Mariners Still Can’t Hit, Lose 9-2 to Astros
By Ty Gonzalez
I’m sorry, but it appears we have lost your offense. I can offer you a 25% discount at the Best Western for the inconvenience.
Slumps are the most consistent thing about baseball. They happen to every player and every team across the spectrum. Whether you’re Mike Trout or Mike Wilson, you are not immune to a nasty slump.
The Mariners, to start this season, greatly overachieved. With four players flirting with a .400 batting average over the first two weeks, they were one of the most efficient offenses in all of baseball.
To be fair, their success came against regular teams with regular starting rotations. The Astros are not a regular team. All five of their starters are pitching an ace level.
Somehow, the Mariners were able to scrape the first game of this series against Dallas Keuchel, who, perhaps, has been the worst of the five Astros starters so far in 2018. He’s still really good.
Gerrit Cole is their number four starter, for God’s sake.
All that said, the Mariners could have, and should have, been better this series.
There was a lack of a solid game plan at the plate. The Mariners didn’t do a lot to help themselves and failed to take advantage of the few cracks the Astros showed.
This was put on full display today. Facing their first series loss of the year, the Mariners sent Marco Gonzales out to the bump.
This probably wasn’t the best day for Gonzales to pitch, as Tyler O’Neill, the prospect Gonzales was traded for in an unpopular move, was called up by the St. Louis Cardinals this morning.
So now the skepticism of the trade was put to the forefront. Gonzales seemingly stepped up and owned it.
Through three innings, Gonzales had already struck out seven Astros, including George Springer twice. His first inning consisted of three of those strikeouts. Everything was working for him.
Even when he got into trouble in the fourth inning, he got Evan Gattis tapped a ball over to Kyle Seager who stepped on third and threw to second for a double play. Then, as the aware Seager immediately pointed out, Gattis had forgotten how many outs there were in the inning. As Gattis jogged back to the dugout and ignored the pleas of his first base coach, Dan Vogelbach tagged him out for perhaps one of the weirdest triple plays ever recorded.
It was 0-0.
The Mariners just couldn’t get anything going against Charlie Morton, the apparent “weakest link” of the Astros rotation. He hasn’t pitched like that at all this season and continued his great success today against the M’s.
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Then the fifth inning happened. Gonzales got into trouble after a Seager error that put Alex Bregman at second base. Bregman later scored on a Josh Reddick flyout, then Gonzales struck Jake Marisnick out with runners at first and third.
Due up was Springer, who, as previously mentioned, had struck out in his first two ABs versus Gonzales. Scott Servais didn’t care and promptly removed Gonzales in favor of Dan Altavilla.
This was a bad decision.
Altavilla walked Springer, then was dealt the killing blow of the game on a bases-clearing double by Jose Altuve.
After that, the Astros continued to pile on runs while the Mariners offense faltered.
Marc Rzepczynski and Wade LeBlanc continue to be poor options out of the bullpen. The two southpaw gave up a combined five runs, including two homers to Max Stassi and Josh Reddick.
The offense was finally able to put up some runs when the game was out of reach. David Freitas doubled in Guillermo Heredia, then Jean Segura scored Freitas on his own double. But that came against Tony Sipp and Hector Rondon in the baseball equivalent of garbage time, so does it even matter?
Ultimately, the Mariners fell to the Astros 9-2 and lost their first series of the year. Today’s game ends their seven-game homestand in which they went 3-4. They are now 9-8 on the season as they head back on the road until May 1st.
Thankfully, the upcoming road trip includes visits to a pair of struggling teams: the Texas Rangers and the Chicago White Sox. Additionally, catcher Mike Zunino is expected to be activated from the disabled list and make his season debut tomorrow.
Next: Sodo Mojo's Power Rankings: Where Are the Mariners?
In that game, Felix Hernandez (2-2, 5.48 ERA) will square off with Rangers newcomer Mike Minor (1-1, 4.60 ERA) in Arlington, Texas. Hopefully, the Mariners offense will get back on track and stack a few wins against a lesser opponent. ROOT Sports will have the call at 5:05 PM PT.