Good, Bad, and Ugly: A Look At Inept Offensive Performance in Mariners 1-0 loss to White Sox
The Seattle Mariners have been outstanding on the road and had won four straight, so naturally, they were obviously due for a poor performance.
But poor seems like an understatement for this one, at least offensively. After waiting for hours because of a rain delay, Seattle was shut out for the first time since the second game of the season, and they fell to the lowly Chicago White Sox by a score of 1-0.
Let’s look at the good, bad, and ugly from the loss in the middle game of the three-game set in the Windy City:
Good: The pitching
The Mariners went with a bullpen game for Tuesday’s contest, and the relief corps handled things just fine. Casey Legumina opened for Seattle with a scoreless inning, and Casey Lawrence was able to give up just one run over his five innings after relieving Legumina. It was far from a dominant effort from Lawrence that saw him give up six hits and generate just five swings and misses while he was in the game. Gabe Speier and Carlos Vargas were both excellent in their relief appearances as well. You should win when you give up one run pretty much every time.
And yet…
Bad: The offense. Again.
Seattle’s offense is vastly improved in both process and result in 2025. That was not evident whatsoever Tuesday, however. Even while facing a multiple-time castoff in Adrian Houser and one of the worst bullpens in the sport, the Mariners were only able to generate four hits and rarely challenged those hurlers. It was as bad as this offense has been, and while you don’t want to panic too much from one result, those who have watched this ball club over the last few season are forgiven for being reminded in an unfriendly way of previous offensive - literally and figuratively - performances.
The biggest concern, in this writer’s eye, is how this offense looked over the last two games. If you take away the Julio Rodriguez grand slam, the Mariners scored all of one run over 18 innings against what is unquestionably the worst team in the American League. I realize that you can’t take away a grand slam, but you know what I mean. Watching this offense outside of that eighth inning has been difficult over the first two games.
Good: Retractable Roofs
Seriously, retractable roofs are the best. They’re very expensive and they’re not always the most aesthetically pleasing things, but they prevent having to watch baseball teams look miserable playing in rain storms. And no, that’s not an excuse for how the Mariners played Tuesday, but they absolutely looked miserable. Love you, retractable roofs. I made you a mixed tape.
Can’t complain about that tonight.
Ugly: Mitch Garver’s eighth inning at bat
The Mariners had exactly one competent offensive inning. Well, competent-adjacent, anyway. Leody Taveras hit a leadoff double, Leo Rivas was hit by a pitch and J.P. Crawford drew a walk to load the bases. With Jorge Polanco (apparently) unable to swing from the right side, the Mariners had Mitch Garver pinch-hit vs. left-hander Cam Booser, and well, look at this.
Folks, that can’t happen. Sure, it was clear that Garver was looking fastball and got a slider, but that pitch has to at least be fouled off. Live to fight another day. You can’t take a pitch that hittable in that situation.
Garver has been better this season than last - faint as that praise might be - and it’s worth pointing out that he got the job done as a pinch-hitter last night before Julio’s grand slam. It’s also worth pointing out that Rodriguez got a couple very hittable pitches after Garver struck out before flying out meagerly to center. But that was a massive moment in the game, and being blunt, it’s one of the worst at-bats I’ve seen in 2025.
