A GRIP ON SPORTS Two three-letter words. Pro. Con. Two small words that mean so much as they relate to the Seattle Mariners. As in, The pros of Saturdays win are outweighed by the cons of Tuesdays loss. Yes, they are.

People in the Northwest have long, and short, memories. If they didnt, they wouldnt forget the long-celebrated joy of The Double was washed away by the Cleveland Indians. Or that the magnificence of the 2001 regular season only lasted a week or so in the postseason.

Baseball is like that. The only unbridled delight comes from winning the final game of the season if you make the playoffs. Otherwise, agony is the long-term result. Agony accompanied by what-ifs and should-have-dones. Thats the one truism of a sport that takes hours to play, allows multiple minutes to make decisions and breaks your heart in seconds.

Like yesterday.

For three hours or so, the Ms outplayed the 106-win Houston Astros, the same team that won 12 of 19 regular season meetings between the two and outdistanced the American League West by 16 games. Then? Poof, gone.

Two bad pitches. Two home runs in the final two innings. Seven innings of hard work washed away in a 9-8 defeat.

Baseball.

All the pros, such as Logan Gilberts mostly poised-filled first postseason start, gone. Julio Rodriguezs star turn (he had two hits including a double and a triple, two RBI and scored three times), forgotten. An inning in which the Ms hit for a cycle, immaterial.

Instead the game ends with an entire fanbase second-guessing a decision. Or decisions. And throwing blame around like flags in a late-night Pac-12 football game.

The cons are obvious. The early wasted opportunities to add on even more runs. The Andres Munoz hanging slider cmon, four in a row when a guy has a 100-miles-per-hour fastball? Alex Bregman launched into the seats. The 3-2 pitch that hit pinch-hitter David Hensley in the ninth. The 1-2 slider from Paul Sewald to Jeremy Pena that didnt slide enough and allowed the Astros best hitter, Yordan Alvarez to walk to the plate.

And the con of cons, Robbie Rays hit-me-please second pitch.

You are more than welcome to second-guess the decision to bring Ray, a starting pitcher who has struggled recently and against Houston much of the year, into the game. Second-guess whether using starters in such a situation is good or bad strategy. Second-guess whether Ray should have pitched Alvarez differently, or whether the Ms should have pitched to Alvarez at all or any of a dozen other decisions.

Thats your right as a baseball fan.

But remember this. If Alvarez had been off by a 16th of an inch, the ball doesnt land in the seats. It skies into right field, falls into Mitch Hanigers glove and everyone wonders how Scott Servais got so smart.

Baseball.

Think back 72 hours from Tuesdays heartbreak. Recall the Blue Jays fans shuffling out of the Rogers Centre on Saturday, eyes red, heads bowed, hearts cracking. Every one of them were asking themselves why. How. What. Second-guessing pitches. Second-guessing decisions. Second-guessing their decision to be fans in the first place. An hour before they left the park, they were sure sure their team would win. Not just confident. Sure.

Sound familiar?

Baseball.

The pros of making the postseason were obvious to every Mariner fan a week ago. Now the cons are too.

WSU: Hey, takeaways have another meaning in football. Not just thoughts on what just happened but key elements of any game. The Cougars want more of them. Colton Clark tells us how they are going to make that happen. Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college football, Dish and the conference television arm are not seeing eye-to-eye right now. Litigation has begun. Jon Wilner shares that news in the Mercury News. He also has his weekly bowl projections. Oregon State will welcome the Cougars on Saturday and will do it coming off one of the best plays of the season. There was a time not long ago when Washington was overflowing with talented defensive backs. An Oregon player hopes to be granted one more college season. Utah has some problems it needs to fix before hosting USC this Saturday. The Trojans offer a series of challenges, including Travis Dye. The practices are a little faster at Colorado. Arizona needs to bounce back against the Huskies. In basketball news, Arizona held its media day Tuesday. And we thought Tommy Lloyd was a Mariner fan. Colorado has a player who wants to honor his grandfathers legacy.

Gonzaga: Whats the saying? Iron sharpens iron? If its true, then the Bulldogs should be sharp as a razor come the end of their preseason workouts. Theo Lawson has this story on how intense the GU practices have been, and it includes a quote from Mark Few that will bring back good memories for Zag followers. Bree Salenbien is still in the process of rehabbing her injured knee. As Jim Allen tells us, the sophomore guard has yet to practice this season.

Idaho: We can pass along some looks at the Vandals from Montana sources. Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Northern Colorado is trying to put its worst game of the season behind it. UC Davis is locked in for the seasons second half.

Preps: After a long drought, the Shadle Park boys cross country team is looking forward to the postseason. Keenan Gray shares this story on the groups quest to make the State meet. Dave Nichols has a roundup of Tuesdays action.

Mariners: How many stories about the loss do you want to read? You want opinion? We have that, with Larry Stone and Matt Calkins columns from the Times. You want the nuts and bolts? We have that with Ryan Divishs game story. You want more? We have that as well. Marco Gonzales is not on the playoff roster again. We wrote about this earlier this week.

Seahawks: The Hawks are signing Bruce Irvin to the practice squad with the idea the veteran has enough left to help the leaky defense. Maybe if they had re-signed Bobby Wagner they wouldnt be in this spot.

Kraken: The captain-less Kraken will open a new season with new faces in Anaheim.

Big wins. Bad losses. Baseball has both. But damn, why do they have to happen so close to each other? The poor Mariner fans who has never experienced the postseason is getting a Masters degree in the games emotions, arent they? And in a shorter time than it takes to earn an MBA from WGU. Until later

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A Grip on Sports: Welcome to postseason baseball, where the cons overcome the pros at least for one day - The Spokesman Review