THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: M's follow Julio's lead — for better or for worse

Losing 11-1 is a fluke.

Losing 11-1 with Logan Gilbert as your starting pitcher is the equivalent of a meteor hitting just behind second base.

Wash away that crazy sighting, and move on.

Right?

Umm.

Unfortunately, you also have to look at the loser’s side of Thursday’s box score.

It’s not exactly a shock: The Mariners managing just one run on six hits in that defeat at Minnesota was NOT a surprise.

These guys can’t make serious contact with a baseball.

Remember last offseason, when the Mariners bosses ranted against the team’s hideous strikeout ratio, and went out to find players who could put the ball in play?

Hah.

The result of that search is a group that has struck out 399 times in 38 games — on pace to set a major league record for swinging at fresh air.

Yes, several of the newcomers must take the heat.

Jorge Polanco has 50 whiffs to lead the team — what is it about these second basemen they find? 

Mitch Haniger has gone down 42 times and Mitch Garver 39.

Part-time players Luis Urias and Luke Raley are doing their part with 18 strikeouts in 51 ABs and 23 in 70.

WE CAN find some familiar names on that swing-and-miss chart, too.

Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez each have struck out 46 times.

There’s a staggering difference in those two numbers, however.

The Big Dumper has nine homers, 22 RBI and several game-changing hits that have kept the Mariners at 20-18 and still alive (more or less) in the AL West.

Julio?

Well, he’s played a terrific center field — which continues to be his personal “No-Fly Zone.”

Offensively, though, Julio has been almost an empty spot in the batting order.

It’s hard to imagine, given this young man’s immense talent (12.4 WAR over his first two seasons), that he’s stuck on one home run and 11 RBI after 38 games.

Now, if you were on a scientific expedition to Antarctica and missed the first six weeks of the season, you’d gawk at Julio’s power numbers and assume he’s not hitting the ball at all.

I mean, a guy who swings as hard as Julio, sitting on a single homer?

He can’t be putting the ball in play.

Oh, but that’s not the problem.

He’s not exactly the second coming of Ichiro, but Julio’s batting average after that disaster in Minneapolis on Thursday was .262.

Think about it.

He has 39 hits, of which 35 were singles.

(To be fair to Julio, he does turn some of those into quasi-doubles by stealing second, which he’s done nine times.)

So, he’s hustling, he’s working, he rarely lets his lack of run production get into his head.

But there have been moments.

Haniger, who frankly has been just terrible in right field, botched a ball last week and it caromed a long, long way toward center.

Shockingly, Julio wasn’t backing up the play, a basic error that he normally wouldn’t commit.

He’s also screwed up a few times on the bases.

But all in all, J-Rod’s been respectable enough for a star center fielder — except in the batter’s box.

IF JULIO were hitting anywhere near the level of his first two seasons, the Mariners would have at least three or four more wins.

They’d be sitting in first place.

I know, baseball has so many moving parts, it seems unfair to drop all this on one guy.

Unfortunately, that’s what Julio means to the Mariners.

There are his own personal accomplishments, for starters. 

He should have 20-25 RBI by now, at least — but we saw last August what happens to this club when Julio gets hot.

Everyone else seems to feel it.

The whole group catches fire.

That’s the impact Julio Rodriguez has on this team, so when he continually trudges back to the dugout after swinging at an awful pitch, or managing a soft ground ball to short, we get the opposite impact.

The Mariners all doze off.

Someone sprays melatonin in the dugout.

What’s truly frustrating is that Josh Rojas, batting leadoff most of the time ahead of Julio at No. 2, is hitting .348 — with four doubles, two triples and three homers.

Plus, 11 walks.

These situations almost cry out for a rally.

Yet Julio, and Polanco behind him, have most often killed the excitement before it can get going.

On the other hand, Raleigh is hitting just .209, flirting with the infamous Mendoza Line. 

Still, he’s carried the Seattle offense with loud damage at critical times.

Julio, not so much.

In fact, hardly at all.

Surely, he’ll turn that around and the Mariners will get hot.

Surely?

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.”