Mariners have plenty of opportunities but can’t finish sweep of Guardians

CLEVELAND — One out from closing out another hard-fought victory over a team with similar postseason ambitions, one play from earning a three-game sweep in their first road series and one catch away from offering a solid retort to any early doubt from a less-than-stellar homestand, the Mariners, specifically Teoscar Hernandez, had it all within their grasp.

Instead, all of that remained out of reach and the Mariners were left holding nothing but disappointment and frustration following a 7-6 loss to the Cleveland Guardians in 12 innings Sunday.

“I didn’t see the game going that way,” manager Scott Servais said.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and his team up two runs, reliever Matt Brash was desperately trying to pitch his way out of a self-created mess — a one-out walk and a single — to notch his first big-league save. Brash fell behind left-handed hitting Will Brennan, 2-0, on a pair of wayward sliders. His third consecutive slider to Brennan hung in the middle of the plate and was quickly turned into a line drive to right field.

Hernandez, who started the game at designated hitter and moved into right field for the ninth, retreated immediately on his first read. But the ball was made more difficult to catch as it traveled through the chilly wind off Lake Erie that swirls in the outfield.

“The wind is weird,” he said. “Sometimes it’s blowing in and then it blows from the side. You have to go with your feeling and just make the play.”

Unable to re-correct his route, Hernandez made a leaping attempt at the ball. But it bounced off his glove an onto the warning track, allowing both runners to score to tie the game at 3.

“The wind took the ball back the other way,” Hernandez said. “I got a pretty good read on it. … I tried to jump and make the play. Unfortunately, they tied the game.”

Hernandez was inserted into right field after Tommy La Stella pinch hit for A.J. Pollock in the top of the ninth and drove in what proved to be a needed insurance run. Jarred Kelenic, who started the game in right field, moved to left field. Servais, who spoke glowingly of Hernandez’s defense pregame, preferred to go with the full-time outfielder instead of bringing in a utility player such as Sam Haggerty to play left field.

“You have a two-run lead,” Servais said. “In that spot, our best outfielder was Teoscar, who was in the DH spot. On paper, that’s what you do. You’re looking to win the game in the ninth inning. That’s what you do. I wasn’t thinking about the 10th, 11th or 12th inning. Things happen.”

That missed play would lead to three extra innings of baseball chaos that featured two pitchers who arrived from Class AAA Tacoma earlier in the morning pitching out of bases-loaded jams to keep the game going, five intentional walks to Cleveland hitters, the Mariners taking leads in the 11th and 12th with blown saves after each of them and a botched pickoff play.

The game finally ended in the bottom of the 12th when Josh Bell’s soft ground ball allowed Jose Ramirez to slide in just before Kolten Wong’s wayward throw from second base.

Making his seventh appearance in 10 games, Penn Murfee entered in the bottom of the 12th with Seattle having just gone up 6-5 on Hernandez’s RBI single to left field.

With automatic runner Amed Rosario on second base, the Mariners intentionally walked Jose Ramirez for the second time to set up a force play.

“Unorthodox strategy to put the winning run on base, but he’s their best hitter,” Servais said.

The force out was lost with Josh Naylor at the plate when the Mariners called for a pickoff play at second base. Murfee made a hesitant throw that wasn’t close to shortstop J.P. Crawford at second base. The ball bounced into the outfield and allowed both runners to move up a base.

“The pickoff play hurt,” Servais said. “We didn’t execute that. That’s what changed the whole inning.”

Naylor grounded to first to score Rosario from third and tie the game. The Mariners walked Andres Gimenez to get to Bell, who had three hits in his first 43 plate appearances on the season. It wasn’t a hit. But it didn’t need to be to end the game.

“A lot of positives. We played very well in this series, just not quite well enough to get the sweep,” Servais said. “It’s hard to sweep on the road. You’re down to needing one more out. You got to give them credit. They found a way to hang in there, get it done.”

Indeed, Kelenic continued to play well, coming up with an RBI double in the 11th inning.

Another major positive came from starting pitcher George Kirby, who was strong in his second outing of the season. He pitched six innings, allowing one run on five hits with no walks and four strikeouts.

The Mariners grabbed a 2-0 lead off Cleveland starter Zach Plesac in the first inning. Ty France singled to center and watched as Cal Raleigh blasted his first homer of the season into the right-field seats.

But it was all that the Mariners would get off Plesac despite hitting plenty of hard balls off him, including one literally.

In the fourth inning, Hernandez lit a 107-mph line drive back at the mound that struck Plesac on the shoulder and ricocheted to second baseman Andres Gimenez, who fired to first base for the out. Plesac would allow just two more base runners after that in pitching seven innings, allowing five hits with a walk and six strikeouts.

After getting the 2-0 lead, Kirby gave up a leadoff triple to Steven Kwan, who scored on Jose Ramirez’s sacrifice fly to center to make it 2-1.

Kirby made the one-run lead hold up for the rest of his outing. The only time Cleveland seriously threatened against him came in the sixth inning. Kwan led off with a single and Ramirez blooped a double into shallow left field just out of the reach of a diving Crawford. Unsure if a catch would be made, Kwan could only advance to third, where he was stranded. Kirby came back to strike out Josh Naylor and ended the inning by ripping an elevated 95-mph fastball by Gimenez for a swinging strike three.

Kirby let out a scream, pumped his fist like a golfer making a putt at the Masters and strutted off the mound toward an applauding Mariners dugout.