Mariners Lose By Ten Runs, Are A Total Mess

James Paxton walked six batters in 2.2 innings on the same day that the Seattle Mariners announced Chris Young had been removed from the starting rotation. He gave up nine runs in that span, and if you didn’t think he was human before, you do now. The M’s were blown out by the Toronto Blue Jays on a day where they really could have used a win. They lost, horribly.

Meanwhile, the Kansas City Royals were dealt a long-awaited loss by the Cleveland Indians in their suspended contest from weeks and weeks ago. They then knocked the Indians off 2-0 in a full-length game, meaning the Mariners only got one of the three outcomes they were hoping for. The A’s and Royals are pulling away and the regular season is now down to six games.

That’s not to say it can’t be done. If this team could get this far, they can make it the rest of the way. The Mariners could rattle off six consecutive wins. They could win three of six, with Kansas City losing the rest of their games. There are plenty of ways for these Mariners to turn the last week of the season into a fabulous comeback story. Except that’s now their only path to the postseason: be underdog darlings.

Tom Wilhelmsen and Danny Farquhar were both tagged for home runs as the bullpen couldn’t stop the bleeding. It’s not just Lucas Luetge getting shelled in relief these days, as even the upper-tier arms are showing signs of humanity. The pitching staff, the backbone of the team, is being exposed top to bottom. It’s terrifying. And it’s resulted in back-to-back-to-back blowout losses.

But there was Kyle Seager, homering to dead center. There was Robinson Cano, on base more often than he wasn’t. There was Felix Hernandez, watching in the dugout and waiting for his chance to close in on the AL Cy Young tomorrow. Logan Morrison is still hitting. It’s easy to believe in this or any team if you look past what they’re not doing right.

Run differential was one of the first and simplest metrics to suggest to us that this team might actually be pretty good. Since taking the series opener in Houston, the Mariners have been outscored by 24 runs. Their run differential is down to +82, which is still awesome, but certainly a tier below the team we thought they might be for a while there. For a season there.

Felix Hernandez vs. R.A. Dickey tomorrow at 4:07. Kansas City’s throwing Yordano Ventura against Cleveland’s Danny Salazar, while the Tigers and their one game divison lead will be throwing David Price against the White Sox and Scott Carroll. Oakland has Sonny Gray against the Angels and Wade LeBlanc. Don’t blink, you might miss baseball. Meaningful baseball.