A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s simple. The Mariners will not reach their goals this season unless there is a managerial change. Soon.

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• Dan Wilson is, by all accounts, a great guy. A calming influence. A Mariner legend, still the best catcher to ever wear the uniform. Leader of the M’s first division-winning team since 2001, when he played. Was in the dugout as Seattle’s 2025 season ended just a few outs short of its first World Series. Has won 54% of his games, which just seems weird.

And should still be sitting in the TV booth.

This isn’t any knock on Wilson as a person. Or as a baseball lifer. It isn’t presentism, either, though Sunday’s 6-5 come-from-ahead loss in Cleveland – it’s always Cleveland for the M’s, isn’t it? – presented the team’s major issues in a microcosm. And helps to illustrate the why behind the needed change.

In the 281 regular-season games Wilson has managed in the Major Leagues, his head-scratching bullpen decisions have popped up in about 200 of them. Sunday’s was just the latest.

Yes, the Mariners have dealt with injuries this year. Every year recently, it seems, in the bullpen. And, yes, the players are the ones making the plays, or not making them, at every position. But the best managers in every sport put their charges in the best spots to be successful. Wilson has rarely had that knack, especially with his bullpen.

Sunday was just the latest example, though the seeds were sown Saturday.

In that one, a 4-3 Guardians’ win, Randy Arozarena hit a three-run home run in the top of the eighth to pull the M’s within the one run.

Logan Gilbert had thrown his seven innings and Wilson went to his pen. Chose Jose A. Ferrer, who had worked the night before in Seattle’s 3-1 victory. Understandable, though Ferrer’s perfect inning Saturday – on 10 pitches – made his availability Sunday problematic. His track record throwing three consecutive days has been up and down. Then again, the two outings together were only 21 pitches.

Emerson Hancock started Sunday, though all week he had been slated to be the M’s second-half of a planned Saturday piggyback. Good thing the change was made. Hancock held the Guardians scoreless through four, gave up a single run in the fifth – after Cleveland had loaded the bases with no one out – and started the sixth with two outs, throwing 10 pitches. That put him at 92. He then threw six to Cooper Ingle, walking him.

Leading 4-1 and certainly knowing Ferrer was not available, leaving the bullpen a bit short, Wilson pulled Hancock. Brought on one of his most dependable arms, Eduard Bazardo. The righthander gave up a double, then got a strike out. No runs. Ten pitches. Day done.

With the top of the Guardian lineup up in the seventh, Wilson chose Gabe Speier, one of his two successful left-handed relievers. And Speier delivered, throwing a shutout inning, though giving up a couple two-out hits.

But that left a gap. The eighth inning. A chasm built in the sixth when Wilson used Bazardo – for one out.

His bridge builder? Michael Rucker, recently recalled from the minors. In his time in Seattle, Rucker had pitched in six games, none of them high-leverage situations. This one was. And he wasn’t up to the task, facing five hitters, getting one out – a sacrifice bunt – and leaving the bases loaded for Josh Simpson, also recently recalled and whose last M’s appearance was in May.

Again, only one of Simpson’s five appearances at this level would have been considered high leverage. He failed Sunday as well, though he actually retired the first guy he faced. Two consecutive ropes followed and the game was lost.

Those two back-of-the-bullpen arms threw 39 pitches. Pitches that they never should have been forced to throw. Or either probably could have thrown in the sixth, when the bottom of the Guardian lineup faced Bazardo. Or maybe even Saturday, when Ferrer was used.

Yes, Wilson was in charge last season when the M’s won 90 games. But even then there were questionable decisions, many pointed out here, that cost them enough wins the American League Championship series could have finished at T-Mobile instead of in Toronto.

And this season the M’s have failed to take advantage of a weak A.L. West, scuffling to a 42-43 record. Second place behind the suddenly gelling Rangers.

Wednesday is an off day for the team. At home. If Jerry Dipoto feels any urgency, that might work for a change. But Blue Jays, and their fans, come to town. Might be a bad way for someone to start. A six-game Florida road trip follows. Then the All-Star break.

If M’s don’t miraculously make a U-turn by then and Wilson is still in charge, it’s obvious Dipoto is not serious about winning this season. He should be. This team has as good a chance to win a mediocre American League as anyone.

The list of potential experienced replacements is long. And the M’s have much to offer. The best young starting staff in baseball. A great top end to their bullpen, even with Matt Brash out again. A lineup that should be delivering more.

Would that, and a few million, be enough to attract Alex Cora to sign on, seeing how the Phillies – his likely landing spot – seemed to have turned their season around? Of, if you want an older guy with a calm demeanor, Bruce Bochy, former M’s skipper Bob Melvin or long-time Braves manager Brian Snitker or all out there.

Any of them, along with Dave Martinez or Rocco Baldelli, would be an upgrade.

The past two years, with Wilson running the place, the M’s have left enough wins on the table to feed their fans’ World Series dreams. It’s time to put a new head chef in the kitchen.

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WSU: Around the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, the conference is reborn Wednesday. John Canzano has some thoughts on that, though his main focus is on how the demise of the old conference may have been the canary in the college athletics coal mine. … Washington’s radio voice is saying goodbye. … Football recruiting has yet to stop. Not for Oregon. … Nor for Fresno State, which has focused on local kids more than ever. … Utah State is trying to build momentum now for next season. … In basketball news, the Colorado men’s program will be a little different going forward. … USC has the best roster of the Eric Musselman era. … Boise State knows it needs to improve its defense. … What will UCLA look like next season – and beyond? … A former UCLA women’s star is having a dream season in the WNBA.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, even football coaches have a life outside their job. Ask UC Davis’ Tim Plough.

Indians: Spokane won again, with another extra-inning rally topping Tri-City 3-2 in 10 innings. Dave Nichols has more in this story. … Catcher Jack O’Dowd was promoted to Hartford after the game.

Hoopfest: The rain held off, for the most part, long enough to allow the 3-on-3 tournament to finish up. Greg Woods was downtown to cover the men’s championships in the elite and the 6-foot-and-under divisions. … The event is dominated by non-elite competition, though, and we wanted to share this story from Megan Howard and Cimarron Waldo from the middle school courts. … Tyler Tjomsland and Colin Mulvany have a photo gallery from the weekend as well.

Mariners: Don’t take my word for Wilson’s consistently odd bullpen use. Ryan Divish delves into it on the Times’ website as well. … We linked Divish’s game story above. And here too. … There is this story about Josh Naylor and his conversation yesterday with a former teammate.

Tennis: We linked this Athletic story on Wimbledon yesterday. It is on the S-R site today.

World Cup: The real work starts Wednesday, when the U.S. plays Bosnia and Herzegovina in Santa Clara. A win and Belgium is probably next in the round of 16. In Seattle. … Canada became the first country to advance to the next round, topping South Africa 1-0 with a late goal. … What have out-of-town fans been saying about the Lumen Field experience?

Golf: One hole. One made birdie putt. Victor Hovland topped Scottie Schefler in the PGA’s Travelers Championship playoff.

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• If you don’t know why I said above “it’s always Cleveland,” then your memory isn’t that long. Not back to 2001 at least. When the M’s blew a 12-run lead to the then Indians and fell 15-14 in 11 innings. That loss cost the franchise the solo MLB record for most wins in a season, instead of tying the 116-win mark. And then there was the April game in 2012, when the M’s led by six runs going into the ninth and lost 9-8. Until later …

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• Photos: The Spokesman-Review, Getty Images, Tribune News Service