Dan Wilson's fingerprints are all over loss that knocked Mariners out of 1st place

The Seattle Mariners got to spend 33 days in first place in the AL West after taking the lead on May 27. But that run is over now, by way of a Texas Rangers win in Toronto and, more to the point, an excruciating loss in Cleveland that falls on the shoulders of Dan Wilson.

The short version is that the Mariners took a 4-1 lead over the Guardians into the bottom of the eighth inning, only to lose 6-5 after Cleveland went full "Guard ball" for five runs. The slightly longer version also mentions that they did it against Seattle's understaffed bullpen, courtesy of multiple assists from Wilson.

Wilson's first assist actually happened in the sixth inning, when he burned Eduard Bazardo to get one out in relief of Emerson Hancock. With Jose A. Ferrer unavailable after pitching back-to-back days, that left Gabe Speier and Andrés Muñoz as the only high-leverage arms left to get the last nine outs.

The pain of that was felt even before the Guardians started throwing punches in the eighth. Wilson opened with journeyman righty Michael Rucker, who gave up a run and had runners at second and third and one out, with Steven Kwan at the plate. Yet even though Kwan entered the day with .163 average against lefties and was one of four straight lefties due up for Cleveland, Wilson stuck with Rucker anyway.

Rucker's walk to Kwan might as well have opened the floodgates even before Wilson finally went to left-hander Josh Simpson. Either way, the Mariners were swept away two hits and four runs later.

Dan Wilson simply has to do better with what the Mariners are giving him to work with

Even after a loss as brutal as that one, there are excuses you can make for Wilson.

It's not his fault that the Mariners are rostering six starting pitchers, leaving him with just seven men in the bullpen. Nor is it his fault that Matt Brash, Cooper Criswell and Carlos Vargas are all hurt, hence why guys like Rucker and Simpson are even around. And no, it's not all his fault that it was a celebratory moment when the Mariner scored four runs on Sunday. That they hadn't done that in over two weeks is a mark of shame for an offense that was meant to be good.

At a certain point, though, a manager with a suboptimal roster is no different from a chef with suboptimal ingredients. It's a disadvantage, yes. But if that means you can't serve up anything but crud, well, that's on you.

Wilson should have shaken up his starting lineup long before the freeze set in. And on days when he knows his bullpen is a man short — which is that much more of a problem with a seven-man pen — he needs to have more willingness to risk asking more from his starters. Sunday is a perfect example, as asking Hancock (who was at 97 pitches) to get one more out may have resulted in Bazardo being available to get three later in the game.

This is to say the optics are no better than the vibe, and the vibe is pretty bad. The Mariners badly need a sense of urgency, yet one can already hear Wilson shrugging off Sunday' loss with a "That's baseball" or a "Tough one today."

Maybe it's not time to fire the guy. But if nothing else, it's well past time for Wilson to get his act together.

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