After a good vacation, many of us believe that we will return to our jobs refreshed, with a new heart and a renewed love for our work.
Personally, I find going back to the office a direct, depressing reminder of how much I wish I never had to work another day in my life. If I had won the lottery or bought NVIDIA in my 401(k) account 6 years ago, I would have spent most of my days volunteering at an animal shelter (and DEFINITELY not adopting another animal) before going to my local Mariners game.
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(No. Maybe not that last part.)
It seems the Mariners would agree with me, as they returned from the All-Star Break looking limp and lifeless, losing pointlessly to the Giants 7-0.
Off the bat, it looked like the San Francisco Season of Humiliation would continue, as the Giants overcame their two ABS challenges four outs into the game with ill-advised challenges from left fielder Kasey Schmidt and catcher Andrew Kavanaugh.
Bryce Miller also started hot, striking out 97 in the first inning and recording four straight strikeouts in the first/second innings. He showed Nestorocity in beating Rafiel Dever with a bit of hesitation in his finish.
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There were a few good near misses early in the Seattle game. Cal nailed a single that was so loud I woke my cats up, but it fell badly, and Luke Raley hit one to right over the wall in center field, but it took until the bottom of the fourth for the Mariners to get the first of their two hits on the night off Josh Naylor’s at-bat.
My cats had the right idea, as the first four innings of this game were capital-S Sleepy. Unfortunately, the revival of this disaster did not come from the Mariners’ bats. Miller left the splitter too far in the zone to Bruce Elderridge, and was punished with an error that amounted to a two-run homer.
The Mariners responded quickly with small ball to make the out. After Raley hit a leadoff single, a sacrifice fly by Robles saw him out for the second out. Robles soon followed suit, throwing out second on a botched stolen base attempt.
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Miller saw his first chance at quality disappear after throwing a one-two-incher to Drew Gibert in the fifth inning. Miller ended up with José Ferrer and walked Andrew Kavanaugh before Louis Arroz did what Arroz does best – use offensive bat-to-ball skills to destroy the striker’s lives.
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A fun deflection off Ferrer’s glove saved the Mariners for a few more runs, leaving the game at 3-0, but it didn’t take long for the Giants to regain what was rightfully theirs.
Nick Davila brought shame on our behalf in the seventh inning, loading the bases and allowing William Adams to hit a coffin-nail grand slam that put the game out of reach.
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One of the few bright spots in this game was Cole Wilcox who would go into mop-up duty and cleanup completely, scoring a 98.2 in the shot and getting a couple of strikeouts.
The Mariners did not fight for anything in this game. At no point did it feel like the case was close to threatening the signs of life. The defense had as many mistakes as the line had hits. It seems that post-holiday lethargy is coming to all of us.
Ah, good. At least baseball.
