The signs were there early: the first pitch of the game hitting Mark Canha, only for him to be erased from the bases on a topsy-turvy double play by JP Crawford the very next pitch; the cackle from Jake Fraley as he took yet another walk in his first PA since April 6; the Mariners getting on the board thanks to a bottom-of-the-order bat’s first blast in the bigs.
Nothing about this game was ever going to be straight forward.
Nevertheless, I felt a nagging sense of normalcy in the early innings, with runners reaching and occasionally getting into third, only to be stranded on base.