Lifeless Mariners Drift to Sea in Ugly 6-0 Loss to Brewers
SEATTLE, Wash. – Well, that wasn’t the best way to honor the anniversary of getting Jay Buhner from some baseball people who loved Ken Phelps’ bat. Sometimes, the Mariners play at the maximum chaos level, like they did on Saturday. Other times, it’s as predictable as a Hallmark movie. When Dylan Moore swings and misses on a fastball to end a 6-0 loss all while the home crowd is chanting for the other team, it’s the latter.
The offense was completely nonexistent on Monday night, both against a Brandon Woodruff who would have thrown a complete game shutout if he wasn’t on an innings limit due to his recent injury return and against every Brewers reliever that came out there after him.
On the other side of the ball, the defense again ended up struggling, but the biggest issue was George Kirby giving his opponents beach balls as soon as trouble started in the sixth inning. Defenders don’t mess up difficult but still necessary plays when the pitcher is dealing, because those plays don’t happen in the first place, at least not with the same stakes.
Uneasy Pitcher’s Duel Opens Game
Kirby began the game with somewhat erratic control, falling behind two of the first three hitters in the first and struggling to hit the corners, but he was able to get some swing-and-miss on curveballs beneath the zone and enough soft contact to get three quick outs. Woodruff simply threw his low-90s fastballs out over the plate and let three Mariners pop up to get through the first on four pitches. Then Kirby responded with a six-pitch second. Woodruff brought out the changeup in the bottom half and fanned Jorge Polanco for the game’s first strikeout before getting through the inning with a total of 16 pitches thrown.
The Mariners starter worked a bit more in the third, but Kirby contained a leadoff walk to keep his clean sheet. Woodruff did the same with Ben Williamson’s leadoff single in the bottom half. Kirby now had 35 pitches and Woodruff 31.
William Contreras had a bit of harder contact to lead off the fourth, only for the ball to be hit right at a defender. Kirby pounded Christian Yelich with three low curveballs to get him fishing on the next at bat and then Jackson Chourio also squared the ball up, but again, it found a Mariner glove. In the bottom half, Woodruff also allowed several hard hit balls, but they resulted in easy flyouts.
The fifth inning was another easy frame for Kirby, who breezed through three men with 12 pitches. A leadoff hit in the Mariner half went nowhere as Woodruff easily blew past the following trio of Mariners. Through five, Kirby stood at 58 pitches and Woodruff at 49.
Brewers Capitalize on Mistakes from Kirby, Rodriguez
For essentially the whole game, Kirby had been switching between hanging pitches right out over the plate or missing the corner by a couple inches for a ball. The Brewers, not the league’s best hitting team, simply couldn’t capitalize for five innings, suffering from soft contact and well-placed defenders. Through five innings, they had yet to get a hit.
With one out in the top of the sixth, the Brewers finally put something together. Joey Ortiz hit a soft liner just out of the reach of J.P. Crawford at short. Kirby then fell behind Brice Turang 2-0, prompting a visit to the mound from Cal Raleigh. The count got to 3-1 and then Kirby gave him a two-seamer right over the middle of the plate.
Now we go to Seattle’s center fielder. Were it not for Julio Rodriguez’ defensive misplays on Monday night, the decisive Brewers sixth inning would not have scratched across any runs. Instead, Milwaukee plated four. Now we return to the 3-1 meatball for Brice Turang.
Turang missed it a little and lofted a fly ball into left center field. Given the game situation, the ball needed to be caught. Indeed, it was catchable. But Rodriguez seemed to slow down as the ball fell into the gap and it landed in the outfield grass. Ortiz, expecting Rodriguez to make the catch, only made it to third.
Then Contreras hit a fly ball to fairly deep right. If Rodriguez had caught Turang’s fly ball in the previous at-bat, it would have been out number three and a potential jam averted for George Kirby in the sixth. But instead, it was the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0 Milwaukee.
Yelich got a first-pitch curveball out over the plate and cracked a grounder into right to score Turang to make it 2-0. With the state the Mariners’ offense was in all game, this was about the max that the team could afford to give up. A couple solo shots are always possible for the team, but they’re prone to getting in long stretches of zero production that are painfully obvious to anyone watching.
Adding on, Chourio also got a first-pitch meatball, in this case a grooved slider. He drilled it to deep center field, but it was a high fly ball that was going to stay in the ballpark. Rodriguez ran back but mimicked his twisty-turny backwards run from yesterday’s ballgame, again costing him valuable time as the ball dropped onto the wall and ended up a run-scoring double.
It wasn’t a first pitch to Isaac Collins, at least, but it was another grooved slider than ended up pelted into right to score Chourio and bring the Brewers up 4-0.
It proved decisive. Kirby was clearly quite upset with himself after the game, emphasizing that he needed to “execute better.” But ultimately, he only ceded four runs, and the mark of a true contender is to never be out of a game no matter the deficit – especially when it’s less than five runs. And the defense certainly did not help his cause.
Brandyn Garcia Debut Goes Off Rails
After a quick seventh by Trent Thornton, the eighth inning saw the debut of the big league squad’s newest member, relief pitcher Brandyn Garcia. But Garcia didn’t get a very kind welcome to the bigs from the Brew Crew. He had significant control trouble, missing a lot of his pitches far outside and even throwing one about 10 feet over Cal Raleigh’s head.
Turang opened the inning with a single cracked to left, but he then tried to run on Raleigh’s arm, which proved to be a big mistake. The Mariner catcher gunned him down easily. Garcia was lucky to have his seasoned backstop, as Contreras belted a double down the right field line on the very next pitch.
On the next at bat, Yelich hit a slow roller up to the mound. It wasn’t the easiest play to make, but if the throw had been on target, it would have been out number two. Instead, Garcia airmailed it several feet in front of first. Contreras ran home and Yelich ended up on second. Garcia seemingly didn’t pay attention to him on the bag and Yelich got to third without a pitch being thrown.
Chourio then ripped one past a Cole Young playing on the grass due to the runner at third to send a sixth run home for the Brewers. Then came a walk to Isaac Collins before Andrew Vaughn finally ended the top of the eighth with a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play.
Carlos Vargas quickly worked the ninth, though by that point, it had ceased to matter.
Completely Dead Offense
I already said the stretch Seattle’s offense is in is painful to watch. There’s always a bunch of stretches like this in every Mariners season, it seems: 15-25 innings straight of not a single run. When the M’s are in a stretch like this, it’s ridiculously obvious and predictable. You can’t tell when it will end exactly, but it’s always after at least one shutout.
After this game, the Mariners have failed to score a run in 14 straight innings.
Why does this keep happening? Well, the Mariners have a lot of uniquely streaky hitters. Rodriguez, Arozarena, Raley, Canzone, Polanco, et cetera. Crawford and Raleigh are the only two who don’t look completely dead in a cold streak (not counting Williamson or Young, who are still rookies). So if everyone on the team is cold, you’re essentially reliant on a random solo homer from Mitch Garver or someone if you want any morsel of offensive production.
The best chance for the team came in the eighth after Ben Williamson reached on a one-out grounder bobbled at short. Cole Young drew a walk and then J.P. Crawford hit into a fielder’s choice to get Williamson to third, sending Rodriguez up to bat.
Rodriguez hadn’t been doing well offensively this game. In his first at-bat, he got a 1-0 fastball out over the plate and popped it up to short. His second at-bat was better, as he worked a full count on the first five pitches, but he took a strike three that caught a good chunk of the plate. His third at-bat saw him completely whiff on a fastball right down the middle and then strike out on high heat.
This at-bat looked better, but the end result still wasn’t desirable. The first two pitches were breaking balls in the dirt, while Rodriguez took the third pitch for a strike. The fourth pitch from Brewers reliever Aaron Ashby was a repeat of the first, and this time, Rodriguez swung, chopping a grounder into the left side hole. Ortiz got to the ball, but it would be a tough throw – he didn’t have time to set himself and throw normally. The Milwaukee shortstop launched an across-the-body missile to beat Rodriguez to the bag by two steps. The run wouldn’t have mattered anyway, but the shutout held through the eighth.
Raleigh was probably the best Mariner hitter today, even with three popups. His weakness at the plate does appear to be heaters up in the zone, as his mechanics result in high zone hits going at launch angles too high to do anything with.
This is common in today’s game as a result of the launch angle revolution; when batters aimed for line drives, high fastballs were the archetypal meatball that would result in the launch angle sweet spot. Now, they’re one of the best ways to get past the best hitters in the game.
But Raleigh did have two 100+ exit velocity batted balls (it says a lot when that’s the biggest positive). The first was essentially popped up and ended as a can of corn, but the second was lined right into left field to lead off the ninth inning. Nothing ended up coming out of it unfortunately.
After a strikeout and a fielder’s choice, Dylan Moore came up to plate with two away and two on in the bottom of the ninth. His ensuing strikeout was the most predictable part of the entire game. It’s become clear his homer earlier this month was a mirage; he simply can’t catch up to a fastball right now.
Cole Young’s Defensive Mixed Bag
In the second inning, the Brewers had a chance to capitalize on a bad mistake by Young. With one out and Anthony Siegler on first, the runner bolted for second. Cal Raleigh fired a dime to the bag to beat the runner by a mile, but Young dropped the catch and the runner was safe.
There was a play in the fourth that showcased another of Cole Young’s weaknesses: his late jumps. Isaac Collins hit a pretty routine slow grounder into the hole, but the rookie infielder registered the ball quite late, and so the play ended up taking every inch of his range. I’ve noticed quite a few late jumps from Young, and it’s a put a damper on what should be excellent defensive range from the rookie second baseman.
But in the sixth, Young made a legitimately good play. Anthony Seigler cracked a medium-speed grounder between where Young and Crawford were playing in the middle infield, but this time, Young got an okay jump and showcased his range effectively with a diving grab.
This combination of things shows that while he has a lot of stuff to work on and definitely isn’t a finished product on the defensive side, Young has a solid ceiling and isn’t a big liability most of the time.
On the other side of the ball, his walk was good to see, but there wasn’t anything else of note.
On Deck
With this loss, the Mariners fall to 53-47, now five games out of the AL West – exactly where they started the second half. In the Wild Card, the M’s are still tied with the Red Sox for the second and third spots (and still come out ahead in the tiebreaker) and are still one and a half games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays, but are now just two and a half ahead of the Texas Rangers and are two games back of the Yankees for the first wild card.
After two games against the Astros last weekend, it looked like the team had an outside shot of competing for the division. Now it appears that dream is dwindling for now, but the Wild Card is still wide open.
The games against Texas at the turn of the next month will be a crucial opportunity to bury a potential competitor, but for now, the team needs to focus on waking up for its two remaining contests with the Brewers – who have now won 11 straight.
