Mariners’ losing streak reaches 10
TORONTO – A pregame pep talk failed to fix the slumping Seattle Mariners.
Rajai Davis stole two bases before scoring on John McDonald’s sacrifice fly in the 14th inning and the Toronto Blue Jays beat Seattle 6-5 Tuesday night, extending the Mariners’ losing streak to 10 games.
It is Seattle’s longest slide since a 12-game skid in 2008.
Greg Halman hit a three-run homer and Brendan Ryan added a solo shot for the M’s, who held a players-only meeting on the field before batting practice, but couldn’t stop their slide.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” Ryan said. “We come out of the gates the right way: hungry. Then I don’t know, we just kind of fell asleep a bit there. They were making some plays but I think they were hungrier throughout the game.”
Seattle blew a 5-2 lead, stranded 10 and had two runners thrown out on the bases. Chone Figgins was picked off first in the eighth and Mike Carp was caught stealing after a leadoff double in the 11th.
“We made some mistakes on the basepaths that really hurt us,” manager Eric Wedge said.
Davis hit a one-out single off Jamey Wright (2-3) in the 14th and stole second and third before scoring on McDonald’s fly to center.
“I have my most fun on the bases,” Davis said. “It’s just exciting being in that position with opportunities to help us win a game.”
Seattle’s players huddled in the outfield after emerging from the clubhouse for pregame drills, urging one another not to give up on the season.
“We’re still playing for something here, we’ve still got 70 games left,” Ryan said when asked about the message of the team meeting. “Crazier things have happened.”
Activated from the disabled list before the game, right-hander Casey Janssen (3-0) pitched a scoreless inning for the win.
Six relievers combined to work seven scoreless innings as Toronto won for the sixth time in eight games.
“You can’t look past what the bullpen did tonight,” manager John Farrell said. “They did an outstanding job.”
Seattle came in hitting just .221, eight points lower than anyone else in baseball and 15 points worse than any other team in the A.L. The Mariners had scored only two runs in their previous four games, and just 11 over the course of their nine-game skid, but turned that around against left-hander Brett Cecil.
Seattle opened the scoring in the first on Miguel Olivo’s RBI single. Toronto’s Adam Lind answered in the bottom half, hitting a two-run homer into the second deck in right, his 17th.
Seattle reclaimed the lead with a four-run second. Carp doubled, Figgins reached on a bunt single and Halman smacked a three-run homer to left, his second. The homer was the first for the Mariners since Josh Bard hit a solo shot July 5 at Oakland, and it ended a nine-game homerless streak.
One out later, Ryan hit a solo drive into the left-field bullpen, his first.
Seattle rookie right-hander Michael Pineda rebounded from Lind’s homer by setting down 12 of the next 13 but was chased in the seventh as the Blue Jays scored three times to tie it.
Pineda gave up five runs and seven hits in 6 1/3 innings. Cecil allowed five runs and nine hits in seven innings.