Mariners waste a great start and blow the lead late in loss to Reds

The second game of the series reminds me of one that we saw late last year against the Cleveland Guardians. I had to look it up to find a bit more info about it, but here is what I rememberd. The Mariners had some silly good record while leading by a certain amount of runs entering the 8th inning. They would end up losing that game, and fans got all pissy and upset. It didn't bother the Mairners, as they won seven straight after that.

It was a 4-3 loss on August 27th, and I swear it was like 48-0 when up multiple runs entering the 8th inning. Honestly, I saw it and was dumbfounded it seemed so unlikely.

It's really similar to what happened in this game against the Reds. The Mariners bullpen has been doing really well, and they entered the bottom of the 8th with a 6-3 lead. Go back to when it was 5-1, and a Mariners four-run lead seemed insurmountable. But... baseball.

Justin Topa came in for the 8th inning, and just stunk it up, unfortunately. Groundout-Walk-Single-Homer. To Nick Martini, of all people, and it was just his 4th homer of the season, and tied it up for the Reds.

The 9th was awful as well. Elly De La Cruz has a bleeding single in the infield, and Crawford couldn't get him in time. He stole second (dude is a joy to watch when it isn't against the Mariners), and then scored on a single to right by Christian Encarnacion-Strand. The Mariners would lose 7-6 in a game that many thought was locked up early.

Here's the point I want to make. Yeah, it sucks. Losing always does. However, it isn't the end of the world. You can't win every close game, losses are going to happen, and bad stretches are as well. The Mariners had a three-game losing streak in August despite going 21-6. Yes, they are 1-4 this month, and it's not fun as a fan. You know what I'm happy about though? I would much rather see them have this struggle and "bad luck" now than I would against the Texas teams at the end of the month, or in the playoffs.

Get slapped in the mouth now, get the bad bounces and odd hits out of the way. Get back on track and focused as we get into September. You hear it a lot on TV, but I think it's true. Losing sucks, but sometimes it is good for teams to lose so they can stop taking it for granted and get focused (I'm not saying they are, but hopefully you get the point).

The Mariners still sit at 77-61, one game back of the Astros. They're in second in the WC race, a half game up on the Blue Jays and a game up on the Rangers. It's close, and we are in line for some great baseball. Now, let's see if the Mariners can do what they did after that August 27th game last year and reel off a nice winning streak.