Texas

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M's vs Royals: Pick 'Em Betting Line

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Q.  What is the probability of the M's making the postseason?  2%, or 5%, or what?

A.  According to MLB.com, it's 43%.  Flip a coin.  Your chances of calling it correctly, are about the same as the M's chances of gearing up for a big national TV game in October.

Of course, you have no feelings about the coin; you do have residual electroshock convulsions when you look at a Mariner logo.  Those were acquired from the last two horrible games.  But, as with dice and coins, MLB teams tend to forget what happened on the last toss.  

"Momentum is as good as that night's starting pitcher."  Again, the M's win a game or two, and all feels right with the universe again.  Ahhhhh, the bittersweet flavor that is the Human Experience.

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Nelson Cruz: Lessons Learned (? or not)

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Mojo sez,

[Good for Tejas, Holland beating K-Pax] That poor team deserves something to cheer about. Nobody except Oakland deserves the horrible things that have happened to the Rangers this year. Kinsler for Fielder and hold the health. Jurickson Profar, the hope of Texas up in smoke. Shin-Soo Choo goes missing. And Washington quits without two weeks notice. So they got their Holland back and he still has it. GOOD. The carnage was making me queasy.  

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Two weeks notice :- )

The rest of us in the SSI crowd doesn't know if Nelson Cruz' performance in Baltimore was included in the 'carnage' to which the Counselor refers.  But today, Cruz had ANOTHER two homers ... and a triple just to gloat! ... as the Orioles ran their division lead to +9.5 games.  That's double digits.  The M's didn't even win by double digits when they won 116 games, we don't think ...

But the Rangers' B team from two years ago is also now carrying other teams to glory.  They're down there in Texas, wringing their hands, Oh, if only we had our old #7 hitter to legitimize this lineup...

Does a 1-0 shutout count as a "tough loss"?

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INPUT/OUTPUT:  On a day when ONE run would have won the game (big advantage in extra innings), the Mariners couldn't even get that.  

Ruining a chance to swell the Seattle possibilities even more pregnantly.

CRUNCH:  The night before, the Soggy Bottom Boys waded through a 3+ hour rain delay.  This red-shifted their sorry little biological clocks badly.  

That would have been plenty 'nuff of a problem, but it was the final stop on a road trip!  and then you had an early game day the next day!?

Those would have been plenty 'nuff problemos too, but all of a sudden here is Derek Holland throwing tic tacs to various and sundry little nodules of the strike zone.  Anybody else feel like Ender going through training drills?  What's next, handcuffed and blindfolded while waking up in the jaws of an Asian white tiger?

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As we might have mentioned a time or two, all* left hand pitchers with hot fastballs are tough.  Provided only that there isn't some weird flaw going on.

Compared to other high-octane lefties, Derek Holland is more polished than average.  Sunday, he got 7 whuffs on his power slider alone, AND he has a bloopy change curve into the bargain.  The kid is death on a stick, even if your good hitters AREN'T left hand.

The script was set for the lockdown.  Holland could have done a cold reading, in the back of a limo, and still crushed the movie.  Come to think of it, he read the script cold, in terms of his yearly arc.  

There is a reason, gentlemen, teams go 14-2 in the NFL but teams don't go 140-20 in baseball.  Slop happens.  At least in Seattle, slop is followed by a Robinson Cano "what me worry" megawatt smile, de-scenting the slop with a cleansing blue overwash.

M's 10 ...

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Dr. D, having carefully DVR'ed the baseball game up in the man-cave, was in the family room.  Wallowing in the "Seahawk postgame" :- ) that was broadcast on ESPN.  When all of a sudden, the left sidebar said "Mariners Roll In Texas."  Curse you, Red Baron.  That was a blunder unworthy of the resident Soccer Mom at our home.  :: ashamed ::

A 10-1 lead?  Ah, thought Dr. D.  A 3-run Kyle Seager shot, two Ackley doubles, and...

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