I don’t want to dwell on this one. This was about as frustrating as a night of baseball can get. Some nights, your team gets blown out (last night). Some nights, your team gets shut out (last night). Some nights, they just play badly. This was none of those, and yet it was so much worse.

In the first five innings, the Mariners put nine (9) runners on, stole four (4) bases, and scored one (1) run.

That’s really all you need to know, but you should also know that they made an out at home in that span, the third out in as many games. This was after Julio electrifyingly stole 2nd and 3rd in the same at-bat after walking on 4 pitches. He ran on contact on an Arozarena grounder that room-serviced Luis Urias (who never made a play like this as a Mariner last year) who fired an easy strike home to ring him up at the dish. If we lose tomorrow, let us at least not make an out at the plate. Please.

Did I mention that we loaded the bases with no outs in the first and didn’t score?

In the second, we actually led this game 1-0 after Bliss single-handedly manufactured a run by stealing 2nd with runners on the corners and 2 outs. The throw went wildly into center and plated a bewildered Rowdy Tellez who reached home after Bliss hit third. We stranded him there but Robles gutted out a really good AB trying to build up the lead.

Bryce Miller didn’t have his best stuff tonight, but was able to work around most of it. In the fourth, Shea Langeliers hit a ball just over Arozarena’s glove for a 2-out 2-run homer. In the 6th, JJ Bleday harmlessly walked and harmfully took 2nd on a wild pitch. With 2 outs in the inning, Miguel Andujar blooped a 1-2 pitch into center and scored him from second, with Miller just an out away from a 6-inning 2-run Quality Start. Goodbye 1-run deficit, goodbye QS, goodbye Bryce.

We got one back in the bottom of the frame on a genuinely solid base hit from Polanco after Arozarena had taken two bases on a throwing error after a gutty leadoff walk that began 0-2. Dylan Moore walked to set up 2 on, 1 out, down just a run, but Bliss and Crawford were set down by a rookie making his major league debut after playing 2024 in A ball. Can’t really make this up.

It was the 7th inning that felt like a dagger even though this game was never for a second out of reach. Colin Snider was cruising after finishing the 6th and had 1 out in the 7th when he induced a mile-high pop-up on the third-base line of the infield. He, Polanco, and Cal all converged and pretty much all made a stab at it (Polanco backed off at the last second). It was actually mostly in Snider’s glove before he got boxed out by the Big Dumper and fell down, dropping it on the grass. Jacob Wilson slid into second behind him.

Of course he scored. Was there any doubt that he would? Butler moved him over with a grounder and with 2 outs and a 1-2 count, Rooker squibbed an infield hit reminiscent of an RBI infield squibber last night with the same result. Barely safe at first, Wilson scores, 4-2 feels like quite the mountain to climb. The A’s scored all 4 runs with 2 outs. They scored 2 of them with 2 outs and 2 strikes.

Meanwhile, the Mariners left 9 men on base and went 1/10 with runners in scoring position.

I hate baseball.

But I love JP Crawford and after a crushing and uncharacteristic 1-2-3 8th against Tyler Ferguson, he gutted out a bloop single (his first of the year after nearly homering in the 2nd) off A’s super-closer Mason Miller. This allowed us to have two at-bats with the tying run at the plate. One from Robles, which ended badly, and one from Julio, which was a horrifying 3-pitcher that reminded us of all of Julio’s early season struggles last year, all while Goldy waxed on about the majestic homer he hit off Miller in Oakland last year.

We had a lot of bad luck this game. There was a Victor Robles at-bat where he started 3-0, got a borderline call on strike one, then was credited with swinging through strike two when it almost hit him and he was just trying to get out of the way. The next pitch was visibly inside and the catcher dropped it, but the home plate ump rung him up anyway. The next AB, Julio walked and that would have set the table with our two best runners on and no one out, down just 2.

I want to believe it would have led to something. But then again, if it had, maybe more than 1 of the other 10 opportunities would have too.

I had the idea for doing these recaps when the season looked different. I was fired up. Now I’m wondering how the folks at Lookout Landing manage to do this all season. When I see the Mariners lose, I usually want to go promptly to bed, to forget it as fast as I hope the players themselves do. But this one was just like having a 3-hour itch that you couldn’t reach to scratch. By the end of it, it was almost funnier that you still couldn’t contort a road to relief than you were mad that it persisted. When baseball fans start really vibing with Murphy’s Law, it’s either time to tune out… or you’re just a Mariners fan.

Mariners Stats:
Comeback Wins: 1
Comeback Losses: 1
Wire-to-Wire Losses: 1

Multi-Homer Games: 1-0
No-Homer Games: 0-2

Consecutive Games with an Out at Home: 3

Personal Stats:
Watched on TV: 1-2