Mariners are running out of survival tricks after upset series win over Braves

With Cal Raleigh banged up and their bullpen reduced to a skeleton crew, the Seattle Mariners had no business taking two out of three from the MLB-best Atlanta Braves. That they did anyway is proof of their resilience, albeit in the same way that an intact engine proves the resilience of a totaled car.

The Mariners won the first game despite scoring in only one inning and watching Logan Gilbert give up four home runs. They also scored in a single inning in the second game, ultimately losing when Andrés Muñoz had another hiccup. Then in Wednesday's 3-1 win, the Mariners had fans checking their pulses for all nine innings.

Bryan Woo did his part with six scoreless, one-hit innings, but every pivot point in the game either had or could have had a bad outcome for the Mariners:

• A bases-loaded, no-out scoring chance in the third produced only one run on a Raleigh double play
• Another scoring chance in the sixth fizzled when Dan Wilson didn't pinch-hit for Connor Joe with a righty on the mound
• Jorge Mateo bailed out Eduard Bazardo in the eighth when he got picked off on one of the closest plays you'll ever see
• With Muñoz unavailable, Jose A. Ferrer worked a third day in a row to close out the ninth

In its own way, each of these events reflects a real point of concern for the Mariners.

Though his right side discomfort apparently isn't IL-worthy, Raleigh didn't look right in the box on Tuesday or Wednesday. Joe had to hit because Wilson didn't have any backup infielders on the bench. Bazardo and Ferrer wouldn't normally be the first choices for the eighth and ninth innings, but Wilson will occasionally have to roll those dice as long as Matt Brash and Gabe Speier are out.

Of course, you take any series win. And you especially take one against the Braves, who hadn't lost a series before rolling into Seattle. And when it comes to the Mariners' 18-20 record and second-place standing in the AL West, both qualify as "gladly take that" outcomes.

The Mariners' survival strategy will be worth it if it leads to sustained good baseball

Given their preseason status as a World Series favorite, two games under .500 is not where anyone expected the Mariners to be after 38 games. Yet it's an outrage only for people viewing the situation from 30,000 feet up. The scene on the ground has been messy since Day 1.

The much-improved offense that was promised has yet to materialize, and not just because Brendan Donovan and his .438 OBP have been on the IL since mid-April. It's been fits and starts for Julio Rodríguez, Josh Naylor and especially Raleigh, whose average is back down to .175 after peaking at .205 on April 27.

No matter what happened with the offense, run prevention was meant to be the backbone. The team's 3.63 ERA says it is, yet the diminished bullpen isn't the only evidence to the contrary that the eyes and ears see. The defense has been bad and the rotation has been inconsistent.

Under these circumstances, to explain how the Mariners are only two games under .500 isn't easy. It involves gesturing at a small handful of consistent players and otherwise devolving into a broken-record loop of "Well, this happened and this happened and this happened."

Either way, the unavoidable truth looming over everything is that the Mariners can't keep getting away with what they've been getting away with. There must come a point when their success is no longer relative and convoluted, but straightforward and obvious. There must come a point when they're just plain playing good baseball.

It's still early enough to trust this point is out there somewhere, and hopefully coming soon. Because the longer the Mariners keep faking it until they make it, the more one will worry that they're just plain faking it.

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