Mariners and Dan Wilson keep finding the same ways to lose in meltdown vs. Yankees

At this point, the Seattle Mariners with a lead might even be more ominous than the Seattle Mariners with a deficit. Leads just feel doomed, like to a sugar cube in someone's hand in the middle of a rainstorm. The meltdown is coming, and there isn't even a question of how it'll happen.

So as much as we don't enjoy being the bearers of bad news, the offense and Dan Wilson's managing cost the Mariners another game on Tuesday. It was a 4-1 loss to the New York Yankees in which the Mariners got only three hits and the Yankees scored all their runs in the seventh inning. Yeah, one of those.

It was Michael Rucker who took the L, and not undeservedly so given that all four of the Yankees' runs were charged to him. He gave up three hits and a walk and got just one out. Not necessarily surprising stuff for a guy who's meant to be one of Wilson's low-leverage arms, though that obviously points to the question of why he was tasked with protecting a 1-0 lead in that spot.

That's normally a place for Gabe Speier, but it was clear just from Rucker's presence that Speier wasn't available despite being fresh off a suspension. Yet even if that was the case, why not bring Jose A. Ferrer back out after a clean 16-pitch sixth inning to face two lefties (Luis García Jr. and Jazz Chisholm Jr.) leading off the seventh? If not him, why Rucker and not Eduard Bazardo or Seranthony Domínguez, both of whom have more experience in leverage spots?

The point is that it was a dumb sequence. But by now, this is said not with a raised voice, but a shrug.

That Wilson tends to defy logic with his bullpen management is nothing new. It's not the only reason his job should be on thin ice, but Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times just ran a long piece on Monday about why Wilson is likely safe. It gave voice to a suspicion anyone could have had about his job security, and every day puts him in better position to run out the clock. The end of the season is only 42 games away.

Dan Wilson isn't the problem with the Mariners' incredible disappearing offense

Otherwise, it's never a good sign when one can say "Hey, at least they didn't get shut out" and mean it.

Randy Arozarena's solo homer in the sixth inning spared the Mariners from what would have been their 12th goose-egg defeat, but a 16th defeat with just one run scored is hardly a consolation prize. Overall, the Mariners now lead the league with 27 losses in which they scored no more than one run.

Tuesday's loss feels especially like a symbol of how little hope there is to scrape off the bottom of the barrel. It's not just that the Mariners only had three hits. It's that Arozarena's homer was the only one that left the infield. In the end, the Yankees collected 12 of the 14 hardest-hit balls of the game.

Yes, the notion that Mariners hitters have been unlucky this season has merit by way of a .272 average on balls in play. But they also have the eighth-highest strikeout rate and the eighth-fewest hard-hit balls. It's a total offensive failure that is as much (or more) on Edgar Martinez as it is on Wilson.

Anyway, the Mariners are 56-64 and 5.0 games out of first place in the AL West as of this writing. Sorry for being so flippant about it, but this is life after we know better than to ask if this is really what the 2026 Mariners are all about. It is, and that has been the truth for a while now.

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