It’s hard to imagine two more disparate games with such similar scores as the last two wins for the M’s in Toronto, 8-4 in 12 yesterday and 8-3 in 9 today. The former was hard-scrabble, back-and-forth, runs at a premium, Logan Gilbert K’ing everyone en route to an early exit no-decision with the game tied (of course) despite a really strong performance, then a see-saw into a nails-bullpen 9th, 10th, and 11th where the Jays kept getting the winning run to 3rd but no further until they were down 5 when the M’s let them score in the 12th.

The latter was ultimately an uneasy laugher (something that itself should be impossible), with the M’s up 6-0 after 2 and kind of coasting despite Luis Castillo being in trouble every inning, often deep bases-loaded trouble, and sort of Houdini-ing just enough to escape real damage while still looking wholly ineffective and on the verge of coughing up everything. But he notched a W to go to 2-2 with his now 4.44 ERA and 1.59 WHIP, while Logan stands at 1-1 with his 2.63 ERA and 0.88 (!) WHIP, plus league-second (by 1) 41 Ks.

Sometimes, baseball isn’t fair.

The Mariners continued their streak of longballs, with Moore, Raleigh, and Tellez (for the 3rd straight game in Rogers Centre!) going deep, proving that this is an absolute power team when away from the Marine Layer in Seattle. Cal caught up to the major league leading Tyler Soderstrom (who wasn’t just picking on us the first 4 games, apparently) of Sacramento and both are now on pace to finish the year with 66 dingers. They won’t, of course, if only because they need some days off at some point, but with a torpedo bat in Cal’s hands, who really knows? What a steal of an extension we signed him to (again, again)!

Randy Arozarena continued to absolutely deliver with the bases loaded in both games, redefining clutch while also making an incredible and possibly game-saving play sliding into the left-field fence that reminded everybody of the play that took out Victor Robles for 2+ months. Randy went in with his spikes first, and while he was on the ground for a moment, he was all smiles as he tossed the 3rd out up in the air and then leapt up to prepare for his next clutch hit. Dude is simply a beast and has also climbed to 5th in the AL in RBI with 17, behind Soderstrom (!), Torkelson (?), Mullins (??), and Judge. The difference is that all of those guys are hitting .284 or higher and Randy is at exactly .200. The clutch is off the charts! Also, imagine if he starts getting even hotter at the dish?

Globally, the Mariners made it 4 straight series wins, 8 wins in 10 games, and pulled within a game of Texas for the AL West lead, a team with whom we are off to a crushing start (3-0) in the potential tiebreaker race. The Mariners are also at exactly 54% of wins and tied for WC2 position with Toronto, both proving that M’s fans will never let Jerry’s comment go and that he was fundamentally right about the metric.

Not that he’s any good at talking about goals or baseball, of course. I’m not here to defend the guy. All I can say is that he’s better at press conferences than John Schneider or Cole Irvin. I know, low bar.

Irvin, by the way, is pitching for the Doosan Bears in the Korean Baseball Organization this year, where the Mariners absolutely can’t get him anymore. Wishing him all the best.

Schneider, much to our enjoyment, remains in the AL.

Mariners Stats:
Comeback Wins: 7
Wire-to-Wire Wins: 5
Comeback Losses: 4
Wire-to-Wire Losses: 6

Multi-Homer Games: 6-4
Single-Homer Games: 6-2
No-Homer Games: 0-4

One-Run Games: 4-3
Extra-Innings Games: 2-2

Record When Scoring >5 Runs: 5-2
Record When Scoring 2-5 Runs: 7-3
Record When Scoring <2 Runs: 0-5

Personal Stats:
Watched on TV: 2-5
Listened on Radio: 5-1
Mixed TV/Radio: 4-3
Followed on Gameday: 1-1

PS — On a personal, note, the 3-1 game snapped my perfect streak for listening on the radio. I was starting to get superstitious about it, so of course I had to be disproven. Similarly, I was disappointed with how watching on TV was doing, so it was nice to get a win that way today. I was starting to worry I would have to not see their faces anymore so they could make the playoffs.