It was an all-too-familiar script.
The Seattle Mariners, your Seattle Mariners, have long been the masters of setting up a beautiful picnic, only to whisk away the blanket and let your beautiful food spoil on the dirt. They’ve been doing this for two decades now, so you’d be forgiven if you took one look at Darren McCaughan and scoffed at last night’s game.
And, of course, you’d be extra forgiven if you saw him allow six runs in the first inning and shut the whole damn thing off.
Perhaps, like me, you have your MLB notifications turned on for every single score in a Mariners game; perhaps you felt a buzz and looked down to see Cal Raleigh make it a 7–3 game with a single swing of his bat.