ALCS postmortems

The fateful moment of Game 7

I've been seeing a number of articles and posts today about Dan Wilson's alleged failure managing his bullpen in last night's Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, which the Toronto Blue Jays won by a score of 4-3. Most of these pieces were written by people that have not followed Your Seattle Mariners all year, and the way you can tell that is by noticing what's not in those articles/posts.

Wilson, the Mariners' first-year (full year, anyway) manager, made the following pitching moves in Game 7:

• Relieved starter George Kirby after four innings and just 65 pitches, leading 3-1. Kirby hadn't been at his sharpest, but he was getting the job done. He was replaced by Bryan Woo, who had been Seattle's best pitcher all year but missed the last few weeks with a pectoral strain; he'd thrown two innings in Game 5, his first action since September 19th. Theoretically, Woo could go for a few frames; he wasn't ready to go a starter's duration yet, but if he was on he could get pretty deep. Woo pitched two scoreless again, bringing us to the 7th with the score still 3-1 M's.
• Left Woo in to begin the 7th inning. He immediately looked tired, though, and walked the leadoff batter. Next batter, Isaiah Kiner-Falefa, grounded a single up the middle. The next guy did the obvious thing and sacrificed the runners to 2nd and 3rd, bringing up George Springer. Here's the first time I disagreed with Dan—I would have pulled Woo after the leadoff walk based on how far he was missing his target and his body language during/after that batter. He was gassed, he's not used to the relief role and hadn't been stretched out to starter length, so even though he theoretically could have given you another frame or two, you need to adapt based on his obvious fatigue.
• Dan then relieves Woo with one out, runners at 2nd and 3rd, and Springer up. New pitcher is Eduard Bazardo, who had been pretty reliable during the season but had been used A LOT during the ALCS. Critics are saying Dan should instead have brought in Andres Muñoz, the All-Star closer, as this was a potential inflection point of the game and thus the series and you want your best reliever out there even if it is only the 7th inning. There's validity to this argument, more because of the repetition the Blue Jays already had in seeing Bazardo versus the comparative paucity of ABs against Muñoz, but there's also validity to Dan's choice to keep Muñoz in reserve for the 8th and 9th—you weren't going to get more than two innings out of him for sure, and aside from a solo homer given up to Vladimir Guerrero Jr in Game 4, which the Jays were already winning handily, Bazardo had gotten the job done. My thought at this point was that they would intentionally walk Springer—Springer has the 3rd-most postseason homers than anyone over his career, he has a knack for it, plus he's probably not running all that well even though it's been a few days since he was hit in the kneecap by an errant fastball. True, it would mean putting the go-ahead run on base with Vlad Jr. on deck, and irritant Nathan Lukes coming to bat, but it's a pick-your-poison circumstance and I felt hoping for a ground ball out of Lukes was preferable to pitching to Springer. Springer, of course, homered to give the Jays the lead.
• Dan brought Muñoz on in the 8th, as planned, but he wasn't sharp and escaped only with the aid of a double-play turned behind him. Would he have been better if he's not come in with the team trailing in the score? Eh, I doubt it mattered in this case.

The M's failed to score in the 9th and the season was history.

So, was Dan wrong to bring in Bazardo? If he brings in Muñoz instead, that means Muñoz can't pitch the 9th (unless he somehow had two straight 4- or 5-pitch innings; highly unlikely) and you have to assume the score gets no better than the two-run lead the M's were then sitting on. Someone else, then? Well, Matt Brash had been used nearly as often as Bazardo had, but could have been an option. Otherwise... otherwise you play with fire. Carlos Vargas? Fuck, no. Emerson Hancock or Luke Jackson, the mopup guys? Starting pitcher Luis Castillo? Probably the only other viable choice, but he'd have needed a lot of time to get ready.

Barring having the foresight to get Castillo warming up an inning prior, Dan's options were Bazardo, Brash, or burn Muñoz and have Bazardo or Brash pitch the 9th, when they'd very likely see Springer again. I don't fault him.

The real spot where it might have mattered more was the first choice, pulling Kirby for Woo to start the 5th. I like Woo, so I was happy to get him in the game, but in retrospect, that was the mistake. Try to get another inning from Kirby, then go to Woo, and maybe you get to the 8th still ahead. Maybe.

Just saying it isn't as cut and dry as the pundits at the Athletic, the Times, BlueSky, and elsewhere would have us believe. When Carlos Vargas is a key part of your bullpen you're already in trouble. Next year, if the M's are fortunate enough to be in a similar bind, Dan will have more experience under his managerial belt and might have that foresight to ready Castillo (or next year's analogue) well ahead of time. Or, hopefully, his standard relief options will be more robust.

Besides, the real point at which the Mariners lost the series was the previous night, when they grounded into two inning-ending bases-loaded double-plays. And struck out 13 times. Worry about that stuff going forward.

Tagged Baseball, Seattle Mariners, Posted on October 21, 2025 at 7:14PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

Well, that happened

John Paul "The Gazelle" Crawford leaps over Andres Gimenez to complete a nifty double play in Game 7. Not that it did much good.

I wasn't surprised.

The American League Championship Series is over and Your Seattle Mariners did not win it. They are the only Major League Baseball franchise to never win a pennant, and that badge of distinction will continue for yet another year.

When the Toronto Blue Jays took Game Six of the ALCS last night—rather easily, at that—and tied the best-of-seven series at three wins apiece, I pretty much assumed it meant curtains for the season for the Mariners. So when the M's took a slim lead in tonight's Game 7, I wasn't particularly confident. My neighbor Rachel was watching with me at that point and asked how much of a lead would make me comfortable. I said five runs. And I don't know if I was even being honest about that. (I mean, five runs can be coughed up in a hurry. Just ask Heathcliff Slocumb. Or Carlos Silva. Or even George Kirby, tonight's starting pitcher, who got shelled for eight runs his last time out.)

Why? Two things.

One, I've been following the Mariners for 35 years, the vast majority of those as a season ticket holder of one type or another. I've seen things, man. Horrible things. Things that stay with you and cause a particular form of nihilism. Even when the M's took an unexpected two-games-to-none lead in the series, any optimism I had was...let's say tempered. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me 20 times, you don't get any faith.

Two, postseason history. At least, as remembered by me; looking at the record, the overall numbers don't quite bear this out, but certainly in my formative years, any team trailing a best-of-seven LCS or World Series three games to two that then won game six nearly always had the confidence/momentum/drive/vibes/juju to take game seven and crush the hopes of the formerly-leading team's fanbase. It happened to the Orioles in 1979, the first year I was really paying attention. It happened to the Brewers in 1982. To the Blue Jays themselves in 1985. To my Cardinals in 1985 and 1987. To both the Angels and the Red Sox in 1986. The Giants in ’87. The Pirates and the Braves in ’91, and the Cardinals again in ’96. Exceptions during that span were few, just the 1988 Dodgers, ’92 Braves, and ’97 Marlins. That's a series winning percentage of .786 for Game 6 victors. This century, it's not been as stark—just 14 out of 21 times (.667). The pattern held for the Yankees in 2001, the Giants in ’02, the Cubs in ’03, the Astros in ’04, the Yanks again in ’04, Cleveland in ’07, the Rangers in ’11, Cardinals in ’12, Cleveland again in ’16, Yankees again in ’17, Astros in ’19, Braves in ’20, and both the Phillies and Astros in ’23; it was overcome by the 2003 Yankees, ’06 Cardinals, ’08 Rays, ’14 Giants, ’17 Astros (with help), ’18 Dodgers, and 2020 Rays. So, a touch more hope if you only look at recent years, but it's ingrained into me from those 1980s experiences: Lose game 6 and you lose the series.

Tonight's game 7 was brutal in that it was another one that got away, a lead blown in later innings. But I'm trying to be philosophical about it—this is incremental progress. The Mariners made to just one win shy of a pennant. Never done that before. They did it with a team that was vastly improved from the prior few year's version when it came to management, but it was still a flawed bunch. It's tough to win a pennant when you strike out nearly one out of every four trips to the plate and blow too many opportunities for productive outs. The Blue Jays don't have those flaws—their K rate is under 18%, best in the Majors, and they led everyone in on-base percentage too. They were the better team.

Though if the M's had just walked George Springer instead of pitching to him, who knows what might have been.

Alas. World Series starts Friday, Los Angeles at Toronto. I think I'll be rooting for the Canadians.

Tagged Baseball, Seattle Mariners, Posted on October 20, 2025 at 11:59PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

Last game of the year? Part III

"THE MARINERS ARE GOING TO PLAY FOR THE AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP! I DON'T BELIEVE IT! MY OH MY!!" So said the late great Dave Niehaus thirty years ago, broadcasting the end of the thrilling Game Five of the American League Division Series on the radio. Ken Griffey Jr. had just scored all the way from first base on Edgar Martínez's famous double down the left field line in the bottom of the 11th inning to give Your Seattle Mariners a series victory in their first-ever playoff appearance.

It was a classic game, and I was there, perched in the 300 level of the old Kingdome alongside my friends Erik and Mike and 50-odd thousand strangers.

I was also in attendance last night, again with Erik (Mike was there too, working as ballpark staff), as the M's played another Game 5 of an ALDS, another extra-inning victory and another classic game. Well, in some ways; in other ways it was a really frustrating game of missed opportunities and blown chances. And once again, at its conclusion the Mariners punched their ticket to the Championship Series, which begins tomorrow in Toronto.

This made three consecutive playoff games I've attended, all with Erik, that went extra innings: last night, Game 1 of this ALDS the Saturday before, and Game 3 of the 2022 ALDS, which went 18 innings and saw the M's go down in defeat in a series sweep to the hated Houston Astros. It was also third consecutive Seattle appearance in a deciding ALDS Game 5 that I've witnessed in person with Erik: last night, the classic in 1995, and 2001’s victory over Cleveland. (I was not with Erik for the ALDS win in 2000, I was instead with my late friend Carl in seats near the very back of the upper deck in straightaway right field, but that was a game 3 win that finished a series sweep against the White Sox.)

I won't go into the details of the game itself, all that is available here for anyone who wants it. Suffice to say it was a pitching clinic for the first 5½ innings that the M's amazingly had a lead in (1-0, but still) against the best pitcher around today, Tarik Skubal. George Kirby matched him until he started tiring in the 5th; he got through that frame but couldn't get an out in the 6th and was relieved by Gabe Speier. Who immediately gave up a two-run homer to Kerry Carpenter. (Carpenter was incredible in this game, 4-for-5 with two walks. Amazing they got him out once.) Still, it wasn't a move I objected to, Kirb was clearly done and Speier is your go-to lefty despite how Detroit beat up on him in Game 4.

In fact, the only managerial move I questioned was one that paid off in a big way—with two on and two out against righty reliever Kyle Finnegan, Seattle manager Dan Wilson went to his bench to pinch-hit lefty-swinging Dominic Canzone for Mitch Garver. That was good. Then Detroit went to its ’pen and brought in left-hander Tyler Holton. Then Wilson pinch-hit switch-hitter Leo Rivas for Canzone before Canzone even stepped into the batter's box. That was the move I questioned, I probably would have let Canzone bat. But damned if Leo didn't deliver, lacing a base hit to left to score the tying run. Even Detroit's managerial moves were sound. Going to reliever Tommy Kahnle in the 15th failed dramatically, but what was the  alternative? Rafael Montero again? I think not.

 Anyway, this made four times the Mariners had faced Tarik Skubal this year and in all four games the M's took the win. Talk about defying the odds.

Now it's on to the ALCS, Seattle's first since 2001. Against their expansion cousins the Blue Jays, which is cool. 

I doubt I'll have an opportunity to attend any of those games, though. Others in my season ticket group have my normal seats for those and the asking price for tickets—from MLB, not resale tickets—is several hundred dollars. The MLB single-game price for World Series tickets is over $1,000. Which is insane. I blame Rob Manfred, of course, but it's really a sign of the times when anyone not either made of money or willing to go into debt can afford to go to the World Series. Back in the day it was a little bit of a stretch for us on our retail employee wages to buy extra tickets, but we could do it. Now it's a choice between going to the World Series and paying your health insurance premiums for the year. Which is a whole 'nother issue.

Nevertheless, it's a fun October. I'll enjoy the rest on HDTV.

Tagged Baseball, Seattle Mariners, Posted on October 11, 2025 at 8:38PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

2 Comments

Last game of the year? Redux

A little game I play in my head when I go to games is "spot the most obscure player jersey worn by a fan." Today's was Mike Morse.

Well, I got one more, at least.

Last week I speculated that I may have seen my last in-person baseball game of the year, but I lucked out and got to go to tonight's Game 1 of the American League Division Series with Erik. It was the first playoff game in Seattle since 2022, when there was but a single game to attend as the hometown Mariners were eliminated in that first and only home contest of their ’22 postseason. I went to that one with Erik as well. It went 18 innings and the M's lost 1-0.

Tonight wasn't quite so bad; it, too, went extra frames, and once more the loss was by one run, but it was Game 1, so there's at least one more home game (though I won't be attending). Still, the similarities were enough that I asked Erik if this was becoming a pattern for us that we should maybe reexamine. We'll have another opportunity to break/continue the trend if the series goes the full five games.

(An aside: Last night/this morning I had a funny/frustrating dream in which, while preparing to go to this game, I learned that baseball commissioner Rob Manfred had at the last minute declared that the game should not be played at the Mariners' regular home field, but in the Kingdome, which in this dream was still standing though unused for years. This decision was met with unanimous outrage by all, but Manfred insisted because he could sell more tickets in the Kingdome—it had a seating capacity of 59,000 while the current park's capacity is 48,000. Upon entering the Kingdome, which was shabby and smelled of years of disuse, I discovered my regular row 9 seat had been adjusted to row 18 and screamed, Admiral Kirk-style, "MAAAANNNFREEEEEEEEEEEDDDD!!!!!!!!" OK, back to the post.)

I went very early, not knowing what to expect in terms of traffic, crowd, lines to get in, etc. I took the train, which was good for getting down there, a little bit of a nuisance getting back; crowds meant I had to wait for the third train to show up, so the duration of the return was at least twice that of the trip down (and after half an hour or so I really had to pee—it was an exercise in stamina, but no accidents.) But easy and cheaper than parking—even if I scored a meter space, since, unlike a regular-season night game, they'd still be active for a couple hours (downtown meter rates are about $5/hour). Learning from experience, I circumnavigated the stadium to enter at the home plate gates instead of the more direct left-field entrance; the past few times I've been to a sellout or near-sellout, the LF lines were 15-20 minutes long. The HP line today moved much faster.

The pregame festivities included some appearances from Mariners Past, including my favorite, Mike Cameron. He and fellow 2001 Mariner Mark McLemore flanked former manager Lou Piniella, now 82, who delivered the ceremonial first pitch. That was kind of fun. Cam is still popular with folks at the ballpark, he was stopped numerous times on the field by people wanting photos; he was trying to make his way to the visiting Detroit dugout to see his son Daz, who is a member of the Detroit Tigers though not on this series' active roster. I could see him gesturing and trying to get Daz's attention and imagined Daz hiding behind a bigger player or something before going, "Stop it, Dad, you're embarrassing meee!!!!" But no, he finally came out for a minute and they had a moment before Cam, Mac, and Lou left the field for the skyboxes.

[EDIT: Since posting this I recalled that though Daz Cameron came up with the Tigers, he is no longer with them. He's in the Brewers' system now. So I guess I've no idea who Cam was trying to find in Detroit's dugout. But the imagined image still amuses me.]

The players line up for the playoff introductions

Once the game got going, it was a pitcher's duel. Detroit got two on a home run by Kerry Carpenter (Erik: "What's with this team and alliteration? Kerry Carpenter, Jahmei Jones, Dillon Dingler..."). Prior to tonight, Carpenter had batted against Seattle starter George Kirby eight times; four of those times he hit homers. I didn't know that. If I had it would have been less surprising when he smacked a fifth to put Detroit ahead. Seattle got one back in the 6th, thanks in part to Tiger manager A.J. Hinch's generous decision to put in reliever Rafael Montero. Predictably (at least to me—really, ask Erik), Montero immediately put runners aboard; he faced three batters, all reached safely and one scored, before Hinch realized the error of his ways and replaced him with Tyler Holton, who induced a double-play grounder and survived a hard lineout to end the scoring threat. Kirby and the M's relief corps were solid, shutting Detroit down rather well outside of Carpenter's bomb, and we went to extras.

Then Seattle manager Dan Wilson maybe thought he owed Hinch a favor in return for the gift of Rafael Montero? Hard to know what was happening in Dan's mind, but he brought in hard-throwing Carlos Vargas to pitch the 11th. All season, any time I saw Vargas come into a game I figured he was going to put at least two baserunners on; didn't always work out that way, but it did always feel like walking a tightrope. He finished the year with a WHIP ((walks + hits) ÷ innings pitched) of 1.35, which was actually down from the 1.6 or so he carried most of the season. That isn't good. Batters hit .273 against him. That isn't good, either. He does strike a lot of guys out, but that's not going to balance out the other stuff. There's a newfangled sabermetric stat called "runs above average" (RAA). Tarik Skubal, maybe the best pitcher in the world right now, has an RAA of 45, meaning he allows 45 fewer runs than the average pitcher. Skubal is a starter, so better comparison might be Andres Muñoz, the Mariners' All-Star closer, who has an RAA of 13. Vargas' RAA is -3. (Montero's is -5, so that's something in Vargas' favor, I guess.) I don't get why he's been in the big leagues all season, let alone on the playoff roster, let alone why he was called on to hold the line in a tie game in extra innings in the ALDS.

Maybe it didn't matter; the M's weren't able to do anything against non-Rafael Montero Tiger pitching tonight, but then neither were the Tigers doing much with non-Vargas Seattle arms. If not for putting in Vargas, maybe this game would have gone 18 innings too. Maybe Dan was just making sure everyone could get home at a decent hour, I don't know.

But, once again, this could be my last game at the ballpark by Elliott Bay until next year. If the M's can rally back and take two of the next three, I'll be back for the decisive Game 5. If not... Well, it was fun while it lasted.

At least, it was when Carlos Vargas wasn't on the mound.

Tagged Baseball, Seattle Mariners, Posted on October 4, 2025 at 11:59PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

Karen's postseason primer

The baseball playoffs began today, so it's now time for, by request, the lowdown on who made the playoffs and which players on those teams once played for Your Seattle Mariners.

Interpret this information how you will; back in my youth, when the Chicago Cubs hadn't won a championship since 1908 and hadn't won a pennant since 1945, Chicago-based columnist Mike Royko posited that a predictive element for the postseason was "the ex-Cub factor," alleging that the team with the most former Chicago Cubs was at the greatest disadvantage because, once a Cub, always tainted with Cub cooties. Perhaps the "ex-M factor" is similar, given the Mariners' lack of a single pennant in their history.

So far. The M's are still in this year's mix, so maybe this is the year. In the words of Mr. Spock, "for everything, there is a first time."

Or, just use this to find some interest in the non-Mariner games this month. Whatever floats your boat, as it were.

Here are the twelve (ugh, twelve) teams to make the postseason tournament, starting with the lowest seed and moving up, and their respective ex-M factors:

 

Cincinnati Reds (83-79, NL Wild Card): Ex-M factor 1½

The Reds backed into the postseason by the skin of their teeth with the third-worst record of any playoff team in history (1973 Mets: 82-79, 2005 Padres: 82-80). You'd figure them to be quickly eliminated this week, but this is the Rob Manfred era of wacky playoffs so who knows. Just a couple years ago, the 2023 bottom-seed Diamondbacks won the National League pennant despite an 84-win regular season, so we'll have to wait and see.

The Reds and Mariners have had a number of deals made between them over the past few years, yet Cincy has an ex-M factor of only 1½. With Jake Fraley having been lost to a waiver claim in August, only lefty closer Emilio Pagán (M's 2017) remains as a former-Mariner Red. Also on the roster, though, is infielder/outfielder Noelvi Marte, (M's minors 2021-22) who was the prize minor-league prospect dealt from the Mariners to Cincinnati in the 2022 trade for Luis Castillo.

 

Detroit Tigers (87-75, AL Wild Card): Ex-M factor 3

After dominating the American League for most of the year and building up a 15½ game lead in the AL Central, the Tigers imploded in September and finished second to Cleveland. But they still squeaked in as the third Wild Card by virtue of their tiebreaker record over identical-record Houston.

Detroit boasts(?) three former Mariners, all right-handed relief pitchers: Rafael Montero (M's 2021), Will Vest (M's 2021), and Paul Sewald (M's 2021-23). Montero was a free-agent bust for the M's in his one partial-season in Seattle (7.27 ERA) and traded away to Houston; he was a bit better this year between Houston, Atlanta, and finally Detroit (4.48 ERA in 59 games). Vest spent a couple of months in Seattle as a Rule 5 draftee but couldn't stick in the big-leagues and was thus sent back to the Tigers; since being called up for good, he's been a solid setup option out of the Detroit bullpen. Sewald, of course, was traded to Arizona for Dominic Canzone, Ryan Bliss, and Josh Rojas; he then signed a free-agent deal with Cleveland this year but was traded to Detroit in a deadline deal this past July. He's only seen action in four games as a Tiger thus far.

 

Boston Red Sox (89-73, AL Wild Card): Ex-M factor 1

Boston wasn't expected to be particularly good this year, and through June they were living down to expectations as a sub-.500 team. But they caught fire in the second half, going 47-29 from July 1 through the end of the season. They finished third in the AL East, but in this era that isn't a deal-breaker.

Boston's sole ex-Mariner is infielder Abraham Toro (M's 2021-22). Though not active in the Wild Card round, he could be placed on the roster if the Sox advance to the ALDS. Toro was great for about a month and a half with the M's after coming over from the Astros in an unpopular trade (for Kendall Graveman), then stank it up for the rest of his Seattle tenure, to the point where, during a game I attended with my Smiling Potatoes of Death softball teammates, he served as the Mariners' DH with an average of .130-something and when he was announced as "designated hitter Abraham Toro," my teammate Brian remarked, "well, now they're just using random words." The M's traded "Fatty Tuna" to the Brewers, for whom he spent most of a year in Triple-A; the Brewers traded him to Oakland, where he was shockingly good for a while before reverting to form; and he signed with Boston as a free agent for this year. He was mildly useful as a versatile defender while posting an unimpressive batting line of .239/.289/.371.

 

San Diego Padres (90-72, NL Wild Card): Ex-M factor 1

Among the great underachievers of recent years, the Padres seem to be staking a claim for the honor of who can spend the most money and not win a title of any kind while not being the New York Mets. Though only the 6th-highest in player payroll in 2025, over the last four years they've paid their players roughly $785M, the most for a non-Met team that won zero divisions or pennants (the Mets spent almost $1.3B to average 87 wins; avg. for MLB $662M). This is their third playoff appearance in five years, all as a Wild Card entrant; they were bounced out by the Phillies in ’22, the Dodgers last year, and I'd put a small amount of money on them being bounced out by the Cubs this time.

San Diego's sole ex-Mariner is pitcher Nestor Cortes (M's 2020) who is on the injured list with tendinitis but is eligible to be activated should the Padres advance. Though they probably don't want to do that. Cortes has made all of eight starts this year in stints for both the Brewers and Padres in between trips to the IL and wasn't good (6.29 ERA). Still better than his horrible five games with the M's, though.

 

Chicago Cubs (92-70, NL Wild Card): Ex-M factor 2½

The Cubs may well be the best of the Wild Card clubs this year, but as we know from the few years of experience with the Manfred Playoff Structure, that means little. Unlike the Red Sox, most of the Cubs' 2025 success came in the first half; they were in first place as late as July 27th but their barely-over-.500 performance post-All-Star Break couldn't keep up with the surging Brewers. Still, they're an exceptionally well-balanced team playing under one of the best managers working today in Craig Counsell.

Chicago's ex-M count would have been higher, but pitcher Chris Flexen  was cut mid-season and infielder Carlos Santana joined the team too late to be eligible for the playoffs. So they're left with these guys: infielder Justin Turner (M's 2024), a late-season rental for Seattle in their failed playoff push of ’24, and pitcher Matthew Boyd (M's 2022), a late-season rental for Seattle in their semi-successful playoff run in ’22. Turner seems to be on his last legs and didn't produce well in his bench role this season; Boyd, on the other hand, emerged as a top starter for the northsiders, going 14-8 (tops on the staff) with a 3.21 ERA (second-best to rookie Cole Horton's 2.87).

They also have pitcher Drew Pomeranz, who signed a free agent deal with the M's last year but spent just a month in their system at Triple-A before being dealt to the Cubs for the ever-popular cash considerations. Pomeranz had a pretty decent year out of the bullpen, his first big-league action since losing all of 2022 to injury.

 

New York Yankees (94-68, AL Wild Card): Ex-M factor 2

Yeah, they're back again. Though denied another division crown, they did match the Blue Jays for best American League record and are favored to advance past the WC round. This version of the Yanks has weaknesses (infield defense, relief pitching), but those are countered by Aaron Judge and a surprisingly decent starting rotation.

One key contributor has been half of their Ex-M Factor, late-season acquisition José Caballero (M's 2023). The infielder led the American League in stolen bases this year (49) and posted a .372 on-base mark since he was traded to New York. The M's got him as a prospect from Arizona in a deal for Mike Leake at the end of his career, then later dealt him to the Rays for Luke Raley. The Yankees got him for a prospect and a player to be named later on July 31st. The other ex-M is pitcher Luke Weaver (M's 2023), who was nothing to crow about in six weeks as a Mariner but has had flashes of brilliance as a Yankee since signing with them last year; in ’25 he's been pretty decent if sometimes shaky.

They also have reliever Mark Leiter, but it's not the same Mark Leiter that once toed the Kingdome mound, it's his son.

The Yankees have one other Mariner-related curiosity—bullpen coach Mike Harkey, who famously was Mariner owner George Argyros' choice for the first draft pick in 1987; Argyros had to be talked down from that by Seattle's scouting director, who lobbied hard for another guy, someone named George Kenneth Griffey Jr.

 

Cleveland Guardians (88-74, AL Central Champions): Ex-M factor 1

Cleveland was arguably even hotter than the Mariners were down the stretch, winning 24 of their final 31 games of the regular season to overtake the Tigers and claim the AL Central flag. And they did it despite having only two decent hitters in José Ramírez and Steven Kwan; overall, the Guards were 29th of the 30 MLB clubs in batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage. They scored the third-fewest runs in the bigs and had the fewest hits. Remarkable. You might think that means their pitching was elite, but it wasn't; they were just a little above average in most team pitching stats. They did it mostly by beating up on bad teams (20-6 vs. the White Sox and Twins, 14-8 vs. other last-place teams) and having the good luck of playing the Tigers six times (five wins) during their September hot streak. They're 13-23 against the non-Detroit playoff teams, which doesn't bode well for their chances to advance.

The sole ex-Mariner on their roster is reliever Matt Festa (M's 2018-23). Festa had a typical Festa year, serving as an OK option in middle relief.

The Guardians are managed by Steven Vogt, who was Seattle's bullpen coach in the one season between his long playing career (mostly with Oakland) and signing on to manage the Guardians last year. Cleveland's pitching coach, Carl Willis, spent three years in that job with the Mariners (2011-13).

 

 

Los Angeles Dodgers (93-69, NL West Champions): Ex-M factor 1

Well, they didn't run away with things like many thought they would before the season started, but LA is a formidable entrant to this postseason. Injuries hampered their pitching staff all year, and they still have a dozen names on the injured list, but all of their key players are healthy right now. They have elite bats in Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith, and Freddie Freeman; a Cy young candidate in Yoshinobu Yamamoto; and tons of experience with playoff veterans and no-doubt future Hall of Famers in Shohei, Freeman, Clayton Kershaw, and Mookie Betts.

Having jettisoned longtime Dodger and onetime Mariner Chris Taylor, they have only Teoscar Hernández (M's 2023) in the ex-M bucket. Teo had a subpar year for him, but still managed to crank out 25 homers. First base coach Chris Woodward played a few games for the M's in 2009-2010 and was a coach with the M's after that until 2015.

 

Seattle Mariners (90-72, AL West Champions)

The Ex-M Factor doesn't really apply here. But I'll toot the Mariners' horn some anyway.

Having won their first division title since the turn of the century, the M's are hungry for more and they've got just as good a shot at a pennant as anyone else. They cruised to the end of the season, winning 17 of 18 down the stretch to clinch their spot before dropping their last three when they didn't mean much. The vaunted Seattle starting rotation didn't really deliver this year, but they were good enough, and if not for Detroit's Tarik Skubal would have a Cy Young contender in Bryan Woo. The lineup stepped up over the last few seasons—how could it not when those years were plagued by manager Scott Servais and alleged hitting coach Jarret DeHart and this time they have Dan Wilson, Edgar Martínez, and Kevin Seitzer in those jobs—helped by the late-season addition of Josh Naylor. They've got three regulars with .340+ on-base marks (four if you count part-timer Dominic Canzone), the home-run and RBI leader, and a pretty solid bullpen.

They made the playoffs on the strength of the season's bookends—16-9 in April, 17-8 in September—while holding their own the rest of the time (two games over .500 in other months). As Jorge Polanco and J.P. Crawford go, so go the Mariners? Those two also were red-hot in April and September and up-and-way-down the rest of the time, but their September to Remember was largely thanks to Julio Rodríguez and Naylor, who put up a combined line of .314/.372/.525, and Raleigh, who posted an OPS over 1.000 in the month.

 

Philadelphia Philles (96-66, NL East Champions): Ex-M factor 1

The Phils have become a perennial power in the league, with two NL East flags and an NL pennant in four consecutive postseasons. They have the NL batting champ in Trea Turner, the NL home run and RBI leader in Kyle Schwarber, and one of the best pitchers nobody's ever heard of in Christopher Sánchez. And they play their home games in what might be my favorite ballpark if it weren't located in a blah sea of asphalt far from downtown Philadelphia.

The Ex-M Factor here is represented by pitcher Taijuan Walker (M's 2013-16, 2020). In his third year as a Phillie he held down the back end of the starting rotation plus made a few relief appearances. Though he never quite lived up to his prospect status, he's turned in a solid career and at 32 is maintaining that middle-of-the-road caliber performance.

 

Toronto Blue Jays (94-68, AL East Champions): Ex-M factor 2

The Mariners' expansion cousins overcame a poor start to take the East by the skin of their teeth. They reached first place in early July and never surrendered it, though had to settle for winning the division on a Manfred technicality. They depend on the supersons, Bo Bichette and Vlad Guerrero Jr., but plenty beyond those two can play; they lead baseball as a team in hits, batting average, and on-base percentage. Pitching is meh, but when you can outscore your pitching staff you're going to win some games.

Ex-Mariners on the Jays are infielder Ty France (M's 2020-2024) and reliever Yimi Garcia (M's 2024). Even money whether either will be on the roster when the Jays open their Division Series on Saturday. France came to the Jays as part of the Minnesota Twins' fire sale at the trading deadline, but he doesn't really have a role in Toronto; Vlad Jr. has first base locked down and it's been a while since France put in any time at third. He did bat a decent .277 in 94 ABs after the trade, offering some value off the bench. Garcia only appeared in ten games for Seattle as they made their unsuccessful run for the postseason last year, then returned to Toronto on a free agent deal this season.

 

 

Milwaukee Brewers (97-65, NL CENTRAL Champions): Ex-M factor 1

The former Seattle Pilots have been good for a long time, but never good enough to win the National League pennant. They do have one from their American League days (1982), but this stretch of Brew Crew success (eight postseason appearances in the last nine years) saw the NLCS only once (2018, lost to the Dodgers). This year's Milwaukee team is in a class of its own, though—best in the league in ERA, batting average, on-base, and steals. My kind of club.

The only ex-M on the Crew is utilityman Jake Bauers (M's 2021), who split ’21 between Cleveland and Seattle. He only hit .235 in 85 games this year, but walked 32 times to post a very respectable .353 OBP.

In the realm of near-connections, Milwaukee has both second baseman Bryce Turang and outfielder Daz Cameron. Bryce is the son of 1990s Mariner Brian Turang and is a much better player than his dad was. Daz, son of Mike, split the season between Milwaukee and Triple-A; he very much seemed to fit the modern Brewer mold in Triple-A but has yet to show much in the bigs. Not likely to make the playoff roster.

 

And there you go. I'd like to see the Mariners face their expansion cousins in the ALCS and then the M's take on their antecedants, the former Pilots, in the World Series. We shall see.

Tagged Baseball, Seattle Mariners, Posted on September 30, 2025 at 8:47PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

1 Comment

Last game of the year?

Eugenio Suárez strikes out to end last night's game

I attended one final regular season game at the ballpark by Elliott Bay last night, the first one of the year that basically didn't matter. With the results of other games around the league, the hometown Mariners were already assured of their second-seed spot in the American League playoffs and the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers were already assured of their third-seeded spot in the National League playoffs. Would have been nice to win, but the M's failed to capitalize on their rallies in the late innings and lost 3-2.

Wasn't a great game. But it was a fun time anyway, made possible by Neal—thanks, Neal—and his generosity in gifting me a pair of raffle-won tickets that he couldn't use. Much appreciated, and I paid it forward somewhat by giving the other seat to another softballer from my umpiring world; last Sunday in my umping season finale I had been chatting with this fellow Woalter about how the asking price for tickets to the Dodger series was sky-high and thus he wasn't going. When Neal's offer came, I figured this was a good way to earn a little goodwill and get to know him a bit.

Neal's free seats were in the center field bleachers, which is not my favorite vantage to say the least; we were in pretty much straightaway center, so it wasn't bad for calling pitches, which I of course couldn't help but do with umpire reflexes. Otherwise, though, lousy view. Woalter and I were also surrounded on three sides by Dodger fans, which, OK, not as bad as Yankee or Red Sox fans but still slightly obnoxious.

Once again, this was a 6:40 start time, and once again the number of empty seats at 6:40 was vast compared to the number of empty seats at 7:10. Placing the start time closer to rush hour is not a good idea, you jerks.

I don't know how well this shows the empties, but just after first pitch (top) vs. about 7:10 (bottom), which had been the normal start time for years. Looked to me like it was about 20% empty at 6:40, basically full at 7:10.

Woalter and I talked about the World Baseball Classic—he's going to see Venezuela play next spring's WBC in Miami, I'd love to go to Tokyo to see Japan play but probably can't afford it—favorite players, how the experience of a game is different here from how it is in his homeland of Venezuela, why Josh Naylor is awesome, and whether or not José Altuve should be a Hall of Famer (he will be). My faves of Keith Hernandez, Willie McGee, Ichiro, and Marco Gonzales were a bit off from Woalter's picks of Andruw Jones, Franklin Guttierez, and Altuve, but we both appreciate great defense and success by smaller guys that aren't necessarily built for pro sports.

I also got a free vegan hot dog after I tried to pay for it with a gift card and essentially broke the register at this little concession cart. After several minutes of trying to make it work, they basically sent me on my way with "enjoy the game" and rebooted their system rather than work it out to charge my gift card. So that was nice, though I did miss the better part of an inning while they tried to fix it. Pretty decent hot dog, too.

Anyhow, not a bad way to potentially bid adieu to the ballpark for 2025. There will be playoff games, but whether I will attend is uncertain. My season ticket group will divvy up our regular seats and some very expensive extras sometime this week, and I will pass on the very expensive extras so my odds of getting a seat for next Saturday or Sunday are less than 50%. After that, there may or may not be ALCS games to go to with the same arrangement. Hopefully, I'll be back. If not, well, it was a fun season and I can give my tinnitus an offseason rest.

Tagged Baseball, Umping, Seattle Mariners, Posted on September 27, 2025 at 5:08PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

Mariners clinch, sort of

Josh Naylor was the hero again tonight, driving in three of Seattle's four runs

With a dramatic come-from-behind rally in the home half of the eighth inning, Your Seattle Mariners defeated the Colorado Rockies tonight. It was the team's 14th win over their last 15 games, which would be the talk of the baseball world if not for the Cleveland Guardians winning their 17th over their last 20 tonight as well, vaulting them into first place in the American League Central division. Stupid Cleveland, always taking the spotlight away from other American cities with their... er... not-on-fire-anymore river and rock-n-roll museum and bridge gargoyles. I guess.

Anyway, good for the Guardians, but that's of lesser importance. What matters is that in beating Colorado tonight the Mariners assured themselves of finishing the season as a playoff team—even if everything goes poorly from here on out, the worst they can do is be the final Wild Card team in the October postseason tournament. It's a rare thing around here, though not quite as rare as Google would have us believe:

 

It's actually their second trip to the playoffs since 2001, but I suppose you could be forgiven for not remembering that they were a Wild Card team in the first year of the current ridiculous playoff format, 2022, and were bounced out of the Division Series in three straight.

But really they haven't won anything yet. When they win tomorrow (confidence!) they will have won something—that would guarantee them first place in the American League West division, their first division crown since 2001. That's probably what the Google tech was going for, it just was a day early. Probably. It will be the team's fourth AL West title in their 49 seasons in the Majors and keeps them in the running to perhaps, maybe, win their first-ever American League championship and appear in their first-ever World Series.

It almost makes me wish I was still running that other website. Almost. Because odds are extremely high that it would still be a money loser. But it would have made for a pretty fun last couple of weeks to be covering the M's that way and I've thought about that a bit today. I might have had some pieces up about the "lucky mustaches," maybe interviewed that cute family of four all wearing Julio Rodríguez jerseys that I briefly spoke to on the last homestand, had some sort of Cal Raleigh Home Run Tracker as he keeps pushing for the AL record for homers in a season (he's three shy of it with five games left).

And there would have been a piece of some kind about Josh Naylor. The first baseman was a late-season acquisition by the M's and has made all the difference. Without him, it's all but certain that the club would have been eliminated by now. Naylor is having either the best or second-best season of his career, depending on your metrics, holding a .291/.350/.458 stat line with 20 homers and 28 stolen bases to go with surprisingly good defensive range and agility at first base. As soon as the season ends for the M's, they should make it a top priority to extend/re-sign Naylor for next year, as he'll be a free agent after the World Series. Raleigh may well win the Most Valuable Player award for the American League this year, but Josh Naylor has been the most valuable Mariner down the stretch.

Things are still really bunched up in the standings, so even though only two of 12 playoff slots are still up for grabs, the seeding is a bit of a free-for-all as the last five games get started. Assuming the M's win at least three more games and/or the other playoff teams lose a few, they'll be in what a couple of weeks ago looked to be the near-impossible position of having either the first or second seed in the tournament, meaning they go directly to the Division Series without having to face a Wild Card team first. I know there are some who think skipping the WC round is a detriment, as the rest allows for the adrenaline and "momentum" a team might have to fade, but given the minor injury ace pitcher Bryan Woo suffered the other day, I want the team to get the rest. Plus, after this amazing end of the campaign it would be ignominious to be bounced out by a lowly Wild Card club.

Right now the WC round would feature Detroit at Cleveland, Boston at the Yankees, the Mets at the Dodgers, and San Diego at the Cubs, but Houston, Cincinnati, and Arizona are all still viable and no team as yet is guaranteed to skip the WC series except the Milwaukee Brewers. A lot can still happen this week.

I'll be at the ballpark tomorrow for the expected division-clincher. Should be fun!

Tagged Baseball, Seattle Mariners, Posted on September 23, 2025 at 11:59PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

Does this one go to eleven? Twelve? More?

Cal Raleigh wielding the mustache card

While the nation's governing regime moves more and more into totalitarian dystopia, there is some good news: Your Seattle Mariners have won ten in a row and find themselves in first place with 11 games remaining in the season.

The lead in the American League West division is small—a mere half-game separates them from the hated Houston Astros, against whom the M's will play a three-game set later this week in Houston. But the 'Stros are banged up, missing their heaviest hitter, and have been a couple of games under .500 since the end of June. The Mariners, meanwhile, appear to be healthy and are riding a wave of momentum that might be enough to counter their season-long struggles playing on the road. The pitching rotations line up to be the top three for each side facing off in that critical series, so expect some nailbiters.

It's fun. And, man, do we ever need fun right now.

How are they doing it? Well, there's the witch's spell. Also, the power of the mustache: Several Mariner players and coaches, including manager Dan Wilson, have grown/are growing mustaches after someone (as yet unidentified, but I think formerly-full-bearded pitching coach Pete Woodworth might be the one) sported one in the clubhouse when the team started the win streak in Atlanta; as anyone who's played The Mr. B Game knows, the mustache card gives you superpowers. Or maybe it's the Cheetos. Or, you know, they just remembered they're pretty dang good at baseball.

I attended three games in the Mariners' most recent homestand, last Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. They were all good games, though the experience wasn't all good. Erik and I went together on Saturday and he made some notes about it. The noise level from the stadium speakers is something I've complained about before—both here on the blog and to the Mariners' customer service reps, whom I'm sure completely ignore me—but I am concerned more than ever about its cumulative damage. My tinnitus has never been worse, and here I am, three days after that Saturday night game, and the ringing has yet to diminish at all. That's new. I may have to invest in some noise-canceling headphones before next season, though that too would diminish the experience at games. (Just turn the frakking volume down, you jerks, there's no reason for it to be cranked that high in the first place.)

I'll go back, though. Because, again, it's fun. Ten straight wins, some of them in weird fashion, some of them featuring things I'd never seen in a baseball game, some of them just neat. For example:

• Wednesday night against the St. Louis Cardinals was a 1-1 game from early on—solo homer in the first from St. Louis, two singles and a sac fly in the second from Seattle—and stayed that way until the 11th inning. You would think that meant a really fast game, especially since both starting pitchers were more than solid in their efforts, but this one had to have been the longest regulation-nine-innings for a game with no more than two runs scored in the pitch-clock era. Seattle starter Logan Gilbert had a splendid line in the scorebook: 1 R, 1 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 8 K, 2 HB, 1 HR, 96 pitches. Except that all that was in 42/3 innings. That's not a complaint, mind you, just an observation—just because there isn't scoring doesn't mean there's nothing happening, and watching Gilbert wiggle out of jams had its own appeal and I'd never seen a starter approach 100 pitches before finishing the fifth before. Usually when a pitcher has to throw tons of pitches early on it's because he's getting smacked around and/or walking in runs and he gets yanked well before the pitch count gets past 60ish, but the only run Gilbert allowed was that solo shot on the tenth pitch of the game.
• Another thing about that game that I've never seen—and would not have been possible before Commissioner Manfred's stupid extra-inning zombie runner rule—was retiring the side 1-2-3 with only two batters. The Cardinals began the 10th inning with their stupid Manfred Man on second base. The leadoff batter lined out. Then the second batter hit a fly ball to center that was caught by Julio Rodríguez, only the zombie runner didn't think it would be caught and had run to third base, so he was easily doubled off of second to end the frame. Wacky.
• Yet another first for me in Wednesday night's game was when Cole Young stepped to the plate to lead off the home tenth. With their own zombie runner on second base, everyone who was paying any attention at all knew that Young would be up there to bunt the runner over to third. Yet, before a pitch was thrown, the Cardinals held a meeting on the mound, using up one of their limited allotment of mound visits to discusss...how to defend the bunt? Couldn't y'all have done that in the dugout before taking the field, like, 20 seconds before? Sure enough, Young tried to bunt, but since he came up through the Mariners' minor leagues, he isn't good at it and popped it foul for an out.
• That game was won in the 13th on a first-pitch homer by unlikely hero Leo Rivas, who gave the best postgame interview ever after the fact. Rather than regurgitate the standard Crash Davisisms, he just exulted in the moment. No, I wasn't trying to hit it out, no I wasn't sitting on a fastball, I was trying to move the runner over! Duh! My scoresheet for that 13-inning marathon is a mess; next time I make a scorebook I should make the pages with space for more than 11 innings.
  
• Saturday night featured one of the best at-bats I'd ever seen, and the first one in which ball one came on the tenth pitch of the AB. Josh Naylor swung and missed on the first pitch and then fouled off eight in a row. It was almost disappointing when he took pitch number ten for a ball. On pitch eleven he grounded a base hit through the right side to drive in what would end up being the winning runs of the game.
• I wasn't at Sunday's game, but in that one the M's got out to an 11-0 lead (final score 11-2) behind George Kirby striking out 14, staying in just long enough to outdo Bryan Woo's 13 Ks the night before.
• Today's action, seen on TV, included Dom Canzone clubbing three homers and going 5-for-5. I'd seen 5-for-5 before—Ichiro and Tino Martínez both did it with me watching—but not like this. Cal Raleigh's two homers put him in a tie with Ken Griffey Jr. for most home runs by a Seattle player in a single season.

 The boys go for number 11 tomorrow in Kansas City. Let's see how far they can take it. The record is out of reach—Cleveland won 22 straight in 2017—but the longest winning streak this season is 14, by the Milwaukee Brewers last month. Can they beat that? Wouldn't that be something. (Of course, by accepted sports fan logic I have jinxed it from happening by even mentioning the possibility. But that's all nonsense, right?)

Tagged Baseball, Seattle Mariners, Posted on September 16, 2025 at 11:14PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

1 Comment

Strategery

Before I head down to the ballpark this evening, a little cut-n-paste. This comes to us from, as usual, the great Craig Calcaterra:

The Mariners had lost six of seven heading into this past Saturday's game against Atlanta but since then they've won four in a row. Did they make some adjustments? Did they watch some film? Nah, someone just cast a magic spell on 'em.

Over the weekend a Twitter user under the handle @notB0bR055 posted that he had paid a witch that he found on Etsy to cast a spell to end the Mariners' losing ways:

On Saturday morning, they posted an update with a screenshot of correspondence with SpellByLuna on Etsy, confirming the purchase of a $19.99 spell (with a $4 “shop discount”) to help the Mariners “get their act together and start winning baseball games again, and hopefully make their way to the World Series and win.”

SpellByLuna’s response reads in part: “I completed my spell with my best materials for you. It was a ritual process full of beautiful energies, dear, everything is fine. Now all you need to do is to stay positive and accept the manifestation of the spell.”

Since the casting of the spell, Seattle has outscored their opponents 37-9, thereby confirming the veracity of witchcraft. I hereby apologize to Rev. Samuel Parris and Matthew Hopkins who, as far as I'm concerned, stand vindicated.

Still, I'd be careful if I were the Mariners. There's a chance they'll be in an ALDS matchup against the Red Sox come October and we know how Massachusetts rolls with this sort of thing.

How long before the Mariners' promotions department organizes "Wiccan Night" at the park? And how would that work? Turn the evangelist with the bullhorn outside the gates into a newt and get in for free, maybe? Of course, full-size broomsticks would be prohibited as potential weapons, but if you can turn the evangelist into a newt I'd be unconcerned about the brooms.

Tagged Baseball, Seattle Mariners, Posted on September 10, 2025 at 4:43PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

2 Comments

Turning the page

The last couple of weeks haven't been great here in the confines of my chemistry-addled brain, but it's a new week now and the world keeps on turning.

Last night I had an umpiring shift, one of the final ones of the year as things wind down (I may get two or three more at most) and the final one that will involve some of my favorite players in the league. Bonus, I got to chat a little bit with Stephen, a guy that had been one of my favorite players to ump until he moved away last year, but who has now returned. Welcome back, dude! Hope to see you on the field next year. Also good to see Megan, Joel, Pat, Wyatt, Ray, and the rest of those folks yesterday for one final time until we convene again after New Year's. And Megan, thank you as always for the baked good samples. (Hey, I heard that, and they're not "special" baked goods. C'mon.)

I'm going to miss umping in the fall, but there'll be plenty of chaos to keep me occupied. Which is good, because the continual meltdown of the nation will undoubtedly pummel my psyche some more.

Meanwhile, there's three weeks of baseball left before the postseason and I've got tickets for three more Seattle Mariner games with the ever-present possibility of an extra or two. Despite their crappy last three weeks or so in which the M's went 6-15, they've decided to put some effort into it here at the end and have won their last three with 18 games to go. They're somehow only two games worse off in the standings since starting that 6-15 would-be collapse, going from tied for first place to, well, two behind, and two games is plenty surmountable with 18 left, especially since three of those 18 are against the team they're chasing. I say that, but I've also been a fan of Your Seattle Mariners for long enough to know that the most likely outcome is yet another missed-it-by-that-much end to the season.

This week also will see the season finale of Strange New Worlds, which has been really uneven in this third season of the series. After I have a chance to process Wednesday night's episode, I think a season recap/analysis post will be necessary since this show has been so frustrating to me—it has been so good in prior years, has the potential to be really great, and has shortchanged itself this season in some annoying ways.

Also, I watched Thunderbolts* the other night, having skipped it in the theaters. You know what? Pretty good. Certainly by the standard of recent efforts from Marvel Studios. I'd been forewarned by Erik's review that I probably ought to be in a decent headspace when I saw it, and I was. It is an interesting way to go, making depression the actual Big Bad of the film. Wielded by The Sentry, a character I was aware of in comicdom (a would-be Superman type created on purpose by nefarious experiments but that ends up being unstable) but never paid much attention to, I appreciate the way the depression was depicted, with Sentry's victims just poofing away leaving an ashy shadow behind; later we see what happens to them post-poof, they're trapped in a mindspace of sorts, reliving their traumatic or hurtful memories over and over. It's not a perfect representation, but damned if it isn't at least in the ballpark. The solution is for our reluctant (except for gung-ho Red Star, played to perfection by David Harbour) would-be heroes to coax Sentry out of his depressive episode and then after that restores everyone to normal keep working with him to manage his moods. There's also some absolute-power-corrupts-absolutely messaging here, which is good, but it is entirely unsatisfying to have the film end with Julia Louis-Dreyfuss' character Allegra de Fontaine slither out of trouble and manipulate things to her advantage again. Maybe that's appropriate given the real world we're living in, but that's also the main reason it's so irritating. Can't these criminal asshats even face justice in our comic-book movies??

Anyway, new week, new turn of the page, life goes on.

 

Tagged Umping, Baseball, Seattle Mariners, Star Trek, Movies, Posted on September 9, 2025 at 7:13PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

A not-blast from the past at the ballpark

What antiquated witchcraft is this?

I went to the ballyard last night to watch Your Seattle Mariners take on the fake rival San Diego Padres and was treated to a pretty interesting, if ultimately unsatisfying, game.

Unsatisfying because (a) the Mariners lost a game they could have won; (b) Seattle starting pitcher Luis Castillo was great—but in the way that George W. Bush kept us safe, you know, except that one time. Castillo was absolutely lit up in the first inning, needing about 35 pitches to retire the side after surrendering five runs, all before I had much chance to settle into my seat (thanks in part to the damned 6:40pm start time that necessitates an extra 30-40 minutes of travel time and even then count yourself lucky if you're not late).

Interesting because (a) it was a tightly contested affair, with the Padres ultimately winning by a single run; (b) the M's mounted a mid-game comeback with a bat-around, 6-run inning in the 5th with line drives scorched off of fake-Christian homophobic reliever Jason Adam, including a 3-run bomb by Geno Suárez, that couldn't have happened to a nicer relief pitcher; (c) the company was good as I got to catch up a little with some folks I hadn't seen in a long while; and (d) San Diego plated what would prove to be their winning run on one of my absolute favorite baseball strategems, a truly lost art in the game: the squeeze play.

I cannot remember the last time I saw a team successfully execute a squeeze bunt. I cannot recall if I've ever seen a team do it in person before. It's not quite a bigfoot sighting, but it's pretty damn rare in today's game.

Top of the 6th, San Diego's Gavin Sheets doubles to lead it off. Next batter is Ramon Laureano, who has always torched the Mariners for whatever reason (in 60 career games vs. Seattle, Laureano has 106 total bases including 11 homers), who also doubles, but good outfield play and cautious baserunning holds Sheets at 3rd. Then Jake Cronenworth singles to plate Sheets and tie the game, Laureano moving to 3rd base. Now one out, up comes 9th-place-batting catcher Freddy Fermín, who takes two pitches and then surprises us by squaring around for the third pitch as Laureano bolts home. Fermín lays down a textbook bunt and the Padres lead 7-6.

Absolutely f-ing brilliant play, beautifully executed. I tip my cap to Padre manager Mike Schildt.

Thanks to effective bullpen work by pitchers not named Jason Adam, that score held up. And despite Seattle reliever Carlos Vargas getting hammered—the guy pitched a harmless 9th, staying in due to a depleted Mariner ’pen, but in the 8th he was greeted with a hard lineout (Laureano again), a hard-hit infield single, a grounder that he tried to field himself when Suárez was ready to take it and thus ruined any chance of getting the out, and a rocket shot on the ground that took a nice play from shortstop J.P Crawford to snare and turn into a double-play—the score didn't get any worse.

Randy Arozarena nearly tied it in the 9th with a fly out to the wall in center, but that right there epitomized the game and, frankly, the Mariners as a whole of late: The Mariners need home runs to score. The Padres know other ways to do it too.

When the M's finally fired manager Scott Servais last year and gave the reins to Dan Wilson, the homer-reliance declined. A fuller mix of offensive methods took over to pretty good effect, and it's still there to some extent, but the boys are homer-happy again with old habits returning to the fore. Sadly, that's not unusual anymore, a lot of teams have the same issue, we live in a homer-happy era. 

But man, it was nice to see someone lay down a squeeze. Even if it was the Padres.

Tagged Baseball, Seattle Mariners, Posted on August 27, 2025 at 6:33PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

Celebrating the greats

Seattle's Hall of Fame #51s

This past weekend was Ichiro Suzuki weekend at the ballpark by Elliott Bay. The newly-inducted Hall of Famer had his jersey number 51 retired in a pregame ceremony on Saturday, which included a fine speech from the man itself, just two weeks after he gave a different speech at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. He began his remarks by saying, "Who's idea was it to have me give two speeches in English in two weeks?" calling it "one of the toughest challenges of my career." This got the requisite laugh, and Ichiro demonstrated a more than competent command of the language, which he remains somewhat insecure about despite having greater fluency than the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue demonstrates on a daily basis.

It was a nice speech, humble yet acknowledging of his merit in receiving the honor, and pointed in its advice to the current team of Seattle Mariners—seize this moment. "As Edgar [Martínez, Mariner batting coach and fellow Hall of Famer] and Dan [Wilson, the Mariners' manager] know, winning is tough.... The thing about winning is it is always tough and never comes without pressure," he said. "Accept the pressure and figure out how you can perform at your best." The other unexpected thing was the amount of time Ichiro devoted to the man who wore 51 before him, fellow Hall of Famer Randy Johnson. Randy will have his own number retirement next year, and the two of them seem to really enjoy each other. Johnson was among the several Mariner greats and luminaries in attendance and the two of them taking selfies and goofing around afterward was a fun cap on the event before the game began. Ichiro will attend Randy's ceremony as well and will no doubt engage on more clowning around then. (No word on whether or not Rey Quiñones will be invited.)

Yesterday the festivities continued in a way, with giveaway replica Hall of Fame plaques (I didn't get one despite arriving more than an hour early) and video tributes between innings and such, but aside form the Mariner victory—their seventh straight and a capper on a 9-1 homestand—the highlight was the ceremonial first pitch, thrown by Ichiro to Johnson, whose six-foot-ten frame was decked out in catcher Cal Raleigh's chest protector and shin guards, which looked like a grown man wearing the clothes of a six-year-old. Both wore Sunday-variant versions of Mariner jerseys with 51 on the back and posed for more goofy pictures.

I umpired Friday night, missed an opportunity to attend Saturday night, and did attend yesterday afternoon before again umpiring last night. But I watched all three games and enjoyed them all, bookended by umping shifts that were fun and included plenty of appreciation from players. Pretty decent weekend, well timed and needed given the continuing state of the world.

It wasn't worth taking the time to come home after the M's game and then turn around an hour later to go back to Cap Hill to ump, so I spent the intervening time at Elliott Bay Books, where I ran into one of the softball players I've become vaguely acquainted with over the years (and who I would see later in the evening on the field). She recommended to me a sci-fi novel called The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, which I purchased and read the first few chapters of while awaiting the start of my shift. So far so good.

 

Tagged Baseball, Seattle Mariners, Ichiro, Umping, Books, Posted on August 11, 2025 at 5:14PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet