Salk: Could benches-clearing scuffle wake up the Mariners?

Baseball is not an adrenaline sport. I think we all know that. But that doesn’t mean adrenaline can’t help.

Benches clear, Speier and Wilson ejected in Mariners’ win over Tigers

And for a team that has looked a lot like they’ve been sleepwalking for the last month and a half, the Seattle Mariners maybe, hopefully, found something to wake them up by giving them a little bit of an adrenaline rush.

And I think that’s what can happen when the benches clear, as they did against Detroit on Wednesday night.

Because you can’t help it. You run out there and there might be a fight. And in this case, there wasn’t, and there were no punches thrown or anything. But everybody gets on edge. Everybody is looking around and ultra-focused, because you don’t know what’s in the air, and the tension, and what’s about to happen.

I can’t tell you that is going to lead to a team that starts hitting the ball better. They may have absolutely no relation.

But could it help a team focus? Could it help a team come together in a way that really has not seemed to happen for them all season long? Can it help a team believe in each other and have some of those bonding moments that seem to help baseball teams as much as anyone else?

I firmly believe it can and that it often does. I think it did with the Mariners in Anaheim a couple of years ago when they fought against the Angels with that Jesse Winker thing.

Were they in the right? Were they in the wrong? It doesn’t matter. It’s just the act of getting your teammates back and the adrenaline rush, the focus that comes with it.

This team is still very talented and they still have every opportunity to win the American League West. Something has to wake them up. Maybe it’ll be this.

This article is a transcript of the video at the top of the post. It is edited for clarity. Catch Mike Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.

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