6-2? Did Someone Spike My Tea with Shrooms Again?

It's early in the season still and at times like these it is very easy to overeact to small sample sizes and lose perspective on the season. But 6-2 after a big win over the Angels, HOLY FUCK!!! Not even in my most wild orgasmic fantasy did I envision the M's to start off the year so well. This is exactly what the team needed to prove to the general viewing public that they are as different from the 2008 team as the coach's daughter in Remember the Titans is from 2009 sexpot Hayden Panetierre.

Had the team started out shitty and came home with a losing record not even the Return of The Kid could get most casual fans interested in this season. Instead The M's have been treated to great pitching performances from King Felix and a finally healthy Erik Bedard. Not only that but they've been witnesses of the Death to Flying Things outfield of Franklin Gutierrez and Endy Chavez. With Ichiro coming off the DL this outfield will make defense sexy again. Add in the high-wire act of the bullpen and their always exciting attempts to get out of innings and you have a pretty damn fun team to watch. Which is something no one would ever say about last years team, not even while drunkenly booing the team as per Ichiro's suggestion.

My more recently developed rational/statistical side knows this kind of play isn't sustainable. M's starting pitchers have been stranding a shit ton of runners and at some point the luck is gonna run out and some team is gonna hit us hard when one of our pitchers gets into a bases loaded situation. Same thing with the bullpen. Throwing gas is all well and good but soon a patient team will force the relievers to actually throw strikes and that's when thing get dicey. David Aardsma's battle against Jack Cust to end the finale down in Oakland is the perfect example. Cust, being a fastball hitter, kept fouling off the high heat he was being fed before lining out to Endy Chavez. A little luck the other way and the great play on the ball isn't made and Bedard's beautiful game is wasted.

Meanwhile the primitive f-complex part of my brain is screaming out in sheer joy as we amass early season wins and vanquish our enemies like Vigo the Carpathian. The sight of Griffey taking walks is glorious to me. The unbelievable hot streak Endy Chavez is riding allows me to forget about his inevitable regression to the mean. Listening to Dave describe Carlos Silva pitching and it not be a terribly painful experience is dizzying. It's nice to see my favorite Seattle Sports team do well again.

Even often alleged pessimist DMZ at UssMariner.com points out this heartening factoid

The M’s, at 6-2, have now won 10% of last year’s total. If they go .500 the rest of the way, they’ll finish 83-79, an improvement of 27 games.

I'll buy that for a dollar!

Even if the Mariners eventually regress to their true talent level I'll be happy. This team is fun to watch again. Felix and Bedard are a latter day Riggs and Murtaugh, a pair of lethal weapons, The offense while pretty damn terrible doesn't have that feeling of bleak hopelessness of last season, and the team speed and defense The M's possess ensure that every ball in play is a bit of enjoyable chaos.

Thanks Zduriencik for putting a quality team together after such a shitty 2008 season. Now that's change I can believe in!