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Seattle Mariners

Mariners fall to Cubs in 10 innings after Jarred Kelenic’s mammoth tying blast in the 9th

By Ryan Divish Seattle Times

CHICAGO — Two years ago, the Mariners would have found a way to win Sunday’s game in Cleveland through luck or skill or some weird combination of both.

A year ago, that collection of Mariners would’ve prevailed in Monday night’s game against the Cubs due to their seemingly innate ability to make plays — some borderline absurd — in a game’s most critical moments.

As for the current version of the Mariners, well, they’ve yet to earn or establish that identity of those past teams. The kind of team that does what it takes to finish and win close games.

But given the limitations of their roster and some early injuries to key players, they better figure it out quickly because there will be plenty of close games in the weeks to come.

With one out in the bottom of the 10th inning, Nico Hoerner looped a soft line drive onto the right-field grass of Wrigley Field, scoring pinch-runner Nick Madrigal from third base and giving the Cubs a 3-2 victory.

“We are used to winning these games,” manager Scott Servais said. “And we need to win them. We need to execute.”

It was Seattle’s second straight loss in extra innings and the third of the season. The Mariners are 1-4 in games decided by one run. Last season, they were 11-5 in extra-innings games and were 34-22 in one-run games.

“I’ve often said that it’s not winning the extra-inning games, it’s just not losing them,” Servais said. “And I felt like in the three that we’ve lost this season, we’ve kind of given them away because we haven’t made a defensive play.”

In the bottom of the 10th, Madrigal started the inning at second base as the automatic runner. The Mariners expected him to run when pinch-hitter Tucker Barnhardt fell behind in the count while trying to bunt the runner to third off reliever Matt Brash. Seattle called for a pickoff play at second base with Madrigal taking an aggressive lead.

But when J.P. Crawford broke for second, Madrigal read the play and broke for third, much to the surprise of Brash as he stepped off the pitching rubber. Instead of throwing to second, which was his intention, Brash tried to make an off-balance throw to third. It wasn’t close and Madrigal slid in safely. In a similar situation Sunday, the Mariners called for the same pickoff play to second base and Penn Murfee threw the ball into center field.

“The last couple of days, it’s executing pickoff plays to second base,” Servais said. “We haven’t made the play and it’s led to us losing the ballgame. We had the right play on. It caught Matt off guard a little bit.”

But the game was trending toward defeat well before that play with the Cubs needing just one run to win. In the top of the 10th, Crawford popped out a sacrifice-bunt attempt with runners on first and second and no outs. Seattle loaded the bases with one out, but Ty France struck out and Eugenio Suarez grounded into a force-out at third. Failing to score in extra innings as the visiting team is suboptimal.

The loss overshadowed what could’ve been a seminal moment for outfielder Jarred Kelenic in his continued run of baseball redemption.

With the Mariners down to their final two outs in the ninth inning and inching toward a 2-1 loss, Kelenic tied the game in yet another early season display of his vast potential.

Facing Cubs closer Michael Fulmer, Kelenic made a meal of a 1-0 breaking ball in the middle of the plate, unleashing a swing seething with controlled violence on the mistake. It was a no-doubt solo homer. The only question would be how far it would travel. The ball’s flight path was interrupted by the top of the massive scoreboard well behind the right-field fence.

“I was just trying to be on time for the heater,” Kelenic said. “I’m feeling comfortable right now. My biggest thing is just trying to be on time on the fastball and stay in the middle part of the field and let the rest kind of take care of itself.”

Kelenic wasn’t concerned about the Mariners’ early struggles in close games. He’s seen how quickly things can shift.

“It’s early, stuff happens,” he said. “It just didn’t go our way tonight. We just had a couple of missed opportunities. Nobody in the clubhouse right now is stressing. We’ve just got to keep going. As long as we keep putting one foot in front of the other, it’ll turn.”

Drew Smyly, a sort of former Mariner who never actually pitched for the organization due to arm issues suffered in the World Baseball Classic in March of 2017, pitched five innings, allowing one run on two hits with a walk and seven strikeouts. A collection of Cubs relievers kept the Mariners scoreless before Kelenic’s blast.

Seattle got a solid — if not dominant — start from Luis Castillo. In his third outing of the season, he worked six innings, allowing two runs on two hits with two walks and five strikeouts.

The Cubs got both of their runs off Castillo in the bottom of the fourth inning after the Mariners had given him a 1-0 lead in the top of the inning on A.J. Pollock’s sacrifice fly to left field.

Castillo made the costly mistake of walking Ian Happ to start the fourth inning. His teammates made it worse when Happ tried to steal second. Tom Murphy’s throw was well to the right of second. Staying close to the bag, hoping to make a tag, Crawford couldn’t catch the offline throw. It allowed Happ to race to third.

It snowballed from there. Cody Bellinger ripped a double to the gap in right-center to score Happ to make it 1-0. Sam Haggerty couldn’t make a diving catch on Trey Mancini’s soft liner to right field and Eric Hosmer drove in the second run on a single to left field.

Castillo had yet to record an out.

But he came ack to strike out Patrick Wisdom, and Haggerty was able to turn an unassisted double play, gloving a sinking liner off the bat of Yan Gomes and hustling to second to double off the runner.

Castillo came back to work a scoreless fifth and sixth, which was much-needed for a heavily used bullpen.

“I was coming into this game with that in mind,” Castillo said through interpreter Freddy Llanos. “I knew we needed to get the bullpen as much rest as we can. We were able to go six innings, so we didn’t have to use a full bullpen, which I feel good about.”