This Mariners season, man, it’s been one long seesaw, except most of the time we’re stuck below the .500 mark. Going into Toronto, we were already seven games under, and even with a tiny bit of positive momentum lately,a 6-4 run in our last ten before that ugly Game 1 loss,we still couldn’t pull it together for the series. Dropping yesterday’s opener, which was truly, terribly awful, just cemented that feeling.
We Actually Thought We Had This One, Didn’t We?
You know the drill. Our M’s have this weird thing lately where we either get absolutely blown out, sometimes historically bad, or we snag a win that’s, well, not totally soul-crushing. So after that brutal Game 1 loss up north, us optimists were kinda hoping today would be one of those less anxiety-inducing wins. And for a hot minute, for the first almost exactly half of the game, it felt like we were *actually* gonna get it! The guys were leading, shutting out the Blue Jays for a glorious four and a half innings. It wasn’t perfect, but it was fine. Comfortable. Even a little fun, if you can believe it.
Big Dumper Delivers, But The Wheels Come Off
Toronto’s starter, José Soriano, ended up having a Quality Start, but our bats made him look human early. The top of our lineup went down in order in the first, no big deal. But then the second inning rolls around, and after Josh Naylor kept the quiet trend going, who steps up? Only Cal Raleigh, blasting his 19th home run of the season! Yeah, Big Dumper did a very “Cal in Toronto” thing, putting us on the board first. Soriano managed to escape with a ground out and a called strikeout to Cole Young and Taylor Ward, but we had the lead!
Then J.P. Crawford, back from the IL, singles to kick off the third. Awesome, right? But then Brock Rodden flies out, and Randy Arozarena hits into an inning-ending double play. Ugh. The fourth inning is where that “fun baseball” started to rear its ugly head again. Canzone absolutely smoked a 100.3 mph line-out right to second base, and Julio went down swinging for two quick outs. Then Josh Naylor singles, and Soriano starts walking guys. That’s where the source leaves off, but we know the final score was 3-4. We lost. Again.
What Now, Mariners?
So, what are we left with? Another series loss, stuck seven games below .500, and a bitter taste of what could have been. We saw Kade Anderson out there, we saw some brief moments of brilliance, especially from Cal Raleigh. But it’s these games, these “almost” wins, where we lead for nearly half the time and then just… don’t finish, that really sting. This roller coaster season is wearing us down. We gotta find a way to stop this downward sawing and start building some real momentum, for real.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Lookout Landing.
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