Mariners fail to take care of all the small things, also the big ones, lose 3-4

Catching tandem attempts to lift the team to victory but falls just short

It’s hard to win games when your starter has to leave midway with an injury. But it’s also hard to win games when your offense strikes out 14 times and miss opportunities when they do have runners on base (0-for-3 with RISP and seven runners left on base). It’s gross that 14 strikeouts feels like an average amount for this team, but it’s also very 2024 Mariners. More concerning: the Mariners took seven walks, which should translate into more runs, but the strikeouts kept getting in the way like a pesky fly.

The 2024 Mariners blueprint has been struggle against starter, wait to pounce on bullpen, and hope their starter can keep them in the game until then. Bryan Woo held up his end of the arrangement until he couldn’t, forced out in the fourth inning with hamstring tightness. Woo had had to work around a lot of traffic on the bases, though, missing Cal’s target at times and leaving pitches meant to land on the top rail in the upper-middle. The Mariners are hoping it’s just a strained hamstring for Woo, but will take pictures tomorrow to make sure. It’s a shame because Woo, despite some of the location misses, had a really good fastball tonight, regularly popping 97s. He looked very upset as he came off the field.

The Mariners were clinging to a 1-0 lead when Woo departed, thanks to their backstop. The Mariners were flailing against Taj Bradley, a starter they’ve had some success against before, until Cal Raleigh demolished this fastball:

Unfortunately, they gave that lead back almost immediately, as Tayler Saucedo, entering with a runner on, immediately threw an errant pickoff throw that resulted in a runner on third with no outs, and then spiked a wild pitch after that for the tying run. The Mariners would escape that inning with no further damage thanks largely to some tricky pitching by Trent Thornton, who also pitched a scoreless fifth inning, but when the offense is struggling so much to score runs, they can’t afford a free run being gifted to their opponents.

Despite the bad vibes, things felt like they were going to take an upturn when Mike Baumann worked a 1-2-3 sixth, building on his strong outing yesterday, and Ryne Stanek took care of the top of the lineup in the seventh. Meanwhile, the Mariners finally got something going against old friend Chris Devinski, who walked Dominic Canzone before giving up another home run to Seattle’s other backstop:

With a 3-1 lead and Austin Voth set to face the bottom of the Rays’ lineup, things started to feel slightly more comfortable—but that’s exactly when the 2024 Mariners fan needs to be on their guard the most. Voth got two quick outs in the eighth before committing the unforgivable sin of walking a batter with two outs, which of course came back to bite him when Ben Rortvedt crushed a double to bring the score to 3-2, causing Scott Servais to call upon Andrés Muñoz.

Unfortunately, Muñoz again didn’t have it today, failing to command his slider and walking the first batter he saw (not quite as bad as the two-out walk, but close as far as the Pitcher Sins rankings go), José Caballero. Yandy Díaz then slapped a single that bounced past Ty France—his second misplay/not-made-play of the game, forcing one to wonder what happens if it’s Tyler Locklear stationed there instead—scoring the tying and go-ahead run. Pete Fairbanks then took time away from making pour-over coffee at his artisan coffe stand and mercifully destroyed the Mariners on ten pitches.

Postgame, Cal Raleigh—who also stole a base and was promptly stranded at second by two straight strikeouts, we don’t deserve Cal Raleigh—said the Mariners just didn’t take enough care of the small things, pointing especially to the two-out walk. And while that’s true, and today’s game was definitely lost on a series of small mistakes, they also didn’t take care of the biggest thing, which is getting hits, of which they only had three, and scoring runs, of which they also only had three because all their runs came on home runs. Work sucks, I know, but fans are tired of watching, waiting, commiserating (emphasis on the -mis).