Mariners offense sputters in 4-1 loss to Nationals to drop series
In the players’ lounge of the Mariners’ clubhouse, which rarely gets used for anything other than pregame meetings, a small library, which is used even less, if at all, was installed featuring a collection of books mostly about motivation, self-help, leadership and improvement.
Many of them favorite-to-mandatory reading of the Mariners leadership — front office and field staff — with the talking points and the vocabulary that permeates the organization.
You hear them daily: process, preparation, effort, journey.
They are core beliefs that the organization’s feel are key to sustained success.
But as the 2023 Mariners found a way to sink to a new nadir in this season of disappointment — though it could get worse — a few other things can also be true.
Effort isn’t enough. Process and preparation must still lead to production. And it isn’t a journey when you are heading nowhere, it’s called being lost to the point where endlessly playing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” won’t take you home.
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Less than 24 hours after handing a victory to one of the worst teams in baseball when they failed to score a run despite having the bases loaded and no outs in the 10th inning, the Mariners somehow suffered a worse defeat in a 4-1 loss to the Washington Nationals.
It was a performance not worthy of the sun-drenched Wednesday afternoon at T-Mobile Park.
Seattle’s anemic offense looked even more lifeless at the plate against a pitcher who has been mostly awful for the better part of three seasons.
Left-hander Patrick Corbin pitched seven scoreless innings for the first time since 2019 and the Mariners never really threatened to lead or make the game close after starter Logan Gilbert allowed three runs in the first four batters of the game.
An oft-used phrase not found in the library but a favorite of Seattle manager Scott Servais: “This is a results-based business.”
And far too often this season, the results have been dismal to deplorable.
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“Where to start, the last couple of days, obviously, we haven’t played good baseball,” Servais said.
But it’s more than the last couple of days. It’s been a series of two- and three-day periods throughout the season where the Mariners play careless in the field or feckless at the plate. It’s why they straddle the .500 mark, not quite good enough to make a run, but just good enough to not fall apart. That could change for the worse in the weeks ahead.
“It hasn’t gained any traction at all,” said catcher Tom Murphy. “We’re just as frustrated as everybody. It seems like every day you come into the park, it’s feels like it’s do-or-die, it really does at this point in the season, which is a grinding way to play. I believe those feelings will subside. We’ll find a groove. We’ll find a way to relax.”
Losing this three-game series was particularly galling considering it was against a team with the fourth-worst record in baseball. Seattle now welcomes the team with the best record in baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays in for a three-game series beginning Friday. That’s followed by a trip to San Francisco and Houston.
“Today, you go out in the game and you try to wipe the slate clean from the disappointment of last night and they jump on us early,” Servais said. “We failed to get any momentum going. When you’re down early, you’ve got to figure out a way to get back into it.”
The free-swinging, but contact-making Nationals were leading 3-0 before most of the 26,437 spectators taking a “long lunch” made their way to their seats.
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Logan Thomas led off with an infield single, Luis Garcia singled to right, Jeimer Candelario drove in a run with a double to left and Keibert Ruiz drove in two runs with a single to center before Gilbert recorded an out.
“I hold myself to a pretty high standard, especially in a game like this that we need to win the series,” Gilbert said. “It’s tough that I couldn’t put us in a position to win.”
Gilbert did reel in his outing to pitch six innings and allow four runs. It wasn’t a great start, but it should’ve been enough for the game to be competitive.
But it never got competitive. The Mariners made Corbin, who came in with a 4-9 record and 5.32 ERA, look like vintage Steve Carlton. A left-hander who can throw a slider with any sort of commitment will almost always stymie Seattle hitters.
“Poor offensive day, you can’t say any more about it,” Servais said.
There isn’t much that hasn’t already been said. The Mariners’ commitment to an approach is sporadic. They chase results. They swing-and-miss too much. Besides the seven scoreless frames, Corbin allowed five hits and struck out a season-high nine batters. His previous high was six.
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“Corbin has had his ups and downs coming into the game,” Servais said. “You’re hoping you can do something against them. We did nothing against him. They beat us.”
It’s been mostly downs since Corbin was a World Series hero in the Nats’ 2019 season. Coming into his outing against the Mariners, he had posted a 21-51 record with a 5.72 ERA in 89 starts dating back to the start of the 2020 season. Per Baseball Reference, he was worth -2.2 wins above replacement during that span which is the worst among full-time starting pitchers.
The Mariners had runners on first and third with one out in the second following back-to-back singles from Eugenio Suarez and Murphy, who had three of the Mariners’ six hits in the game. But Corbin struck out AJ Pollock and got Dylan Moore to pop out to shortstop.
“I thought he left some pitches in the middle of the plate that we didn’t hit,” Servais said.
Seattle’s lone run came in the eighth when Jose Caballero hit a solo homer off reliever Amos Willingham, who was making his MLB debut.
The Mariners’ top four hitters in the lineup — J.P. Crawford, Julio Rodriguez, Ty France and Teoscar Hernandez — combined to go 0 for 12 with six strikeouts.
“Momentum in baseball is a crazy thing,” Servais said. “We do have kind of a momentum-driven team. It’s not going our way right now. It’s spiraling a little bit. We have turn it off, turn off the faucet a little bit because it’s running against us. You can say, ‘Oh, we’re not get any breaks, it’s bad luck.’ You have to go make your own luck. You create it. You put pressure on the opponent, you create opportunities and you bust through.”
If they can do that and turn around this rapidly devolving season, Servais can author his own coaching book that can go into that unused library.
Source: The Seattle Times
