A stellar, truly inspiring, impossibly fun four-game sweep of the Astros on their home turf--capped by a thrilling finale in which they lost the lead in the eighth, tied the game with two outs in the ninth, and won it in the tenth--by the reawakened Seattle Mariners. July was a brutal trek through the Sahara Desert for the M's, who scored fewer runs and hit fewer home runs that month than any team in the AL. Only Dee Gordon hit over .300 in July. Haniger faded. Nelson Cruz and Ryon Healy disappeared. Aging ace Felix Hernandez flamed out spectacularly. After nipping at the Astro's heels all season, the Mariners slipped to third place and eight games behind as they arrived in Houston for this series. You could feel the great promise of the first half of the season slipping away and the spectre of another year out of the playoffs looming. Manager Scott Servais made some big moves, putting Haniger in the leadoff spot and sending Hernandez to the bullpen. Haniger hit a home run in his first leadoff at bat, and the M's were off to the races. They beat Verlander. They beat Gerrit Cole. They beat Charlie Morgan, who was 12 and 2. (Those guys were ALL on this year's All-Star team.) Today they knocked off Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel. They're hitting--Haniger and Healy, especially, have found their groove again. The defense has been rock solid--Heredia made a spectacular double play from the outfield last night. The insanely spectacular Edwin Diaz saved ALL FOUR games. He's on pace to beat the major league record for saves in a season. The Mariners desperately needed to reignite in August, and so far--there are series with the Astros and second-place Oakland yet to come this month--they are truly on fire. We needed this one--bad. A series to savor, for sure.