Has anyone seen ....

JJ

Status check on the Mariners

What I saw the last two days out of the Mariners is concerning. This is a good baseball team. However, it is a baseball team that has been winning games because they believe they are good. In fact, they believe they are better than they actually are and that is half the battle. Yet, today I thought I saw a team that doubted if they really were good enough to compete with the elite. A team that wonders if it really belongs as a playoff team. The M's have had an amazing ability to win close games this year. They won these games because they believed. If they have lost that belief they are about to become very average.

This is a scary scenario. The good news is if the Yankees falter and now jumps on the wild card lead in the next week, the Mariners can right themselves. On the other hand, if they fall out of the lead they may never regain the confidence to believe they should win.

Why do they let this happen

I am at a total loss. The Mariners just let Vlady beat them to take a 6-5 lead and then the Ichiro beat them to make it 6-6. What ever happened to the rule that you don't let the best guy beat you.