I’m well stocked for tonight, with an assortment of snacks, many salty, yes, and beers, good and bad, and hopefully the game tonight is going to reverse what’s been a pretty crappy day today characterized by bad customer service (brief aside: if I have a beer and then you give me incorrect change, and correct it, and I ask a question like “So, the beer was x then?” to make sure we’re cool, that’s no reason to tear into me for not paying attention to the particular happy hour rules of your establishment) (side note: I really miss the legendary Kelly, Greatest Bartender of All Time)).
One of the many bad qualities of the wild card playoff berth is that it’s scoreboard watching, and not direct competition. While the Mariners may have a better chance that they’ll come out ahead of Boston in the won-loss column, there’s no way for either team to affect what the other team does on a given day. The M’s can’t send their best pinch-hitters (hypothetically, if they had any) to Toronto to try and steal a game from Boston. Boston can’t loan Oakland a spare corner OF.
The race the M’s control through 6 head-to-head matchups, starting tonight, is the one they’re going to be hard-pressed to come out on top of. As far back as they are, a split is death for their AL West chances. They need to go 5-1 to make this a race, and if you’ve been watching these teams matchup so far this year, you know what the chances are that’ll happen. And to remain in the race against Boston, the M’s need go 4-2 at least while Boston faces Cleveland and likely does well there.
Friday: RHP Franklin v RHP Hudson
Saturday: RHP Pineiro v RHP Duchscherer (pronounced Duhr-ro-shcer-rer-rer, TV tells me)
Sunday: RHP Meche v RHP Harden (ESPN2, folks, and this could be an huge, pivotal game)
Touché.