This game sucked, but a lot of these songs do not
The last time the Mariners scored was in the seventh inning of the first game of yesterday’s doubleheader, meaning they entered this game on a 12-inning scoreless streak. This week I had some good friends competing in state finals for a karaoke competition, and I had to miss it in order to attend the Mariners game yesterday/recap it today, so in honor of them, here’s an all-musical recap of the Mariners’ current 21 scoreless inning streak.
First inning:
Logan Gilbert wasn’t super-sharp out of the gate, giving up a leadoff hit to Taylor Ward, but was able to work around it by getting Trout to ground into a double play and then getting Ohtani to fly out harmlessly.
The Mariners, in their offensive half of the inning:
Did nothing against something called a Kenny Rosenberg.
Scoreless inning streak:
“Thirteen” – Big Star
Relevant lyric: “Maybe Friday I can/get tickets for the dance” because I would literally rather go back in time and attend one of my middle school dances, as much of a hellscape as those were, than watch another Mariners vs. Angels game.
Second inning:
Gilbert came back much stronger, needing just ten pitches (eight strikes!) to retire the side. After going extremely fastball-heavy in the first, Gilbert started mixing in his secondaries more in the second, finishing off the inning with his first strikeout of the day.
The Mariners, in their offensive half of the inning:
Did nothing.
Scoreless inning streak:
“Fourteen” – Beat Happening
Relevant lyric: “It’s not that you’re bad, no/I just can’t seem to let myself go”
The Mariners are bad, though.
Third inning:
Gilbert started to find his groove with another quick inning (12 pitches, nine strikes), striking out Brandon March and Andrew Velazquez swinging and then getting an easy flyout from Tyler Wade.
The Mariners, in their offensive half of the inning:
Did nothing.
Scoreless inning streak:
“Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow” – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
This song is (I think) about Cave’s struggle with substance abuse and the isolating feelings of addiction, but it’s also on the surface just a song about feeling trapped, helpless, and lonely, all things I feel when recapping the Mariners on a Sunday afternoon.
Relevant lyric: “Is there anybody/Out there please?/It’s too quiet in here/And I’m beginning to freeze/I’ve got icicles hanging/From my knees/Under fifteen feet of pure white snow”
Fourth inning:
Here is where things go wrong for young Gilbert. Taylor Ward, again, led off with a single, this time taking a curveball from Gilbert and redirecting it into left field. That brought up Trout, and, look, I’m no pitching expert, but I think this is a less-than-ideal pitching plan against Trout:
Gilbert’s goal was to try to beat Trout with his best stuff, and I get that, but also these are not pitches you should be putting anywhere in Mr. Trout’s neighborhood. They’re all fastballs, and a good number of them are straight down the pipe. We hear a lot about “the one mistake” pitch but truthfully, there were like three unpunished mistakes here before Trout homered on that juicy #9 pitch. 2-0 Angels lead.
The Mariners, in their offensive half of the inning:
Did nothing.
Scoreless inning streak:
“16 Shades of Blue” – Tori Amos
Relevant lyric: “Are you telling me it’s over, disintegrating, lost and there’s nothing I can do/Before you drop another verbal bomb, can I arm myself/With Cezanne’s 16 shades of blue.”
This one was a real challenge because so many songs with sixteen in them are about fun and good times and neither of those were extant for Mariners fans today. I’d certainly have rather spent today looking at some Cezanne paintings.
Fifth inning:
Credit to Gilbert, who bounced back quickly in this inning with another quick inning ending in a strikeout of Velazquez. Perhaps the Mariners would finally answer back with some run support?
The Mariners, in their offensive half of the inning:
Lol no.
Scoreless inning streak:
“Edge of Seventeen” – Stevie Nicks
This was actually the song that inspired this whole recap motif. Any time we can get some Stevie Nicks on the blog, I’m happy. SINGS A SONG SOUNDS LIKE SHE’S SINGING.
Relevant lyric: “Well, then suddenly there was no one/Left standing in the hall, yeah, yeah/In a flood of tears/That no one really ever heard fall at all”
Question: if there’s no one left in the hall T-Mobile Park can you still hear a Mariners fan cry?
Sixth inning:
Back to the top of the inning for a third time for Gilbert; how would he fare? Things seemed rough from the jump, with Tyler Wade, who is apparently a different person from Taylor Ward, starting off with a single. Gilbert then retired Ward on a flyout, bringing up Trout with a man on, and just as you think “oh no I’ve seen this movie before”, Gilbert busted out a much better pitch mix, working Trout with the fastball at the top of the zone but also throwing the curveball and a slider to keep him guessing, ending with this excellent strikeout looking on a curve:
More of that please, less challenging Trout with fastballs in the zone.
The Mariners, in their offensive half of the inning:
Nope.
Scoreless inning streak:
“I’m Eighteen” – Alice Cooper
Relevant lyric: “I’ve gotta get out of this place/I’ll go runnin’ in outer space”
This is where the fans started really pouring out of T-Mobile Park. No word about whether or not they were headed for outer space or not.
Seventh inning:
With Gilbert done for the day, Ryan Borucki took a turn at trying to keep the Angels off the board to see if the Mariners offense could do…anything. He could not, giving up a single to Luis Rengifo who scored on a double hit by Max Stassi, of all people, but did manage to cap the damage there.
The Mariners, in their offensive half of the inning:
Borucki might have failed in his job keeping the Angels off the board, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, as Aaron Loup struck out the side.
Scoreless inning streak:
“Hey Nineteen” – Steely Dan
Relevant lyric: “It’s hard times befallen/The sole survivors” – I can only assume this is about the remaining doughty fans at T-Mobile Park.
Recapping this game has sucked but at least it led me to find this song and its incredible bass line/chorus, which I will definitely be listening to on repeat all week.
Eighth inning:
Time for Andrés Muñoz to take a crack at it, and okay, he did allow a run to score on two hits, which was largely due to Julio bobbling a ball in center field, because when it rains, it pours, I guess? But he also struck out the side, including Trout and Ohtani, and made Ohtani especially look pretty bad here:
The Mariners, in their offensive half of the inning:
The Mariners got no-hit by the Angels bullpen, with Quijada, Wants, Loup, and here Tepera all throwing hitless innings. Just absolutely dreadful stuff, guys.
Scoreless inning streak:
“Twenty” – Robert Cray
I would not have guessed 20 would have been the hardest number to find a song for. I’m admittedly using this song pretty badly out of context—it’s a beautiful, sad blues ballad about a soldier in the Iraq war—but it’s just a wonderful, powerful song I’d never heard before and I hope you’ll take a listen. Gotta find the silver linings where we can.
Ninth inning:
The only good part of this game was remembering Roenis Elías gets a check for it. Elías made an argument to stay over Sergio Romo when the Mariners have to discard a pitcher from their bullpen tomorrow with a clean 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout.
The Mariners, in their offensive half of the inning:
Two words: Raisel. Iglesias.
Scoreless inning streak:
“Twenty One” – The Cranberries
Relevant lyric: “So I don’t think it’s going to happen anymore…leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone.”
About sums it up. The Mariners have an off-day tomorrow, and boy, do we all need a break.