Baseball reminds us of our capacity for change. Not just incremental shifts that drip from the faucet at a glacially accelerating pace until one day they’ve reshaped the surface beneath them. Rapid, sudden changes in a sport notorious for its meandering heart. In roughly the time a new human being requires to gestate and be born, the Mariners have gone from one pitch away from a World Series matchup with the Los Angeles Dodgers to pitching wildly in rough waters, with no port in sight.
Tonight’s 6-2 loss wasn’t the most excruciating, and resulted from Bryan Woo leaving one pitch on the heart of the plate to Mookie Betts with runners on and two outs, and then a slider on the corner that Dalton Rushing managed to stay on and club for a three-run homer, saddling Woo with yet another rough road outing. I’m always going to stick up for a starter who goes deeper into a game and be firmer on one who is inefficient or incapable of working longer. I’ll tell you that tonight, Woo was not his sharpest, but struck out eight and was utilizing his whole repertoire of secondaries in a way I found impressive, including showcasing his brand new curveball more than ever before. In a stretch where every change seems to be for the worse, Woo has been remarkable in his consistency in process, even if the outcomes have been poor. The changes he’s endeavored are tweaks, efforts to continue improving on a roster that is careening for the rocks and cannot seem to find the balance to weigh anchor, much less turn the sails.
The winds blew in the M’s faces all afternoon and evening once more, with the exception of the top two hitters in the M’s lineup. Both Cole Young and Randy Arozarena put up stellar plate appearances against Roki Sasaki, who sat 98-101 with his fastball and broke off a revolting combination of splitters, sliders, and forkballs that make any frustrated, seated observer grateful they don’t have to get up and give it a try.
If this is the final year of Randyland in the Pacific Northwest, I will treasure a player who came in a difficult campaign and found ways to improve it, sparked a magical season a year ago, and found ways to continue improving instead of simply succumbing to a standard aging curve. And Young, whose battles early allowed Seattle to get Sasaki’s pitch count elevated and spurred his deterioration in the sixth inning and the M’s best scoring opportunity. Tripling to lead off the sixth and scoring on an Arozarena double, it’s how rallies start, and so many times this season if anything has been going well for the Mariners, these two have been the heart of it.
But measured against a superpower, these Mariners are not yet cohesive. The Dodgers winning today ensured them a one game lead on the Milwaukee Brewers for the best record in baseball. If Seattle were in the NL West, they’d be 16.5 games back of the division, but by forces of tradition and fortune, they merely trail Texas by 2.5. They will need every bit of it to avoid turning 2026 into a cautionary tale that costs many more in the organization their jobs.
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