The Seattle Mariners enter play on Monday at 25-29 and a disappointing 2.5 games back of the Athletics in the American League West.

The two teams will begin a three-game series on Monday night in West Sacramento, Calif. It's certainly a meaningful series for the Mariners, who can find themselves in first place by the end of it - or set even further back.

It's been a frustrating first third of the season for Seattle, who came into the year with World Series expectations. So what's been the biggest issue thus far?

The fact that it's hard to choose between the team's hot-and-colt starting pitching, the subpar defense and the massive offensive dry spells shows you just how inconsistent the M's have been, but I elected to try to take a jab at the biggest problem plaguing the M's on the latest 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast.

"The Mariners have a lot of bad baseball qualities right now. But if you're going to ask me the number one thing plaguing this team, I am going to say this: the regression in power. The regression in power.

We all wonder, or at least I wondered, what would happen to this team if the home runs started to dissipate? Well, you are seeing it.

Thanks to Cal Raleigh and Jorge Polanco and Randy Arozarena and Julio Rodriguez, the Mariners were third in baseball in home runs last season. As a result, they were 9th in baseball in runs scored. Even despite the strikeout issues, even despite the contact issues, they were third in baseball in home runs, so therefore they were 9th in baseball in runs scored.

You are seeing what happens when the power regresses. Jorge Polanco is gone. Eugenio Suarez is gone. Cal Raleigh is hurt and was struggling.

This team is tied for 10th in home runs. By no means is that bad, but they are the most home run-dependent team in the league. That is how they score. The problem: they don't hit enough of them.

Being 10th, if that's how you're going to score, if home runs are going to be your primary driver of offense, you can't be 10th. You have to be third, like you were a year ago. You have to be top 3.

And when you are not, you are seeing what the offense looks like. Too often it is punchless. Yes, they will homer, and yes, they will have some games where they slug their way to some victories, but they're not doing that enough."

To that point: Polanco hit 26 home runs a season and is now gone, Raleigh hit 60 and has just seven because of his injury. Dominic Canzone has one home run since April 21 while Cole Young hasn't homered since early April. Randy Arozarena is on pace for 16 home runs instead of the 27 he hit last year, and Josh Naylor is also on pace for 16.

If the Mariners are going to be a homer-dependent team, they are going to need everyone to play at the top edge of their baseball card, and right now, they aren't getting it.

The Mariners will play the A's at 6:40 p.m. PT on Monday. Pitching matchups for the series are available here.

You can listen to the most recent 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast here, or you can watch on YouTube below:

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