.

PLAYOFF SCENARIOS - THREE WINS DESERVES THIS SQUIBBET, IF NOTHING ELSE

[fill in your OWN punch line about playoff scenarios and Italian soccer umpires, deadbeat.  if you aren't going to bother to watch the games, don't expect me to do that for you AND write funnies about them]

HI+:  Detroit OR Baltimore plays winning baseball and puts it out of reach.

HI- and EASIEST TO VISUALIZE:  Detroit OR Baltimore goes 11-9 and sets the bar at 89 wins, exactly as SABRSith hath forseen.  Mariners need to go 16-5, which, don't we all.

MID-:  Detroit AND Baltimore play listlessly -- and against each other -- lowering the Mariners' bar to about 87 wins.  Leaving a 14-7 record as enough to catch Balmer and quite possibly plow through the pack.

LO:  Actually, we kind of filed this one under MID-.

....

It's kind of a shame that the calendar is going to run out, because Steve Cishek is kicking the bullpen into gear ... Taijuan Walker is capable of weirdness ... Iwakuma is dealing, and our offense is plenty good enough.  Like Jerry Kramer said, you never really lose.  Of course, the clock sometimes runs out when the other team has a few more points, but if you kept playing forever you'd win.

If squeezing the last precious drops out of the Safeco wineskin is cool, consider me Tony Hawk.  We got Felix on Saturday afternoon and, well, there are worse things than Felix and worse things than Saturday afternoon.

Enjoy,

Dr D