You didn't think this was going to be easy, did you?
You didn't think the Mariners were going to ride their August tidal wave of victories straight into ongoing September dominance? You didn't think they were going to coast nonstop into the postseason without any stress and strain, a burgeoning downhill snowball of momentum and swagger?
Maybe they can get it all back — there are two and a half weeks and 17 games left after Tuesday to summon back whatever mojo decided to up and leave them the moment the calendar flipped to September. But what we have now is a final stretch of high anxiety that the Mariners have brought upon themselves, an angst-fest that feels certain to prevail right up until the final game against the Rangers on Oct. 1.
Now we'll see if the resiliency they've championed all year can make a vitally necessary reappearance. Their dominant (and desperately needed) 8-0 victory over the Angels on Tuesday was certainly a hugely positive step. This season so far has been a melodrama in three acts: the shattering of sky-high expectations during the lackluster first half of the season; the renewal of all those hopes during the torrid stretch after the All-Star break in which the Mariners played the best ball in MLB for six weeks to surge to the top of the AL West; and now the ill-timed nosedive that is threatening to once again douse the lofty expectations that had been re-established.
The extra-inning loss on Monday to the burned-out shell of an Angels team may have been the most frustrating of all, though that title has been a moveable feast (or, more accurately, famine) all year. The failure to score the winning run with the bases loaded and no outs in the ninth might have been an irritant when it happened against the Nationals on June 27, with three months still to play. At this stage of the season, with a playoff berth hanging on every nuance, it was a stake to the heart, sentencing the Mariners to their eighth loss in 11 games in September.
Suddenly, they were outside the playoffs looking in, with a weekend series against the Dodgers looming, three seeming gimmes against Oakland (but you just know those games will be fraught with tension) and then that final stretch of 10 massive games against the Rangers and Astros. Tuesday's win put them back in playoff position, tied with Toronto for the third wild card but owning the tiebreaker over the Blue Jays.
Is there a fourth act, one of ultimate redemption, awaiting? The Mariners on Tuesday lit sage in the clubhouse to try to rid themselves of the stench of Monday's loss. A timely hit would be a much more effective room freshener, and they had those in droves Tuesday with their first seven runs all scoring with two outs. On the recent disastrous road trip, the Mariners hit .164 with runners in scoring position.
Somehow the Mariners have to get the Good Vibes Only mantra going again, though it would help if the term's author, Eugenio Suarez, would pull out of his offensive malaise (a .175 average with just five extra-base hits over his last 16 games until delivering a two-out RBI single and solo home run Tuesday).
And let's be honest — the vibes of the moment are largely dependent on the quality of the team's performance. And until Tuesday's breakout, it had been lacking from most of the lineup not named Julio, Cal or Teoscar.
August was an aberration in its overwhelming success. The Mariners led the entire MLB with their .371 on-base percentage in 27 games (21 of them victories) and were fifth in batting average (. 285), fourth in slugging (. 493, best in the American League), tied for third in home runs (46) and third in OPS (.864). The M's were fifth in runs scored with 159, trailing only the Astros in the American League. And pitching-wise, Seattle's 3.03 earned-run average in August was best in the American League and second only to the Dodgers (3.00) in MLB.
But that platinum combination has disintegrated in September through Monday. The Mariners' OPS has plummeted more than 100 points to .737; their strikeouts, which were finally trending in the right direction, have soared back to the top of the American League (109 in 11 games).
But the pitching trends of late are the most alarming, a 5.13 ERA in the first 11 games of September, tied for 22nd in MLB until Tuesday's shutout, sparked by 5 2/3 masterful innings from Bryan Woo. It's hard to pinpoint which is of more concern: the starting rotation, which is trying to finesse its way through two rookie starters, or the bullpen, which has been exemplary through much of the season but is showing distinct signs of wear and tear. The contributions of Dominic Canzone and Josh Rojas were significant in August, but the absence of Paul Sewald, for whom they were acquired from Arizona at the trade deadline, is being felt.
Logan Gilbert said after the agonizing Angels loss on Monday, perhaps presciently, that, "I think we have everything we need right now .... I don't think we're far off at all." And Julio Rodriguez added before Tuesday's game, "I feel like we're always giving our best effort and that's what we're going to keep doing. That's the only thing that we can control: How we prepare, the effort we put out there, and just, you know, fight. ... We're right there. We're always competing. And that's the good thing about this team."
Manager Scott Servais, meanwhile, expressed confidence the Mariners still had time to resurrect the same offensive mindset that sparked their August surge — which, he pointed out, was still intact just two weeks ago.
"When we were going through the stretch that we had in August, guys couldn't wait to get into batter's box: 'Let me be the guy to get the big hit.' And these are the same guys," Servais said.
The same guys, yet different. The word "august," small a, is defined as "marked by majestic dignity or grandeur," with synonyms like "imposing" and "impressive." Whether it takes incense or a clutch hit, the Mariners desperately need to find a way to replicate their august August before time runs out.
