{"id":18826,"date":"2022-07-19T06:01:09","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T06:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/do-you-guys-ever-lose-mariners-14-game-win-streak-captures-mlb-all-stars-attention\/"},"modified":"2022-07-19T06:01:09","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T06:01:09","slug":"do-you-guys-ever-lose-mariners-14-game-win-streak-captures-mlb-all-stars-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/do-you-guys-ever-lose-mariners-14-game-win-streak-captures-mlb-all-stars-attention\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Do you guys ever lose?’: Mariners’ 14-game win streak captures MLB All-Stars’ attention"},"content":{"rendered":"
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LOS ANGELES \u2014 While brushing shoulders with his baseball heroes and savoring every bit of the All-Star experience, a buoyant Julio Rodriguez discovered that the incredibly surging Mariners are a major topic of conversation in the American League clubhouse.<\/p>\n

As in, \u201cDo you guys ever<\/em> lose?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA good amount of people have been asking about that,\u201d Rodriguez said with a grin.<\/p>\n

It would have been a preposterous notion just a month ago that the Mariners, of all teams, would be the talk of baseball as the sport headed into its midsummer showcase at Dodger Stadium. And yet, there they were Monday, capturing their fair share of All-Star buzz with the likes of multithreat superstar Shohei Ohtani, retiring legends Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera and local hero (and National League starting pitcher) Clayton Kershaw.<\/p>\n

American League manager Dusty Baker’s day job as the Astros head man has definitely caused him to take stock of the Mariners’ hot streak \u2014 especially knowing those two teams will square off immediately in seven of the first 10 games after the break. From a low point of 29-39 June 19, the Mariners have won 14 in a row and 22 of their past 25 to take hold of the second AL wild-card spot. But they have made up just four games on Houston during that stretch \u2014 enough to at least cut their deficit in the AL West standings to single digits at nine games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I thought the Mariners had a good team from the very beginning, and I told everybody back then,\u201d Baker said. \u201cThey finished extremely strong last year. You have to beat them; they’re not going to beat themselves. And the thing about the Mariners is that they had probably the toughest travel in baseball in the first month or so, going back and forth across the country four or five times. Now a lot of their games are at home, where they’re extremely tough. So they’re going to be tough down the stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funny he should mention the excessive early travel. The Mariners’ other All-Star, Ty France, cited it as an unavoidable factor in the ballclub’s rocky start. Not in an excuse-making way, but just the reality of not playing a single road game in the Pacific time zone until June 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur scheduled sucked the first month and a half,\u201d France said. \u201cWe had three East Coast trips in a row, and we were exhausted. It’s hard. And so once we were able to get that out of the way, we were able to just focus on our game again, not worrying about travel. We were able to play our baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if there was a common theme to their peers’ perception of \u201cMariners baseball\u201d as I canvassed the All-Stars during Monday’s media availability, it was a litany of non-sexy factors. Such as: They present quality at-bats up and down the lineup. They rarely mess up a play on defense. And their pitching staff battles with intensity from the starters through their relievers.<\/p>\n

Here’s a sampling:<\/p>\n