Mariners can’t get key hit in ninth as Diamondbacks snap their three-game win streak
PHOENIX — The elusive goal of getting to four games over .500, something the Mariners have failed to do in this back-and-forth season, representing a start to sustained success and better days ahead, ended Saturday with an ugly, flailing swing from Julio Rodriguez on a pitch nowhere near the strike zone.
With Seattle’s most talented player at the plate, and the Diamondbacks using their third reliever of the top of the ninth inning, it seemed like a time for Rodriguez to deliver in a situation in which he’s failed this season more than he or anyone would prefer.
With one out in the ninth, rookie Cade Marlowe stunned the crowd of 44,472, many of them wearing Star Wars costumes, by tripling to the left-center gap off lefty Andrew Chafin. With two outs, J.P. Crawford, the Mariners’ best player this season, battled his way for an eight-pitch walk off Chafin, to give Rodriguez a chance to be the hero against right-hander Scott McGough.
After watching a first-pitch strike, Rodriguez proceeded to foul off four straight pitches while refusing to chase two out of the zone. But on the eighth pitch of their battle, Rodriguez finally succumbed to a split-finger fastball that dropped well out of the zone and off the plate for the final out in a 4-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
It was a swing and result familiar to Mariners fans this season. Coming into the game, Rodriguez has struggled in “clutch” situations. Per Baseball Reference, in games deemed late and close, which are plate appearances in the seventh inning or later with the game tied or decided by one run, he came into the game with a .197/.319/.344 slash line in 72 plate appearances with 12 hits — three doubles, two homers — six RBI, eight walks and 23 strikeouts in 72 plate appearances.
It was the ninth time this season Rodriguez has come up in the ninth inning or later, with the tying or go-ahead run in scoring position, and made an out — six of them strikeouts.
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“Our guys really battled right down to the last pitch tonight trying to find a way to tie that game back up,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “You’ve got to figure out a way to win these games. We are right there and we’re doing a lot of good things offensively. But we just needed the big hit late and we weren’t able to do it.”
Big hit? Any sort of hit with runners in scoring position would have sufficed. Seattle was 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position in the game and stranded eight runners on base.
“We had chances, good chances to put up more than just three runs,” Servais said. “And we didn’t get it done tonight.”
The defeat snapped the Mariners’ three-game winning streak. They fell to 53-51 and dropped to 5.5 games back for the third wild card with four teams still ahead of them.
Arizona took a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the eighth when Corbin Carroll, their most talented player and budding superstar, changed the game without getting a hit. The Seattle native worked a leadoff walk from Andres Munoz, coaxed the Mariners reliever into a balk on a base he would’ve stolen anyway, stole third immediately and scored on Dominic Canzone’s bouncing ball up the middle past a drawn-in infield.
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“It was going to be tough to control Carroll on the bases,” Servais said. “He is probably the fastest guy in the league, him and Julio are right there. And he’s super aggressive. That’s why the walks late in the game like that, they can crush you. It was a big, big one for them.”
The Mariners provided an early 3-0 lead for rookie starter Bryan Woo. Facing rookie right-hander Brandon Pfaadt, they proved that sacrifice flies are sexy and also useful. They picked up a run in the second inning when Cal Raleigh led off with a single and later came around to score on Tom Murphy’s fly ball to deep center.
The Mariners made it 2-0 in similar fashion in the third inning. Kolten Wong led off the inning with a single, moved to second on Crawford’s single, advanced to third on a fielder’s choice from Rodriguez and scored on Eugenio Suarez’s line out to left field.
They made it 3-0 in the fourth inning when Murphy ambushed a first-pitch fastball from Pfaadt, sending a missile into the left-field seats for his eighth homer of the season and his seventh homer since June 1.
But the runs dried up. Pfaadt used a big double-play ball in the sixth to escape the inning scoreless after allowing back-to-back hits to start the inning. In the seventh, Rodriguez came to the plate with one out and Wong on second base. The Diamondbacks brought in right-hander Miguel Castro to face Rodriguez. He threw one pitch, a sinker inside, that handcuffed an aggressive swing and turned into a weak ground ball to second base. Castro then got Suarez to fly out to center to end the inning.
For Woo, it was another learning experience.
In his nine previous starts and 44 innings pitched, Woo had faced left-handed hitters 78 times. They had a .403/.474/.851 slash line against him with seven homers, nine walks and 16 strikeouts. By comparison right-handed hitters came into the game with a .126/.174/.165 slash line against him this season in 109 plate appearances with one homer, four walks and 38 strikeouts.
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So, like most teams, the Diamondbacks adjusted accordingly to the numbers.
Facing a lineup with two switch hitters and five left-handed hitters, Woo fought his way through five innings, giving up three runs on seven hits with two walks and no strikeouts in a no decision. It’s the first outing of his young big-league career where he failed to record a strikeout.
“I thought he had a really good fastball. Unfortunately he had a tough time really getting any secondary pitches going to slow them down,” Servais said.
Five of those hits and a walk came against players swinging from the left side. But the run-scoring hits came against right-handed hitters. Facing the lineup the second time, he issued a leadoff walk to Ketel Marte to start the fifth inning. Christian Walker, a right-handed hitter, sent a double into the right-center gap that scored Arizona’s first run. Walker would score moments later when the left-handed hitting Canzone singled to right field.
“I was kind of making it harder on myself, falling behind on counts, making dumb mistakes when I was ahead with two strikes,” Woo said. “Leadoff walks are never great. Anytime you are ahead 0-2 and 1-2 and leave pitches in the middle of the plate, you have to be able to take advantage of it.”
Arizona tied the game in the fifth. Alek Thomas, a left-handed hitter, tripled to the gap in right-center and scored on single from right-handed hitting Carson Kelly.
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Source: The Seattle Times
