About to Give Up

I'm about to give up on the (Seattle) Mariners season. They were 12 games under .500 before they won 8 games in a row, including sweeping two series. Well ok those were against sub .500 teams, but then they won 2 of 3 games with Cleveland, losing the last game of the series.

That left them 5 games under .500 and the prospect of getting close to if not at or above .500, but then they were swept by Boston in two games they should and could have won, a 15 inning game they lost on pitching and the other giving up 6 runs in the bottom of the 9th inning.

And now last night they lost to Baltimore 11-8 to be back to 9 games under .500 and the likely hood of going back to at or over 10 games below .500 with this games this weekend, effectively back to square one from just a two weeks ago.

The problem is several fold but it starts with the fact they have two excellent picthers and the next three are older journey pitchers who don't have good enough stuff to win consistently. So if Hernandez and Iwakumo lose then the next three games are likely lost too.

Add to the fact their hitting is inconsistent and the lineup of full of players with unfulfilled promise which isn't happening, it's hard for the few good hitters to carry the team let alone win games. Their 8 game winning streak shows their potential and their losing streaks shows the reality of the team.

That said, I'm still a Mariners fan (since I returned to the northwest in 1987) but I'm like many who are tired of hearing lots of promises and "If they could...", because it doesn't happen. They're out of the division race and likely headed for 4th place, only not last because of addition of Houston to balance the divisions.

A solution the owners don't seem to want to do is change the General Manager Jack Zduriencik who has posted 1 winning season of the 6 seasons he's been GM. He's had some good trades but he shown more interest to get older players who are approaching or at the end of their career in hopes they'll have a comeback, but few if any do.

I don't know how the Mariners will end the season. They're capable of being a .500 or even slightly better team, but not they way they've played to date, no consistency from the hitting and pitching. They're fielding is worse than last year but still top ten stuff.

But defense only rarely win games, it really only helps to keep from losing them. Pitching and hitting wins games, something they haven't been good at so far. The question is when the fans stop paying attention. The attendence at the ballpark shows many have.