BOY OH BOY.

Well, we are three complete weeks through baseball season and the short handed M's have begun to falter already. Injuries and an inconsistent bullpen have been the catalysts of their recent slide.There must be good news, right? Well, it's a long season. The bad news? It has started off as badly as it could have been. Remember when everyone was excited about a 3-0 start? BOY OH BOY I wish we still had that. A horrendous road trip it was, but not all is lost Mariner fans. Not all is lost.

AT Texas 1-3 (7-8)
Seattle started the series in my new hometown with a convincing win against Colby Lewis. Here is where I legitimately get my hopes up, and the Mariners do everything in their power to make me feel foolish. At 7-5, I'm confident.

I was lucky enough to find a few $7 tickets to the Felix-Yu duel game in Texas. While I'm (still) emotionally drained and still quite annoyed with the Mariners and their utter lack of looking like a professional baseball team, I'm not going to use this to vent. Instead, I'm going to say something nice and move on.

Shocker: Felix Hernandez is a once in a lifetime talent. The man is not only the best pitcher in the big leagues, but he battles for a team that isn't really worth battling for. He was angry he got pulled out because he wants to be out there. He deserves better. He deserves to be in Detroit, St. Louis, or Boston. The man deserves to play on a team that will battle with him. But he stays in Seattle. He doesn't complain, and he shows up every outing with the same mentality. I'm glad I was able to see him in person, because even with the way that game turned out, his performance will last far longer than the loss.

The next two games in Texas pan out the same. For the series, Seattle at worst should have been 2-2. Unfortunately, this club doesn't like to show up and score runs. After scoring 7 the first game, they were shut out, scored only two, and finally scored six. The bullpen is a whole different ordeal. Texas needed a good series to infuse life back into their short season, and Seattle was the perfect team to do so.

AT Miami 0-3 (7-11)
How do you get swept by the National League's version of Houston? Well, play like Seattle. Friday night in Miami, the M's had a great opportunity to get a win but the transfer rule would come back to bit the M's this time. That would load the bases for Giancarlo Stanton who hit a ball that hasn't landed yet for a walk-off grand salami. 

Saturday night was a disaster. Roenis Elias pitched well enough early to keep them in the game, but one inning would get away from him, issuing 5 walks, probably his least sharp outing thus far. The hitters were of no help, held to just one hit by Henderson Alvarez, who was brilliant, taking a perfect game into the 6th. 

In game three the Mariners had some great situational hitting with two leadoff doubles and sac flies to score and take a 2-0 lead. Starter Brandon Maurer retired the first 13 he retired but was pulled in the fifth after allowing two runners to reach and a run to score. Miami would tie the game in the 8th, with the bases loaded a hard groundball to Justin Smoak was bobbled and allowed speedy Christian Yelich to score. Initially he was called out but after video review he was clearly safe. The Marlins took a 3-2 lead going to the 9th. In the 9th Corey Hart led-off with a double and was pinch ran for by Brad Miller. After a groundball and walk by Smoak, Michael Saunders was K'ed by Steve Cishek. 

It leaves the M's 1-6 on the road trip and coming home for 6 games with the Astros and Rangers.

You don't win many games without hitting. You don't win many games without pitching. Seattle is trying so hard to do both, to no avail. With Taijuan Walker and Hisashi Iwakuma coming back, the starting rotation looks to improve, but the hitting needs to increase. It's early, and Seattle tends to do this after the halfway point of their season. Here's me hoping that they're getting the growing pains out now and a winning ball club shows back up. Wishful thinking, I know.

Now onto the non-disappointing team in Seattle.

The Seahawks have come to an agreement with WR Sidney Rice, the same guy we cut after the Super Bowl. I love this decision, because Rice is a big receiver that when healthy caught everything thrown at him. While the numbers aren't out yet, I would be surprised if he got anything more than a one year deal worth around $1.5 million. Essentially keeping a guy you were owing almost $8 million for a fraction. I like the move.

Seattle also acquired QB Terrell Pryor from Oakland in exchange for a 7th round pick. I don't necessarily dislike the move, but I'm confused by it. He comes in getting paid more than Super Bowl champion Russell Wilson, but depth is always nice. He's also an impressive physical specimen, so while there are no current talks about switching him to a WR or TE, it's a possibility. Don't be surprised to see either Tavaris Jackson or Pryor cut before the season, as Seattle still has QB BJ Daniels.

How long until football season?

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