Mariners suffer deflating walkoff loss to Guardians

CLEVELAND – This was not how the Mariners intended to start a nine-game road trip.

The stink and disgust from the previous road trip from hell hadn’t been quite removed from their memory even with a 4-2 homestand.

The leery feeling of “what if it happens again?” still permeated the unusually crisp air of Progressive Field on Friday night even as they led throughout.

And while it’s only one game into this trip, it was a disastrous, confidence-sapping beginning. Will the games ahead be any different? The outcomes need to be if the Mariners’ postseason aspirations are to be met.

After grabbing a four-run lead in the top of the first and getting a quality start from George Kirby, the Mariners still found their way to a 5-4 walk-off loss with their two best relievers letting it slip away over the final two innings.

Seattle has lost its last six road games and 12 of its last 17 games away from T-Mobile Park.

“Obviously, a tough one to lose tonight,” manager Dan Wilson said quietly.

And while Wilson’s made that summation after every Mariners defeat this season, there was tinge of anger and plenty of frustration in his normally careful tone.

This one hurt. It’s a game they should’ve won, but instead gave away.

Beyond the loss is the growing concern about the Mariners leverage relievers being used heavily.

With a 4-2 lead going into the eighth inning, Wilson went to Matt Brash despite the Guardians having two left-handed hitters scheduled to hit in the inning. Gabe Speier, Seattle’s best left-handed reliever, was unavailable to pitch in the game.

Brash struck out Daniel Schneeman to get a big first out, but then walked Jose Ramirez and Kyle Manzardo. The free runners proved costly. With two outs and runners on first and third, Angel Martinez hit a soft spinning groundball off the end of the bat that went for an infield RBI single. It cut the Mariners lead to 4-3.

Brash, who is coming off season-ending Tommy John surgery, returned from the injured list on May 2. It was his 43rd appearance. Over his last eight outings, he’s allowed baserunners in five of them.

“You want to avoid the traffic, because it can hurt you, like it did tonight,” Wilson said.

Handed a one-run lead to protect in the ninth, Andres Muñoz gave up a lead-off double to Nolan Jones on a 1-2 slider. After failing to execute a sacrifice bunt, Bryan Rocchio was able to punch a soft liner to left on a 2-2 slider. Randy Arozarena was able to play it on one hop and make an off-balance throw home. But while the throw was quick, it wasn’t accurate. It took a bounce off the edge of the infield grass and away from Raleigh and past Muñoz, who was late to back up. Rocchio had already hustled to second when throw went home was also able to advance to third.

With no outs and the winning run 90 feet away, Steven Kwan lifted a fly ball to center that deep enough to allow Rocchio to race home well ahead of Julio Rodríguez’s throw.

Muñoz has also dealt with his own issues. In his 17 appearances since the All-Star break, he’s allowed at least one base runner to reach in 13 of them, including 14 hits and 12 walks. While this was his first blown save of that stretch, he has flirted with disaster reminiscent of the “Fernando Rodney Experience.”

Also concerning was Muñoz velocity, which was two to three mph down on his fastball and slider. He opted not to talk postgame, clearly frustrated with the outcome.

Kirby tossed seven innings, allowing two runs on six hits with no walks and six strikeouts. The two runs allowed came on a pair of solo homers after Kirby was given the 4-0 lead. Manzardo, a Lake City High grad and former Washington State standout, smashed a solo homer in sixth inning for Cleveland’s first run. In the seventh, Kirby challenged Jones with a 3-1 fastball and it was turned into solo homer just over the wall in center.

“I got behind in a couple of at-bats,” Kirby said. “The two home runs, which I’d like to take back, but most the time, they’re not getting out. Usually it’s a base hit or something like that. Tip my cap to them.”

Since his MLB debut in 2022, Kirby has made 35 starts where he worked six-plus innings without walking a batter in an outing – the most of any pitcher in MLB.

Facing Logan Allen, yet another left-handed starter, and without Victor Robles, who began serving a seven-game suspension, the Mariners couldn’t have gotten off to a much better start in the game.

Randy Arozarena led off with a double and Raleigh worked a walk. Rodríguez drove in the first run of the game with a single up the middle. Eugenio Suárez followed with a looping single to center that scored Raleigh to make it 2-0.

It looked like Allen might limit the damage when Josh Naylor hit into a double play, but Jorge Polanco was able to muscle a 2-2 changeup just over the tall wall in the left field corner for a two-run homer and a 4-0 lead.

The Mariners didn’t score again the rest of the way.