Seattle Mariners win over Houston Astros

What are we supposed to do with this team, everyone?

I do not trust them – none of us should, but damn if they do not enjoy watching Mariners’ baseball now. A sentence I really did not think I would write all season, but one I would type with difficulty tonight. Goodness knows they did not deserve it. Their pitch remains as solid as a gaping hole in the floor filled with carefully crossed tape, and their series has major league beats at the start of each game of 2.75-3.28.

But that Yusei Kikuchi pitching four-hitless innings tingle? The dizzying, embarrassing-after-the-fact reaction to the body on Evan White’s solo homer in the eighth? The uncontrollable Ty-France walk-off giggles? You can not really help.

I will confess, I feel a little ashamed about this budding enthusiasm. I need to know better than to scare two weeks of late heroic heroism and cheerful bravery. It’s impossible to get everyone on the internet to agree on something, but I really thought we all looked at this team and left. No, no. No thank you. Not them. Not this year. And no, it’s definitely not their year. But I was preparing for a very unpleasant baseball and thought I could somehow gird myself against the inevitable misery. Instead, it was anything but.

It can be hard to give in and allow ourselves to enjoy things – especially things we were determined not to like from the start. But I hear sports are supposed to be fun, right? So I try, and this team helps, in all likelihood. And lately, my internal dialogue has been playing out like this:

The Mariners of Seattle are not very good

No, sorry, I just mean they’s probably pretty b-

No offense, it’s just early and maybe you too –

OKAY FINE Maybe the sailors are having a little fun at this microscopic moment in time and would you please stop interrupting me now

Rapid-fire gamer wrap-up: The box office is tough for Kikuchi, but he may look surprisingly excellent by the seventh and is the victim of some unfair calls, Mariners defense and dinky Classic Astros hits. Anthony Misiewicz continued to look scztellar and Drew Steckenrider continued to exist. Kyle Seager and Mitch Haniger did their best to demonstrate capable offense to the rest of the series, Tom Murphy mostly ignored them, they walked a lot of runs and yes, Ty France made the start.