This is what it’s all about, really. Not the losing — the losing is secondary. Lots of people lose. Lots of teams lose. No, it’s about how they lose.
It isn’t enough to score some runs, give up some runs, and end up having scored fewer runs than you gave up. No, it has to hurt.
The Mariners came into this season with reasonable expectations. They didn’t want the moon. They barely even wanted the playoffs. “This year will be a step back,” they said. No need to be astronauts. Let’s be moderately successful, call it good, and we’ll come back and try again later.