Mariners find excruciating new way to break fans’ hearts
Jun 6, 2013, 8:41 AM | Updated: 9:30 am
Despite a dramatic five-run comeback in the 14th inning, the Mariners ultimately lost an excruciating 16-inning marathon that broke records and hearts. (AP Photo)
(AP Photo)
Just when you think the Mariners can’t cause their fans any more heartbreak, they come up with an agonizing and record breaking way to lose another game.
Wednesday saw the M’s locked in a scoreless tie with the Chicago White Sox at Safeco Field until the 14th inning, when the Sox exploded for five runs and a seemingly insurmountable lead. The fans who endured the marathon up to that point headed for the exits.
But in the bottom of the 14th, lightning struck. The M’s banged out four straight singles, narrowing the lead to 5-1 and loading the bases for 3rd basemen Kyle Seager. He fell behind in the count, getting down two strikes. Then came the magic.
Seager blasted a game tying grand slam, sending his teammates and the few fans left into a frenzy.
It was not only miraculous, it was record breaking. No other team in history has come from so far behind to tie a game like that, 710 ESPN’s Brock Huard told Seattle’s Morning News.
But in what’s become another season of disappointment and unfulfilled dreams, the miracle was for naught. Two innings and over five hours after the first pitch, the White Sox brought the celebration to a crashing halt, notching two runs the M’s couldn’t match in the bottom half of their frame, stumbling away with a 7-5 win.
“Agonizing was what it was,” said Huard.
Even worse, it was a microcosm of everything wrong with the team, he said. Most notably, a complete inability to drive runners in.
“They are dead last when they get guys on base to knock them in and they had guys on base all over the place,” Huard said.
And that doesn’t bode well for GM Jack Zduriencik or Manager Eric Wedge. Both are in the final years of their contracts, and with the M’s continuing their decade long struggle, the bosses seats continue to get hotter by the day.
“The buck will stop with both of them,” Huard said. “They’ve got to win more games. If they stay on this pace I would be concerned about their jobs at the end of the year.”
And if they put their fans through such agony as Wednesday’s loss, there’s plenty of speculation they might not make it that long.
