Seattle Mariners: 3 Things We Learned Last Night In Seattle

The Mariners hopes of making the playoffs took a huge last night. Despite an early lead, the Toronto Blue Jays pounded the M’s into the ground, eventually embarrassing them 10-2. Thankfully, the Baltimore Orioles kept losing too, meaning the Mariners still sit just three games out of the playoffs.

For the second night in a row, the Mariners were bested in every facet of the game. The Blue Jays pitchers were throwing better. Their batters hit better. Their fielders fielded better. Even their fans cheered louder.

So far, everything about this series has favored the Blue Jays. No inning optimized this more than the fourth inning of last night’s lop-sided affair.

Even if I wish we didn’t have to learn anything so we could all soak in how bad things have gone the past two days, education is important, so we must persevere. Here are three things that we learned last night in the10-2 loss.

It Was All Iannetta’s Fault

Even before last night, many Mariners fans had already found Chris Iannetta to be expendable. After his error in the fourth, the number presumably skyrocketed.

With one out in the top of the fourth and no one on base, Jose Bautista stepped into the batters box. On a 0-1 count he fouled the second pitch sky high. Iannetta would charge after

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it, trying to predict where it would land.

Unfortunately, he would miscalculate the ball’s backspin, over run the ball, and miss the catch by inches. Baustista would hit a subsequent single on full count.

No one knew it at the time, but the effect of that miscue would be catastrophic. Russel Martin would hit a home run on the next at bat. In fact, after Bautista, the next six batters had hits, but more on that later.

Without that terrible misplay, which a catcher should never make, the events that occurred after may have never happened. Iwakuma seemed slightly phased initially by the drop. He had been on a roll through the game up to that point. Who knows how much it truly impacted him.

What we can say with certainty though, is that Iannetta has been the main focus of blame for last night’s loss. That definitely isn’t going to help his chances of remaining with the team next season. Although, it fair to to say that many fans don’t want him back anyway.

It Took Forty Minutes To Ruin The Season

We have now reached that time of later, I had mentioned above.

The first out of the top of the fourth happened in less than a couple of minutes. If Iannetta had caught the ball, it would have been two outs in less then five minutes, but we all know that’s not what happened.

After the Martin home run, the Blue Jays went on to pound Iwaukma for four more hits. They were a single, a home run, a double and a single, in that order. Iwakuma would be taken out of the game

because of the awful beating he took. But it didn’t get much better for Nick Vincent.

He faced three batters and allowed two of those men to collect RBI hits off him. The other guy walked. Then, another pitching change. Cody Martin would come into the inning- which, remember, started 2-0 Mariners- the score now 8-2 Blue Jays.

Eight runs was the most the Mariners had allowed in any inning all season. It was just three runs shy of tying the franchise worst of eleven back in 83′ and 84′. It just so happens that in 84′ the Mariners were also playing the Blue Jays, albeit, not in the heat of a playoff race.

Martin did stop the bleeding by getting out of the inning, but for many, it was too late, the Mariners and their season had already expired.

For all of that to happen in forty minutes, at this time of the year, virtually washed away the estimated four hundred and fifty three hours the Mariners had played this year up to this point.

This was the series that was going to make or break the M’s season, and they were broken beyond repair. The irreparable damage took forty minutes, but will be remembered for years to come.

Even The Bullpen Is Suffering Again

From Vincent to Rollins, and including Martin, the Bullpen had it’s worst day of the month. It allowed a combined six hits, four runs and four walks in 5.2 innings pitched. That is not good no matter how you look at it.

It was the most runs the bullpen had allowed this month.

For Martin, not only were his three walks a season-high, but he has also allowed at least one earned run in four of his six relief appearances. Last night he also allowed one of the four home runs.

The young prospect, David Rollins, is in a similar boat to Martin. In his last three relief outings, he has allowed a run. He has also given up two home runs in that span, including last night. Since that three game streak began, his ERA has risen from 4.05 to 7.71.

But of course, we save the worst for last. Nick Vincent has been one of the darlings of the bullpen this month (although he’s had his ups and downs all year). Well, after yesterday, that’s likely to change. He gave up two hits (which both allowed runs to score) and walked a batter. He couldn’t record a single out. Whenever your ERA reads “infinite” It is never a good sign.

Next: Mariners: What We Learned

And while the bullpen struggled and the bats didn’t produce much offense, we can all blame Iannetta for ruining arguably our best chance to make the playoffs in fifteen years. Even if there are still twelve games left in the season.

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