Mariners Waste Rare Great Start

Felix Hernandez pitched seven innings last night and allowed just one run.

That's a damn good start, and the M's wasted it. Not a good sign--you don't get too many starts like that.

Based on data at BaseballReference.com, I looked at last year's AL playoff teams to see how they fared in games where their starter went 7 and gave up just 1 run:

Angels--12 such starts, 11 wins.
Indians--9 such starts, 7 wins.
Red Sox--14 such starts, 13 wins.
Yankees--12 such starts, 10 wins.

And by comparision, last year's last place teams:
Devil Rays--6 such starts, 4 wins.
Royals--7 such starts, 6 wins.
Rangers--5 such starts, 3 wins.

The Mariners:
Mariners--4 such starts, 3 wins.

As you can see, playoff teams get more good starts, but they also win those starts. Combined, the AL playoff teams were 41-6 when they got a start like the M's had last night, for a winning percentage of .872. Last place teams were 13-5, a winning percentage of .722.

The M's now have nowhere to go but up, they're at .000.

They can't afford to lose too many more games like this.