Hard to Watch

The Mariners games are hard to watch this season. Going into the bottom of the 9th inning ahead 5-3 against Colorado and a chance to even the road trip at 5-5 after being swept by Toronto and splitting 4 games with Minnesota, and winning the first two games of the series, the announcer said it all.

"Fernando Rodney blew it." Yeah, he blew another save with a walk, a double and a single to tie the game. Then in the bottom of the 11th, Rasmusson gave up a two run homer to lose the game 7-5 and the announcer said it again, "Oh no, not what we wanted."

The Mariners left 12 men on base in scoring position (2nd or 3rd), including a bases loaded inning and didn't pick up any of them after scoring 3 runs in the inning. All they needed was one or two more runs to avoid putting Rodney on the mound in the 9th inning.

They're 9 games under .500 going 4-6 on the road trip, to know now their season isn't getting any better despite good defense and good hitting by some players. They're pitchers just can't hold games, and it starts with Rodney who is supposed to the the ace closer, blowing 6 of 22 opportunities, most of them recently.

That's it and their season in a nutshell. So what will the Mariners do now? What will the management decide to change since the current roster isn't working to win games, even against teams with losing or worse records?

But then do they have choices? Can they really do something with Rodney? Do they have the players in Tacoma (Rainiers) to bring up and at least give the a chance? They're already brought up some, why not more in place of players who are underperforming, starting with Rodney.

Think about it. Not changing anything else, if Rodney had pitched this season the as he did last year, the Mariners would be at .500 just a few games out of the wildcard race. Just that one change. Add a few more and they'd be over .500. That's what has happened this season.

Small things, with many players underperforming their career or recent years averages. That's all, players not performing and a manager not managing to get them on track. When you add all the small changes, there's only one person who can be held accountable, the manager.

But the problem is that the owners and president of the Mariners don't have many, if any, options. They can't fire the GM or manager now in the season. You can move players, but are there any better ones in the triple-A Rainiers? You can't fire the manager, who would replace him?

So what happens now? We continue to watch them flounder through the season, just playing to get to the end and get out without embarrasing the team too badly? Rodney's already done that. How long do you go with McClendon before he knows he's not coming back next season?

The Mariners games are hard to watch this season, because you know, despite hoping they'll win, they'll find ways to lose, like this road trip and especially today. Don't the fans deserve something better, or at least a team we can know is going in the right direction?