Seattle got eight hits last night — seven singles and a solo homer — so the lineup basically ordered seven side salads and then one guy got a steak and everyone acted like that was dinner.

Cal Raleigh went 2-for-3 with a homer, a walk, and the only extra-base hit in the entire Seattle lineup. The rest of the order combined for four singles. Castillo gave them five innings of two-run ball. The bullpen handed over the sixth. Oakland brought 13 hits and spread them around like a potluck. Seattle brought eight hits and put them all on the same paper plate.

The Athletics are in first place. The Mariners are 10-15. Jacob Wilson — a kid most people in that building couldn't pick out of a lineup — doubled home the go-ahead run in the sixth and singled in insurance in the ninth. He went 2-for-5 with two RBIs in a game that was close enough to feel winnable and far enough away to feel familiar.

Here's what bothers me. Seattle tied this game twice. Naylor sac fly in the third, Raleigh solo shot in the fifth. Tied it at one, tied it at two. And both times — both times — they just sat back down. Never took the lead. Not once. Not for one pitch the entire night. The Athletics went ahead three separate times and the Mariners' response every single time was "well, we'll get it back to even and then stop."

Julio went 2-for-3 with a walk, extending his on-base streak to 18 games. Those two showed up. The rest of the lineup combined for four hits. No doubles, no homers, no nothing. Meanwhile Wilson, Langeliers, McNeil, Soderstrom, Muncy — everybody eating. Seattle had two guys and a prayer.

That's six losses in eight games. That's 3.5 games back of a team that plays in a minor league ballpark. The A's are winning with depth and effort. The Mariners are losing because two guys can't carry seven dead spots through a nine-inning game, no matter how hard they try.

Julio went 2-for-3 with a walk last night, extending his on-base streak to 18 games — he keeps setting the table for a dinner party where nobody shows up.

The Mariners have lost six of their last eight games. Julio is having a streak. The team is also having a streak. They are not the same streak. He keeps getting on and then standing there watching nothing happen, like a guy who holds the door open and nobody walks through.

The real streak is six losses in eight games. That's the one nobody's putting on a graphic. Julio's 18-game on-base streak is a nice stat for a guy who deserves better. Julio's doing everything right and it doesn't matter. That's not a slump. That's a roster problem dressed up as a slump.

Tacoma lost 5-4 at Oklahoma City. Down four in the first. Ryan Bliss, Carson Taylor, and Jhonny Pereda all had multi-hit games. The bullpen threw three scoreless innings. Solid work across the board. And yet they still lost, because they grounded into three double plays. Three. The Mariners system, from top to bottom, will get guys on base and then find the most efficient possible way to remove them. It's almost a skill at this point. A terrible, terrible skill.

The big league club lost 5-2 the same night with the same disease — enough individual hits to feel competitive, not enough connected hitting to actually win. The whole organization went to bed last night having almost come back.

— Bobby Bunt