Mariners Dominated by Texas, Swept in Three Games
The Mariners continued their downward tailspin after a three-game sweep at the hands of the first place Texas Rangers. The Mariners are now 4.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot and have lost five straight games.
Game One:
The first game of the series was billed as a pitcher’s duel between two Japanese right-handers, Yu Darvish and Hisashi Iwakuma. The game itself, however, ended up being a fairly one-sided affair despite only being a three-run contest.
The Rangers got one run in the first inning when recently-acquired Carlos Beltran hit a solo blast to right-center field. They added on in the third when Nomar Mazara, Ian Desmond and Carlos Beltran all hit RBI doubles, and Jonathon Lucroy added another run with an RBI base hit to give the Rangers had a 5-0 lead and chase Iwakuma after just three innings.
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Iwakuma’s final line was three innings, five runs (all earned) on six hits, one walk and two strikeouts.
The Mariners got on the board when Adam Lind doubled to score Kyle Seager in the 4th, but Texas answered with another run in the fifth when Mariner killer (more on that later) Rougned Odor hit a sacrifice fly to score Adrian Beltre from third base and give the Rangers a 6-1 lead.
A Franklin Gutierrez double scored two in the 7th and closed the book on Darvish who struck out nine in 6 and 2/3 innings of work, but that was all the Mariners could muster and they ultimately lost the game 6-3.
Game One Notes:
Two hits from Robinson Cano put his average to .301.
When was the last time we saw Hisashi Iwakuma look that ineffective? They needed him to come up big in this game and he failed to do so.
Texas was 4-10 with runners in scoring position and Seattle was 1-5. Not going to win many games that way.
Switch-pitcher Pat Venditte struck out five batters and had at least two strikeouts with each hand.
Game Two:
The Mariners and Rangers both got fairly mediocre outings from their starters, but thanks to a questionable decision by Scott Servais in his usage of Edwin Diaz, the Mariners lost a heart breaker in game two.
James Paxton pitched five innings and gave up four runs for Seattle, and veteran lefty Cole Hamels allowed six runs in 4 and 1/3 innings.
Elvis Andrus hit a sacrifice fly and Carlos Gomez hit an RBI single early. After the 2nd inning, the Mariners found themselves down 2-0.
Texas added on in the third when Adrian Beltre hit a two-run shot to give Texas a 4-0 lead.
Mariners answered in the fourth when Cole Hamels walked Kyle Seager and Mike Zunino with the bases loaded to score two runs and cut the lead to 4-2.
Hamels’ struggles continued in the fifth inning. Kyle Seager’s single scored two runs, and Dae Ho Lee and Leonys Martin each had an RBI single to give Seattle a 6-4 lead.
Texas would tie the game in the 7th, getting two runs off of Steve Cishek to tie the game up, but Robinson Cano got a sacrifice fly in the top of the 8th to give Seattle a 7-6 lead. Scott Servais then turned to Edwin Diaz to get a six-out save.
Diaz quickly retired the first 2 batters of the 8th, but lost control and ended up walking the next two batters before striking out Carlos Beltran to end the inning. Diaz needed 24 pitches to get through the 8th inning, and was sent back out for the 9th.
Adrian Beltre ripped a single to left to start the inning and Rougned Odor hit a two-run shot over the center field wall for a walk-off home run and a 8-7 Texas victory.
Game Two Notes:
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I like that Servais has a lot of confidence in Diaz to the point that he would go to him to get six outs, but after a 24 pitch inning he should have gone in another direction. Especially against a very talented and deep Texas lineup.
James Paxton ripped a fingernail on his pitching hand but is expected to make his next start.
Nelson Cruz had the night off due to a sore hand.
Game Three:
Sending Felix out to try and salvage a game in this series sounds like a good idea on paper, but ultimately the Mariners got a good old fashioned butt-whooping and lost handily to the Rangers.
Nomar Mazara drove in a run on a groundout in the third inning to get the scoring started. An Elvis Andrus single scored another run in the fourth, and Carlos Gomez hit a grand slam to give Texas a 6-0 lead after four innings.
Felix Hernandez lasted four innings and gave up six earned runs on four hits, four walks, and three strikeouts.
The scoring didn’t stop there by any means.
Adrian Beltre homered in the fifth, Rougned Odor homered in the seventh and the eigth, and Ryan Rua hit a home run in the eighth as well. In total, Texas had 14 runs, 11 of them via the long ball.
The Mariners salvaged a run when Kyle Seager hit his 25th home run of the year in the eighth, but Seattle lost 14-1 and Texas got the sweep.
Game Three Notes:
Texas is going to be very tough to beat in October with that lineup.
Each pitcher for the Mariners gave up at least two runs (Hernandez, Nuno, Caminero, Venditte)
Nelson Cruz sat out again with a nerve issue in his hand.
0-8 with runners in scoring position for Seattle. Not that it matters much when your opponent clubs five home runs and scores 14.
Other Notes:
The Mariners acquired 24-year-old outfielder Ben Garmel from the Yankees for two low-level pitchers. Reports are he is big-league ready but was “blocked” due to the Yankees already having Brett Gardner in the outfield.
I don’t care who signs Tim Tebow as long as it’s not the Mariners. If I wanted a quarterback to come play baseball for the Mariners I’d hit up the one who plays across the street at Centurylink.
Next: Washington Huskies Football Season Preview
September games are up next for Seattle. They are going to need to get hot, and hope teams ahead of them get cold if they have any shot at playing in the playoffs.