What a season huh? With an off season packed with hopeful signings (Chone Figgins), eye popping trades (Cliff Lee) and awkward optimism (Milton Bradley and Erik Bedard), we are met with the startling discovery that to win baseball games you have to score runs. And to score runs you have to get on base. And the Mariners aren't doing that very well.
The team entered the night 2-6, tied for last in the AL West with another surprising bottom feeder in the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Then Tuesday came. The Mariners were sending out sophomore Doug Fister, their bandaged rotation's back end starter, against the A's best pitcher, Brett Anderson. DOOM was approaching. Dave Cameron, the voice of reason to Mariners fandom went as far as to say that the M's should be ready for a 2-7 record before the game.
Fister pitched instead, lights out. Out doing his mound companion by posting eight innings of shut out work with three hits. Albeit it was against the A's, and it was in Safeco, but that display was surprising and necessary.
It was necessary because of the output (or lack-thereof) by his offense. The Mariners left nine runners in scoring position and left the game with five batters under the Mendoza line (Casey Kotchman, Jack Wilson, Mike Sweeney, Milton Bradley and Rob Johnson).
The highlight of said struggles was LF Milton Bradley, who entered the game with a batting average of .043. That's right, .043. But don't worry, Bradley broke out with a 2-4 night with a double and home run. So now he's 3-26 this season. That HR may have lessened the weight felt on Bradley, the supposed offensive acquisition to make this offense run and bring in their fast top of the lineup.
It's clear however that they need to move him to DH, which means that they have to part with Sweeney. A team can't be successful with that awful of a DH spot and such a lackluster outfielder in what was supposed to be the best outfield in the majors. To become a respectable team that won't automatically out of a ballgame if the opposing team scores four runs, you have to find a way to hit runners in, and that is not happening in the middle to lower parts of this lineup.
Cliff Lee and Erik Bedard can't improve the offense. Hell, they could probably help as much as Sweeney is.