Mariners again struggle at plate, fall to Yankees
SEATTLE — It’s quickly becoming the soundtrack to the Seattle Mariners underachieving season.
Another day of missed opportunities. Another game where a slumping offense can’t help strong starting pitching.
“We are in a funk offensively. And I’m certain we are going to come out of it,” Seattle manager Lloyd McClendon said. “It sounds like a broken record, but it’s tough.”
Seattle was unable to solve Masahiro Tanaka on Wednesday, the right-hander allowing just one run over seven inning in his return from the disabled list and the New York Yankees completed a three-game sweep of the Mariners with a 3-1 victory.
Garrett Jones and Mark Teixeira homered off Seattle starter Taijuan Walker, who was outstanding for a second straight start aside from the two long balls. But Seattle’s inability to string together a series of hits off Tanaka, or capitalize on having the bases loaded in the eighth inning led to a season-high fifth straight loss.
Seattle took a significant step after the loss in trying to find an answer for its offensive problems acquiring slugger Mark Trumbo from the Arizona Diamondbacks as part of a six-player trade. The Mariners also got left-handed reliever Vidal Nuno and sent backup catcher Welington Castillo, right-handed reliever Dominic Leone and a pair of minor leaguers to the Diamondbacks.
But the priority was landing another bat — preferably right-handed — to try and add length and a spark to the Mariners meager batting order.
“We’ve always liked Trumbo. I can go back several years ago where we all thought this guy would be a very desirable player to get,” Seattle general manager Jack Zduriencik said. “It wasn’t necessarily a right-handed bat. It helps. It’s good to have it. It was just to bring someone that has this type of skillset.”
Trumbo will join a lineup that could not solve Tanaka. Despite being on an 80-pitch limit in his return, Tanaka (3-1) got through seven innings without even reaching the 80-pitch mark, throwing just 78 pitches in handing the Mariners their fifth straight loss.
Tanaka struck out a season-high nine and had zero walks, going to a three-ball count against only two batters.
“His stuff was really good,” Seattle left fielder Dustin Ackley said. “He wasn’t leaving a lot over the plate and we had our chances at one point but he kind of worked himself out of it.”
The Mariners one chance at a big inning against Tanaka came in the third when Brad Miller tripled and scored on Ackley’s one-hop double off the left field wall.
But the rally ended quickly. With one out, Logan Morrison singled to left, but Ackley was thrown out at the plate on a perfect throw from left fielder Ramon Flores and Austin Jackson struck out looking to end the threat.
“I think if that throw is either way a couple of feet I think I’m safe,” Ackley said.
Seattle loaded the bases in the eighth against relievers Chris Capuano and Andrew Miller with one out behind a single, hit batter and walk. But Miller recovered to strike out Morrison after falling behind 3-0, and got a ground out from Jackson to end the inning.
“We had a real good pitcher on the ropes and we couldn’t get a big hit,” McClendon said.