The Mariners have opened up July with a remarkably consistent level of inconsistency, having gone 6-6 without winning or losing two games in a row this month. It took 3 1/2 months, but Seattle is finally playing .500 baseball.
Of course, that’s not the M.O. of this year’s team, which came in with sky-high expectations, and the question now is whether the Mariners will ever reach a higher level.
“We’ve taken one step forward and two steps back,” frustrated manager Lloyd McClendon said after the Mariners got embarrassed in a 10-3 loss to the Angels on Sunday. “We’ve got to get better. We have to start stringing wins together.”
Finding a way to get into the American League West race is the first step. Rather than being a legitimate contender, as Seattle was projected to be by just about everyone who mattered in the spring, the Mariners are hoping not to be left in the dust.
Inspiration can be found from the 2014 Mariners, who rallied down the stretch to come within a game of being an AL wild card. What many people may have forgotten, however, is that last year’s team was 51-44 at the break — a record McClendon and company would love to have right about now.
Instead, the 41-48 Mariners have to figure out a way to get their bullpen right and to start hitting with runners in scoring position — something that really hasn’t happened all season.
The holes in the proverbial dike keep springing up. Just when starter Hisashi Iwakuma is starting to regain his form, youngster Taijuan Walker loses his rhythm. When Mark Trumbo and Robinson Cano start to find some offense, Nelson Cruz loses his home run power.
The Mariners have the pieces, on paper, to get back in the race. But they’ve had them all season long, and it hasn’t happened yet.
McClendon spent most of the first 89 games saying that his team was about to bust out and start winning. That may well be true, but this time it might come too late for Seattle to ever live up to expectations.
“I’ve given my team a lot of (rope),” McClendon said. “It’s not working. We’ve got to change things.”