“Uh, oh”

(This is Thursday morning’s update brought to you at 11:00 PM Thursday.)

I am sitting here listening to the Mariners game Thursday evening. Some replacement announcer guy is doing the play by play. It’s the top of the 7th inning, James Paxton pitching, and the announcer interrupts his comments on the AL wild card pennant race  to say “uh, oh.”

This announcer’s no Ernie Harwell.  Nor is he Jerry Coleman, who once uncorked this classic:

“Winfield goes back to the wall, he hits his head on the wall and it rolls off! It’s rolling all the way back to second base. This is a terrible thing for the Padres.”

Our announcer (whose name I still haven’t caught, other than “Gary”) is not so poetic. After his “uh oh” he pauses, leaving us to wonder what is the matter.  Dave Sims has to step in to tell us: the M’s trainer, manager, and bullpen coach have just hurried to the mound.  Paxton has something wrong with his left pectoral muscle. “This is a game-changer for the Mariners,” Sims says. “happening right before our eyes.”

The Wolverines had a series of such game changers early in the season, so we’re fully empathetic. Baseball seasons unfurl in all their glory against a backdrop of ever-present peril. A center fielder runs over your stud prospect in the second game of the season.  When the prospect finally returns a year later, he has forgotten how to hit. Your ace goes dirt-biking — or grabs his chest after throwing the 107th pitch of the game. Your closer walks three guys in the ninth, setting the table for Mike Trout.

Occasionally a team has a season where nothing seems to go wrong. The 1984 Tigers started 35-5 and sailed to a World Series title. The 2016 Cubs. The 2017 Dodgers, so far (jinx!). But this is not the normal way of things.  The 116-win 2001 Mariners didn’t make it to the World Series.  So we squirm our way through the season, dreading the moment our team’s announcer says “this is a terrible thing for the home team.”  Or maybe just  “uh, oh.”

Well, for our 2017 EFL season, right now is such a moment.

Uh, oh.