season. That optimism guided me, and even though I started seeing holes and felt the creeping terror that the window for this team closed after Game 161 last season, I clung to it. Maybe I clung naively, maybe I clung because something inside me has to believe this team will be good someday.

Tonight, I’m upset by this loss in a way I haven’t been by the others.

My grandfather was two years old the only time his Red Sox won the World Series in his lifetime. I am so afraid I’ll never see my stupid team - that I love immeasurably despite innumerable games that have made me feel this way – get there in my lifetime.

Tonight, I dwell and I feel sad. But I haven’t given up on the season because I need this season. I need to believe. Even if it’s naïve and illogical, I still believe.

This evening at 7:10 PM I was prepared to write another game recap on a cringe-worthy Yovani Gallardo start. I was surprised to watch him pitch well. In the fourth inning a tight strikezone led to three walks and two runs. The fifth inning was a struggle for him, but he left the game with a 5-4 lead.

Marc Rzepczynski pitched a scoreless seventh, then gave way to Dan Altavilla who gave way to the Astros for three runs. Dillon Overton finally saw some more game action. Unfortunately, in his third of an inning he yielded three more Astros runs.

The Mariner’s offense had a better game than we’ve seen recently. They scored five runs, and this is a relative bright spot. However, they were only 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

The Positives (and, yes, there were some)

Mike Freeman: Making his Mariners debut, he hit a home run on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the second inning. A kid with a grilled cheese sandwich came up with the ball. It appears Freeman got the ball from him, and possible the sandwich too.

Taylor Motter: He of the luscious locks that bewitched Jose Altuve last night on the basepaths, avoided another awkward encounter by hitting a two-run home run in the third inning. He also had a double later in the game.

Jarrod Dyson: That first inning was a fun inning, much of it because of the speedy Dyson. He drew a leadoff walk and stole second with Robinson Cano at the plate. Then, Cano promptly drove him home with a base hit. Speed is fun.

Evan Marshall: in 2015 he was hit in the skull with a batted ball. He was in a coma, but a dog named Butters woke him up. After a life threatening injury, he is still pitching in the Major Leagues. In a terrible game, it’s nice to see something that gives us the warm fuzzies.

Alas, we don’t get to erase this game tomorrow night. The Mariners don’t get back out there until Friday against the Texas Rangers. Felix Hernandez is due to start against Martin Perez.