I’ve lived here long enough, I should have known better.

As I started my car, Ichiro was singled home by Adam Kennedy. 1-0 Ms. By the time I reached the nearby high school for the American Legion baseball game I was headed to, the good guys had tacked on another.

4-0 Mariners, the scoreboard operator yelled down as the Legion game continued. Sure thing now, I thought.

Or too good to be true.

On the radio, they were making out Doug Fister’s performance sound simply epic; cruising through an overmatched Nationals lineup while economizing pitches. Baffling hitters with an uncanny ability to locate and induce harmless grounders.

I (foolishly) took the bait, feeling the excitement well in my stomach.

Back-to-back complete game shutouts from the third and fourth starters? Now that’s the kind of thing that can make a middling team a true contender.

Unless they undo themselves first.

The phenom, Dustin Ackley, with another sparkling defensive effort to put an inning-ending double play in motion. I’ll watch the highlight of that one after the win, I promised myself.

It never got that far.

Even after the Nationals broke up the shutout, there was little to be worried about. Either Fister will roll through the next three innings as he did the first six, or they can hand it over to a bullpen that has been surpassing expectations all season.

Except, of course, for that nagging little detail scrawled across the fronts of their jerseys.

An error to start the inning? Completely harmless. A couple base hits? That’s what the four-run lead was for.

The optimism faded as I listened to the radio call of the ball off League’s leg. “I Hope that isn’t as close as they get to the third out,” I thought.

Of course, it was.

5-3 with the winning run coming to the plate? Now we’re just delaying the inevitable.

6-5 on a walk-off long ball to cap a five-run bottom of the ninth with all five runs coming after there were two outs?

I’ve been in Seattle long enough. I should have seen it coming.