Mariners wrap up the series with the Guardians in disappointing fashion

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.