September 05, 2003
Sleeping in Seattle
Although the Seattle Mariners appeared to be breaking out of their team slump in the previous three games, they have been shut out two days in a row by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. (It's the third time in TB history that they posted back to back shutouts, but the first time they did it against the same team.) Over their last 15 games, the Mariners are 5-10, scoring just 4.1 runs a game. That includes three games in which they scored 32 runs. So in the 12 other games they've score 29 runs, less than three a game. There appears to be a big disconnect between three big guns and the rest of the team during this time (8/20 on):
| Name | Batting Average | OBA | Slug |
| Ichiro Suzuki | .117 | .159 | .167 |
| Edgar Martinez | .186 | .314 | .233 |
| Bret Boone | .254 | .323 | .356 |
Olerud and Sanchez are Guillen are getting on base, but no one is hitting for power, and with the above three in a slump, there's no one on to set up the bottom of the order. Suzuki and Boone have played a lot of games over the last three years (they rank 14th and 15th in baseball, respectively). I wonder if it's finally worn them down?