Mariners suffer late meltdown, fall out of first place in AL West

CLEVELAND – Julio Rodríguez sprinted to first base, knowing there was a chance to beat out the slow roller he had just bounced toward the right side of the infield.

Meanwhile, Victor Robles jogged home from third base, while watching and hoping that his potential run would count.

When second baseman Travis Bazzana stumbled trying to field the ball quickly on the run and was unable to make a throw, Rodríguez was safe at first and the run scored.

The players and coaches in the Mariners dugout threw their hands up in celebration, some of it genuine and some of it tinged with sarcasm.

A milestone had been reached. The impossible dream had come true.

For the first time since June 12, the Mariners had scored more than three runs in a game. Had it been a home game, they might have played “Celebration” by Kool & The Gang with a drop of confetti and balloons.

One slight problem: Scoring four runs doesn’t guarantee victory.

And the Mariners, who have been creative in finding new and unique ways to find defeat, blew a three-run lead in the eighth inning with a full bullpen self-immolation.

If you were ranking defeats this season, Sunday’s disastrous 6-5 loss to the Guardians at Progressive Field was easily one of the worst.

Up 4-1 going into the eighth inning, the duo of right-hander Michael Rucker and left-hander Josh Simpson – not usually pitchers used in late-inning leverage situations – blew the lead, combining to give up five runs on four hits and two walks. They turned the three-run lead into a two-run deficit as closer Andres Muñoz paced in the bullpen, hoping to pitch in a save situation.

After being unable to score more than three runs for 13 straight games, the Mariners scored five runs and lost.

“A tough ballgame today,” manager Dan Wilson said, reverting to a familiar line, as he struggled to process the gut-punch loss. “A tough way to end the road trip. It’s a tough one to take. We need to get back home and regroup tomorrow and get ourselves on a roll and get going.”

With the loss, the Mariners dropped the series to Cleveland and finished 2-4 on the six-game road trip. They sank below .500 at 42-43 for the first time since May 27. They also fell out of first place in the American League West for the first time since May 26. Buoyed by their four-game sweep of the Blue Jays in Toronto, the Rangers improved to .500 at 42-42, and moved into first place the division.

In a weak division that’s in a largely mediocre league, the Mariners have managed to still play themselves out of their lead despite having more talent and depth than their cohorts.

Seattle will be right back in action Monday, opening a seven-day, six-game home stand, starting with the Los Angeles Angels.

“There are 29 teams out there that are wanting to beat us every day, so we’ve got to bring it every day,” Cal Raleigh said. “Nobody’s gonna feel sorry for us. We can’t keep getting our head down or feeling bad for ourselves. We have to make that adjustment. It’s a tough league. It requires a lot out of you, and it’s going to test your time. And I think, right now, is one of those times. How we respond to it is going to be a big indicator of what the rest of the season looks like.”

Thus far, the Mariners’ season has looked underwhelming as they’ve underachieved for much of the season. Yes, they’ve dealt with injuries and absences. But they just haven’t played well as a team. It seems one of the major aspects – offense, defense, starting pitching or bullpen – is lacking to the point of being a hindrance in any given game.

The players know it. They can feel it.

“We’ve got to learn from it. We’ve got to put together better nines (nine innings) than we’re doing right now,” Raleigh said. “You’ve got to play all nine innings as hard as you can with a lot of energy and find a way to scrap and claw for runs because you never know when you might need that extra run.”

But runs have been scarce for most of June and for a large part of the season. With Raleigh struggling to re-find his 2025 production and also missing 29 games with an oblique injury and various injuries to other expected contributors, the M’s run production has been tepid far too often.

Seattle came into the series finale with a .198/.285/.340 slash line with runners in scoring position in June. Since they aren’t hitting many homers – only 26 so far in June compared to 42 in May – they need to come through in scoring opportunities.

“We’ve just got to be better, myself included,” Raleigh said. “We’ve all got to do a better job of just executing with people on base and be mentally disciplined, mentally tough enough to be able to come through in those moments. It’s not going to be handed to you.”

They were 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position Sunday while stranding 14 on base. They had runners reach base in every inning.

“We’ve got to keep our foot on the gas,” Raleigh said. “You can’t let up. You have to play a full nine, come to the field ready to compete for two to three hours a day, not an hour and a half.”

It was fair criticism from Raleigh, who included himself as part of the problem.

“I think guys want to come through,” he said. “I think we’re doing the work and we’re playing hard. We’re doing that part right, but I think the tough part about baseball is you’ve got to be disciplined enough in those situations to come through, and, right now … that’s what’s lacking. It’s just that discipline to stay in the middle of the field and not get too big. You have to sacrifice yourself as a hitter sometimes, and do what’s best for the team. I think we all could do a better job of that, myself included.”