Mariners’ rally falls short as they end homestand with loss to Angels
SEATTLE – With all due respect to Ichiro Suzuki and his well-known feelings about the city on the Cuyahoga River, never have the Mariners been more excited to travel to Cleveland.
Following a frustrating 4-3 loss on Wednesday afternoon to the Angels, where they failed to take advantage of multiple free base runners provided by starter Shohei Ohtani, the Mariners wrapped up a disappointing opening homestand with a mere two wins in seven games at T-Mobile Park.
It’s definitely not how they envisioned starting a season with championship expectations.
Perhaps a change of scenery that comes with their first road trip of the season will provide a change in their results. Even if it means a trip to scenic Cleveland, where they will spend their off day and then open a three-game series against a team that just beat them three out of four games and will be played in temperatures colder than the chilly weather they’ve been playing through in the Puget Sound.
If you recall back in 2007, the Mariners were scheduled to open the season with a four-game series in Cleveland. All four games were snowed out. It meant traveling back on three occasions to make up games.
Ichiro was nonplussed about the situation and later told the Seattle Times: “To tell the truth, I’m not excited to go to Cleveland, but we have to. If I ever saw myself saying I’m excited going to Cleveland, I’d punch myself in the face, because I’m lying.”
This homestand felt more like a punch in the gut for the Mariners and their fans or perhaps a cold slap of reality to the face. Seattle’s offense was absent initially, and the mistakes in the field and on the bases were glaring.
The Mariners managed just one run against Ohtani, who allowed three hits, walked four and hit two batters with pitches over six innings. He threw 111 pitches, including 69 over the first three.
“I’m so used to us finding a way to win those games, getting that big out late or big hit late,” manager Scott Servais said. “It just hasn’t come our way early in the season.”
After a pitch-filled start over the first three innings, Ohtani allowed just one baserunner in his final three innings, striking out five batters, including the side in the sixth. He started using his cutter – one of his seven pitches – more than expected.
“It’s the kind of pitcher he is,” J.P. Crawford said.
A pair of soft singles – not towering homers – from Mike Trout and Ohtani proved to be the difference in defeat.
With two outs in the seventh and the Mariners trailing 2-1, Andres Munoz entered the game to face Trout with runners on first and third. A first-pitch 99 mph sinker got in on Trout’s hands. He made an awkward swing and hit a weak dribbler to shortstop. The problem was that he hit it so softly – an exit velocity of 68 mph – that Crawford couldn’t make a play anywhere and the run the scored. It brought Ohtani to the plate.
After hitting a long homer in the first game of the series, he’d been largely quiet.
Munoz got ahead 1-2 and tried to put Ohtani away with a slider on the outside corner. Instead, Ohtani made a lunging swing and the ball hit off the end of his bat and down the third-base line past Eugenio Suarez, who was playing him to pull. The result was a soft ground ball with an exit velocity of 68 mph as well that allowed Taylor Ward to score from second base.“It’s frustrating,” Mariners reliever Andres Munoz said. “I made the pitches I wanted. It’s baseball.”
Two soft hits, two runs scored and a 4-1 lead.
The Mariners rallied with two runs in the seventh on an RBI double from Ty France and a run-scoring single from Suarez. Suarez, however, was too aggressive on the play and ended up getting caught in a rundown, eventually getting tagged out for the final out of the inning.
“The thing that hurt us today a little bit is we made a couple outs on the bases,” Servais said. “They took us out of possibly some bigger innings there when we did have chance to score runs.”
The Mariners made a last gasp in the ninth against lefty Jose Quijada. Crawford singled with one out, giving their two most productive hitters this season a chance to tie the game. Instead, Julio Rodriguez grounded into a force play and France struck out to end the game.
Right-hander Chris Flexen gave the Mariners a solid if not lengthy outing in his first start since being reinserted into the rotation. He pitched five innings, allowing two runs on two hits with two walks and four strikeouts. The two runs allowed came in the second on one swing of the bat.
Seattle grabbed a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning when Julio Rodriguez worked a leadoff walk, moved up a base when Ty France also drew a walk and later came around to score on Eugenio Suarez’s single to right field. France tried to score on a overthrow to third on the play, but the ball bounced off the camera well and not into it. Urshela grabbed the ball and fired home to get France easily.
“The natural reaction is to take off,” Servais said. “But when you have that rally going is keep that pressure going on the pitcher and the other club.”
That one-run lead didn’t last long. Flexen gave up a one-out single to Gio Urshela and then made mistake with two outs, leaving a cutter over the middle of the plate to rookie Logan O’Hoppe, who quickly deposited it off the out-of-town scoreboard for 2-1 lead.
Flexen didn’t allow another base runner from there, retiring the next 10 hitters he faced.