Mariners’ dreams of winning AL West appear dashed after crushing losses to Rangers
ARLINGTON, Texas — Back on the first of day of February, when all that could be good for the upcoming season felt possible, if not probable, for the Mariners, Jerry Dipoto, ever the optimist and with a recent postseason appearance in his pocket, outlined the goals for what he felt was an improved roster.
“Frankly, the goal last year was to win the division,” Dipoto said. “That’ll be the goal every year — to win the division, get into the postseason and try to do some damage. We’ve never been more convinced of this team’s ability to do those things than we were at the end of last season. I think that goes for all the players in the clubhouse. It goes for us in the front office, our staff. The goal is to win the division. We feel like that’s a realistic goal. And we’re going to do the best we can.”
On the fourth day of June, in the Mariners’ 59th game of the season, that goal, which may have been more of a wistful hope that allowed no room for individual regression, appears out of reach.
Any lingering remnants of a pulse were extinguished Sunday with a 12-3 dismantling by the Texas Rangers, the team sitting atop the American League West.
The shellacking capped a lopsided three-game sweep by the Rangers in which the Mariners wasted a brilliant performance by Luis Castillo on Friday night, failing to score a run in a 2-0 loss. They followed that up with a pair of rookie starting pitchers getting rocked and the bullpen not faring much better in two drubbings in which they were outscored 28-9.
The Mariners (29-30) fell to 9 1/2 games back in the division and sit in fourth place. Somehow that gap between the Mariners and Rangers feels even farther based on talent, production and potential. A season that started with divisional-title aspirations and beyond is starting to spiral toward a summer of meaningless baseball.
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“There’s no way to sugarcoat it,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “They beat us. They just flat out beat us. There’s nothing we can do about it now. We’ve got to get to San Diego and start playing better baseball.”
Few teams are playing better baseball than the Rangers. They improved to 38-20, the second-best record in MLB. They have four three-game series sweeps and have won five consecutive series. Texas has outscored opponents 376 to 224 for a plus-162 run differential.
The Mariners have lost five of their last six games, with their starting pitching showing the first signs of serious struggles this season.
If Saturday’s 16-6 drubbing was the Mariners’ “worst game of the season,” per Tom Murphy, Sunday’s non-competitive defeat is sitting in second. The word “embarrassing” was grumbled by a player in the postgame quiet.”
Has this team sunken to its nadir?
“It’s not early anymore,” said Ty France. “But we still have 100 games left. There is a lot of time left.”
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It doesn’t quite feel as abject or hopeless as June 18 of last season, when the Mariners lost 4-0 to the Angels at T-Mobile Park to fall to 29-39.
Instead of cratering into irrelevance, that team reeled off an unbelievable stretch of baseball, winning 22 of its next 25 games, including 14 straight going into the All-Star break.
Nothing about the current team’s performance, particularly the inconsistent hitting and the strikeouts — so many strikeouts — speaks to such a run being possible. Of course, not much was expected last season before that magical run, other than perhaps more losing. But relying on a run of flawless baseball and epic success to right all the previous wrongs is a tough way to survive.
“It’s where we’re at,” Servais said. “Baseball is hard some days. We felt that the last couple of days. Yeah, we’ve got a lot of games to play. But we’ve got to get it going.”
Right-hander Bryce Miller, pitching in front of a large group of family and friends in his first big league start in his home state, struggled for the second consecutive outing against a Rangers lineup that is decimating pitchers.
Miller didn’t make it out of the third inning.
The Rangers pounded him for seven runs on eight hits, crushing misplaced fastballs and refusing to chase his breaking pitches.
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After allowing a double to Marcus Semien to start the game and walking Corey Seager, Miller came back to strike out Nathaniel Lowe and Adolis Garcia. Miller was a strike away from ending the inning scoreless. But he walked Josh Jung after getting up 1-2.
“Anytime you walk anybody, it’s frustrating, especially with a 1-2 count,” Miller said. “Those are the ones you’ve got to finish. If I make better pitches, we get out of the inning with no runs and the game could’ve gone different. It’s not how you want to start a game.”
That allowed Jonah Heim to come to the plate with the bases loaded. Heim, who came into the game batting .500 (21 for 42) with runners in scoring position, dumped a broken-bat single to left to score a pair of runs for a 2-0 lead.
After Miller came back with a 1-2-3 second inning, it seemed like he might be able to keep the Mariners in the game.
Instead, he left a fastball down the middle to Seager, who smashed a solo homer over the wall in center to start the inning. It only got worse for Miller, who allowed a single to Lowe, a run-scoring double to Garcia and a single to Jung. He quelled the bleeding for a moment, getting Heim to pop out.
But Mitch Garver laced a double into the gap to drive in a run and Robbie Grossman smoked a ball off the fence, just inches away from being a homer, instead going for a two-run double that made it 7-0 and ended Miller’s outing.
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In his last two outings, Miller has allowed 15 earned runs on 19 hits in seven innings pitched.
“I just need to be better and finish counts,” he said. “That’s the main takeaway from today. I feel good with the off-speed locations. If they’re on the fastball, I need to mix better and finish them off better. I need to be ready to go this weekend and give the team a chance to win.”
The game got out of hand in the sixth, with Texas scoring five more runs off reliever Trevor Gott.
The Mariners didn’t muster much offensively until Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi exited after six scoreless innings, allowing just one hit with seven strikeouts.
Down 12-0, they scored three runs in the seventh to avoid being shut out.
“I know it didn’t look pretty, but I really didn’t think we played terrible baseball,” Ty France said. “We just got hit around a little bit. The pitching has carried us all year, so it was bound to happen at some point. It just happened to be in this series.”
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Source: The Seattle Times
