Baseball has survived two world wars, Vietnam, 9/11 and Barry Bonds. Surviving COVID-19 – so far, anyway – is just the latest in a long list of accomplishments by the sport that has helped shape America like no other.
The Mariners weren’t expected to have the best bullpen in baseball in the first month of the season. And now 11 days into May, it’s certainly won’t be that way much longer.
Mariners fans aren’t the type to fear the unknown. It’s the known that terrifies them. All they’ve experienced the past two decades is a team that goes on vacay after the last game of the regular season.
Contrary to a tweet from a fake Twitter feed posing as the Mariners’ PR account, outfielder Jarred Kelenic and pitcher Logan Gilbert were not called up to the Mariners on Monday.
Mariners fans aren’t the type to fear the unknown. It’s the known that terrifies them. All they’ve experienced the past two decades is a team that goes on vacay after the last game of the regular season.
Catcher Luis Torrens made the inexplicable mental gaffe of not knowing there wasn’t a force out at home on a play at the plate, allowing a run to score.
Mitch Haniger had a tiebreaking RBI single in the seventh inning and the Seattle Mariners bounced back from being no-hit in their last game with a 5-4 victory over the Texas Rangers on Friday night.
Of course, Kelenic being Kelenic, he ratcheted up that growing impatience from the Mariners’ fan base as only he can, hitting a pair of solo homers in his first game at the Triple-A level.
So what comes with the bigger asterisk? Throwing a no-hitter in a seven-inning game, as Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner did last month? Or doing it over nine innings vs. the 2021 Mariners, as the Orioles’ John Means did Wednesday afternoon?
Regardless of Puget Sound traffic, that distance between a life in Triple-A and playing in the big leagues — every baseball player’s dream — can feel light years apart.
