Only the M’s bats were cold

MARINERS

No snow. No win. No chance. Seems like the last sentence has been the most common one the past week, with the M’s falling behind early in games and, with their anemic offense (poster boy: Richie Sexson), failing to rally.

Quick aside … how’s this for faith from your manager? After Sexson got picked off first base to kill a rally, Mike Hargrove told the Seattle Times: “It’s been so long since he got on base, I’m sure he was confused.” Ouch.

But after leaving Cleveland with another loss – the fifth in the past six games – the M’s get a little relief in the form of 18-25 Tampa Bay, once again last in the American League East. Seattle’s hottest pitcher, left-hander Jarrod Washburn, takes the bump tonight (4:10; FSN; 920-AM).

Today’s hot list …

• The lack of snow to stop the bleeding seems to be the main element of each of the game stories. Here they are, from the P-I and the Times (the News Tribune used the wire service story). From Cleveland you have the Plain Dealer story.

• Sexson did return to the lineup Monday, and it was the lead of the Times’ notebook.

• Once again, the M’s felt they received the short end of call. But after all, if Hargrove hadn’t won an argument with the umpires back in April, Monday’s game wouldn’t even have been played. Maybe, in hindsight, it would have been better if he had lost.

• I want to draw your attention to a discussion on Geoff Baker’s Mariners blog at the Times. It’s about the lack of a “manhole” (you’ll understand after your read the two blog posts) guy on the M’s and how that affects them. A guy like the Red Sox’s Jason Varitek, who just happened to be in the M’s system a long time ago.

• And our question of the day …

• Who is the leader of this team? Is it the best player, Ichiro? And is that why the team seems so passive?

• Don’t forget. You can give SportsLink’s lead guy (that would be me, Vince Grippi) a cool nickname just by clicking on this link.