The Seattle Mariners fever dream turns into a fever nightmare in loss to Houston Astros

Some say reality is divided into planes, stacked on top of each other, intertwining and blurring and clashing and existing all together, and all apart. If there exists a plane where dreams are found, it too dances this same dance, interweaving with our existence. A multiphase existence, where the realm of dreams is also the realm of nightmares, and never was, always will be, and never will be. The Seattle Mariners often seem to exist on one of these planes as well, a plane all their own, occasionally aligning with the plane of Good Baseball Team, and sometimes with the plane of Bad Baseball Team, and sometimes somehow both, and somehow never either.

As the remaining days of the season have waned the Seattle Mariners have found themselves on the outside looking in of the plane of playoffs, if on the precipice of the entrance. But as many have said probably too many times and now too many times plus one, they have had their destiny in their own hands in that they would be playing the opponents standing in their way. One game after another they not only seemed to fail to answer the call, they seemed to push the unanswered phone into a swamp to never be found again.

That is, until yesterday, when they once again aligned with planes of chaos, and ultimately showed signs of life they hadn’t in weeks, in a victory to split the series with the Houston Astros. Today those signs of life were there to start the game, but quickly dissipated as the revival of their dreams quickly turned to nightmares and Seattle ultimately went on to drop the game to the Astros 8-3.

Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images

Bryce Miller takes the mound, and the world around the edges bleeds and blends as you narrow your focus on the 6’2” righty. He is twirling his fastball, twirling and tossing out Bregman on second, he is twirling, twirling...

Miller twirls a middle-middle fastball to Yordan Álvarez... Álvarez doesn’t just twirl it, he spins swats slams swings slams swats spins it over the wall in right-center... he... ties it in the fourth... but when did...

The edges blur into the middle and the world spins, back to the first inning...

Oh, yeah. J.P. Crawford on the... first pitch? No. The second. I remember because it was a few inches inside.. but Crawford still crushed it over the right field corner... and then... Framber Valdez started every at-bat behind, there were runners in scoring positions with no outs.. how? Oh, the Mariners... I forgot... but still... tied... tied...

Spinning, again, and we are back in the fourth inning...

Miller still on the mound, good, I like Miller. Still tied. Tied, neutral, but blurry neutral.. and there it is, I can see it, on the blurry edges... hope... Mauricio Dubón is at the plate, runners on first and third. Runners on first and third? No, that’s not right... what happened... Miller was pitching well... Miller... was...

When did Mauricio Dubón develop a power stroke... When did the Mariners get down 4-1... on the Mauricio Dubón powerstroke.. this doesn’t feel... is this a dream...?

Down, down we fall... forever, and not far at all, to the bottom of the fourth inning...

Breathe... the dream is alive. Hope. On the blurry edges. The game is young... the game is...

Eugenio Suárez is batting. Framber Valdez is still pitching. I think that is good. The bases are loaded, but there are two outs... On the blurry edges... He did it! The grounder sneaks through and now they only trail by one! Good! Good vibes... Good vibes... they only trail... in the standings they only trail...

The spinning becomes more intense than ever, opalescence tracing across our vision, until it all bleeds into form and we see the seventh inning, and a Mariner on the mound.

Justin Topa is on the mound, good. Topaz. Solid. A solid sixth, and now... Altuve flies out to center, one down... Alex Bregman flies out to.. no, not now, why is Teoscar Hernández blurry... I feel... how? Somehow Teo didn’t catch that, but it was right... okay well, scoop and... is he seeing the blurry edges too? How did it get to the wall... and now Bregman is on third... No..

They walked Yordan, they keep walking Yordan, yeah... walking Yordan and you just have to get out, wait, mother- Tucker. It would be Kyle Tucker. But Topa was doing so... no, not Topa... Brash, they brought in Matt Brash, and then Tucker... France almost had it... so blurry I might be sick...

Abreu is on base? Oh yeah, the RBI single. And now Michael Brantley, he has always got to us... but that was then, but he has always... got to us. But... Crawford almost had it... so blurr-... blurry...

This time the opalescence of the motion is lined with a negative image static, blue and white and sparks, and it blurs and burns into the bottom of the sixth inning.

Make it stop. This isn’t the dream.. It started a dream... this is...

Why are we going backwards, we were behind.. behind... Oh, yeah, Hector Neris showed his whole behind...

Again the scene changes, but the spin is different this time. Our vision bends around a focal point, nearing ever closer. Not just spinning... a spiral... to the eighth inning, spiraling...

Trent Thornton is pitching. I like Thornton, but this is a really important game. It’s never over until it is actually over, and if we pitch Thornton he is the kind of guy who could give up a homerun to even...

Maldonado. This started a dream... This isn’t... a dream is a nightmare... this is a... I can’t see it anymore... I think it’s still there, but I can’t see where the hope went.. I feel... I just want to wake up.