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Mariners Recap: M’s Ruin Felix Day, Save It, Ruin It Again

By Brady Farkas |

On Sunday afternoon in Anaheim, the Mariners suffered another heartbreaking loss, losing 3-2 in 10 innings. I thought I’d seen it all, but the M’s lost on a walk-off wild pitch/passed ball from Tom Wilhelmsen.  Here’s some bullet points and some thoughts jumbled together. I’m not going to lie, I had a recap written, and then I changed it because the M’s:

1. Got a 2-out HR from Kyle Seager in the bottom of the 9th to make it 2-2.

2. Wilhelmsen loaded the bases with no one out in the 10th, and then got Albert Pujols to bounce into a 5-2-3 DP. That gave a false sense of security, because after Wilhelmsen went 0-2, he threw a wild pitch a few pitches later to end the game.

3. Otherwise…

Jun 28, 2015; Anaheim, CA, USA; Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Felix Hernandez (34) in the second inning of the game against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

4.. The Mariners got a good performance from Felix Hernandez, who surrendered no runs on one hit. He walked three and struck out eight over six innings.

5.. The Mariners bullpen blew a Felix performance, leaving the M’s now 9.0 games behind the Astros again in the AL West.

The details are just semantics. The M’s didn’t hit Hector Santiago. They got an RBI double from Nelson Cruz to take a 1-0 lead in the 4th and nothing else. Felix labored a bit through six innings. But the King did what the King does. He walked three and didn’t have great control, throwing just 59 strikes of 96 pitches. But hey, good pitchers can win without their best stuff, and that’s what Felix pitched well enough to do on Sunday.

Felix gave way to Charlie Furbush in the seventh, who hit the leadoff guy, and then threw a wild pitch to advance him to second. A sac bunt moved the runner to third and an Erick Aybar single tied the game. In the eighth, Joe Beimel allowed a leadoff single before a sac bunt moved him to second. Kole Calhoun then delivered the go-ahead blow with a single to CF. Seager’s HR made it 2-2 in the 9th before the M’s lost in the 10th.

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Other Mariner Musings:

1. Franklin Gutierrez remains awesome. His single in the fourth inning was the Mariners first hit and set up the M’s scoring rally. I’ll never not like Guti.

2. Felix showed why he is the best. His pitches were moving all over the place, his command was spotty, but he still battled and got through it. I feel terrible for him.

3. In the eighth inning, against sidearm RHP Joe Smith, Lloyd McClendon allowed Willie Bloomquist to hit with none on and no out. He could have hit Logan Morrison who was on the bench, Seth Smith, or Dustin Ackley. And then with two outs and one on, Lloyd hit for Guti with Smith. I think Guti would have been a better RH option than Bloomquist.

4. Carson Smith remains awesome. In the bottom of the eighth, after the damage was done, Calhoun was on second and Mike Trout was on first. Lloyd went to Carson Smith, who got Albert Pujols to fly to CF, and then got a K to end the inning. Lloyd McClendon is right, this team is better if Fernando Rodney is the closer, because Carson Smith should have been free to start the eighth inning.

5. Speaking of Rodney, he threw a scoreless ninth. He hit 97 MPH on the gun and pitched well, despite allowing a 2-out bloop double.

The Mariners are now 34-42 and travel to San Diego next for an interleague matchup with the Padres.

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