This was the year the Seattle Mariners were finally supposed to break through as a legitimate contender in the American League.
Winning the American League West seemed like a very reachable goal and advancing deep into the postseason appeared to be a viable option for the first time since 2001. Thus far, the multitude of Mariners fans’ dreams of seeing their team advance to the postseason already looks bleak. Currently, the Mariners are sporting a record of 15-25, trailing the first place Oakland Athletics by eight and a half games. The pitching staff hasn’t played up to its potential, resulting in the Mariners losing a slew of close games early in the first six weeks of the 2008 season.
The pitching staff consisting of starters Miguel Batista, Erik Bedard, Felix Hernandez, Carlos Silva and Jarrod Washburn and relievers Cha Seung Baek, Sean Green, Mark Lowe, Brandon Morrow, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Arthur Rhodes and J.J. Putz will have to significantly improve their performances this summer in order to give the Mariners a chance to get out of the hole they’ve put themselves during April and May.
The good news for Mariners enthusiasts is that unlike high school athletic teams in East Pierce County who are currently competing in playoff games, the Mariners still have time to right the ship. They are only one-fourth of the way through the season and still have more than 100 games left on their schedule.
There’s a part of me that hopes Richie Sexson’s charging of the mound against Texas on May 8 will light a fire under the Mariners’ psyche that hopefully will inspire them to play more aggressively for the rest of the season. I’m hoping the Mariners will soon flip the script and start playing like the team everybody thought they could be during spring training.
It’s not like the Seattle Mariners franchise hasn’t done it before. In 1995, the Mariners trailed the California Angels by 13 games in August before catching fire in the final 40 games, finishing in a dead heat before defeating the Angels in a one game playoff to win the American League West in October of 1995. I will never forget my dad pulling me out of school during my second period class in order to attend the biggest game in Mariners’ history of all time during that time frame. The Mariners won 9-1 that day and went on to defeat the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series before falling to the Cleveland Indians in the American League Championship Series.
I’m hoping the Mariners can have that kind of magical season once again. It happened when I was 13 years old and I’m hoping something similar can happen when I’m 26.
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