Mariners vs. Orioles: The M’s end up on the wrong side of history

I am sure you already know, but the Mariners weren’t able to record a hit against John Means of the Baltimore Orioles yesterday. The M’s had a chance to win the three-game series against the struggling O’s, but we were absolutely shut down.

One of my keys to winning the series was to win game one and two of the series so it wasn’t in John Means’ hands, but that’s what ended up happening, and look at the result.

The Orioles ace enters the history books

Not only did John Means no-hit the Mariners, but he was also extremely close to a perfect game. The only thing that led to imperfection was the drop third strike / wild pitch, which allowed Sam Haggerty to reach first base. Also, Means ended up only facing the minimum 27 batters because Haggerty was caught stealing second base after reaching first.

The southpaw needed just 113 pitches and 79 of those pitches were for strikes. Mariners hitters averaged only an 81.9 mph exit velocity and whiffed 39% of the time. Means’ changeup fastball combo killed the struggling Seattle offense. But are you surprised?

With how the Mariners have been playing, it was almost the perfect opportunity for the breakout ace to throw a gem. This is exactly the reason why the Mariners needed to win the series before even facing Means.

Besides being on the wrong side of history, it is also unfortunate that John Means’ outing overshadowed Yusei Kikuchi’s performance. Yusei went seven innings and allowed three runs while striking out seven. This is the third time Kikuchi has thrown seven innings this season and he has been great except for one start (arguably two).

Although we lost a very winnable series, the Mariners are still sitting in second place in the AL West at 17-15. The Mariners will now travel to Texas to play three games against the Rangers, which should be another winnable series for Seattle.

Let’s see if our offense can start to turn the corner against a subpar pitching staff, and warm weather in the south.