Mariners pitching, defense falter as they lose series to Tigers

The Mariners were riding high coming off of a spectacular win in the second game of the series against the Detroit Tigers. Jake Fraley and Dillon Thomas play a large part in the win, and it seemed like momentum was on the Mariners side heading into the finale against the Tigers.

The team was walking into a prime opportunity to win and facing a Tigers team that was throwing a bullpen game. This was something the Mariners are intimately familiar with, having done so themselves many times this year.

Unfortunately, both the pitching and defense for the Mariners would falter as they lost the series.

One of the few people who showed up for the Mariners in the finale was Haniger, who started things off in the first inning with a solo bomb, with emphasis on a bomb. He blasted it 415 feet into left-field, hitting a no-doubter to give the team a 1-0 lead. It quickly evaporated, as the Tigers would score two in the first and one in the second to take a 3-1 lead, with Sheffield laboring badly to get through those innings. Through just 1.1 innings, he had already thrown 40 pitches.

Fraley showed up once again in the 4th, starting things off with a single. He would steal his 4th bag of the year, and move to third on a sac fly by Murphy. Newly traded for Jake Bauers came through with a single in his first at-bat, and an RBI groundout here to make it a one-run game.

Back-to-back errors are how the Mariners would start the bottom of the 4th, with Seager and Walton both committing errors. Instead of two outs, the Tigers had runners on the corners. A sac fly and a single later, and the Tigers would be up 5-2, with two unearned runs charged to Sheffield.

You could argue Sheffield had to throw an extra 12 pitches to finish off the inning, and that is what caused him to be pulled after just four innings and 87 pitches. The team had to go to the bullpen early, and it would rear its ugly head later on.

If not for the errors, the home run by Haniger, his second of the day, would’ve tied the game at 3-3 in the 5th. Tied halfway through the game vs. down by two is a drastically different situation, yet it’s where the Mariners found themselves.

Misiewicz would give up two in the 6th on a Grossman homer, followed by Yacksel Rios giving up one in the 7th, pushing the Tigers lead all the way up to 8-3. The Mariners tried to make noise in the 8th when France singled and Fraley walked, but a strikeout by Murphy and groundout by Bauers would end the potential rally.

When it was said and done, the Mariners lost the series to the Tigers, and the season matchup 1-5, being outscored by a bunch in the process. Next up for Mariners will be a three-game series in Cleveland, starting Friday afternoon at 04:10 PM PST. #SeaUsRise