Seattle (43-44) @ LAA (46-42)

[TTown]

4-3 Angels, top 5. Nice two out rally: singles by Ichiro and Ryan, and Ackley, and Olivo. Ackley drives home Ichiro, Olivio gets Ryan in and Ackley to 3rd.

[sharkz]

Just as our offense miraculously comes alive, Pineda blows up and we gotta do it again.

[Sweezo]

Pineda strikes out his first 5 batters of the game today, then the sixth batter pops up to Olivo a foot and a half in front of home plate. Two innings down, Angels have yet to hit a ball two feet!

Yeah, and that's the point where I stopped watching the game. Headed out to play a little tennis since it was a beautiful day outside, thinking "well, at least Pineda's dominating...we should get this one." Fast forward a couple hours when I hop in my car, turn the radio on, and hear he gave up 7 runs and we are getting destroyed again.

The Angels have owned us the past...oh, I don't know...6-7 years. Now they're on the verge of a four game sweep which effectively knocks us out of the playoff race. Sure, it's only halfway through the season, but if we're 6-7 game back of two teams we just don't have the offense to make those games up.

[sharkz]

Is this the first time we've seen Pineda's ERA in the 3s......wow what a kid.

We get 12 hits....and 3 runs to show for it. We really are hopeless.

[TTown]

I don't think we're a playoff team, I haven't for awhile now. But just because we're in rebuilding mode doesn't mean I want to go 61-101 again. I'd love for this team to try to strive for .500. As such, a four game sweep heading into the AS break... yeah. That won't sit well. We've been swept too much lately, after going on a very impressive streak of... well, not being swept.

Also, Kyle Seager is 0/10 in 3 games. I think it's very, very important he gets a knock or two today. Starting your ML career 0/14 with three days off to think about it? That can't be good for a young player.

[Sweezo]

Swept by the Angels...Jesus. At least Seager got his first hit, but at the rate things are going we're not looking all that much better than last year's team at the moment.

[TTown]

This break couldn't have come at a better time. Smoak's been DOA since June, Pineda's era has gone from 2.45 to 3.03 in his last three starts (thank god he got the A's once in there), and the team has lost 5 in a row. Gotta regroup.

If we win any of our five remaining series in July, color me surprised.

So... another batter walked on 3 balls against us today. Yep, two 3 ball walks in the last 8 days. Wedge claims he knew about it all along, but wanted Abreu on base to get a righty up there (the runner didn't end up hurting us). Maybe he's telling the truth, maybe he's not; I don't know. But what the HELL is going on with the umpires lately? How does this happen TWICE in a little over a week? How hard is it to count to four?

Maybe I'm just a little too uptight with the umpiring these days, I don't know. I'm still upset that both the homeplate and third base guy sabatoged Pineda's start yesterday. But there just doesn't seem to be any accountability in baseball for blown calls. The NFL and NBA will crack down on perceived inconsistencies. Baseball umpires seem to be able to do whatever they want, with no fear of retribution.

Maybe I'm only noticing it more now because we've been getting bent over by the blue recently. But a lot of this stuff isn't "wow, that was a bang-bang play; the ump did the best he could" stuff. This is learning to count to four, and knowing when a swing is a swing and when a batter holds off. You know, Little League stuff. It's not umpires blowing debatable calls, we're seeing flat out laziness and amateur-level calls being made.

[Bulltalk]

I think it's reasonably safe to say that we're done for the year. We lasted longer than I thought we would, however. I'll give this team that. We're sellers on the market. Is anyone willing to take the other side of this argument now?

[Sweezo]

I think it's reasonably safe to say that we're done for the year. We lasted longer than I thought we would, however. I'll give this team that. We're sellers on the market. Is anyone willing to take the other side of this argument now?

As I saw posted on Lookout Landing, Cool Standings now gives us about a 3% chance of winning the division, where we were at 17% prior to the sweep. Winning the division could happen, but would require a miracle.

[jumanji]

I think it's reasonably safe to say that we're done for the year. We lasted longer than I thought we would, however. I'll give this team that. We're sellers on the market. Is anyone willing to take the other side of this argument now?

Not down with getting rid of pitching for minor leaguers so i'd rather they bring back someone like a Hunter Pence or an Andre Eithier if we're going to part with some arms.

[TTown]

The trade market is a wild and unpredictable thing. I know this. There have to be sellers before there can be buyers. So maybe sitting pat and not making a move to help the lineup isn't Jack Z's fault. Hard to tell.

But it IS curious that, on June 26, 2010, the Mariners dealt a AA batting champion to the Indians for Russell Branyan to bolster the offense. On June 26, 2010, the Mariners were 14 games behind Texas.

Today is July 10, 2011. As of four days ago, the M's were what, 2 games back? 2.5? It seems weird to me that last year, at a time when we were a DISTANT 14 back -- and more into a firesale mode, with Cliff Lee to be dealt for a big return -- that Jack Z was so quick to trigger a deal. This year, with Texas not looking as strong and Seattle fighting near the top of the AL West, two weeks later into the season than last year and only a handful of games out... no deal. No improvements. Hardly even a rumble of one, outside of the 'hey, maybe Erik Bedard will be be healthy in two weeks" stuff.

14 games out in June one year, let's bring in some reinforcements. 2 games out in July the following year, nothing. Odd.