Don’t look now, but the Mariners have won 4 in a row, and 6 out of 7.  I SAID DON’T LOOK, NOW!

I pity the fool who doesn’t know where this is from …

Look, if you want to crown the Mariners, then crown their asses!  But, they are who we thought they were, and the Tigers let ’em off the hook!  Hisashi Iwakuma went seven large, striking out 8 while walking 1 and giving up only 5 hits, about 7 weeks after these same Tigers trounced him good.  I mean, come on, that’s why they took the damn field last night!  Who the hell takes the 72nd game of the regular season like it’s bullshit? Bullshit!  Everybody played nine innings!  And so on and so forth.

The new guy, Arquimedes Caminero, got his first action.  He gives us two guys at the back-end of the bullpen who regularly touch triple-digits with the radar gun, so that can’t be all bad.  Edwin Diaz preserved the 3-0 shutout with a zero-strikeout save.

On the offensive side, we got some nice clutch hitting from Seager & Zunino in the second inning to score a couple of runs.  And some REALLY clutch hitting out of Guillermo Heredia in the 8th to add a 2-out insurance run after Aoki doubled to right center.

The win keeps us at 7 games behind Texas, but brings us to within 2.5 games of the Tigers/Red Sox for the second Wild Card spot.  It also, not for nothing, puts another game between us and the third place Astros (and fuck you, I’ll standings-watch all I damn want, I’m a grown ass man!).

Just a huge overall win for a team trying to climb back into the race, against a team trying to fend us off.  These are the ones you HAVE to win, and so far, so good.

Hell, if we win again tonight, you might see my ass back at Safeco again tomorrow, throwing it down in the King’s Court in the middle of the damn week.  WHAT KIND OF LUNACY IS THIS???