Maybe it’s bad mojo that I missed a recap. No less a recap of a truly stellar Mariners win in classic Mariners style, 3-2, on a homer by Dylan Moore, over the defending Cy Young champion of the AL, clinched in a save where an uncharacteristically shaky Andres Munoz struck out the last batter with the bases loaded in a one-run game, shortly after inducing a grounder to third that created a force out at home.

This one was not that. This one was so close to being that, but we needed to burn Munoz in the 10th to hold a scoreless tie after Randy Arozarena had stranded Julio on 3rd with 1 out and then Raley did the same with 2 outs after Polanco (3/5 with 4 RBI tonight, hitting .450 on the year) earned a gutsy full count walk. So we sent Vargas (Carlos, not Jason) to the hill and he struck out three batters and lost the game.

Wait, what?

You see the location of that 5th pitch? Admittedly it crossed up the normally steady Cal Raleigh, a rare moment in which the platinum glover worsened the quality of a pitch, but it shouldn’t matter when the entire ball is solidly off the edge of the zone. Yes, he grounded out after 7 pitches, but that’s the all-important advance the runner to third with less than two outs that’s so critical to winning extra-innings games in Manfred’s MLB.

Okay, no problem, gotta get the next guy. Luckily, on a full count pitch, he did.

Wait, what?

Now this was nowhere near as egregious as the Huff at-bat. This was a genuinely borderline pitch. But still, it’s one he should have gotten. No problem, I’m sure Fitzgerald won’t be important later.

Surely the next batter won’t escape the correct call too?

No.

Shenanigans on pitch 2 for sure! To the point where I was genuinely surprised when pitch 5 was called a strike. Even though, y’know, it is a strike. But it was actually the least clear strike of the set we’ve highlighted herein, so, uh, yeah. Two outs. Yay? Should be three, but we can still get out of this. In fact, WPA has us 76.5% to win!

Oops, first pitch finds grass in right field, Robles does that double-clutch thing he so often does when preparing a throw and Fitzgerald (remember Fitzgerald? he stole 2nd during Wade’s actually called K) scored from second by a few inches. It’s really the only weakness in Robles’ game, but it’s a doozy and it cost us a game that the umpires had already cost us.

I don’t mean to dwell on a complaint. It was a bullpen day when Castillo (Luis F., not Luis M.) started and got shelled and then Sauce came in and got shelled and then Snider came in and gave up a run and then Bazardo came in and got shelled and then the top half of our bullpen came in and was nails (Speier-Thornton-Santos-Munoz) and then there was no one left in the whole pen (literally, he was sitting alone with the bullpen coach and catchers) except Vargas and now the whole bullpen will be totally exhausted on about 26 hours’ rest for tomorrow. Let’s hope Bryce Miller goes 7 strong.

Incidentally, I don’t think that the bullpen day call was bad, despite the shellings. Without the switcheroo (bumping back Bryce and Bryan, don’t even think about getting them confused), the bullpen day would have landed on the day game after the night game instead of the day game before the night game. This was savvy anticipation by Dan the Man and vastly preferable to bringing back Emerson Hancock for either matchup.

Did I mention we chased Justin Verlander after 2 1/3 innings and 3 ER (and 65! pitches), including a Julio home run? And we logged just 8 Ks in 11 innings, against 7 walks and 15 (!!) hits? And hit two longballs?

If there was any doubt about T-Mobile’s impact on our game, scoring 9 the first day on the road should put it to rest. Luckily, most games are not bullpen games. Unluckily, we’ve lost 2 extremely winnable games so far, the difference between being 3-5 and 5-3. And we all know what 2 winnable games have meant to the Mariners 3 of the last 4 years.

Mariners Stats:
Comeback Wins: 2
Wire-to-Wire Wins: 1
Comeback Losses: 2
Wire-to-Wire Losses: 3

Multi-Homer Games: 1-2
Single-Homer Games: 2-0
No-Homer Games: 0-3

One-Run Games: 2-1
Extra-Innings Games: 0-1

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

Personal Stats:
Watched on TV: 1-4
Mixed TV/Radio: 2-1