Four Ways the Baseball Gods Cursed the 2023 Mariners

Curse #3: After Hitting with Great Success in August, the Mariners had a Batting Drought in September.

It seems as if the baseball gods decided to rain on the Mariners hitting parade in September. Their successful August helped to put them in contention for the post-season. They might have won some key games in September, however, had their batting been stronger.

I looked at several players’ hitting numbers for June through September.  Julio Rodríguez had 180 hits for the year, so an average of 30/month. In August, Rodríguez made 45 hits. In September, he had 26 hits. He had no hits for the final series with Houston and for three out of the four final games against the Rangers.

Skipper Scott Servais often says something like “Where goes Julio, there go the Mariners.” I think we could say that this is true for August and September 2023. Teóscar Hernández had 38 hits in August and 25 in September. Geno Suárez also followed Rodríguez with six fewer hits. Cal Raleigh bucked the trend and had four more hits in September. J.P. Crawford joined Raleigh and had only 18 hits in August but 29 in September.

I cannot imagine how tired baseball players must be by September. Is there a way to rest some of the best batters in August so they have more energy in September?