If you had told me back in the second week of April that this team was going to be three games back of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Azusa, Cucamonga and all points east in the AL West, or one game back of Cleveland and Detroit for the AL Wild Card spot (with a cumulative record of 35-26 and a winning percentage of .574), I’d have told you that you were slightly crazy, or worse.
They haven’t been 9 games over .500 almost since Hector was a pup, and they are currently the only team with a 9-1 split in their last ten games. Ichiro had a league leading 24 game hitting streak and, when it was broken, Yuni Betancourt took over and made it to 20 games before his streak, too, was broken.
Locally it has been suggested that JJ Putz should be given one of two very descriptive nicknames: either simply "Over" or "The Undertaker" because, when you see him coming into the game you know that it is over and the burying is about to begin. He was suffering from flu like symptoms last night, but still came in at the bottom of the 13th inning to get his 19th consecutive save. And the rest of the bullpen is pretty much the same (I wish I could say the same about the starting rotation, but, thank the Lord, they have had the bullpen to save them here lately).
As they should, they have been beating up on the "bottom feeders," but they’ve also beaten Cleveland and San Diego in the past seven days–teams that have legitimate post-season hopes this year. What looked like sheer misery on all of the players’ faces the first few weeks into the season has been transformed into confidence and looking like they are finally having fun playing the game, after three abysmal seasons preceding this one.
Ichiro even laughed out loud last night when Jose Vidro did a little hop and clap on home plate when Michael Barrett dropped the ball that should have put him out, rather than putting the M’s ahead for good in the top of the 13th.
I still have my moments of wanting to turn off the TV and just let the TiVO record the game for later consumption when things are getting a little ugly, but it seems that I just have to come back and peek, only to find that "late inning lightning" has struck again and they are winning once more.
I’m not silly enough to say out loud, in public, that I think they are going to make it deep into the post-season this year, but I certainly have hope that the rebuilding process is finally working, and they will be there sooner than later. (Of course, if any of y’all’s teams have a quality starting pitcher that they would like to trade for the stretch, tell ‘em to get into contact with the M’s, looks like they might be buyers this year after all, rather than fire sale artists).
Original post by sleeplessinseattle’s blog
