THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE, July 17, 2014

King Felix's outing in the All-Star game looked like most of his starts of late for the Seattle Mariners.

In his only inning of work, he pitched a scoreless first, striking out two and confounding hitters. He was the pitcher of record, as his team scored three runs in the bottom of the inning before the next pitcher took over.

But, alas, just like many of his starts with the Mariners, his American League All-Star team couldn't hold the lead, and he wound up with a no-decision.

Those wasted starts aside, the Mariners have played their way into playoff contention in the 4 1/2-team AL West. Seattle, with its glistening ballpark, still trails Oakland, with its plumbing-challenged multi-purpose stadium, in the standings, as well as the bounce-back Los Angeles Angels.

The Texas Rangers, thisclose to a World Series just a couple of years ago, are in the middle of a free-fall this season, and the Houston Astros, well, are still the Houston Astros, at least for another couple of years.

The traditional bullies of the AL East, the Yankees and Red Sox, are down this year.

So this is the Mariners' chance to make their fans forget the past decade of bad baseball. Sure, they go through stretches where they can't get a clutch hit, but with their starting pitching and their bullpen of arm after arm after arm, they often are only a bloop and a blast away from victory.

And in today's major league baseball, that's about all you need.

KUDOS TO the Prairie Cardinals for winning the class AA North Idaho League title in American Legion baseball this summer.

Sure, the league is down to three teams these days - it used to be six teams strong for years - but a league title is a league title. And it was Prairie's first league title since 1994, when Darren Taylor was coach. That was during the Cardinals' heyday in Legion ball - seven trips to state in an eight-year stretch between 1993 and 2000.

Since then, the league has pretty much belonged to Lewis-Clark and Coeur d'Alene. Between 2000 and 2011, Prairie qualified for state just once, in 2003. Coaches came and went, with the most recent ones - Al Bevacqua, then Dustin Frank, and now, in his first season, Ron Mackie - getting the Cardinals back on track.

Prairie mde it back to state in 2011 and 2012, before coming up short last year. This year, the Cardinals have earned the top seed to the Area A (district) tournament, and will attempt to win their first Area A title since 1998.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.