Grip on Sports: One of these weeks the M’s are going to blast past the .500 mark … maybe

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The answer to the eternal question, 2017 edition, is no. At least not yet. Read on.

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• The Mariners don’t seem to like the rarified air of the winning side of the ledger. They have spent two whole days above it this season.

Monday night they won their fifth consecutive game to move back to .500. It was the fifth time they have reached that mark this season.

And for the fourth of those five times, they promptly lost.

After their 2-8 start, the reached the break even mark on May 10. They lost on May 11. It happened again on June 7 and 8, then on June 9 and 10. And it happened the past couple days.

Only on June 22 did the M’s crawl over the hump, winning that day and the next to move to 39-37. They lost their next four games.

So if you are scoring at home, and everyone is, the 2017 Seattle Mariners have spent the entirety of Friday, June 23 and Saturday, June 24, above .500. That’s it.

The rest of the season, since it began April 3, has been either at the break-even mark or below.

A five-game winning streak just after the All-Star break had allowed the Mariners to pull even at 47-47 Monday night. But a poor Sam Gaviglio start and a silent offense combined for a 6-2 loss to the first-place Astros last night and another descent below mediocrity.

And gave us our answer to this year’s big question. No, the M’s are not a true contender. Yet. Let see what happens this weekend.

• The Big Sky coaches and media each picked Eastern Washington to finish second in the conference football race.

That’s high praise considering the Eagles lost their head coach – Beau Baldwin these days is in Berkeley trying to figure out how to score on USC – and its best player – Cooper Kupp is drawing a paycheck in Southern California.

But Aaron Best’s team has enough back, including quarterback Gage Gubrud, and enough tradition, having won or shared the conference title five times since 2010, to earn the benefit of the doubt.

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WSU: The Cougars’ most accomplished returning receiver, Tavares Martin Jr., is an award candidate. … Around the Pac-12, California and Washington announced their complete basketball schedule. … Darren Carrington is disappointed in Oregon’s decision. I’m sure Oregon is disappointed in Carrington’s decisions. … Preseason practice is just around the corner at Oregon State.

Gonzaga: The Bulldogs are always looking for shooters. When one of their targets happens to be the son of one of college basketball’s most accomplished coaches, that’s a big deal. Jim Meehan has a story on the Zags offering a scholarship to Buddy Boeheim, youngest son of the Syracuse coach. … There is another shooting guard who may be in Spokane sooner, graduate transfer Randy Onwuasor from Southern Utah. The Big Sky’s scoring leader last season has GU on his list. Jim also has that story. … Three Zags earned national academic honors.

EWU: The Big Sky preseason football polls have North Dakota first, Eastern second and Northern Arizona third. … Weber State sees being picked in the middle of the pack as a step up. … Southern Utah has had back-to-back winning seasons. … North Dakota tied for the conference title with Eastern last season. … Montana’s Bob Stitt needs to get it going in his third season.

Preps: Greg Lee focuses a bit on basketball in this week’s youth notebook. … Former Ferris High star Andrew Kittredge made his debut for Tampa Bay last night.

Indians: There wasn’t a lot of offense at Avista Stadium last night, so the 2-1 Spokane win over Salem-Keizer didn’t take much time. Whitney Ogden has more in this story. … Around the Northwest League on Tuesday, Everett finally got one from Eugene to snap a four-game losing streak. … Hillsboro piled on Vancouver. … Boise pounded Tri-City.

Mariners: Dave Nichols’ Mariner Log is back, so we are back to adding the links to the bottom of his feature.

Seahawks: Where in the world is Russell Wilson? This week: China. … Another 10-win season really would be something. … Richard Sherman is right about a strike but it probably won’t happen.

Sounders: The national team is going with a veteran group in the Gold Cup knockout round.

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• A quick column note. We won’t be here Friday due to an early morning conflict. Sorry. We will be here tomorrow and back again on Saturday. Until later …