Baseball has a loooong season. This is not news to fans, or my friends who like to joke there are still 3428 games to be played… before the playoffs begin. My pat counter is, hey, we could be the NBA, where I think the playoffs last longer than the regular season. But I digress.

Since the last time I wrote about the Mariners, much has transpired. I was in Ohio for work, then sick for a week, then back online again, and now finally have time to write. And that’s just me!

The Seattle Mariners, fortunately, have had a much more exciting time of it. Unfortunately that excitement began with a painful 8-game losing streak felt like it would never end, and brought back very unpleasant memories of the last few years. My sense at the beginning of the season was (and remains) that if the Mariners can actually stay in the pennant race (or even the wild card race) deep into August, attendance will improve and anything can happen. Losing eight straight in April does not encourage optimism that this dream could be realized.

Since snapping that streak, however, the Ms are 13-6 and have won or tied five straight series. The starting pitching received a huge shot in the arm when Hisashi Iwakuma came back to the mound last week. I was lucky enough to be at that game with my son (front row, right-center, 100 level, thank you very much) and the only bad thing I can say is there weren’t any home run balls for him to catch. Because Iwakuma threw 8 innings of shutout baseball. (Editor’s note: there’s one more bad thing: John’s American spelling. But now I’m digressing.)

Then, Tuesday night, the Japanese wunderkind did it again. The Mariners lost the game when Rodney blew the save, but there’s no question Iwakuma is back to his former self. And that is great news for Mariner fans.

King Felix also had a very strong start this week, in a game the Ms won 12-5 against Tampa Bay. When Paxton and Walker come back, this starting rotation looks amazing. The image with this article, by the way, is Felix giving the ump a piece of his mind after being ejected. Only a Triple-A ump would blow enough calls to get Felix that upset, and sure enough we had an AAA ump behind the plate Monday night.

A side note: as I write this, the Mariners are playing .500 baseball. In the middle of May. I’m not quite breaking out the rye bread and mustard yet, but wow.

And the offense has been… improved. I’m particularly pleased with Dustin Ackley and Kyle Seager. Brad Miller continues to struggle, and I won’t be surprised if the Ms send him down to Tacoma for a bit later this month. James Jones has been a pleasant surprise, and Mike Zunino continues to hit for power (although one never knows when it will come, he seems to be swinging for the fences in every at bat, and obviously when that fails it’s not pretty).

Overall? 20-20 on May 14th. Two years ago I had to buy  friend dinner because I dared bet the Mariners would finish the season at .500. It’s still relatively early, but with almost 25% of the season behind us already, this edition of the Seattle Mariners holds a heck of a lot more promise than the last couple.

(Editor’s note: John, I’ll take some of that .500 action this season if you’re still volunteering to pick up the dinner tab like that.)