Mariners wrap up the series with the Guardians in disappointing fashion

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The Mariners just wrapped up their second season of the year, and their first homestand as well. Although it started off well, things quickly went downhill once Triston McKenzie got off the mound in the first game. It really seemed like the Mariners were going to start turning it around on offense after a rough series against the Red Sox, as they started taking pitches and working at-bats.

Instead, once McKenzie came out of the game, the Mariners forgot how to hit. Over the next 2.5 games, they seemed incapable of scoring runs, putting together good at-bats, or doing anything worthwhile at the plate. In fact, they would score just two runs in the next 22.1 innings. That's embarrassing no matter who you are facing.

Let's dive a little bit deeper into the series to take a look at what went well for the Mariners, and what went wrong. Believe me, it was a lot easier to find what went wrong for the Mariners than what went right for the Mariners. Let's get into it to see what happened and the main reasons for the Mariners in their 1-2 series loss to the Guardians.

Three things that went well

The Bullpen

Let's start off with the good things first. That way, if you want to hear only the positive, you can just bounce out and not read the final slide. After seeing Kirby get absolutely shelled, the bullpen had 5.1 innings of scoreless ball with just one hit and one walk. 10.1 innings and two runs is what the bullpen ended up finishing at. While it's way more innings than you want your bullpen to throw in a three-game series, it was great to see them post a 1.74 ERA. If they can do just have that good (3.48 ERA) and then have Brash and Santos back? Holy cow is it going to be fun.

Emerson Hancock

Was it actually good? He blew through the first two innings with just 15 pitches, but got into trouble in the third and threw 25 in that inning alone. Some think he did well, while others are worried about the underlying stats that back his start. If anything, it was good enough from the perspective that he was able to pitch into the sixth inning, and got the Mariners the win... which just so happened to be the first win of Hancock's career.

Ty France and Mitch Haniger

There really isn't much else to go after here. Let's throw in Ty France, who is hitting .320/.370/.360 so far through 7 games. He hasn't shown a ton of power yet, but he is hitting the ball a lot harder than he did last season, and making cleaner contact while he does it.

Mitch Haniger stands out too. While his batting average is "only" .261, the rest of his slash line is .346/.478. He's showing a good eye at the plate with power. If he can keep that up, it's going to be the punch that the Mariners need in the middle of the lineup, as you would have to believe that the rest of the lineup is going to pick it up at some point.

Three things that cost the Mariners

Luis Castillo

The start by Luis Castillo was going really well to start. He was dominating the zone, striking out six hitters through the first three innings. He looked to be in complete control, a nice change from his first start of the season. Then, with a runner on and two outs, Haniger booted a grounder in right, and Ramirez scored. While all the runs after that were earned, you could argue it rattled him as three runs ended up scoring that inning. He ended up going 5-2/3 and giving up four on 99 pitches, but 72 strikes.

Strikeouts and the buzzsaw that is Shane Bieber

One of our contributors sent this to our group before the final game, that the Mariners were one game shy of tying the record for most consecutive games with 9 or more strikeouts to start a season. Well, they ended up not tying the all-time record as they only struck out 8 times in the finale. Unfortunately, they weren't able to do anything at the plate, with just five hits and four walks.

Then you have Shane Bieber. He pitched the second game of the series, and the Mariners technically did better than Athletics did against him, as the Mariners struck out 9 times compared to their 11. It still was rough to watch, as Bieber had the Mariners hitters guessing all evening. Bieber gave up six hits to the Mariners, but with no walks, he never really got into trouble against the M's.

The disgusting defense

No, this isn't the type of disgusting when it's talking about something being amazing. No, this is the avert your eyes and keep your kids away from it because it might scare them at how gross it looks. It seemed like everytime you looked up, there was someone screwing up. I mentioned Haniger earlier, and he had a couple of miscues. There was one in the finale that got past Ty France and was 100% an error regardless of what the box score said. It was a hard liner, and somehow the hitter got to second. That's Haniger and France there.

The dumbest one all week was in the finale, when the Guardians had a hit and run on. Crawford went to cover the bag, and with a ball hit up the middle on the second base side, he tried to go get it. One problem... Polanco was already there. They ended up colliding, but luckily everyone was okay. It seemed like something that should happen to middle schoolers, not two guys with a combined 10+ years of experience in the majors.

The Mariners lost the series, and are set to head off for their first road trip of the season with a 3-4 record. Let's just hope that the offense starts to show up.

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