Here come two shellshocked squads. The Mariners and Blue Jays must be just astonished to enter this game a combined 53 games below .500 -- and in case you don't appreciate how dramatic their reversal has been, consider that the Jays and M's finished 2003 a combined 34 games above .500 -- that's an 87-game turnaround. Which Aug. 31 statistics would have amazed fans more in the pre-season: that Alex Rios leads the Blue Jays in batting average, Frank Menechino in OBP and Dave Bush in starters' ERA? Or that Randy Winn has more home runs than Edgar Martinez, Ichiro is the only Mariner batting above .290, and Jamie Moyer and Joel Piniero lead Seattle's pitching staff with 6 wins each? Baseball, among its many other attractions, will never allow you to figure it out. The rapidly unravelling Moyer pitches for the M's tonight, against the recently-hammered Josh Towers; bad hitting still usually beats mediocre pitching, so this shouldn't be a low-scoring affair.
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