Mariners come up empty in shutout loss to Marlins

MIAMI – The previous 5-1 homestand won’t be replicated with a 5-1 road trip.

And given how the Mariners played Wednesday night, mustering a winning record on this excursion through the sanguine summer humidity of Florida has grown unlikely.

The constant, but deserved complaints about the Mariners’ failure to get hits with runners in scoring position weren’t quite as prevalent since, well, they barely put any runners on base. And the handful of runners that did get on base and into scoring position early in the game, stayed there as the Mariners went hitless.

The Marlins got five innings out of starter Tyler Phillips, two dominant and hitless innings from lefty Cade Gibson and closed out the game with scoreless frames from leverage relievers Michael Petersen and Pete Fairbanks to shut out the Mariners, 2-0.

Seattle will now look to avoid being swept Thursday night with Bryce Miller getting the start.

It was the eighth time this season that Seattle has been held scoreless in a game. It’s the second most in MLB, sharing that ignominy with three other teams. The Padres have been shut out 10 times to lead the league.

“A frustrating night offensively,” manager Dan Wilson said.

Realistically, he could have said that almost as often this season as he’s said, “tough one tonight.”

The Mariners got a workable start from George Kirby, who gave up two runs on eight hits over six innings pitched with no walks and seven strikeouts. He was aided by solid defense, including a double play from Luke Raley after a diving catch and Victor Robles throwing out a runner at the plate with the help of an outstanding play by Cal Raleigh, who gloved the ball off the hop on the first-base side of the plate and dove back to tag the runner.

Kyle Stowers ambushed the first pitch of the second inning – a curveball over the plate – launching a solo homer to center for a 1-0 lead. The Marlins added another run in the third on Xavier Edwards’ two-out triple to the right field corner.

“We were making all the plays and doing what we needed to do to stay in that game,” Wilson said. “We kept fighting offensively, but we weren’t able to get to their bullpen, and that was the difference in the game.”

The Mariners’ best chances of scoring were against Phillips in the early innings. The right-hander, who relies heavily on every pitch that isn’t a fastball, gave up four hits and walked two batters in his outing.

With two outs in the first, Dom Canzone singled up the middle and Raleigh blooped a single to left to put runners on the corners. But Josh Naylor rolled over on an 0-1 splitter for a ground out to first to end the inning.

In the fourth, Naylor led off with a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. Phillips came back to strike out Raley and got a break when Cole Young’s 106-mph line drive was snagged on a leaping grab by Edwards just off infield dirt in right field. Robles kept the inning alive by working a walk, but Colt Emerson grounded out to end the inning.

While the Mariners were technically a bloop and a blast away from tying the game, it never felt like they were close to doing that because they couldn’t get the bloop or a base runner.

“We just weren’t getting anything going offensively against their bullpen,” Wilson said.

The Mariners had just one batter reach base over the final five innings as the Marlins retired 16 of the last 17 hitters. It came in the ninth when Naylor singled to left field with one out off Fairbanks. But Raley struck out swinging and Young struck out looking to end the game. That last called third strike along with another pitch earlier in the at-bat to Young looked to be out of the zone. But Young never used the ABS challenge. Seattle had both remaining.

“You might as well take a shot there as a challenge,” Wilson said. “I think sometimes that’s not the first thing that pops into your head in that kind of a situation. But you still have to remind yourself sometimes about the ABS.”

If there were any positives for the Mariners, it’s likely that the trio of relievers – Gibson, Petersen and Fairbanks - will all be unavailable for the series finale. All three have pitched in the first two games of the series.

Conversely, the Mariners used only two pitchers – Kirby and right-hander Nick Davila, who pitched two scoreless innings – meaning their four main leverage relievers should be ready to go.

“I thought Nick threw the ball extremely well, too,” Wilson said. “He was very efficient and really attacked in the zone. I thought the two innings that he threw will loom very large tomorrow. He saved a lot of the guys in our bullpen tonight, and that’s a huge plus for us as we go into this third game.”

But having rested relievers won’t matter if the Mariners can’t find some offense. They have hit just one homer in the series and are 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position.

“You see a combination of things,” Wilson said. “Some guys are putting the bat on the ball, hitting it hard and have nothing to show for it. Some guys are just not getting as solid of contact as they want. Sometimes we are trying to do too much. We have to come back tomorrow and make our adjustments.”