WASHINGTON D.C. -- Seattle Mariners manager Dan Wilson has become a target for fans, often times unfairly.

While Wilson obviously can affect winning or losing with decisions, he ultimately doesn't hang breaking balls, leave runners in scoring position, walk guys, make errors, or commit baserunning mistakes.

While a lot of fans will point to the manager for a team's struggles, the fact remains: This game is about the players. And at 37-36, the M's don't have enough of the right players because of injury, and the ones they do have aren't performing consistently well enough to help the team win consistently. 

That said: There is another question, or concern, about Wilson that fans often raise: They want to know why he doesn't show more urgency on the field, and why he doesn't show more frustration after losses.

The answer? It's just not in his nature. And that's often a good thing, but we did discuss this topic a little more on the most recent 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast, with me making an admission following the M's 8-3 loss to the Washington Nationals on Saturday.

"So some of you are obviously frustrated that Dan didn't take a torch to the team.

I'll tell you that I land in the middle.

I've tended to defend Dan Wilson on a lot of things. I tend to think that fans are overreactive. I tend to think that fans are unfairly targeting not just Dan, but I tend to think that fans unfairly target people and unfairly place blame at times.

I would have liked to see a little more, or hear a little more, frustration in Dan Wilson's voice there.

Now, I think all things can be true. I understand that Dan Wilson is not going to torch his team to the media, and that's his right. I respect managers that keep things in-house. That is the way I think that it should be done.

I don't think it ever becomes a good thing when you publicize your frustrations with the organization or with people in the organization.

So I understand why Dan Wilson doesn't want to call out guys on his team and say that this guy needs to step up, or that guy needs to make a play, or this guy needs to field the ground ball, or whatever it is. I get why Dan Wilson doesn't do that. I don't think that he should do that. I get that the players like that he protects them.

Because I think that that is part of Dan Wilson's job: to protect the players, to wear things himself, and to not let the media and the fans divide the team. I think all of that is fair.

The other thing I think is fair is that Dan Wilson, I think, can send a message about the group without calling people out individually.

I don't think it would have been poor on Dan Wilson's part if he came out on Saturday and said, "Look, we had 3 errors. We really struggled defensively in this game. That's something we have to clean up. We're not in a position where we can afford to be giving teams extra outs. We're not in a position where we can be giving away innings defensively, especially to a team like that."

I think that there would have been a perfectly fair answer for Dan Wilson to say.

And if he would say, "Hey, we all need to be better. We're all accountable for it. And whether that means we need to go out and do some early work, or we need to have some more meetings, or we need to talk through situations, our coaching staff is going to get together and we're going to figure out a way to get everybody better in this regard because this is an area that needs to be cleaned up. Like, this can't happen."

I think that that would have been fine. I think that that would have been an appropriate answer from Dan Wilson to this team's defensive struggles, and I don't really have a problem with that.

We all watched it. We all know that the Mariners beat themselves on Saturday. I think it would have been fair for Dan Wilson to acknowledge that and then to talk about kind of the desire to clean it up."

With the team as injured as it is, there are some things that are just unavoidable. What is avoidable are the defensive miscues that continue to plague this group, and Saturday's three error performance was just the latest example of it. 

The Mariners continue to lead the American League West by one game over the Texas Rangers and Athletics. They'll be off on Monday before starting a new series with the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday at T-Mobile Park. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. PT.

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