OAKLAND, Calif. — When it happens for one game, you hope it is something more than a one-off surprise. If it happens for two consecutive games, you want to believe it’s the start of a trend, but baseball superstition won’t allow you to say it. And, well, if it happens for a third game on Thursday afternoon in the series finale and carries into the three-game series in Anaheim and beyond, then maybe the Mariners might just pull themselves back into consideration for the postseason race.

The late-inning stress and anxiety of yet another low-scoring game loomed for the Mariners.

As the notion of “rock bottom” for this Mariners season keeps shifting (and dropping lower) by the day, the great guessing game Monday was who would get on the plane to Oakland, California, for the start of a road trip.

With Major League Baseball requiring all teams to adjust their roster to have 13 position players and 13 pitchers as of Monday, the Mariners, despite having an off day, made multiple roster moves to fit the rule.

As sunshine made an unexpected appearance on an otherwise mostly cloudy Father’s Day morning and early afternoon, a packed T-Mobile Park, largely disappointed by what they’d been watching, was briefly energized by a hint of warmer, if not better, days ahead for them and the baseball team.

For nine innings, the Mariners had kept Angels star Mike Trout down.

The storyline is simple, familiar and expected:

SEATTLE – At the time of his acquisition in early March, this sort of announcement would’ve been viewed as a coup for the Mariners.

Mistakes aren’t misfortune, failed execution isn’t a bad break and optimistic references to last season’s success, which should’ve stopped about a month ago, should probably be finable offenses at their mention.

The pop of the 96-mph fastball that rocketed past Max Kepler’s bat and slammed into the Cal Raleigh’s catcher’s mitt echoed Tuesday night throughout a sparsely crowded T-Mobile Park. Before the crowd of 13,019 could applaud his accomplishment, another pop of similar decibel-level could be heard.