.

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...

Not so, Jarvis!  We rolled the tape ... Dr. D witnessed something far sweeter.  The M's had compiled a 6-run second inning not via The Usual Suspects, but by rather different means.  The 1996 Yankee means, that is.

...

In this August 26th article, we posited that the Mariners were finding their inner Zen at the plate.  That was the piece were we quoted Bill James' gorgeous description of Manny Ramirez' rawhide-tough at bats.

The Mariners didn't score 6 runs in one inning -- after 2 out, nobody on!! -- via two glory-shot home runs.  Instead:

• Chris Denorfia earned a quite-admirable walk, taking 3 very close pitches
• Chris Taylor -- SSI's poster boy for Zen at bats:  walked on 8 pitches :- )
• Jesus Sucre worked a Taylor-style AB, finally lining a controlled single on the 6th pitch

Great baseball face, man.  He can't miss I tell ya.

So three Scrubs put up "pro at-bats" and made life miserable for Ross on the mound... a glorious, giddy festival that was made possible by the END of the lineup.

Next:

• Austin Jackson hit one of his famous sharp, low liners into LF
• Dustin Ackley walked on 7 pitches, including 3 different "ruined" pitcher's pitches fouled away
• Cano fought off a great jam pitch, lining it softly UP THE MIDDLE

That is 6-for-6 pro at-bats, homies.  And Ross threw what, 57 pitches in this inning?!

Now:

• Morales got kinda lucky on a single to CF (but he had a controlled swing, too)
• Seager accepted a single (to CF!) up the middle ... on a "glory" 3-1 count

I felt like I was watching the pesky rodent Washington Senators... well, until Corey Hart made his 2nd out of the inning.

...

Was Robbie Ross somewhat less of a challenge than Stephen Strasburg?  He's a bad pitcher and he pitched bad, yes.  

But! if playing great teams is a normal part of a 162-game schedule, so is playing bad ones.  This was the first time in a long, long team that I felt the M's saw a pitcher who was really hurting himself, getting behind 1-0 and 3-1.  

:: shrug :: the M's cobbled 6 or 8 hits off of even Strasburg, did they not?  That's like 17 hits in Robbie Ross years.  The local club is hitting differently than they did in the first half.

...

Robinson Cano had 4 RBI in the game.  Before the game, he was on pace for 83 RBI ... after the game, he was on pace for 87.  I'd like to see him get to 90 RBI this year, to go with his crazy .388 OBP in Safeco.

Kyle Seager is on pace for 100.2 RBI.  Heh!  Let's count it down.

Dustin Ackley is on pace for 500 RBI.  Taking his second half.  Or something like 500.  

Anyway, the M's certainly have three (3) batters who can nail a playoff starting pitcher for "hard RBI."  Right hand aces, especially, will have some tough sledding against the M's 2-3-4 middle of the order.  Get James Paxton rolling against Sonny Gray, well, slap me silly .... 

Enjoy,

Dr D