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=== Day Late and a Dollar Short Dept. ===

On July 1, the Mariners beat Toronto 6-0 behind Jason Vargas.  They were 3.5 games out.

They would go the next 13 consecutive games without scoring +5 runs in any game ... in any nine innings, that is.  Tonight, they detonated Josh Beckett (!) for five runs before he got the second out.

On July 1, the Mariners scored 5+ runs and were -3.5 in the standings; the next time their offense scored 5 or more runs, they would be -12.5 and the entire baseball town would be a "floater" in the Puget Sound.

***

Several of the hits were rockets:  Ichiro's leadoff home run was a slashed line drive ... Dustin Ackley's double went one-hop off the RF wall because Josh Reddick couldn't get back to that in time ... Casper Wells went four bags into the Safeco death-valley bullpen.

***

Josh Beckett's ERA was 2.17 coming into the game.  That's with his home park being, in the long run, the most offense-friendly stadium in baseball.

***

He wasn't making bad pitches.  

... Dustin Ackley was fooled on the double; he stepped forward, hesitated, then took a half-swing on the ball.  He squared it up precisely on the sweet spot of his bat, as squarely as an LPGA golfer teeing off.  

SSI has bragged on Ackley's bat wrap, but that is probably only his #3 greatest talent.  The fact that he can keep the extreme wrist hinge, and still be quick to a 95 fastball, is very nearly unique in MLB.

But his timing -- the Edgar-esque gift for never being caught in-between -- is a greater talent than that, probably his #1 talent ...

... and Ackley's precision in "covering" a baseball is his #2 gift in my book.  If you watched the bat from the catcher's point of view, the barrel of his bat would practically "eclipse" the baseball.  (A baseball is 2.9 inches' diameter; pro bats are about 2.7, if you're wondering.)

NPB fans exult, "Ichiro could chop a mosquito in half with a katana."  They're right.  Ackley can too.

***

Beckett also got Mike Carp on his front foot.  From the side angle, Carp drove his weight forward, and Beckett pulled the string so adroitly that Carp actually lurched --- like a semi-truck double-clutching -- but he kept the hands way back and pounded the ball up the middle for 2 more RBI.

This made 23 RBI since Carp was called up 22 games ago.  In Seattle?  

True, Carp's grounder might have hit leather for a groundout.  There has been a certain amount of luck in his .372/.400/.605 line.

But SSI can assure you, that if Mike Carp were to swing the bat exactly like this for 155 games, that he would put up a Vlad Guerrero type of season and would be one of the thirty best hitters in organized baseball.  

... that's not to say he will. But Mike Carp right now is raining bloody death on any pitcher who cares to face him.

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