A GRIP ON SPORTS • It was hard to keep the eyes open last night, wasn’t it? After a warm day, the temperature had dropped and a breeze had come up. Perfect sleeping weather. Except the M’s were engaged in a scoreless battle with Tampa Bay. Who would blink first? Read on.

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• Me, actually. I dozed during the eighth and ninth, but my eyes did open long enough to see Austin Jackson’s triple and the ensuing one-two-three race back to the dugout. If you’re counting at home, and everyone is, that’s seven consecutive losses. Goodbye season. Goodbye Fernando Rodney, whose first-hitter home run in the ninth was the difference in the 1-0 defeat. And maybe goodbye Lloyd McClendon, who seems to be getting a little defensive about his team’s offense. I am actually not sure any of those last three sentence are true, though. The season can still be salvaged, but it starts tonight with Felix Hernandez’s start. This is the biggest one of his career in a lot of ways. If the M’s lose tonight, despair may just set in. Win, and hope may survive. Whether McClendon moves off his rock-solid decision to keep Rodney as the closer is another thing. And how much leash does the manager have? We heard boos last night for Rodney, we’ve heard more and more discussion on Seattle sports-talk radio about whether McClendon has lost the confidence of his players – the 30-minute tour around the bases the other night and the ensuing Robinson Cano Gilligan-like misstep certainly didn’t help – and his general manager. We’ll see about that as well. All we know is the weather is beginning to warm up. So is McClendon’s seat cushion. If the M’s don’t turn it around, and I mean tonight and this week, we’re all going to be able to start getting to sleep earlier. The team we thought was going to break Seattle’s long playoff drought will have become irrelevant. And that’s just plain sad.

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• WSU: Before we get to the sports aspect of today’s report, we have to pass along a tough story. Washington State president Elson Floyd is taking a leave of absence while he battles colon cancer. Our prayers are with him. ... The Cougars received a commitment from a high school defensive back. Jacob Thorpe has more in this blog post. ... I probably have experienced this aspect of Klay Thompson as much as anyone. Speaking of the NBA Finals, Kyrie Irving has a broken knee cap. ... ESPN.com’s Pac-12 blog has its weekly mailbag. ... By the way, former WSU relief pitcher/starter Adam Conley came back to the Northwest and handed it to the Tacoma Rainiers.

• Shock: Speaking of irrelevant, the Shock are pretty much filling that role in Spokane. They are not good enough to beat the AFL’s good teams, that for sure, not with the offense they put on the field. They lost again last night, this time 55-26 in San Jose.

• Seahawks: So what have we learned thus far from the OTAs?

• Mariners: I will give McClendon this: He’s right about one thing. “We just need someone to step up and get a big hit,” he told reporters last night. Just one can jumpstart a season. I’ve seen it before. But no one is doing it. A leadoff triple in the ninth down 1-0 and you can’t score the runner? That’s the definition of futility. ... Jackson came in late after being told he had the night off.

• Sounders: The list of players who probably won’t play for Seattle today at Kansas City reads like a who’s-who of MLS stars. Brad Evans, Clint Dempsey, Obafemi Martins and on and on.

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• It’s Saturday. It’s going to be toasty. Summer is right around the corner. Have fun. Until later ...

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