Mariners fall back into familiar issues in sluggish loss to Dodgers

LOS ANGELES – They have the money. They have the rings. They have the most bankable phenomenon in the sport, and they have a roster littered with stars and future Hall of Famers.

The Dodgers also have Eric Lauer.

It’s almost not fair.

A day after a wildly encouraging breakthrough against baseball’s modern dynasty, the Mariners reverted back to the sluggish ways that have largely defined their season, managing only one hit against Lauer in a 4-2 defeat at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday night.

Lauer, a soft-tossing journeyman left-hander, allowed only a seeing-eyed single to Cole Young in his six shutout innings. The Mariners only got one runner into scoring position, and never past second base.

The Mariners (53-56) never threatened and the Dodgers (68-40) never appeared bothered.

It’s another disappointing about-face for the Mariners, who played their most inspiring brand of baseball 24 hours earlier in the series opener here in a dramatic 7-6 victory.

Baseball’s worst offense against left-handed pitching, the M’s finally broke through against the Dodgers’ left-handers Tuesday night, belting a season-high five home runs.

The Mariners’ hope was that would unlock something they could carry over into the coming days in weeks.

By Wednesday night, the M’s offense was back to its head-scratching form.

Young’s two-out single in the eighth inning, off Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott, drove in Weston Wilson and saved the Mariners from their 10th shutout of the season.

Teoscar Hernandez, the ex-Mariner, made a leaping catch at the wall in left field to rob Mitch Garver and prevent the M’s from making a sort of real late rally.

Another ex-Mariner, Edwin Díaz, closed it out for the Dodgers in the ninth inning in his first game back from the injured list, though he did surrender doubles to Dom Canzone and Josh Naylor to cut the Mariners’ deficit to 4-2.

Pinch-hitter Luke Raley lined out to Freddie Freeman at first base to end it.

Mariners starter Emerson Hancock managed through five solid innings against the two-time reigning World Series champs, whose $400 million payroll is one of the major reasons a lockout is looming over the sport this winter.

Hancock opened the game with a strikeout of Shohei Ohtani, the sport’s biggest star. But Hancock hung a two-struck sweeper to Andy Pages, who sent it out to left field for a home run to give the Dodgers an early 1-0 lead.

Hancock allowed three earned runs in five innings, though two of those runs came on unusual infield singles on plays Wilson couldn’t make at third base.

The first was a shattered-bat single from Freddie Freeman – with a mere 46.7 mph exit velocity – to drive in a run in the second inning.

In the fourth, after an intentional walk to Ohtani to load the bases with two outs, Pages sent a one-hopper to Wilson’s left, and the ball deflected off his glove to bring in another run and make it 3-0.

Miller’s start pushed back

Bryce Miller’s next scheduled start has been pushed back one day to Friday’s series opener against Minnesota, and the Mariners instead will turn to Bryan Woo to start Thursday’s series finale against the Dodgers.

That’s notable on two fronts.

Woo has extreme home/road splits this season. He’s pitched like a Cy Young contender in Seattle (6-0, 2.20 ERA) and a BP pitcher on the road (1-7, 6.52 ERA), and facing baseball’s most expensive lineup at Dodger Stadium would appear to be a daunting ask.

Miller, meanwhile, has seen an overall velocity dip in his last three starts, during which he’s allowed 11 earned runs in 16 innings.

He generated a season-low five whiffs in his most recent start, last Friday at Texas.

Miller missed half of the 2025 season because of a bone chip in his pitching elbow, and he had missed the first six weeks of the season with an oblique strain.

Since Miller’s return in mid-May, he has been the most consistent of the Mariners’ six starters, posting a 2.75 ERA in 12 appearances (11 starts).

He was quick to shrug off any injury concern Wednesday evening.

“I’m all right,” he said. “I’ll be good to go Friday.”

M’s manager Dan Wilson downplayed the rotation swap, too.

“Bryce just needed an extra day,” Wilson said.

After Miller starts Friday, Logan Gilbert is scheduled for Saturday against the Twins and George Kirby will go Sunday.