Bullpen moons Braves, Mariners eclipse Atlanta 6-5

This was almost a very bad recap, stuffed full of overwrought eclipse metaphors and bullpen management frustration. There's a little bit of that tonight (no lead is safe, Scott. Don't you understand that? Andrew Albers can be quite decent but he turns into a pumpkin after the second time through the lineup), but the bullpen pulled through once again, and this time around the Mariners' offense kicked in juuuuust enough. So no bad metaphors, no angsty swears, just a quick n' tidy recap of a Monday night win that the Ms were lucky enough to make forgettable. I'm desperately hungry, and in the midst of trying to cook myself some dinner, so it's going to be a bullet point kind of evening.

• Andrew Albers, whom I have referred to as Andrew Albies (thanks Ozzie) in my head throughout today, notched his second win in as many starts. He pitched relatively smoothly up until the sixth inning when he faced the Braves order for the third time, and Matt Kemp catcher interference and a Nick Markakis single put runners on first and second with no outs. Servais chose that moment to bring in Emilio Pagan, like a man who once won $100 on a scratch-off card and is now determined to repeat his luck. Pagan is good; I like him in this occasionally lights-out long relief role, but am starting to develop niggling flashbacks to Servais' over-reliance on Nick Vincent last year. But the team won tonight, so it's much easier to push aside those worries.
• You know whose usage was fantastic though? Human red squiggle underline Marc Rzepczynski, who pitched a whole entire inning of baseball.

* pause for raucous applause and cheering *

• I have no idea what the current calculations are (paging Andrew Rice), but would imagine that this outing will have decreased his dollars/batter by a decent margin. Rzep allowed three hits and no runs, and also struck out Freddie Freeman which was wonderful and very satisfying.
• After a whole bunch of National League machinations, Nick Vincent was brought in and recorded four straight outs, but I still refuse to fully relax when he comes in because that beard knows things and could turn on us at any minute.
• Edwin Díaz recorded his 28th save and also owes Mike Zunino a big 'ol steak dinner, for perfectly nailing Ender Inciarte at second. Had Zunino not Florida-fist-pumped this throw into existence, Freddie Freeman would have been up with one out and the tying run at second base. Thank you, Mike, for delaying the growth of additional gray hairs for one more day.

*Note: Robinson Canó continues to redefine coolness, and I hope you're all taking notes when watching him because your future children are going to want to know all about how you got to watch this legend in person.

• Somehow it's been nearly 500 words and we haven't even touched on the offense, even though they scored six runs. I guess that's the thing about this team though: it's much more amazing that their pitching didn't completely collapse, than their offense scoring six. Honestly the most surprising thing on the offensive side is that none of those runs came from homers, though Yonder Alonso came darn close.

• Do you love Alonso yet? I really think you should.

• Four Mariners recorded at least one RBI tonight: Alonso, Canó, Mitch Haniger, and Andrew Albers. I'm starving, and want to get this recap up sooner rather than later, so that feels like an appropriate fun fact to end on. This team is so weird. I love it. Go M's.