Can’t win ‘em all: Mariners outplay Angels, lose anyway, 6-5

Unless you’re the Astros, apparently

The Mariners haven’t lost a game to the Angels yet this year, a trend that probably wasn’t going to continue, especially in a four-game set. The Mariners have been playing better of late, but it’s hard to win every single game, especially when you’re soft-starting an oft-injured starter and depending on your bullpen to do the heavy lifting. Unfortunately, the Astros have been steaming along, and now sit just 1.5 games out of first after another win tonight, further burying the Rangers in the AL West. The Mariners don’t have any leeway to play with, because of how poorly they played over the last few weeks before this road trip, and because of that, sometimes when baseball baseballs—the Mariners scored four runs in regulation, which usually would have been enough with a different starter on the mound, and generally played a cleaner, better game than the Angels, but lost anyway because that’s how baseball be sometimes—they’ve now seen their lead in the AL West shrink down to a sliver.

Things started off well. The Mariners got on the board early with another home run that came with runners on: Mitch Garver singled and Julio, continuing his run of red-hot plate appearances, went oppo for a two-run shot:

But the Angels answered right back, jumping all over Bryan Woo, who wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of Angels sitting all over his fastball. He gave up a leadoff double to Rendon on the third pitch of the game—although on a pitch that was off the plate—but then looked like he was going to get out of the inning after getting the next two outs. Unfortunately, Woo then left a pitch right in Willie Calhoun’s lefty loop zone for a game-tying two-run shot. But the problems wouldn’t end there: the next two hitters got weak ground-ball/parachute shot hits, and the Angels almost broke things open right away when Mickey Moniak almost kept the ground-ball-magic alive, but was the victim of some strong defensive fundamentals by J.P. Crawford:

This wouldn’t be the first time the Angels ran themselves into an out in this game, but frustratingly, that wouldn’t come back to bite them in this game.

In the third, Cal Raleigh un-tied the game with his fifth home run in the last four games, tattooing a high hanging changeup into the Angels bullpen for a two-run home run (J.P. Crawford was on base thanks to an infield bobble from Brandon Drury on what should have been an out). Behold, the Dumpan Cometh:

Per Mariners PR, that’s the first time an MLB catcher has tallied 20+ homers and 5+ stolen bases since Carlton Fisk did it 1985, as the first catcher who ever did it. Give Big Dumper his due!

Unfortunately, that lead would be short-lived, as Woo scuffled again in the fourth, unable to complete the inning. He got some bad BABIP luck, to be sure, and most of the hits against him were on pitches off the plate, but the Angels definitely seemed ready to leap on Woo’s pitches, bad BABIP luck or not.

Trent Thornton came in to bail Woo out of the jam and struck out Taylor Ward on a sweeper, then got Willie Calhoun to fly out harmlessly on a curveball to end the inning without further damage. Thornton continued on in the fifth to work against the middle of the Angels lineup, retiring leadoff man Logan O’Hoppe on a sweeper with an easy flyout. Brandon Drury wouldn’t be satisfied with a flyball single and instead ran himself into an out at second base, forgetting that while Mitch Haniger might have lost a step in his legs, the arm remains as strong and accurate as ever. Thornton then struck out Moniak on a nasty curve to end the inning. Tally of outs the Angels ran themselves into trying to make something happen: 2.

After the Mariners threatened in the sixth with a two-out double from Ty France and Jorge Polanco getting robbed by Jo Adell (more annoyingness), Collin Snider shut things down with a groundout and two strikeouts, including a generous called strike three to Rendon that won’t make him like baseball any more than he already does.

The Angels went to their ‘pen in the seventh, bringing out the leverage arms they didn’t have to use in yesterday’s blowout. First up was flamethrower/villain-in-a-teen-80s-movie-set-on-the-ski-slopes Ben Joyce, the Angels’ 2022 third-rounder, who hit Luke Raley with 103 mph, which Raley made look like a small bumbleebee had just bumped into him on its way to a lavender patch. Unfortunately, three of the Mariners’ less extreme-velocity-adept hitters were up behind him, with Haniger popping out weakly, Rojas (in for Haniger) putting up a fight against 104.5 mph (!) but ultimately getting tied up on a slider, and J.P. Crawford—well, it doesn’t matter because Luke Raley got caught stealing second. Call that one a wash, with J.P. starting the lineup over fresh in the eighth.

The Mariners countered with their own fireman in the bottom of the seventh, calling on Gregory Santos, who had a shaky start to his inning by walking the first batter he saw, then got back into it with two straight strikeouts on the slider and a comebacker from O’Hoppe. Fired up, Santos went high-stepping off the field to get back to the dugout with his friends before remembering that he had to have the mandatory umpire check. We love him.

The Mariners almost squeaked out a go-ahead run in the eighth, making some two-out noise with Cal and Julio claiming some BABIP luck of their own with softly hit singles, but Ty France took the first pitch he saw from Luis García and flew out to quell the threat. Ryne Stanek held the line in the eigth, striking out Drury and Moniak with some absolute filth and getting Zach Neto to pop out on two pitches. The Angels countered with their closer Carlos Estévez in the ninth, who gave up an infield hit to Haniger (!) (immediately pinch-run for by Jonatan Clase, who in turn immediately swiped second off Estévez/O’Hoppe), but Rojas struck out swinging to end the threat.

That brought on newly-minted All-Star Andrés Muñoz to try to keep the Angels from walking it off, and he started out by walking Jo Adell, failing to throw him a single pitch in the zone. That turned the lineup over for Rendon, who grounded into a double play, beautifully turned by J.P., Polanco, and France, with special shoutout to Polanco, who got off a perfect throw despite having all six foot five of Adell on a collision course with his knees. Unfortunately, Muñoz then walked Schanuel on four pitches, and then Schanuel immediately stole second off Muñoz, putting a runner in scoring position for Taylor Ward. Muñoz went after Ward, who had already struck out twice tonight, with 99 right on the plate for a swinging strikeout to send this game to extras.

Hans Crouse, a former Rangers prospect I didn’t realize was an Angel now, had the tenth inning and gave up his ghost runner when Mitch Garver hit a one-out ground-rule double. The Angels then made the smart choice to walk Cal Raleigh, bringing up Julio, who didn’t see a pitch in the strike zone but struck out anyway chasing a slider away for the second out. Crouse used the same strategy with France, jamming him inside and sending sliders well off the plate, and France also couldn’t hold up, this time against a sinker, striking out to strand two and give Austin Voth just one precious run to work with against the middle of the Angels’ lineup.

Voth wound up immediately giving that run back against Willie Calhoun, who leaped all over a mistake pitch—a genuine mistake, not the fastball Calhoun cheated to get to against Woo—for the walk-off home run. It was a super-frustrating end to the game, and super-frustrating that the Mariners didn’t make more of the opportunities they did have, coasting on just the two two-run home runs for most of the game. The Mariners will try again tomorrow—this time with the Angels’ tougher bullpen arms not having a night off—and hope that they actually get some help from the Rangers to keep this sliver of a lead alive.