Cal Raleigh after Mariners’ brutal loss to Nats: ‘We’re not a good baseball team right now’

It’s a game they wouldn’t have lost the last two seasons. It’s a game they would’ve ended in nine innings, winning by one run.

And if, by chance, they had allowed it to reach extra innings, they would’ve put it away when the easiest opportunity to score a run manifested itself by getting a ball out of the infield.

But it’s been clear from about mid-May that the 2023 Mariners don’t have that late-game magic of past seasons, which was really more about competent execution in the game’s most meaningful moments. It’s why they can’t seem to do anything but hover around .500 and never make any progress toward the expectations of being something more than they’ve been.

Instead, the Mariners’ 7-4 loss in 11 innings to the Nationals on Tuesday night at T-Mobile Park might be one of their worst to date in a season filled with more defeats than they anticipated.

“Throughout the course of season, you play so many games and every year you look back and there’s games that you absolutely should have won,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “They’re there to win and, for whatever reason, you don’t win them and they hurt.”

The game wasn’t lost when the Nationals scored three runs off reliever Trevor Gott in the top of the 11th, highlighted by a two-run double from Lane Thomas or when the Mariners failed to answer in the bottom of the inning.

No, it was given away like an unwanted Christmas present in the bottom of the 10th when the Mariners loaded the bases without having to swing the bat and then couldn’t score the winning run because they wouldn’t stop swinging it.

After Justin Topa held the Nationals scoreless in the top of the 10th, Seattle needed to push just one across against reliever Jordan Weems.

With Kolten Wong starting the inning on second base as the automatic runner, Nationals manager Dave Martinez elected to intentionally walk J.P. Crawford to set up a force play on the base. Weems then walked Julio Rodriguez to load the bases.

It meant that Ty France, who had two hits in the game, Teoscar Hernandez, who had homered earlier, or Cal Raleigh, who also had two hits in a game, had a chance to be the hero.

France popped out to catcher Keibert Ruiz in foul territory, Hernandez struck out on a check swing and Raleigh grounded out on a check swing to end the inning.

It was a failure deserving of defeat.

“We certainly had chances,” Servais said. “You can go through all the different things that happened throughout the game and ultimately it came down to we had guys out there and we failed to execute and get them in. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. We should have won the game. There’s no if, ands or buts about it. Really disappointing.”

The last two words could sum the first 2 1/2 months of the season.

The Mariners (38-40) are 4-8 in extra-inning games, including 2-4 at home.

“We’ve had that game happen to us a couple times here at home in extra innings,” Servais said. “It’s something that we’ve prided ourselves on being really good in those spots, and we haven’t been this year. It doesn’t mean we won’t be again.”

And those at-bats?

“There were some pitches to hit, but, overall, guys got anxious,” Servais said. “You get anxious and you want to make it happen so bad. You foul pitches off that you should put in play and you swing at some pitches you shouldn’t swing at. Ultimately in those moments, you’ve got to take a deep breath, relax, let the game come to you.”

Raleigh wasn’t quite as diplomatic.

“We just didn’t execute,” he said. “It was three terrible at-bats.”

While most of his teammates were showered and heading out with a day game on Wednesday, Raleigh sat his locker in the sweat-soaked dri-fit gear he wears under his uniform and eye black still on his face. He wasn’t waiting to voice his disappointment, but he wasn’t shy about to offering it.

“It’s very frustrating,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a lack of effort. I just look at us and we’re not a good baseball team right now. Straight up. It’s nice and all with the good vibes and whatever, but we’re not playing well right now and we know it and we’ve got to pick it up.”

The inconsistent play has led to the back-and-forth nature of the Mariners’ results.

“We’re just kind of stagnant,” he said. “I don’t really feel like there’s been a big change so far. It’s not on anybody else except us. We’ve got to find a way to change, and we keep saying it over and over. I feel like this is getting repetitive. Win a couple, lose a couple, win a couple, lose a couple. You guys come and ask the same questions. We’ve got to fix something.”

The Mariners got a solid, if not lengthy, start from rookie Bryan Woo, who pitched five innings, allowing two runs on six hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.

He sort of created the Nats’ first run in multiple ways. With two outs in the first inning, he gave up a single to Jeimer Candelario.

While facing cleanup hitter Joey Meneses, Woo uncorked a very-wayward pickoff throw to first base. The ball bounced off the wall in foul territory and toward right field. Candelario was able to score for a 1-0 lead.

That lead was short-lived.

With two outs in the first inning, France singled to center off Nats starter Jake Irvin and Hernandez followed with a towering homer to right-center. It was Hernandez’s team-high 15th homer of the season.

The Mariners pushed the lead to 3-1 in the third inning. France led off with a single went first to third on Raleigh’s single to center and scored on Eugenio Suarez’s sacrifice fly to left.

Woo’s second run allowed didn’t come until the fifth. Lane Thomas singled to right with one out and later scored when Jarred Kelenic couldn’t make a diving grab on Candelario’s two-out drive into the left-center gap. Woo finished the fifth, exiting with a 3-2 lead.

In his last four starts, he has a 2.18 earned-run average, allowing five earned runs over 20 2/3 innings with five walks and 28 strikeouts.

But he wouldn’t factor in the win.

Washington tied the game in the seventh. Gabe Speier hit C.J. Abrams in the hand to start the inning. The Mariners went to Matt Brash to finish the inning, but he wouldn’t do so until allowing the tying run, issuing back-to-back walks and allowing a sacrifice fly to Luis Garcia.

Seattle retook the lead in the seventh. Kelenic worked a leadoff walk and came around to score on Wong’s ground ball with an aggressive headfirst slide. He was initially called out by home plate umpire Brennan Miller, but replays overturned the call.

The lead didn’t last.

Paul Sewald gave up a leadoff homer to Ruiz to start the eighth inning.