Seattle Mariners fail to capitalize in 4-2 loss to Athletics

The Mariners’ path to a second straight defeat that once again featured a paucity of runs scored was slightly different this time.

Unlike their loss in the previous defeat, where base runners and the possibility of scoring runs were largely nonexistent, the Mariners had traffic on the bases, runners in scoring position and plenty of opportunities to do something more than they did, Saturday night.

Seattle put the leadoff runner on base in four of the first six innings. The Mariners had a runner on base in six of the first seven innings and seven innings total, and the A’s aided their chances by walking six hitters, hitting two batters and committing two errors.

And yet the Mariners managed to do relatively nothing with all those chances, barely scratching out a couple of runs in a 4-2 loss Saturday night at T-Mobile Park in front of 35,264 in attendance.

If it feels a lot like last year, that’s because it is frighteningly similar in many ways, including a roster largely unchanged, too many strikeouts — 12, including eight with a runner on base — and some outs on the bases.

“A tough one tonight,” manager Dan Wilson said. “You know, had a lot of traffic early and we had plenty of chances later. We put a lot of pressure on them and we just weren’t able to get as many runs across as we wanted.”

The Mariners did have some bad luck in the first inning against A’s starter Osvaldo Bido. Victor Robles led off with a double to deep left-center. Julio Rodriguez was hit in the side with a pitch and Cal Raleigh worked a walk to load the bases with no outs.

But the A’s got two outs quickly when Max Muncy was able to make a reaching/running backhand grab on Randy Arozarena’s 106-mph line drive up the middle. Muncy then jogged to second and stepped on the bag to double off Rodriguez.

“I don’t know how Max Muncy catches that ball at second base,” Wilson said. “It’s a big play early on like that.”

If the ball gets past Muncy, the Mariners have a 2-0 lead. Instead, they didn’t get a run at all as Luke Raley struck out to end the inning.

“It was a great at-bat and drove it right through the middle,” Wilson said. “As a hitter, you’re trying to hit the ball through the middle there. Randy got a good pitch to hit and really drove it. That’s a tough break, but it was early in the game and we had plenty of traffic after that.”

Despite walking four batters, giving up three hits and hitting two batters with pitches, Bido somehow managed to allow only a pair of runs (one earned) while pitching into the sixth inning. He was aided by four timely strikeouts and a double play.

The two runs were the first the Mariners had scored against an Athletics starting pitcher in the series.

Bryce Miller gave the Mariners a somewhat uneven outing in his first start of the season, but was strike away from giving Seattle a quality start of six or more innings pitched, three runs or fewer allowed.

“I thought Bryce pitched a good ballgame, getting us deep into the game and we still had a chance to come back and win it,” Wilson said.

After holding the Athletics scoreless over the first three innings, allowing just one base runner and facing the minimum number of hitters, the A’s got to Miller in the fourth inning.

“I was kind of cruising till the fourth inning and I had that long fifth,” he said.

With one out, Brent Rooker singled to right field. The second out came when Rowdy Tellez made a lunging stop on a ground ball near the first-base bag, falling onto it. But his off-balance throw to second to try and get the final out was unsuccessful.

With two outs, Miller fired an elevated fastball to Shea Langeliers with an 0-1 count. If the pitch was an inch higher or had a few ticks more than the 94-mph velocity, Langeliers would have swung through it or fouled it off. Instead, he was able to get on top of it, sending it over the wall in left field, just out of the reach of Arozarena’s leaping attempt, for a two-run homer. It was good pitch that was beaten with a quality swing.

“I executed that pitch,” Miller said. “It was two balls up and in, and I think it was 93 mph off the bat. Usually that ball doesn’t leave the park here, but it went over. A good piece of hitting.”

Miller came back to strike out Tyler Soderstrom to end the fourth and somehow worked a scoreless fifth despite loading the bases with two outs. But he couldn’t finish the sixth inning. He issued a leadoff walk to J.J. Bleday and later moved him into scoring position with a wild pitch. With two outs, Miller fired a 1-2 curveball to Miguel Andujar, hoping for a strikeout. Despite the pitch breaking well below the strike zone, Andujar was able to get it on the barrel of his bat, sending a ground ball up the middle to score Bleday for a 3-1 lead.

“He swings through the 1-1 curve that’s at bottom of the zone,” Miller said. “And then I’m like, ‘I will just expand a little bit and get the next one to two balls down,’ and he gets to it. Good piece of hitting. I wanted a strikeout. I still got a ground ball and it just slipped through.”

Miller could only shake his head in frustration as Wilson came out to get him.

His final line: 5 2/3 innings pitched, three runs allowed on six hits with two walks and four strikeouts.

Seattle answered with a run in the bottom of the sixth. Arozarena worked a leadoff walk that ended Bido’s outing. A’s manager Mark Kotsay brought in lefty Hogan Harris to face Raley. With pinch-hitter Mitch Garver at the plate, Harris made a wayward pickoff throw to first base that rocketed into foul territory and bounced off the wall toward right field. Arozarena raced all the way to third on the play. He scored moments later on Jorge Polanco’s single to left field to cut the lead to 3-2.  

The A’s were able to tack on a big run in the seventh inning thanks to some miscommunication from the Mariners. With one out, Jacob Wilson hit a pop-up on the infield off reliever Collin Snider.

The ball was going to land somewhere near the third-base line close to the plate. Snider, catcher Raleigh and third baseman Polanco all converged on the ball. Both Snider and Raleigh seemed ready to catch it. Snider bumped Raleigh out of the way and reached above his catcher’s glove to make the play. He did not. The ball bounced out of his glove and into fair territory. Wilson hustled on the play and was standing on second when Raleigh grabbed the dropped ball off the turf.

“When the crowd gets loud, it’s hard to know who was calling for it,” Wilson said. “It’s a tough break, obviously. That’s a ball that we want to catch and we’ve got to get that ironed out so it doesn’t happen again.”

The error on Snider loomed costly when Lawrence Butler’s ground out to second moved Wilson to third and Rooker’s hustling infield single on a slow bouncer to Polanco allowed him to score.

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