Chris Flexen struggles again as Cardinals deny Mariners a sweep

The thing about starting pitching depth, it’s only beneficial if it’s performing to adequate levels.

When left-hander Robbie Ray went down with a flexor tendon strain following his first start of the season, the Mariners turned quickly to right-hander Chris Flexen to fill the spot, believing his past success as a starter would make him something more than the type of fill-in starters they had to use in seasons past.

But after a strong spring training and solid relief appearance in the outing where Ray was injured, Flexen has struggled as a starter since being reinserted into the rotation.

Following his third subpar outing, giving up six runs in only four innings in the Mariners’ 7-3 loss to the Cardinals, they may need to look at the organizational depth of starting pitching, including some of their talented young starters, when his turn in the rotation comes around again.

In his last three starts, Flexen has given up 25 hits and 22 runs (18 earned) over 121/3 innings, with six walks. The Mariners’ mantra for starters is simple – give the team a chance to win. Flexen hasn’t been able to do that, much to his frustration.

From his first pitch of the game, which was turned into a solo homer into the right field seats, Flexen couldn’t avoid hard contact from Cardinals hitters. His fourth pitch of the game, an elevated 90 mph fastball with minimal life on it, was clubbed off the wall in left field by Paul Goldschmidt. The 105-mph rocket off the bat hit so hard off the wall that left fielder Jarred Kelenic played the carom perfectly and held Goldschmidt to a single. But Flexen’s next pitch, his fifth of the game, was turned into a crisp single to right by Nolan Gorman.

Seattle would limit the damage to only two runs in the inning, aided greatly by a swinging strikeout of Nolan Arenado with a caught stealing of Gorman on a perfect throw from Cal Raleigh. While Goldschmidt did score on the double play, the two outs were critical to avoiding a bigger inning.

Flexen worked a scoreless second inning, despite allowing back-to-back singles to start the inning, aided greatly by a baserunning blunder by rookie Jordan Walker, who was doubled off at second base on Nootbaar’s lineout to Julio Rodriguez.

It loomed very large when Seattle scored three runs off Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty in the bottom of the second.

Jarred Kelenic hit an opposite-field solo homer for the second straight game to lead off the inning. With the same inside-out swing used to hit Saturday’s opposite field homer and putting it in almost the same spot, Kelenic’s blast was his team-high sixth homer of the season.

Seattle continued to add, loading the bases with one out for Ty France. He ripped a single through the left side to score a pair of runs for a 3-2.

But the lead was short-lived.

Flexen issued a leadoff walk to Goldschmidt to start the third inning. With his struggles to miss bats, it seemed like a given the runner would score even after he retired the next two batters.

A two-out walk to Contreras and a single from O’Neill tied the game at 3-3.

Flexen’s outing blew up in a fourth inning that could’ve been scoreless. The Mariners had a chance to double off Andrew Knizner at second base after J.P. Crawford snagged Goldschmidt’s line drive. But Kolten Wong dropped the short throw from Crawford, which would’ve ended the inning.

The next batter, Gorman, smashed a three-run homer to right-center, making it 6-3.

The Mariners offense was limited to the three-run second inning.