Mariners lose to their doppelgangers, 3-2, in feckless strikeout fest

Mariners back to their same old tricks, record double-digit strikeouts and squander another premium pitching performance

The Rays and the Mariners have deeper similarities than just being frequent trade partners, or the alternate timeline where the Mariners move to Tampa Bay before the miracle 1995 season. Both teams run on self-imposed spending limits and pride themselves on being pitching-forward, draft-and-develop organizations that love to take other teams’ trash and turn it into treasure. Also, both are currently scuffling along at about a .500 win pace, although they’ve gotten to that number in very different ways: the Rays, mired in the depths of a competitive AL East, have thrown in the towel on 2024; the Mariners, after the desperation move of firing their manager after a prolonged tumble through an AL West with all the toughness of a bag of wet doughnuts, are clinging to the last threads of their own ratty beach towel.

Tonight the two teams—with help from HP umpire Jacob Metz, whose yawning chasm of a strike zone would make the Grand Canyon blush—combined for 30 strikeouts, and two and a half hours of deeply unwatchable baseball. The good vibes in T-Mobile Park after the series win over the Giants came to an abrupt halt tonight in front of an announced crowd of 26,000 plus (please remember no politics in your crowd size jokes), who became more and more frustrated with the team’s weak offensive showing as the game wound on, squandering another excellent performance by Logan Gilbert. This is the team that was every bit as not fun to watch over the dog days of August as it promises to be coming into September, new-old regime or not.

Tampa Bay starter Jeffrey Springs, recovering from TJ, hadn’t gone past six innings of work yet since returning from the IL in late July. The Mariners spotted him a free inning in the first, taking only six pitches to make three outs. They did a little better in the second, with Justin Turner working a walk and Mitch Haniger battling for eight pitches before getting fooled on Springs’ subpar fastball, but overall couldn’t come up with an answer for Springs’ changeup, waving emptily after it again, and again, and again, and again. It took until the fourth inning for the Mariners to even get a hit, when Randy Arozarena parachuted a little flyball into right field for a single. At the end of the fifth inning, often the end of the line for Springs, he sat at 79 pitches with a season-high nine strikeouts.

Once again, strong starting pitching allowed the Mariners to stay in a game they otherwise would have been well out of with such a woeful offensive performance. Logan Gilbert worked through the Rays lineup the first time without allowing a hit, although he got some help from Randy Arozarena in left field on a sinking liner off the bat of former Mariners first-rounder Alex Jackson. And for all the complaining (justified, earned, righteous) there is to do about this current regime, thank the stars above we have largely moved past the absolutely horrific days of drafting and developing of the Jack Z era. This group isn’t without their warts, but the collection of thrift store furniture that made up the farm system around the days of “sixth overall pick Alex Jackson” is not a thing I miss.

Gilbert collected four strikeouts his first time through the order, on the split, fastball, and two on the curveball, which was a weapon for him tonight—he had three outs on the curve the first time through the order, and another two (flyout, strikeout) the second time through before hanging one to Jonny DeLuca for a double. Gilbert came back to strike out Jose Siri to end the fifth inning, but scuffled a little in the sixth, giving up a one-out single to Yandy Díaz on a poorly-located fastball followed by a single to Junior Caminero on the curveball—going to the well one too many times, it seemed, and hanging it on the plate to put him in a spot with two on and just one out.

However, Gilbert buckled down against Josh Lowe, one hitter in the Rays lineup who has had some solid success, striking him out swinging after a slider, and then battled Christopher Morel for seven pitches, finally getting him swinging through a fastball for his tenth strikeout of the night, causing the normally reserved Gilbert to show some big emption on the mound.

The game turned over to the bullpens after that, with Edwin Uceta coming in to replace Jeffrey Springs. Victor Robles then announced his return in a big way, manufacturing a run all on his own: he blooped a base hit on a first-pitch cutter, stole second, and later stole third and then took home on an overthrow from the catcher, former Mariners first-rounder Alex Jackson. Victor Victorious.

JT Chagois had the seventh for the Mariners, and got two outs before allowing a single to Jonny DeLuca. That brought up José Siri, and Chagois stubbornly threw him sliders off the plate, three of which in a row Siri fouled off before one leaked onto the plate, going over the fence and giving the Rays a 2-1 lead. I appreciate the Mariners’ pitching philosophy of “throw strikes and make them hit it” but Siri is a known chaser, mired in an 0-2 count, and this pitch should have been nowhere near where it actually ended up.

The Rays would expand that lead off the normally-nails Collin Snider, who gave up a home run to Yandy Díaz that was so far over the fence Arozarena didn’t even bother turning around, turning what felt like an insurmountable-feeling 2-1 deficit into a truly insurmountable 3-1 deficit and becoming what would be the winning run. Because even that, the Mariners and Rays have to share: Tampa Bay leads the majors in one-run wins in 2024. That’s our thing, get your own thing.

If there was one bright spot in this game offensively for the Mariners it was Victor Robles, bringing energy to a lineup that seemed to sleepwalk through nine innings despite manager Dan Wilson’s postgame insistence that they “battled” every pitch. It was Robles again in the eighth, making things happen with a swinging bunt that wound up in the in-between space in the infield, advancing Leo Rivas (this season’s José Caballero), who had walked, to second and allowing Robles to reach first safely. That extra out is important because after Julio made his fourth out of the night—this time a flyout and not a golden sombrero, thankfully, but still a rough night for Julio, who tied Jorge Polanco with three strikeouts each—that allowed Cal Raleigh to bat, and he laced a single into center for the Mariners’ second run of the night.

Unfortunately, Arozarena was the Mariners’ 16th strikeout of the night, after the Rays brought in new reliever Kevin Kelly, who struck Arozarena out looking on a pitch that was outside, but called a strike in Metz’s jumbo-sized strike zone.

With the Mariners trailing, that at least mean we got to see Troy Taylor, who opened up by handing Taylor Walls a shiny new golden sombrero Walls struck out looking four times tonight, which feels like it needs its own special moniker, as it’s a relatively rare occurrence; per Alex Mayer, the last time was Kyle Schwarber, on August 22 of 2022. Golden sit-and-spin sombrero? Golden snoozing sombrero? The Dr. T.J. Eckleburg? Anyway, Taylor followed up that strikeout with two quick, low-stress outs. Taylor is learning on the job, and doing it well, and it’s nice to see. See, the recap isn’t all doom and gloom.

Okay, did you enjoy the not-gloom? Because back to the doom, baby. Despite a Mitch Haniger two-out single, the Mariners couldn’t do anything against Manuel Rodríguez in the ninth, as pinch-hitter—and former Ray—Luke Raley couldn’t do literally the hardest thing in baseball, come up with a clutch two-out pinch-hit. No fault of Raley’s, who came over from Tampa Bay in exchange for José Caballero, who didn’t record a hit tonight but gets credit for working a ten-pitch at-bat against Gilbert that probably shortened his night, even as it ended in a strikeout.

It used to be fun to joke about the Mariners and Rays and the affinity they had for trading with each other. As the Mariners progress deeper into their post-rebuild should-be-good-era with no sign of playoffs in sight, however, it’s feeling more and more like the Mariners willfully belonging to a clique that they—sitting in a major market in a city desperate for winning baseball—should have outgrown a while ago.