At last clashing as notables, Mariners fall to Royals 8-4
Atop the title card at last, the M’s could not contain Kansas City once again.
There are seasons to every matchup in baseball. The winter of the Seattle Mariners and Kansas City Royals surely drew its curtains in the late 00s and early 10s, with both clubs exchanging suspect veterans with little consequence like flea market curios. Spring arose in the middle of last decade, with the two clubs putting together competitive rosters and KC running their best two seasons in 30 years against the closest thing to contenders the M’s had seen since the early stages of Ichiro’s immigration to the upper echelons of MLB performance. The past several seasons, however, have featured feisty, flummoxing matchups. The inexplicable home run barrage within Seattle’s 12-3 start of 2019. Salvador Perez’s singlehanded decimation of the M’s over the past few campaigns. Now, at last though, two clubs whose emergence in general is forever intertwined, albeit through degrees of Kevin Bacon and Kevin Appier, are competitive concurrently. The clubs have never made the playoffs simultaneously. They’ve had just four winning seasons. Yet now they clash as dual threats at last.
Today’s game came on the heels of a catastrophe for the M’s in spirit, albeit not in function. The script was different, but the yielding largely in sync, as Seattle fell 8-4 to the Royals in a series-losing turn. Luis Castillo could not hide behind the plausible deniability of the weather or infield hits today, as too many meaty pitches over the plate were punished by the Royals, while the M’s menaced precious few, particularly post-J.P. Crawford’s leadoff solo shot. Yes, some four runs is far from a glowing offensive showcase, but for the second straight night, quality offensive moments were squandered by a threadbare M’s pitching staff having off days that fans have grown unaccustomed to, and their lineup can rarely afford. Not even a Mitch Garver big fly could do much to stem the tide as Kansas City teed off.
The M’s and Royals have followed largely opposite paths to this year’s run of competitiveness. Kansas City’s peers are either destitute or similarly high-performing, creating a three-way race in the AL Central for the first time in years. They are one of my favorite types of teams to watch - a max effort, fast-moving, slightly erratic bunch, with subpar pitching that’s nonetheless thriving thanks to some fortune and a healthy heaping of defensive brilliance. In recent years past, Seattle has held at bay the aggressive midwesterners, thanks to a pitching staff hoping for their opponents to swing meeting an aggressive offense able to make contact with anything, to a fault. Now these regents slug, and a banged up M’s lineup could not keep up with the barrage.
Tomorrow offers the chance to even the season series, a ledger Seattle will hope never matters as they aim for their first AL West title in over twenty years. What it also offers is a chance to reset, beseeching George Kirby to dig deep in his bag of tricks and steady the ship, affording the M’s another day perhaps to rest Andrés Muñoz, to see if Jorge Polanco can approach greater health, to uncover if Tyler Locklear is the spark long-awaited, to hope, to hope, to hope not to, in the words of Benjamin Franklin, die farting.