Look, I don't want to suggest that anyone who is still enjoying viewing this as a playoff race should stop. Baseball is fun, and should always remain so. But, serious question: does anyone really believe the Mariners aren't dead? They're 4.5 back of Minny, 3 of LAA, 2.5 of Balmer, and a nose behind TB and Arlington. Maybe we're better than a couple of those teams, although anyone who's watched this rotation the last couple weeks could be forgiven for questioning that. There's no way we're better than all of them. We are precluded on going on any extended winnings streaks by the gaping holes in our rotation, and given the way we're riding our bullpen things may actually get worse before they get better. When Pax and Felix return, it may take a couple weeks to shake off the rust and produce like Zeus or King Felix. Every modifier you could apply to our chances hurts us, not helps us.
We're dead. Have been for a while. I call my grandfather every week and talk Seattle sports. The last few weeks I've described the Mariners to him as zombies: we're still shambling around, and from a distance you might mistake our spastic movements for actual life. But as of this week, atrophy seems to have dropped our undead corpses to the pavement. Call the Mike Leake trade a death spasm if you must, but the fact remains, we're done for.