Mariners continue hitting struggles, lose game and series to Pirates

PITTSBURGH – The seemingly impossible quest to somehow cobble together four runs or more in a game was met with yet another failure.

Despite a warm and bright sunny Thursday afternoon at the always picturesque PNC Park, the Mariners’ offense remained largely dormant and dreary in terms of run production in a 5-1 loss to the Pirates.

For the 11th consecutive game, the Mariners failed to score more than three runs in a game.

“Frustrating one today,” manager Dan Wilson said. “I thought we had some opportunities offensively where we got guys on base and hit the ball hard (and it) seemed to go right at them.”

The last time the Mariners surpassed that seemingly insurmountable three-run threshold was on June 12 in Washington, D.C., when they defeated the Nationals 10-2.

Since then, they’ve scored a total of 24 runs in those 11 games. In a testament to their pitching, the Mariners still managed to win four of those games.

How important is it to score at least four runs in a game?

Well, the Mariners have a 28-11 record in those instances.

Meanwhile, Seattle has now scored three runs or fewer in 43 games this season – third most in MLB – and has a 13-30 record in those games.

During this 11-game stretch, the Mariners are hitting .183 (62-for-339) with a .259 on-base percentage and a .298 slugging percentage with only seven homers and eight doubles.

“We aren’t getting runners in,” J.P. Crawford said quietly. “We haven’t done our job. You go through funks in a season and this is for sure one of them.”

To be fair, they had Randy Arozarena, Dom Canzone and Luke Raley – their three most productive hitters this season – miss multiple games during this stretch, along with J.P. Crawford, Josh Naylor and Cal Raleigh.

“We’ve been through it in terms of injuries and getting your lineup in a consistent place is something that we haven’t been able to do,” Wilson said. “That can make it difficult as well, but I think we’re getting close to being where we need to be health-wise, and that will bode well for us going forward.”

It wasn’t for lack of opportunities in Thursday’s series finale against the Pirates.

The Mariners went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners.

To be fair, it wasn’t all about the Mariners’ failures at the plate. The Pirates made some exceptional defensive plays to rob the M’s of at least two hits that would’ve scored runs.

In the fourth inning, the Mariners got back-to-back, one-out singles from Julio Rodríguez and Josh Naylor. The duo was able to move up 90 feet with two outs when Rodríguez hustled to third on a pickoff throw to second base. Pirates starter Bubba Chandler walked Raley to load the bases. Cole Young, who hit the Mariners’ only homer in the series, laced a sinking line drive to center for what looked like a single that would score two runs. Instead, Jake Mangum made a brilliant sliding catch on the ball to end the inning.

The Mariners’ one run in the game came in the fifth inning against Chandler. Trailing 3-0, Mitch Garver and Colt Emerson worked back-to-back walks to start the inning and Crawford followed with a single to center that drove in Garver. But Chandler came back to strike out Cal Raleigh and got Rodríguez to ground into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play.

In the sixth, the Mariners managed to load the bases with two outs against lefty Evan Sisk. With two outs, Emerson hit a hard ground ball up the middle with a 104-mph exit velocity. But Pirates shortstop Jarred Triolo was able to glove it on the run and flip it to second for the inning-ending force out.

In the seventh with Raleigh on first, Rodríguez’s hard ground ball to the left side was turned into a force out on Nick Gonzales’ diving stop and throw.

“We put up some good at-bats today with runners on and runners in scoring position,” Wilson said. “I think the frustrating part is that they don’t have anything to show for it. You get a pitch on the plate and you hit it hard somewhere and they were either run down or right at somebody. That becomes frustrating.”

The vagaries of baseball aren’t always enjoyable. But Wilson focused on the process, not the results.

“It’s part of baseball, for sure,” Wilson said. “That’s why we’ve got to move on and get ready for tomorrow. We’ve just got to continue to put up good at-bats and hit the ball hard.”

Crawford took minimal solace in the hard-hit balls.

“Yeah, we put good swings on the ball, but we didn’t get any results,” Crawford said. “So it doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t matter how we do it, we’ve got to start getting runners in.”

Seattle got a solid, if not lengthy, start from Bryce Miller, who was working without a piggybacked starter following.

Miller essentially made two bad pitches in the game.

“Besides two pitches, I threw the ball really well,” he said. “I had a lot of swing and miss. They put a good swing on two pitches.”

He gave up a solo homer to Brandon Lowe in the first inning on a hanging slider.

In the third inning, Miller missed his location on a 1-2 fastball to Henry Davis, the Pirates’ No. 9 hitter, which resulted in a two-run homer to right-center. Miller wanted to throw a four-seam fastball to the top rail of the strike zone, where he had been generating swings and misses. The ball stayed down in the zone, allowing Davis to handle it.

“I wanted to go sweeper, but the fastball would have been the right pitch if I just get it up,” Miller said. “He saw four four-seamers in that at-bat, and just gave him one he could hit.”

Any hopes of coming back, which were already slim given their struggles at the plate, ended when Alex Hoppe gave two runs in the eighth. A miscommunication on a bunt coverage allowed Davis to steal third and eventually score on a single past the drawn-in infield.

“The (extra) runs are tough when you are trying to mount a comeback,” Wilson admitted. “But we had our opportunities and we just weren’t able to cash in.”