At the end of the sixth inning, I was preparring a narrative about how, now that we’re 16 games into the season, we’re approaching the point where the games start to blend together a little bit. This was just a lazy Sunday afternoon game. Something to mark the passage of time and avoid the Sunday Night Blues but the first of the games that would feel unremarkable. The 2022 Mariners had other plans. Over a 24-hour period, they spent 8 hours and 18 minutes playing the Royals, and put an exclamation mark on the idea that these Mariners are different.