It's over. Finally. The Ms ain't goin' anywhere. Maybe home... But not ta the playoffs. They won game 162 against the Angels, but their regular season is in the books. And at this juncture, hindsight puts it all in perspective.

 

Why the Seattle Mariners missed the playoffs

Last Tuesday, the Seattle Mariners were in an enviable spot despite a slew of problems. They entered the final week of the regular season just 1-1/2 games behind Kansas City for a wild-card spot. But the other teams in the postseason mix the Tigers, Royals and Athletics were all sputtering, to various degrees. And the Mariners had one thing no one else did: Felix Hernandez, pitching that night in Toronto.

The Mariners were in such a position for two reasons: Pitching and defense. But that night, in a 10-2 loss to the Blue Jays, both failed them. Hernandez, the former Cy Young award winner in pursuit of another this season, allowed eight runs in just 4-2/3 innings. The box score will forever say that just four of them were earned, but thats because days later the official scorer changed the ruling on a bad throw by Hernandez himself.

Either way, it was a debacle. And it went a long way toward insuring that the Mariners would not end a 12-year playoff drought. When Seattle finished a victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Sunday afternoon, its fate was already sealed, because the Oakland Athletics had won earlier in the day, nailing down the American Leagues second wild-card spot. The Mariners finished a game back.

That loss to Toronto isnt more important than any of the other 75 the Mariners suffered. But consider the circumstances. Seattle finished the season by allowing 554 runs, one fewer than the Washington Nationals in fact, the fewest in the game. Its team ERA of 3.19 was the best in the American League, second only to Washingtons 3.05 in all of baseball. Their bullpen ERA of 2.60 was the best in the game.

But when the Mariners grew closer to the playoffs after beating Houston on Sept. 19, they were 1/2 game out of a playoff spot they momentarily and suddenly forgot how to prevent runs. The next four days against the woeful Astros and Blue Jays, they allowed 10, 8, 14 and 10 runs. They were outscored by 32 runs eight a night. They never were within five of their opponent.

A little catch-up is order since last post. Robinson Cano
and Iwakuma played for the MLB All-Stars vs Japan Samurai
team of All-Stars. Japan won the 5-game series as there is
some great talent. Robinson Cano was having a good series
getting hits until he got HBP and it broke his little toe.
Cano got about 3-4 weeks of re-hab for that to heal.
Should be good to go by Spring Training 2015. Iwakuma
dint have a good outing which means he gave up 4-runs.
Iwakuma had a great year for the M's in 2014 and he
needs to get some rest and not do anything stupid to his
body this off-season. Big news Monday Nov 24th that
the M's sign 3rd baseman Kyle Seager to a 7-year $100
million extention to his current contract. Kyle is only going
to get better every year. Kyle could hit 30hrs for a few
seasons in a row and 50 doubles and is very proficient
at 3rd base. M's pass on the best of free agents list so far
to bring to Seattle. Think Jack Z will make some trades
soon that Seattle will be happy about.