The Mariners Hit Rock Bottom
It can't get any worse, can it?
If you listen to the Wait For It Seattle podcast, you are familiar with our take on the Seattle Mariners in 2024. Frustrated. Agitated. Sad. Angry. Rarely joyful with this team. The team that collectively has the 16th worst batting average in Major League Baseball history. The team on pace to break the single season record for most strikeouts. The team with eight everyday hitters batting below .224. That team, even though a first place squad, that might be the most unwatchable Mariners outfit in the past 10 years. This same team - unwatchable and unbelievably lackluster on offense - just hit rock bottom.
The Opening Day first baseman just got waived. Your leadoff hitter and starting shortstop fractured his finger yesterday. Two days ago, the Mariners best player jammed his ankle into a wall. The Opening Day clean up hitter is batting .168 and left three men on base by himself yesterday. Your starting right fielder is hitting .206 and struck out twelve times in 23 at-bats in July. It actually can’t get worse.
Well, techincally it can get worse. The record just might be worse based on the past 30 days of baseball. But my contention is that this is rock bottom. The 3-1 loss to the Angels last night was like when Kristin Wiig’s character Annie rages at the bridal shower for her best friend Lillian in Bridesmaids. On her way home, she gets pulled over by a cop and her boyfriend leaves her. But remember…
Even Scott Servais agrees that the Mariners can’t get worse than this.
“I am tired of watching it,” said Servais.
To the point, truthful without sugarcoating anything, and direct. This is not the typical Scott Servais. And that might be what the Mariners need right now. Don’t get me wrong, they also need better players. But this uninspired, swing and miss, horror show of an offense needs a kick in the ass. It needs an injection of pride as much as talent. Or maybe more accurately, they have to rely on pride because the talent in the lineup tonight will be as bad as ever (assuming no Julio.)
But even the dreadful 2012 Seattle Mariners hit .234 with Brendan Ryan, Casper Wells, Dustin Ackley, and Jesus Montero in the starting nine. The 2024 Mariners have a chance to make the playoffs. As insane as that might be, they are still in the hunt. With rock bottom swallowing up the Seattle air on a July 22nd evening, there is only one place to go. The Mariners will decide, like Servais said, to fight for the last sixty games. The Mariners decide that this is too horrific to continue in the same way. The Mariners decide this is rock bottom and there is only way one to go from here.
Right?
Maybe today is rock bottom? Angels just completed the sweep. Ugh!