Mariners Game Recap: Tigers Complete Sweep, M’s Drop Below .500

The Mariners fall in heartbreaking fashion to drop under the .500 mark as the 2016 season seems to have hit rock bottom.

The Seattle Mariners (36-37) dropped their sixth in a row, losing 5-4 in 10 innings to the Detroit Tigers (38-35) on Thursday afternoon at Comerica Park. Kyle Ryan (3-2, 2.84 ERA) picked up the win for the Tigers, and Steve Cishek (2-4, 2.70 ERA) took the loss for Seattle.

After Daniel Norris retired the Mariners in the top of the first, scheduled starter Adrian Sampson threw only two warmup pitches before having to be removed from the game with right elbow discomfort. Before even taking a seat in the bullpen, Vidal Nuno was called to action and became the official starting pitcher for the M’s and retired the Tigers in order in the bottom of the first.

The Mariners bats were quiet in the second inning, while the Tigers got theirs rolling. After a leadoff walk to Nick Castellanos, Nuno gave up back-to-back doubles to Justin Upton and Steven Moya as the Tigers took an early 2-0 lead through two innings.

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Both teams had a scoreless third inning before the Mariners finally got on the board in the top of the fourth. After having the night off on Wednesday, Nelson Cruz launched a solo homerun to left field to cut the Tiger lead to 2-1.

Nuno came out to pitch the bottom of the fourth and retired Upton before walking Moya. James McCann came up next and homered to left-center field to extend the Tiger lead to 4-1. After throwing 68 pitches in his spot start, Nuno was replaced by Edwin Diaz. The hard throwing youngster found himself in a two-out, bases loaded situation with Miguel Cabrera at the dish and proceeded to strike him out swinging to end the threat.

That may have given the Mariners a shot of confidence as Chris Iannetta and Leonys Martin smashed back-to-back homeruns to make it a 4-3 ballgame in the top of the fifth inning. After a Shawn O’Malley double and a swinging bunt single, the M’s had a threat going with runners on the corners with two outs. Robinson Cano hit the first pitch to deep left field but was robbed of an extra-base hit after Upton made a nice catch to retire the side.

Cruz swung at the first pitch of the top of the sixth inning and deposited it deep into the left field seats for his second homerun of the game. The rest of the side went down in order, but not before Cruz could tie up the game at 4-4.

Tom Wilhelmsen came into the game and pitched a scoreless bottom of the sixth inning in his 2016 Mariners debut. After a scoreless top of the seventh, Nick Vincent came in to the game and threw a scoreless inning himself.

The Mariners went down in order in the top of the eighth and Joaquin Benoit came on to pitch the home half. Despite falling behind 3-0 on two of the three batters he faced, Benoit struck out the side to push the 4-4 game into the 9th inning.

After a four pitch walk to Iannetta, the M’s had the go-ahead run on first with one out. But that was quickly erased after Martin grounded into an inning ending double play. Steve Cishek came into the game to work the bottom of the ninth as the Mariners last available reliever and got the job done to give the bats another chance in the top of the 10th.

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Shawn O’Malley led off the top of the 10th with a single to left and got to third on a pickoff error to give the Mariners a runner on third with no outs. Marte grounded out softly to third to put an out on the board. Seth Smith then grounded out to Ian Kinsler at second who threw out O’Malley trying to score on the play. Cano followed by striking out to end the inning.

Cishek came back out to work the 10th inning and dealt a one out walk to Moya, who was replaced by pinch runner Cameron Maybin. Victor Martinez then came up to pinch hit for McCann and singled to Seth Smith who threw it away, allowing both runners to move up. An intentional walk to Jarrod Saltalamacchia loaded the bases with one out for Andrew Romine. With Kinsler batting, Cishek threw a slider that scooted past Iannetta and got to the backstop. Maybin sprinted home from third base to win the game for Detroit, breaking M’s fans hearts in the process.

The Mariners are 6-16 in the month of June. After playing like a playoff team through May with a record of 30-21 and sitting 0.5 games back of Texas, this team has hit a wall, dropping 8 of their last 10 to fall one game under .500 and 11 games back. We aren’t even to the All-Star break yet, and there is plenty of time left for this team to pick themselves back up, get healthy, and make another run. But man, they are getting real tough to watch right now, that’s for sure.

Next: Tigers win series, Mariners drop to .500

The Mariners will return home tomorrow to begin a 3-game weekend series against the St. Louis Cardinals (38-33). Carlos Martinez (7-5, 3.17) is scheduled to make the start for the Cards while the Mariners starting spot is still up for grabs. Taijuan Walker would fill that spot in the rotation but he is battling right foot tendinitis. Wade LeBlanc, acquired from Toronto on Wednesday, could fill that spot and make his Mariners debut tomorrow.

Hopefully the trip home can help the Mariners hit the reset button as they look to get back on track. Go Mariners!