Grading the Seattle Mariners' gut punch of a 3-0 sweep vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

It was as recently as May 23 that the Seattle Mariners were eight games over .500 and 3.5 games up in the American League West. Those are now officially the "good ol' days," courtesy of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

After entering Arizona with a two-game buffer between them and .500, the Mariners are now a game under at 33-34 following a three-game sweep. And as sweeps go, this one wasn't not especially competitive. The M's got outscored 23 to 9, with old friend Eugenio Suárez providing the dagger with a game-turning grand slam on Wednesday.

There isn't a lot to be positive about right now, so let's not bother with a sunny disposition as we prepare to dig deeper into this series and grade how the Mariners performed in all facets of the game.

Mariners vs. Diamondbacks Breakdown and Grades: Series Results

• Monday, June 9: SEA 4, ARI 8 (11)
• Tuesday, June 10: SEA 3, ARI 10
• Wednesday, June 11: SEA 2, ARI 5

Grading the Mariners’ Offense: F

Just as a bit of background, the Mariners came into this series having scored an average of just 3.5 runs over their last 33 games. That's an offense that was on the fritz if there ever was one.

And so it still goes three games later. And in this case, just as upsetting as the fact that the Mariners scored only nine runs in the three games is the other fact that they scored in only five different innings.

There were bright spots, of course. Dominic Canzone's game-tying tank in the ninth inning on Monday was a welcome shot to the system. Otherwise, Julio Rodríguez just keeps racking up multi-hit games — three in this series and six this month already — and Randy Arozarena and Jorge Polanco are still showing signs of life.

Hey, even Donovan Solano got in on the fun with his first homer as a Mariner on Wednesday.

More generally, it is a positive that the Mariners racked up 32 hits and 10 walks in this series. But it's a positive in an abstract way, as what good are baserunners if so few of them come around to score?

This has been an issue all year for Seattle, and the returns were especially abysmal in this series. The Mariners are leaving Arizona after having gone just 5-for-41 with runners in scoring position, as it their collective clutch gene withered and finally died in the desert.

All told, the Mariners have made more outs with runners in scoring position than all but two other American League teams. An optimist would say they'll regress to the mean eventually, but not us. After two months of this, we're frankly too jaded to stand by that stance.

Grading the Mariners’ Defense: B

Of the 23 runs the Mariners served up in this series, 15 of them crossed the plate on home runs. There's only so much a defense can do about that, even if it is fair to take issue with how Arozarena didn't even run after Lourdes Gurriel Jr.'s wall-scraper on Tuesday.

Moreover, all but seven of the Diamondbacks' 33 hits in this series were above the hard-hit threshold of 95 mph off the bat. Once again, only so much the defense can do. If anything, it's commendable that the Mariners didn't commit any errors.

This is not to say there weren't leaks, of course. Logan Evans made a mental error when he was slow to cover first base on a ground ball on Tuesday, which ultimately led to a run on a Josh Naylor double that Dominic Canzone was too slow to reach in right-center field.

Still, it's worth focusing on moments when the defense actually bailed the team out. Cole Young made a nifty diving play with the infield in to cut down a run in the 10th inning on Monday. And his effort level later in the game notwithstanding, Arozarena did get Evans out of a jam with a strong throw home in the first inning on Tuesday:

Yes, the defense has been an enigma for the Mariners in 2025. It's nice that they have committed only 27 errors, but it is not faring as well with advanced metrics. To wit, it has just one Defensive Runs Saved and -8 Outs Above Average.

But if you're looking for an explanation for why the M's lost this series, it's best to look elsewhere.

Grading the Mariners’ Pitching: F

Namely, in the direction of the pitching.

There's no way to sugarcoat it, really. Mariners pitchers got absolutely torched in this series. Beyond the seven homers and 33 hits (which, again, were mostly of the hard-hit variety), Seattle pitchers also served up 15 walks. Of those, 10 came in the first game alone.

It is some comfort that the Diamondbacks have been one of the most relentless offensive teams in MLB since the start of last season, and it's not as if it was their lesser hitters were burning the M's in this series. Corbin Carroll, Ketel Marte, Suárez, and Naylor all made their presence felt, as they usually do in any given series.

All the same, it can no longer be ignored that the pitching is in just as much of a rut as the hitting these days.

The Mariners have allowed 5.0 runs per game since May 4, with an average of 1.4 home runs mixed in. There's nothing accidental about it, as their 425 hard-hit balls allowed are the most in MLB during this span.

It's hard to fault Emerson Hancock, who continues to provide roughly five quality innings every time he takes the ball. And we're not even going to fault Evans, who was shaky yet solid enough in five innings in place of Bryce Miller on Tuesday.

We will pick a little on Bryan Woo, however. Though his string of six-inning starts remains intact, he's allowed nine earned runs across the last two and two homers in each of the last three. He's been grooving too many pitches, including the cement-mixer slider that Geno used to treat himself to Grand Salami Time in Wednesday.

The bullpen, meanwhile, is basically a daily nightmare. Its 4.79 ERA for the last 30 days is the third-highest in MLB, and it's not even "hold your breath" time when someone other than Andrés Muñoz, Gabe Speier, or Matt Brash has the ball. You just know things are not going to go well, because that's just the way it has been.

Going forward, one hope must be that Logan Gilbert's return stabilizes the rotation and ultimately takes more innings out of the bullpen's hands. The other, more pressing hope is that the team will stay in contention long enough for Jerry Dipoto to do something about the pen.

And right now, it's hard to feel confident that contention is in the Mariners' immediate future.

Grading the Mariners’ Strategy: C

Dan Wilson only has so many options to squeeze life out of the lineup right now. But he at least tried in this series, notably by moving Polanco into the cleanup spot in the first two games.

What the heck, right? And it worked! Even if Wilson was likely doing little more than playing a hunch after Polanco had warmed up with a little four-game hit streak prior to the team's arrival in Arizona, his two games batting clean-up still yielded three hits and a walk. That'll work, and will hopefully be a confidence booster for the veteran.

Plus, the Mariners got all four of their runs during Monday's ninth-inning rally from guys who had entered the game as pinch-hitters. It's a reminder that there's wisdom in throwing things at the wall in hopes that they'll stick, as sometimes things do indeed stick.

It's otherwise hard to look at a series in which the M's got outscored by 14 runs and fault how Wilson deployed his offense. His pitching changes are a different story, particularly to the extent that he dared to use Casey Legumina and Trent Thornton in two-run games on Monday and Tuesday. The two made both games less close by combining to allow seven runs.

It was all too predictable. Legumina has been a bad rut for a couple weeks now, while Thornton had a 5.87 ERA even before he went on the injured list due to appendicitis. In a perfect world, these are guys you use only in mop-up duty.

Yet as we usually say, Wilson is doing what he can with what he has. And what he doesn't have is enough quality relievers. As long as that remains the case, he has no choice but to expose low-leverage guys to high-leverage work on occasion.

For anyone who's curious, FanGraphs now has the Mariners' playoff odds below 50 percent for the first time since early April. And unlike back then, it's hard not to be cognizant about how time's a wastin'.

Up next, the Mariners have an off day on Thursday (thank the maker!) before returning to T-Mobile Park for a six-game home stand against Cleveland and Boston. Look forward to that at your own peril.