SEATTLE — Baseballs were crushed. Bats were flipped. Runs, so many, runs were scored. And smiles were everywhere early Thursday evening.
Another victory over the reeling Texas Rangers and a three-game series sweep seemed like an inevitability with the only question being: How many runs would the Mariners win by?
The answer: They lost 8-6.
While no win is a guarantee in Major League Baseball, the way the Mariners lost offered a reminder that they aren’t good enough to play poorly and win games.
The Mariners roughed up Rangers starter Taylor Hearn in the first inning, a reoccurring theme for his outings at T-Mobile Park, scoring five runs on a two-run homer from Ty France and a three-run homer from J.P. Crawford before even making an out.
But thanks to their own miscues, including three errors, and general sloppy play, the Mariners watched as that lead slowly dissipated over the next four innings, eventually turning into a one-run deficit.
A late comeback to tie the game in the eighth inning was squandered when Drew Steckenrider gave up two runs in the top of the ninth and the Mariners couldn’t answer.
On a night when he had swing-and-miss stuff with his changeup and off-speed pitches and an early lead, Marco Gonzales didn’t factor in the decision or even finish a gruesome fifth inning.
Texas answered with two runs in the second inning. Andy Ibanez doubled over Dylan Moore’s head in right field, allowing Nathaniel Lowe to score from first base. Eli White followed with a double to left field to score Ibanez.
Gonzales’ outing fell apart in the fifth when Crawford made two uncharacteristic errors. A throwing error on White’s ground ball put the leadoff runner on second base. He would later come around to score on Corey Seager’s sacrifice fly to left field. With two outs, Crawford misplayed a ground ball off the bat of Mitch Garver. Adolis Garcia followed a double into the left field corner to score Garver to cut the lead to 5-4.
After a mound visit with pitching coach Pete Woodworth and catcher Tom Muprhy, Gonzales fired a first-pitch cutter that Nick Solak ambushed and sent over the wall in left field for a two-run homer and 6-5 lead. When Lowe’s ground ball to first bounced off the bag and over the head of Ty France for a double, Gonzales night was finished.
All four of the runs scored in the inning were unearned.
He exited the mound with a look of confused disappointment. How could it have gone so wrong? His final line: 4 2/3 innings pitched, six runs allowed, only two of them earned, with a walk and six strikeouts.
Meanwhile, the offensive onslaught of the first inning devolved into a run of scoreless frames that featured strikeouts and stranded base runners.
It wasn’t until the eighth inning when they finally snapped out of their doldrums.
With two outs, Eugenio Suarez smacked a hard line drive to center field that bounced just in front of Adolis Garcia, allowing Adam Frazier to score from second base and tie the game at 6-6. But Seattle couldn’t push across the go-ahead run. After Crawford worked a walk to load the bases, Tom Murphy struck out looking to end the inning.
Interim manager Kristopher Negron went to Steckenrider in the ninth. It was a logical move with Paul Sewald on the COVID-19 injured list and Andres Munoz having thrown on Wednesday.
But Steckenrider, one of the Mariners best relievers in 2021, couldn’t keep the game tied.
He issued a two-out walk to Garcia and then gave up an RBI double to veteran left-handed hitter Kole Calhoun that put the Rangers up a run. Lowe followed with a single to center that scored Calhoun for an insurance run.
Seattle’s rally hopes ended in the bottom of the ninth when Garcia made a brilliant diving catch on Julio Rodriguez’s deep shot to the left-center gap for the second out of the inning. Jarred Kelenic grounded out to end the game.
