Despite half of the local hospital being filled with Mariners, this plucky bunch of ballplayers keeps finding ways to win, and are riding a four-game winning streak at the time this was posted. The M’s are without Dee Gordon for awhile, Mitch Haniger for at least a day, and Robinson Cano still has 73 days left on his suspension. Luckily, the M’s are playing a bunch of wimpy teams over the next few weeks, and they had better capitalize, because the schedule gets really tough for about two months after that. How badly do the M’s need to stuff the nerds into the lockers to survive that brutal stretch? We tell you! And we will probably be right, or wrong.

We also discuss what Mike Leake remembering how to be good would mean for the team. Hint: A lot!

Guillermo Heredia now leads the Mariners in OBP, and is one of three players over 1.0 WAR. What does he have to do to hold onto a starting spot even when everyone gets healthy? Honestly, he probably should’ve been starting all along, but he probably needs to do more to get the M’s to play him every day. But just how much more?

Ben Gamel is also riding a nice little hot streak, and Brett offers both credit and skepticism, given that his numbers look eerily similar to last year’s hot streak, right down to the unsustainably-high ~.420 BABIP. It would be great for the M’s if he was good, but would probably be bad if another BABIP hot streak convinced the team once again, erroneously, that Gamel is better than Heredia. But everyone is hurt right now, so Ben, just play well even if it’s luck based, please.

Finally, we wrap up offering our thoughts on the NFL’s new national anthem policy, weighing in just enough to not feel like cowards, but hopefully not so much that our employment is in jeopardy. I guess you’ll know next week!