Last Friday, I was fortunate enough to have some great seats for the Seattle Mariners home opener. And it was truly a beautiful night for baseball.
Ken Griffey, Jr. threw out the first pitch. One of my all-time favorite recordings of Dave Niehaus, talking about the joys of Opening Day, rung out across the stadium. Safeco Field was literally as full as it had ever been. Fuller even. There’s really nothing quite like the first home game of the year, and if you’ve never been, I highly recommend it.
Unfortunately, the Mariners couldn’t hang on to win the game. Early losses can be forgotten, but what really got to me was what I overheard near the end of the game.
In the ninth inning the Mariner’s new closer, Steve Cishek, gave up a go-ahead home run to Chris Coghlan. Over my right shoulder I heard some yell, “Bring back Rodney!”
I think he was kidding, but in all seriousness, a chill came over me. It was the first home game of the year. Are we really that bitter already? Are the Mariners faithful fans so willing to turn their backs on this team that it only took one run given up by the closer to sour the crowd on him? The answer, and understandably, is yes.
After a 15-year playoff drought, the Mariners fans are pretty quick to see the blue and teal glass as half empty.
I think it’s a good time to slow down with the pitchforks and torches routine for a minute. The reality that opposes our tender, oft betrayed, little hearts, is that it’s too early and we still know far too little about this team to be freaking out about any of this. The team is pretty healthy. Beyond that, nothing can be taken as rule or exception until we have a larger sample size.
So I’m here to tell you that while I understand the place your anger burns from, there’s no need to panic, yet. Lets take a few deep breaths and count backwards from ten.
Inhale…
10. Come on now, it’s only the first week of the season. And just a few short days ago we were all elating in Robinson Cano’s four home runs in three games, the hot-hitting Leonys Martin and the precision with which Mike Montgomery handled his first appearances as a reliever.
Exhale…
9. Felix was sharp Sunday! He struck out ten and his velocity was right back to where he wants it. Even if it’s painful watching the King continue to be the least supported ace in history, it’s only one game and if not for the ridiculous history he’s had with low-scoring games, it wouldn’t be all that concerning.
Inhale…
8. We had a couple of players opening the season at the big-league level for the first time. Hopefully, they’ve gotten all those jitters out of the way by now. Dae Ho Lee got his first MLB hit with a towering home run to centerfield. And Marte, the 22-year old shortstop, has looked young at times. But other than bobbling a ball or two and taking a few bad cuts, he’s looked pretty good and not at all out of his league. Hey that’s where that saying comes from!
Exhale…
7. This whole team is new! It’s pretty much Kyle Seager, Felix Hernandez, Robbie Cano, Nelson Cruz, Hisashi Iwakuma and 20 new guys. They’re not hitting yet, but it might just take some time for the team to gel. And there’s still 155 games left this year, so time they have. If they can stay around .500 until they put it all together, they’ll be fine.
Inhale…
6. Listen to me. Of course they have time to improve! It’s way too early to be worried about win/loss columns. Lots of teams go 0-16 with runners in scoring position on their first home stand of the year, right? Sure!
Exhale…
5. It’s Oakland. I have no idea why, but whether they’re a playoff team or completely in rebuild mode, the A’s play the Mariner’s hard. They threw a couple of lefties at our line-up, which we knew could be a challenge for us. There are still more right-handed pitchers than lefties out there, right? Yeah, we’ll be fine.
Inhale…
4. The pitching staff isn’t giving up a lot of runs, or getting blown out. They’re striking batters out and pitching into the shift pretty well. And there has been a lot more defensive shifting. That also might be taking some getting use to. These guys are dealing with a lot of changes at once, and I don’t think that should be understated. New systems take some time to become habits.
Exhale…
3. The team batting average was under .200 coming into Monday night’s game against Texas, but I’m sure they’re not going to stay under the Mendoza Line all year. This pitching staff needs three or four runs in support to win games. The Mariners are currently averaging 4.1 runs per-game, but that is very skewed. In the two wins in Texas, Seattle’s offense scored 19 runs. In their four losses in the first two series, they scored a total of six runs. That’s 1.5 runs per-game in losses. Fortunately, that’s probably no more sustainable than the 9.5 runs per win. It’s not a sprint, etc…
Inhale…
2. Texas is in town! The Mariners got on track against the Rangers all last year, and they look real beat up too. Yu Darvish is out, Shin Soo Choo is out and Josh Hamilton is out. We may all be feeling better about things by mid-week.
Exhale…
1.Look! Cano, Cruz and Seager all seem healthy! Since Cano put on his power display in Texas, he hasn’t done much else. Feels like a calm before a storm to me. These guys are going to click soon, and you can remember reading this when they destroy some team for three straight days later this month.
There… Feel a little better? Yeah me either… But I hope we all will soon. I know that watching this team lose low-scoring games has become a sickening kind of nostalgia by now, but that feeling will go away in a few weeks if the Mariners can get out in front and play some exciting baseball again. I’m holding out hope that we’ll be in the hunt come September. Do your breathing exercises and try to keep your head up. April could be rough.
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