2008 Seattle Mariners: Bad on a historical magnitude

Yes, the Yankees’ series was cringe-inducing. We all saw it, watched it, listened to it, so we know that the M’s visit to the Bronx (much less their road trip as a whole) was no fun.  While I was putting myself through the unholy torture of watching the FSN broadcast Saturday and Sunday mornings, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Dave Niehaus, Mike Blowers, Rick Rizzs, and Dave Sims. They all seem like decent fellows. They shouldn’t be forced to sit through such putrid displays of major league baseball on a daily basis. While I had the option to change the channel and spare myself the misery (though I didn’t), the four commentators for the Mariners don’t have that option, and that’s just unfortunate.

So, yesterday Adrian Beltre hit a first-inning two-run home run to give the M’s a short-lived 2-0 lead, as an ineffective Carlos Silva immediately coughed up six runs for the Yankees to jump out ahead.  And considering the Mariners aren’t the Twins, and aren’t capable of playing “add on” or any other type of baseball that actually requires scoring runs, the M’s win expectancy plummeted like Bear Stearns stock. The final score was 8-2 to complete a three-game sweep in which the Yankees outscored the Mariners 19-4.  On the plus side, that meant none of the three losses against the Yankees were of the one-run variety.  (Always a silver lining!)

The results in the first game after manager John McLaren’s closed-door tirade the night before were hardly inspiring. And there is good reason for McLaren to be upset. With the team’s 4.16 run per game average one month into the season, the M’s are on pace to score 673 runs on the year. 673 runs! That would be the lowest run total for a Mariner team since 1990, harking back to the halcyon days of Jeffrey Leonard, Pete O’Brien, manager Bill Plummer, and a 20-year old Ken Griffey Jr. We knew that the offense was going to be questionable this season, but setting historical benchmarks for ineptitude was unexpected.

The mediocre offensive showing explains why every opposing starting pitcher is a combination of Cy Young-Bob Gibson-Sandy Koufax on the mound against Seattle, including recent triple-A recalls like Darrell Rasner. In his start yesterday, Rasner tossed six innings of two-run ball, the seventh straight quality start against the Mariners. (The streak would reach nine straight if the starters in the first two games had pitched into the sixth inning.) The last time the M’s knocked out a starting pitcher before the fifth inning was back on April 24th, when Adam Loewen’s arm soreness allowed the M’s to generate some early runs in a game they eventually lost 8-7.

The team’s offensive ineptitude creates little margin of error for the M’s to operate. As runs are going to be scarce, the pressure is on the starting pitching to deliver a quality start every time out, even though any such start will be in vain, as the M’s are 4-17 so far this year when scoring four runs or less. When you have two consecutive ineffective starts by normally reliable starters- Felix and Carlos Silva had combined for a 2.49 ERA in just shy of 87 innings entering the Yankees series, and then combined to allow 14 earned runs in just shy of nine innings over the weekend- along with six errors committed over the series, you just simply are not going to win. Everything gets compounded: if this team can’t hit, pitch, or field, they’ll be lucky to win 60 games.

So, it’s not even mid-May and the series to stave off last place is kicked off with a four-game showdown against the Texas Rangers beginning tonight. While both teams have identical 13-19 records, the Rangers have been on a bit of an upswing, winning six of their last ten, compared to the 2-8 record that the M’s have compiled. For the Mariners to finish these four games in any place other than last, they have to complete the near-daunting task of winning three out of four.

Sadly, as tonight’s starter for the M’s is Jarrod Washburn, its a sure sign that the M’s will struggle to score runs, as Washburn has been the unlucky recipient of just an average of 3.83 in run support as the team has dropped five of Jarrod’s six starts on the season.  Sure, Washburn may have held the Rangers to three runs over five innings the last time he faced them in a start last August (in a game the Mariners lost 5-3, natch) and he might have a 7-8 record and 4.31 ERA in 150 career innings against Texas, numbers which promises that he’ll keep the game close tonight.  Washburn is facing Kevin Millwood, who allowed just two unearned runs in the season opener despite a career 7-7 record and 4.02 ERA in 100 innings against Seattle.  Millwood may have allowed ten runs over twelve innings in his last two starts- winning both, by the way- but who are we kidding.  Its unlikely the M’s offense will find a groove against Millwood, who may need seven innings tossed against Seattle to right his season.

Final score: 6-1, Rangers.  I can’t believe there is still four more months of this.  The horror, the horror….