Mariners can’t gain ground on A’s in series finale

Today’s Oakland finale featured the former Cy Young winner against the Kenny Lofton of baseball, Edwin Jackson. Both pitchers ended up tossing quality starts. As the game progressed, this looked like too many past Felix starts. He throws a gem while the hitting doesn’t show up.

In what has been a disappointing 2018 campaign, Felix owned the A’s for a majority of the game.

After our home team drew first blood with an early run, we failed to build on it. Once again, scoring consistently was an uphill battle for the second-half Mariners. Felix’s first mistake came bottom fifth with a two-out, solo shot to Stephen Piscotty. That ended up knotting the game and the A’s took over from there.

Rival Oakland broke out in the sixth, chasing Felix out of the game. The mess all began with a Zunino passed the ball which deflected off the ump’s chest. Servais pulled Felix that inning but the relievers didn’t exactly relieve. Not counting inherited runners, Mariner relievers gave up two of the four runs that inning.

A’s hitters couldn’t be stopped as they continuously hit in the clutch, moving station to station. First to third, first to third, sac fly. They did what our hitters couldn’t hit in clutch situations. Down by only four in the top of the seventh, the M’s again failed to take advantage of a rally as Seager was stranded on third, less than two outs. And who knows why Scott Brosius didn’t send him home on a Dee flyball to left? In the most critical game this season.

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Another questionable decision occurred as in the top of the eighth, Seager killed a potential rally. With men on, he popped out against one of the AL’s best closers, Blake Treinen. The question mark wasn’t the pop out but swinging at just the first pitch!

The last gasp ultimately ended for us in the bottom of the eighth as within a save opportunity, Scott Servais’s newest bullpen decision ended with Grimm results. Reliever Justin Grimm sealed the loss with Piscotty’s second jack of the game, making it a six-run deficit with three outs left. But when Servais puts a pitcher with a 13.50 ERA into a key situation, that’s the result he will get.

This loss epitomized the directions of these team’s seasons. The Mariners got things going early in the first half yet it wasn’t by much of a margin. They then collapsed in the game’s latter half. Meanwhile, the A’s had a quiet first half of the game but turned the jets on once it hit the second half.

The ball was in our court to start this series but we lost track of it. Instead, we are right back where we started. The wild card deficit was five-and-a-half entering Oakland and it remains that way leaving it.

However, our boys are still alive but this series didn’t end ideally. Under the circumstances of a playoff race, this was a failed series. The Mariners badly needed to take three out of four or sweep and they didn’t do it.

Tomorrow’s matchup: Orioles (Josh Rogers) at Mariners (Erasmo Ramirez), 6:10 PM PT