So you consider how baseball can itself be fodder for cynicism: you remember well the last time the Mariners retired a jersey number and that it came to be known as Deadgar Weekend. Yet baseball gives you reason to hope too.

BOTTOM LINE: The Seattle Mariners, on a six-game home winning streak, host the Tampa Bay Rays. Seattle is 36-25 at home and 65-53 overall. Mariners hitters are batting a collective .243, which ranks ninth in the AL.