Mariners fail to make correct offerings to Chaos Gods, lose 5-3

Loss hurts Mariners in more ways than just on the field

The Mariners lost today to the Twins, 5-3, snapping their streak of consecutive home series wins. It was a frustrating loss that was full of the Mariners not taking advantage of opportunities given to them by the Twins, who played sloppily yet again, but the Mariners were unable to capitalize. The Mariners were also shorthanded by the Twins in this game thanks to starter Joe Ryan plunking Mitch Garver on the wrist with a pitch, forcing the Mariners to lose the DH spot in order to move Cal Raleigh into the catching spot. (Servais later said x-rays on Garver were negative.) Between that and Luke Raley fouling a ball off his foot in the ninth and in obvious pain trying to run to first base, today’s loss hurts in more ways than just on the field, as the Astros defeated the Mets to move up another game in the standings and get over the .500 mark for the first time this season.

Luis Castillo got into a little trouble in the first inning, giving up a scorched single to Willi Castro, who then stole second. Trevor Larnach, the OSU product, then drove him home with a single to give the Twins an early 1-0 lead. Castillo settled down after that, keeping the Twins quiet until the fifth, when Max Kepler snuck a hard-hit grounder into right field followed by a double from Austin Martin that Dylan Moore couldn’t quite track down to make it 2-0. A weakly-hit single from Jose Miranda then pushed the Twins lead to 3-0.

Maybe Castillo can be forgiven for a slight lapse in concentration in the fifth, considering he had to take an at-bat in the fourth inning for the first time in three years thanks to Twins starter Joe Ryan hitting Mitch Garver with a pitch—not the only Mariner he’d hit with a pitch in the inning. (Petition for my rule change that each time a pitcher hits a batter after the first, each subsequent HBP is an automatic double.) Garver stayed in the game to try to run the bases but left in the third, moving Cal Raleigh into the catcher spot and costing the Mariners their DH spot. Luke Raley led off the fourth with a double, bringing up Castillo, who didn’t even try to bunt Raley over to third. Servais explained the decision postgame saying the Mariners weren’t willing to risk Castillo’s season—especially considering he was only in that position because Ryan had hit a batter—for the sake of one at-bat.

“We gotta be real careful there. Something crazy happens, now you look up and you’re behind the eight ball and you don’t have him as your top starting pitcher.”

And it’s certainly not Castillo’s fault, after making an out by looking at three straight fastballs in the middle of the plate, that actual hitters Jorge Polanco and Ty France struck out behind him to strand Raley at third. This was the theme of the game: the Mariners got traffic on the bases in every inning against Ryan but one, but failed to do anything with it. The Mariners had a good opportunity in the first, with J.P. Crawford and Julio Rodríguez both singling, but Raleigh and Raley each struck out to end the inning and kill the threat, Raley on three pitches.

“Our timely hitting has been atrocious, to be honest,” said Raley postgame. “And I’ve been at the forefront of it. Striking out on three pitches, you can’t do that.”

To his credit, Raley rebounded from that first at-bat in a big way. He had the double in the fourth, and drove in the Mariners’ second run of the day with a scalded single in the fifth. The Mariners got their first run of the game in that inning in typical chaos-y fashion, with Dylan Moore leading off with a triple. Josh Rojas reached on a bunt attempt that rolled too far over towards third, keeping Moore at third but allowing the speedy Rojas to reach as Ryan couldn’t get the throw off in time after checking Moore back to third. Julio Rodríguez then grounded essentially a swinging bunt back to Ryan, who threw home to try to get Moore but catcher Christian Vazquez was ruled to have missed the tag on review.

Unfortunately, the Mariners weren’t able to get more than that in what would be their best scoring threat in the game. With Castillo’s spot in the lineup due up with one out, Servais opted to pinch-hit Ryan Bliss, who immediately struck out on three pitches. Jorge Polanco then went after the first pitch he saw for an easy popout, in an extremely frustrating end to the inning.

Also extremely frustrating: the Mariners had another opportunity against reliever Caleb Thielbar in the sixth, with two on and two outs. Righties have been having their way with Thielbar all season, and Julio laced a fastball—but directly at first baseman Carlos Santana. Sending out an SOS for Julio’s BABIP luck.

With another tough lefty on the mound in the seventh, Luke Raley came up with maybe his most impressive at-bat of the day, battling Steven Okert for 11 pitches before being rewarded with a base hit. Look at this thing of beauty:

“Call the ambulance/but not for me” vibes with that extremely un-atrocious timely hit. Speaking of timely hits, Jorge Polanco was also the victim of some bad batted ball luck, although his at least resulted in a game-tying RBI:

Barely missed going out, but hit too hard for a double. Truly the worst outcome on what was still a pretty good outcome.

It probably wouldn’t have been enough anyway, as Ryne Stanek, who has been rock-solid for the Mariners in an injury-depleted bullpen, finally made a mistake, missing with a split that Trevor Larnach was able to crank for what would be the game-winner, a two-run home run in the eighth. It’s an unpleasant advance vision of what is coming in the next series, when the homerun-happy Orioles will be coming to town.

“They got a big hit at the end, and we didn’t,” said Servais postgame, echoing a trend that’s nagged the Mariners all season. But the Mariners have to start finding some of those big hits, especially with the high-flying Orioles coming to town, and the Astros—who finish June going 17-8, the best record in MLB—creeping ever-closer in the standings. It’s ironic that Raley is the one who called himself out for being at the “forefront” of the timely hitting miscues, because more often than not, it’s been him and his bestie Cal Raleigh saving the Mariners’ collective bacon. Maybe every hitter in the lineup needs to take a cue from Raley and practice some radical self-assessment.