Over the past year, watching a given Mariner has been like watching American Ninja Warrior. You know he’s not going to make it to the end — it’s just a question of when he’s going to fall.
Your finger has moved closer to it with every pull, strain and complaint of tightness. It was a foot away when Felix Hernandez got rocked by a comebacker, six inches away when Robinson Cano pulled his hamstring and firmly on top of it when Nelson Cruz suffered a quad strain.
We are talking, of course, about the panic button, which has become a staple of Mariners fandom lately.