Could J.P.'s sage-burning spark Mariners' turnaround?

This story was excerpted from Daniel Kramer’s Mariners Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SEATTLE -- Sage simmered across the Mariners’ home clubhouse on Wednesday afternoon, a ritual that’s long been spearheaded by franchise icon Mike Cameron in an effort to exorcise any bad mojo that might linger.

But Cameron, a special assignment coach on the Minors side, isn’t with the team on its current homestand. J.P. Crawford has fittingly taken on that task during Seattle’s biggest slumps, and the shortstop felt like Tuesday -- before the club lost for the 10th time in 13 games -- was the appropriate time.

“We're way better than what we've been doing,” Crawford said. “We're going to continue to work hard and try to get out of this.”

With the help of Ty France, Crawford lit each of the four bundles that had the shape of a cigar and littered the smoke throughout the clubhouse, into each player’s locker and even down into the underground batting cages.

Asked where he procured the sage, Crawford slyly replied: “That, I can’t tell you.”

It took an extra day, Crawford joked after the Mariners’ exhaling win over the Orioles on Thursday, but he’s confident that the ritual worked.

“It definitely helped me, I don’t know about everyone else,” Crawford said, after ripping a bases-clearing, tiebreaking double in the seventh inning.

It was a lighthearted practice, but also underscored the Mariners’ collective personality to acknowledge their significant struggles during this mid-summer swoon while also having the mental stability to not let it turn into a full spiral.

Because behind the scenes, as the losses have piled up, frustration has also mounted to the point where it’s been compounded on the field in the form of pressing. Julio Rodríguez channeled it into some rare emotional edge on Wednesday, when he was practically playing angry -- and it led to his best game of the year.

“I wasn't really thinking about my swing or what's happened over the past two months or whatever that is,” Rodríguez said. “I was thinking of competing today. I felt that's what really matters -- because you can't do anything to change the past. The only thing you can control is right now. So I feel like I was just focused on competing and got the best of them.”

Mariners manager Scott Servais added that the overall struggles have led to more pointed messaging in team meetings.

“I think very honest, very blunt, very to the point,” Servais said. “I think it's really important that guys, we all assume they all know who they are. They're in the big leagues, they know the type of player they are. I just think sometimes we need to clarify, 'OK, here's your job. This is how we look at it. If you do your job and the other guy does his, and the other guy does his and you put it all together, then it's a really competitive, well-balanced team.’

“When you get outside of your realm of trying to do maybe a little bit more or think you need to do more, that's when you're not even [meeting] the expectations of your team. So we're just trying to rein guys in a little bit and create as much clarity as you can. I think that's really important. And you can't assume guys just understand where they're at.

“It's really important to listen to players. It's not just sitting down and it's a one-way conversation. You need to listen to what they say, because ultimately, it helps lead me where I need to go, to get it in a frame of reference that they can really understand it, and they can take hold of it.”

The sage burning was a quirky tactic, sure, but it offered a small and humorous moment tying back into the Mariners’ grander practice of preparation -- which they believe will ultimately propel them out of their funk.