SEATTLE — Baseball seasons are built on stories. It was the fifth players-only meeting where the switch finally flipped, or the bold suicide squeeze that somehow saved the season. It was the improbable walkoff home run that preceded the winning streak, the moment a team on the brink of oblivion discovered its identity.
In 2022, it was a brawl in Anaheim, California, that inexplicably enraged the Mariners. Before a 91-mph cutter collided with Jesse Winker’s front hip, Seattle was 12 games behind Houston in the AL West at 34-40. After the benches were cleared, four Mariners were ejected and Winker flashed both middle fingers to booing fans… Seattle promptly won six straight series, including a 14-game winning streak, en route to a playoff run.
The point is: we love turning points.
But now, after 126 games, we know not to believe that.
With a 64-62 record entering Tuesday’s game against the Dodgers and a five-game gap between Seattle and Houston in the ever-expanding AL West, the Mariners have done nothing to suggest they are capable of making a decisive push. While the Astros have won 11 of their last 12 games, Seattle has yet to win more than four games in a row all season and is stuck in a perpetual stalemate.
Even though it often looked as if the Mariners were on the verge of a turnaround, it never got that far.
So the next time Seattle wins two games in a row, the next time it scores 10 runs in an uncharacteristic loss, the next time it looks like the Mariners are finally ready to make a run:
Take a deep breath. Don’t be baited.
Consider the many clues to the turning point that were scattered along the way. The turning point may have come on June 28, when Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh’s fateful dribble gave him a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins, when shortstop JP Crawford ripped half of Raleigh’s jersey off and he raised the team’s trident, shirtless.
Instead, the Mariners lost their next four games against the Twins and Orioles.
The turning point may have come on July 3, when Crawford and first baseman Ty France performed a ritual that involved burning sage in each corner of the team’s clubhouse. The product’s packaging touted its “ability to cleanse spaces of negativity (and) increase mental well-being,” a useful tonic for a team that had lost nine of its previous 12 games.
Instead, the Mariners managed five hits in a 4-1 loss to Baltimore before losing two of three in the following series against Toronto.
The turning point could have come on July 11, when the Mariners had 15 hits in a convincing 11-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels, their third straight win. Instead, they lost their next three games by one run each and dragged themselves listlessly into the All-Star break.
The turning point could have come on July 19, when a supposedly renewed squad welcomed rival Houston early in the second half.
“It’s going to be a big series when we come back,” manager Scott Servais said before the break. “We have Houston with us. Our guys are hot and excited. It’s kind of a fresh start.”
Instead, it was anything but that. The Mariners lost two of three games (as well as the division lead) to the Astros.
The turning point could have come on July 21, when the Mariners placed France on waivers for good, simultaneously jettisoning a franchise cornerstone and upending the status quo. Instead… you know the script by now. The Mariners were swept for the first time all season (by the lowly Angels), allowing a total of three runs and 13 hits in an unsightly three-game set.
The turning point could have come at the trade deadline, when the Mariners signed two outfielders (Randy Arozarena and Justin Turner) and relievers (Yimi Garcia and JT Chargois) to make the playoffs.
“I think (the players) are motivated because they’ve brought in some new guys that are bringing some personality to a team that’s been in a tough spot the last 30 days,” Jerry Dipoto, Mariners president of baseball operations, said at the time. “We needed a little bit of momentum. … It’s going to be a hell of a lot more fun than it was before.”
Instead: (points to the wreckage). The re-formed Mariners have fallen into the same old slumps, with Turner hitting .196/.305/.275 in 15 games while Seattle and Arozarena entered Tuesday’s game in an 0-for-18 slump (with 11 strikeouts). In 18 games since Dipoto declared it would be “a hell of a lot more fun,” Seattle has gone 8-10, including 2-7 against losing teams. The “fun” has been disguised as all-too-familiar frustrations.
The turning point didn’t come when Mitch Haniger worked a walkoff walk against the Phillies on August 3, nor when the Mariners crushed the Mets 12-1 on Sunday Night Baseball on August 11, completing a convincing sweep. (I even wrote a rosy column about the suddenly ascendant Mariners last Monday before they, fittingly, snapped five straight wins.)
So far, this has been a season of punished optimism, of winning streaks that reversed momentum and waited just out of reach. It’s been a siren song all season, a parade of empty promises and suffocating strikeouts. And no, it’s not over yet.
But with 36 games to go, the Mariners have done nothing to earn the trust.
Don’t take the bait for now.
