Mariners performance lacking

On April 1, 2007, the 162-game MLB season began and the Seattle Mariners manager had only encouraging things to say about his ball club.

"I feel good about what we've been able to do down here," said Mike Hargrove, to The Seattle Times: "Our guys believe in themselves. They believe in their ability to win this thing, and that's what we're all about."

After a 2-1 win over Toronto exactly three months after the season began, the Mariners' eighth in a row, the formerly optimistic manager resigned, stating that he didn't feel excited enough to continue despite getting to within four games of the AL West lead.

"The highs weren't high enough and the lows were too low," Hargrove said.

The Mariners, under interim manager John McLaren, went out the next day and lost a 3-2 nail biter to the Kansas City Royals.

Hargrove got it exactly right. For a team that performed so well at many points this season, the Mariners played mightily poor at critical junctures.

While Hargrove claimed that the talent and drive to win were present, the Mariners played too inconsistently to take the AL Wild Card. For example, after going 10-2 from May 31 to June 12, the Mariners dropped the next six games. They went through other major streaks, the most recent of which contributed to the fall of the team.

Ichiro Suzuki, the Mariners' left fielder, noticed these streaks too. "In times of pressure, sometimes you get too emotional," he said to the Times after they were swept by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in late August. "You can see that in this team at times. It's not a problem to be emotional, but it's a problem when you lose your cool."

After losing seven games in a row to nearly fall out of contention in late July, the M's turned it up a notch and won 19 of the next 26 games to go 20 games over .500 percent and within two games of the AL West leading Angels. Things were looking great after this rise, but their next losing streak would prove very difficult to break out of.

Even after losing the final two games at Texas before a critical series against the Angels, the Mariners were still within striking distance in the AL West. But the team entered a free fall, losing their next seven games, for a grand total of nine games lost in a row. They fell two games behind the Yankees in the wild card after leading them by three.

The Mariners walked into Yankee Stadium September 3 for a pivotal three game series that had make-or- break written all over it.

"We are capable of winning a lot of games in a row the same as losing them," said Mariners DH, Jose Vidro, to the Times. "Once we get it going, it's going to be hard to stop us. But we've got to take this series very seriously."

The Mariners took game one of the series and looked like they were poised to start another string of wins, but they failed to get a win in both games two and three, losing by a combined score of 22-5.

The M's also failed to stop the bleeding in Detroit, where they had to make their last stand to keep the playoffs within reach. After losing their first two in Motown, the Mariners fell to 1-13 in their past 14 games.

The season was by no means a total disappointment. The club re-signed Ichiro to a five - year $90 million contract extension. J.J. Putz showed that he was the most dominant closer in the game in 2007. Felix Hernandez is developing into a more mature and consistent No. 1 starter. And the lineup, while streaky itself, has been a pleasant surprise.

Although the Mariners' hopes for this year's playoffs have disappeared, there are plenty of great building blocks for next year and beyond. Players like Hernandez, Putz, Suzuki, Adrian Beltre, Adam Jones and the late season AAA call-up should ignite some fire for a playoff push next year.

[HTML_REMOVED]Reach reporter Allen Wagner at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.[HTML_REMOVED]