Three errors doom Mariners against Padres in fifth straight loss
SEATTLE – It all happened with two outs, and it all happened rather quickly in the Mariners’ sloppy 6-4 loss in San Diego.
Things had started out well enough Saturday for the Mariners and left-hander Justus Sheffield, who was effective through his first four innings of work.
Sheffield, playing in a National League park for the first time this season, even collected his first major league hit on a solidly hit line-drive single in the second inning – a memory to cherish, for certain.
The rest of the game – and the rest of the week, for that matter – the Mariners will want to forget.
Sheffield deserved better than what followed in the Mariners’ fifth consecutive loss.
With the score tied at 1 entering the bottom of the fifth, the Padres (29-17) took control with five runs on four hits, one walk and two steals against Sheffield – an inning that also included three Mariners errors.
One head-scratching sequence typified the kind of week the M’s had.
With two outs, the Mariners elected to intentionally walk Fernando Tatis Jr. to load the bases, setting up a lefty-lefty showdown for Sheffield vs. the Padres’ Eric Hosmer.
It backfired on the Mariners (21-25).
On a 2-2 pitch, Hosmer laced a sinker left over the middle of the plate the other way to left field for a solid single. That scored two runs.
The throw home from rookie left fielder Jarred Kelenic pulled catcher Tom Murphy up the third-base line – and the ball skipped through Murphy’s legs as he attempted to block it.
That allowed the hustling Tatis to slide home (after running all the way from first) for the third run on the sequence, and the throw from Murphy to Sheffield at the plate got away from the pitcher, which then allowed Hosmer to move over to third.
Errors were charged to Murphy and Sheffield on the sequence. Murphy’s throwing error to third on a stolen base had allowed the first run of the inning to score.
On the first pitch after the bases-loaded debacle, ex-Mariner Austin Nola hit a solid single off Sheffield to score Hosmer and extend the Padres’ lead to 6-1.
The Mariners are a tough team to watch at the moment. Their offensive woes have been well-chronicled, and they certainly can’t afford the kind of defensive lapses that happened in the fifth.
Mitch Haniger’s strong comeback season continued for the Mariners. He hit his 13th home run in the third off Padres rookie starter Ryan Weathers on a high fastball he pulled well over the wall in left-center.
M’s activate two off COVID-19 list: The Mariners got some encouraging news on the team’s COVID-19 testing.
After being tested again, the club did not have any more positive test results, M’s manager Scott Servais said. A positive test Friday resulted in four relief pitchers being placed on the COVID injured list
On Saturday, two of those — Robert Dugger and Anthony Misiewicz — were activated off the COVID list after they tested negative. Dugger and Misiewicz had received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, Servais said.