THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: M's do some peculiar things, no matter how you spin it

The Mariners have enough analytics experts to fill a small auditorium.

Hell, maybe a LARGE auditorium.

Climate Pledge Arena?

The idea, obviously, is to give the club every edge possible to succeed over 162 games — plus the postseason, hopefully.

These men and women whose names you’ve never heard find scrap-heap relievers, measure the speed and vertical drop of their change-ups, and suggest that the Mariners hand them over to a brilliant group of instructors.

The classic case is Matt Brash, who dazzled Seattle’s truffle-snuffers* with the spin he could impart on a baseball.

The Mariners (and many other teams) are gaga over spin, horizontal, vertical, both — and wonder what magic might occur if the young man who can do such things actually might learn to throw strikes.

Seattle, happily, is blessed with instructors who can almost miraculously teach it.

BRASH is an amazing case of finding a pitcher with stunning upside — especially since he can throw in the upper to high 90s, in addition to possessing a slider that seems to defy the laws of physics.

Remember that asterisk you noticed after the phrase “truffle snuffers”?

It refers to valuable breeds of dogs or hogs who have a unique ability to sniff out those types of mushrooms which are (apparently) delicious — and ridiculously expensive.

I’m not calling Mariners staffers mutts or anything rude, only mentioning that what they hunt can win a game or even a pennant.

On to the asterisk …

• Brash is our poster child for this column for two reasons.

• First, he actually was a “Player to be Named Later” in an obscure exchange of relievers with the Padres.

• Second, Brash also happened to be on the mound Monday night, in a game I want SO much to discuss.

The point I’m going to be making is pretty simple, and it applies to baseball more than any other sport.

Scouts (in the States and elsewhere), analysts, instructors and minor league godfathers can help you build an organization.

Even more specifically, it then becomes a game-day squad — the 26 players you send out to win enough games that eventually you become a pennant contender.

IN THIS one single game, we learned a LOT of baseball lessons — but the most important is that you need to play every night as though it might decide your postseason fate.

So let’s look at that game, with the Mariners opening a four-game series in Kansas City, where the once-hapless Royals had won 10 of their past 16.

In truth, both teams tried desperately to win, but also made plays and employed strategies that suggested the dog days of August had infected them with a lethargy that hands you losses.

The Royals’ Brady Singer was unhittable until Dominic Canzone singled in the seventh, and by then KC was up 5-0.

Salvador Perez had unloaded a three-run homer off Logan Gilbert in the first, Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. hustled out an inside-the-park home run when Canzone in right lost his line drive in the lights and then Julio Rodriguez bobbled it at the track.

It seemed like a done deal, until Royals manager Matt Quatraro decided — against all normal wisdom — to let Singer (at 95 pitches) go out to start the eighth inning.

By the time the carnage was over, Rodriguez had hit a base-loaded double and Seattle’s deficit was cut to 5-4.

The Royals’ less-than-stellar bullpen then coughed up two more runs in the ninth, with RBI singles from Josh Rojas and Julio giving the Mariners a 6-5 lead.

NOW WE need to talk about what Seattle did in the bottom of the ninth, because I didn’t understand it then — and I don’t understand it now.

Plus …

We come all the way back to Brash.

He and Andres Munoz are now sharing the closer role after the trade of Paul Sewald.

Both can be almost unhittable, but pitching the ninth is a different animal — and each is still in the learning stage.

Brash got Witt Jr. to an 0-2 count opening the inning, but couldn’t get his best slider to behave, and on a predictable 3-2 pitch, Witt Jr. singled to center.

Brash was not sharp.

Mike Massey singled to right, with Witt racing over to third.

That brought up Perez.

But …

As Brash and the Mariners were looking for a double play, it seemed that nobody noticed that Samad Taylor — pinch-running for Massey — simply took off and stole second without a throw.

Nobody even covered second, leading us to conclude Seattle did not intend to challenge the steal with Witt on third.

They allowed the winning run to jog into scoring position, basically.

So then, when Perez hit a sacrifice fly to center, Witt scored and Taylor flew into third, just ahead of Rodriguez’ throw.

Now you’ve got the winning run at third with one out.

Brash said after the game that they knew the Royals liked to bunt in those situations.

AND YET …

When pinch-hitter Dairon Blanco came up — a guy who bunted home TWO RUNS on the Royals’ last series in Philadelphia – nobody reacted.

Why not walk Blanco, whose run meant nothing?

Brash is a strikeout artist, and the next hitter would have been Nelson Velasquez, who whiffs at a 31 percent rate.

After that would have be Matt Beaty, a career minor leaguer who’s hitting .213 this year.

Brash could have escaped.

Uh …

Nope.

Blanco immediately put down a good (but not perfect) bunt toward first, Dylan Moore bobbled it and Taylor — who was not running on the pitch — scored to win it.

Among 162 games, some you will truly remember.

This should be one of them.

The Mariners did not give themselves the best chance to win, and for once, I wondered if Scott Servais (and the whole Seattle dugout) was caught off-guard.

If you hope to play in October, that cannot happen.

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.”