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Five things that occurred to the Mainframe about the M's dentist-chair-easy victory over Charlie Morton on Saturday night:

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GAMEFLOW

What happened, in a general sense, was that Wade LeBlanc gave up 2 easy runs in the second, seemed like it was 4, and Dr. D spent the next hour or so suffering.  However, later in the game, with nobody out and two on (?!) the Mariners whacked four consecutive bullets to take the lead 3-2.  LeBlanc finished his dentist-like five and dive :- ) and then Scott Servais went a-batter-at-a-time to get to the Twin Closers.

Somewhere in there about the 8th, Guillermo Heredia made a terrific catch in right-center field, somersaulted, and threw to first for a double play. Which was only fair, since Marisnick did the same to us yesterday. The difference was that the more battle-worthy Mariners were able to survive such a catastrophe.

Sugar came in to blow away the 9th-inning Astros.

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BIG THREE

They said on TV that it was the first time in 2018 that Verlander, Cole, and Morton lost consecutive games together.  Which surprised me, because I thought it was the first time in modern baseball that three pitchers like that had botched three games in a row.

When your offense is scoring runs against those three, it is a little bit like spending money in Canada, Mexico, a Scott Adams bitcoin stock share, or a Pokemon store.  Not only does your money go three or four times as far, but it will be wasted anyway (once the Astros offense comes up to bat).

Bringing us to...

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SABERMETRIC LINEUPS

Traditional theory says put your fast guys in front of your bat control guys in front of your homeroom hitters.… Well, I should say that the most traditional theory says to let Honus Wagner hit .380 in a deadball scenario and win the pennant for you.

Sabe came along and said no, put your on base guys ahead of your slugging guys.

Sabe changed its mind and said put your best hitters where they get 700 AB's.  Supposedly it is almost impossible to overreact in this direction; for example, putting Babe Ruth number one and Lou Gehrig number 2 ahead of the rest of the squad would make perfect sense per today's theory.  Scott Servais has certainly not overreacted by touching a Bic lighter to the M's offense, going Haniger-Span-Segura-Cruz.

That said, Saturday's win was a Cruz-Seager-Hermann-Healy affair, but don't change the subject.  The point is momentum and team self-belief.

Bringing us to...

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KYLE SEAGER

Who since changing his hand load a week ago has gone 9-for-38 with three doubles and three homers, all baked.  Who knows; maybe when the M's get their #3 hitting on base machine back in two days for the Oakland series, we'll begin to see a little bit of that length of the lineup back again.

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NOT TO LOOK AHEAD OR ANYTHING

Dr. D likes the M's chances of taking 3 of 4 in Houston, minimum.  Some Mariners fans look at run differential; others look at the standings. Dr. D will be looking at this series in Oakland to cast the deciding vote. He reserves the right to withdraw this vote if necessary.

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Thanks to those who have been supporting SSI/DOV.  If you’d like to join the ownership group here is the link.  And we always appreciate the potatoes in the hobo pot just as much.

BABVA,

Jeff