If this game had occurred at the beginning of the year, I’d have welcomed it: the Mariners going toe-to-toe with a great team like the , putting up a tough fight in front of a crowd basically full of Dodgers fans? Even if the outcome was a loss, that’s Good Baseball.
But I find that my tolerance for Good Baseball wanes during the season, when all I want is Winning Baseball, whatever the cost. With the Rangers and Astros losing tonight, the Mariners had a golden opportunity to make up ground in the AL West. Instead, George Kirby stumbled, the offense failed to find the big hit, and the Dodgers fans in attendance grew progressively louder until the noise level went from “neutral site spring training game” to “home game at Dodger Stadium for the World Series.