Roller coaster week for local fans

Published 11:52 pm Saturday, September 1, 2007

Wow! What a week in area sports!

We witnessed the death of the Everett Hawks and severe injuries to the Seattle Mariners playoff hopes.

We saw the jump-start of a racing career from one Robby Vaughn, 17, of Monroe, who, in mid-century can tell his grandkids that he left Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart coughing in his dust at a sprint-car race.

But most spectacularly, we may have seen the dawn of a new era in University of Washington football and the first step in the Big Time of Jake Locker, who was only terrific in his debut in purple and gold Friday.

As a redshirt freshman.

On national television at least, when dratted ESPN wasn’t switching to Scott Baker’s ill-fated attempt at a perfect game. Whatever happened to the split screen? Gad!

Anyway, after Washington’s 42-12 drubbing of Syracuse, only one question remains, one that won’t be answered for weeks: Are the Huskies that good, or are the Orange that bad?

Likely, it’s both.

First, it was obvious early that this is the fastest UW team Tyrone Willingham has had in his three years here. The defense flew to the ball, allowed eight rushing yards and had seven sacks.

Locker was 14-for-19 passing, but look at this: After the amped-up quarterback sailed his first three passes, he hit on 14 of his last 16 attempts. He led the Huskies on scoring drives of 80, 80, 70, 70 and 80 yards. He even ran for 83 yards on 10 carries.

Yikes!

Louis Rankin showed little of the hesitancy he plagued the team with last season and slashed for 147 yards on 17 carries. The Husky receiving group (I hate the word “corps,” as in the “United States Marine Corps” in describing football positions) was as sure-handed as I can remember.

But I’ll never understand why Syracuse didn’t throw deep more and test the young UW secondary. True freshmen Vonzell McDowell Jr., and Nate Williams made some plays, but the Orange rarely tested them. One reason was a function of a strong UW pass rush Syracuse quarterback Andrew Robinson should take out some life insurance if he’s stuck with THAT offensive line. Dude was food.

All in all, though, it was a solid debut and ultimately satisfying for a UW fan base that hasn’t had much to cheer about since 2002. Now, let’s see how they stack up against the toughest schedule in the nation.

Meanwhile, the Mariners. Ahh, the Mariners. Where to start?

The starting rotation, long a team weakness, is fast falling apart. The losing streak reached eight games after Saturday’s loss to the Blue Jays and starting pitching is the obvious foil.

Look at Jarrod Washburn Friday. Brutal. He threw 51 pitches in the first two innings, 83 after three. Starters aren’t reaching the sixth inning and it’s wearing out the relievers. Manager John McLaren said afterward that he had just three relievers available Friday.

He was forced to leave Ryan Rowland-Smith in for 313 innings to spare the bullpen. And because the M’s haven’t been in save situations, seemingly, since spring training, closer J.J. Putz hadn’t been used in six days.

So what happens? McLaren puts him in there in the eighth inning and a rusty Putz gives up an insurance run on two singles in the eighth.

McLaren has benched Jose Lopez for lack of effort and work ethic and it couldn’t have some at a worse time. Jose Vidro’s bat is blazing, but he’s a liability at second base.

A point in Seattle’s favor is that it’s been able to bounce back from losing streaks in the past. But to break a losing streak in May isn’t the same as snapping one in September. To make the playoffs, they have to cut off the losing immediately. I don’t know if they can win enough to stay with the Yankees for the wild-card spot, given the state of the pitching staff and the stage of the season.

The M’s are getting relief help in the September call-ups with Ryan Feierabend and John Parrish, both lefties. Right-hander Sean White will be activated from the 60-day disabled list.

Is it enough to catch the Yankees?

I don’t like the answer I’m coming up with.

Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com