THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: It's early, but time to get going soon Mariners

And for a reward …

The Mariners get to spend a full off-day in Cleveland.

So, maybe a trip down to see the official Soap Box Derby track in Akron?

Or a quick, bracing swim through some of the muck and garbage floating on Lake Erie?

Whatever their choice of free time today, you have to say the M’s earned no warm and fuzzy prize for their first homestand of 2023.

I mean, the atmosphere was electric on Opening Day, with expectations and excitement running mega-hot.

The magnificent Luis Castillo was overwhelming, Ty France hit a three-run homer in the eighth to beat the Guardians 3-0, and …

And …

And then the whole thing went into the toilet.

Cleveland won the next three games as the Mariners played sorry, sloppy defense and, among other failings, couldn’t hit a ball hard enough to break glass against journeyman starter Aaron Civale in a dismal 2-0 loss.

Next came the Angels, taking two of three to leave the Mariners at 2-5 and, yeah, I know …

It’s so early in the season, the roosters aren’t even up yet.

So far, though, that magical momentum that the Mariners seemed to manufacture on command last season has deserted them.

Repeat … So far.

SKIPPER Scott Servais has seen everything in baseball, so he was hardly shocked at this dreary start from a team with supposedly endless promise.

“We played bad baseball in a couple of games,” he said, “and then in our type of one-run, bullpen games, we couldn’t get it done.”

There’s an old saying that you make your own luck, but honestly, sometimes the baseball gods or crappy karma just turns on you for no reason.

Seattle’s 4-3 loss Wednesday afternoon was a perfect example of doing a lot of things right, feeling okay about yourself (particularly newly installed starter Chris Flexen), but also facing another defeat.

Whether the Angels were just plain lucky or not — and they were — the Mariners sucked up another loss just when they were coming off an 11-run outburst and hoping to get in some rhythm.

Consider the Angels’ four runs …

Flexen, who gave up just two hits over five innings, obviously had no “book” on Halos rookie catcher Logan O’Hoppe.

Hitting in the 9-hole (presumably for good reason), O’Hoppe DOES have a hot zone as a hitter: Down, as far down as possible, and preferably slow.

Result: O’Hoppe literally golfed a rolling slider that arrived around his ankles – and sent it extra-deep into the left-field seats with a stroke that looked like a sweet 4-iron.

That made it 2-1 early after the M’s scored a run in the first, but a potential rally against Shohei Ohtani was cut short when Ty France tried to advance on a loose ball and was thrown out.

Ohtani labored through six innings and 111 pitches, walking four and hitting two more.

You’d think the Mariners would find a couple of runs in all of that, but …

No.

Their best shot came when AJ Pollock grounded out with the bases loaded.

I’m not sure what age group would remember this, but rocker Jerry Reed once did a song about playing in a back-alley dice game.

He crooned about winning, and more winning, and the chorus was simple: “When you hot, you hot. And when you not, you not.”

The Angels and Mariners both proved that in the seventh inning, when L.A. got two runs on RBIs from bashers Mike Trout and Ohtani – the first on a grounder topped so slowly that there was no play, Ohtani’s on a breaking ball that fooled him so badly that, with two strikes, he had to try fouling it off.

Instead, it crawled gently down the third-base where nobody plays, and the Angels led 4-1.

Velocity on both of those run-scoring hits was measured at less than 70 mph.

“When you hot, you hot …”

IN THE bottom of that same inning, Seattle scored two-out runs on an RBI double by France and then a single from Eugenio Suarez.

Unfortunately, Suarez took too wide a turn around first base, got tagged in a rundown and that was that.

“We didn’t get much luck with those (Angels) hits,” Servais said, “but we also made two bad baserunning mistakes today that killed rallies.

“We talk about it all the time. Don’t help them out. Keep the pressure on the pitcher, keep the momentum going.”

Suarez admitted it was a mistake.

“I can’t let that happen,” he said. “I can’t make that kind of mistake that costs the team.”

Geno’s admission reflected what was surely a team-wide feeling as the group considered this 2-5 start, the temporary loss of injured starter Robbie Ray, and even the fact that everyone in the supposed sharp bullpen – except newcomer Gabe Speier – had at least one shaky outing.

Now …

This start is no reason for the social media panic and hysteria that seems to spread like a virus. The Mariners didn’t look good, but every sensible view seems to be that this is a better team than last year’s 90-win gang.

Have they proved the lineup is deeper and more dangerous than a year ago?

Nope, not yet.

Should you worry?

Go ahead, it comes with the territory.

But I’m going to wait a couple of months and see what this team looks like then.

It might be just a fluke bad start with some ill fortune thrown into the mix.

“When you not, you not…”

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”