Good, Bad, and Ugly: Best/Worst From Mariners Extra Inning Loss to Nationals
Oof.
After playing one of their most complete games of the season Tuesday, the Seattle Mariners were not even close to their best over their next two games, and the punctuation was a 9-3 loss to the Washington Nationals in extra innings.
It’s time to take a look at the “good,” bad, and ugly from Thursday’s 10-inning defeat.
Good: Emerson Hancock
It was far from a dominant effort from Hancock on Thursday, but effective nonetheless. The right-hander was able to work 5 1/3 innings and kept the Nationals off the board for the first five frames. Unfortunately, his command — and some questionable umpiring behind the plate — caused him to walk a couple of batters, and he was charged for both runs when James Wood (more on him in a second) lashed a two-run double to give Washington a 2-0 lead.
Let me also say, I had no issue with the decision to bring Gabe Speier in to face Wood. Hancock’s command for the majority of the start was poor, and leaving him in to face Wood for a third time would have been malpractice. Plus, Speier is one of the best left-on-left relievers in baseball. The process was right, but the result didn’t work because James Wood is “on one” as the kids used to say at some point.
Hancock’s 5.64 ERA remains incredibly misleading because of the absolute shellacking he took in his first start and a terrible inning against the Yankees. Outside of that, he’s been a very effective backend option.
Good: James Wood is Leaving Seattle
Get out of here, and I don’t want to see you for a very long time. If you weren’t impressed by what you saw from Wood, you shouldn’t be able to operate machinery. That’s a special talent, and he absolutely destroyed the Seattle Mariners all weekend. Bye. Have a good flight. Pick on someone else for a while.
Bad: The Umpiring
Pathetic. And I’m sick of it. No, it’s not the reason the Mariners lost this game. Not the sole reason, anyway. But I was happy to see J.P. Crawford tear Andy Fletcher a new one even if it caused his ejection because he deserved it. It’s a really hard job, but I’m tired of the lack of accountability and I’m tired of the inconsistency. Give me the robot umps before you give me air. I’m willing to make that sacrifice.
Ugly: The Mariners Offense After Tuesday
MacKenzie Gore does deserve some credit. The abhorrent offense against Trevor Williams on Wednesday was all initiated by Seattle; at least in this one, you can tip your cap to a really good pitcher pitching a really good game.
But it’s not ALL credit to Gore either. The Mariners had some chances to drive baseballs Thursday and just flat out didn’t. It was a rough game from Julio Rodriguez, it was a really rough game from Randy Arozarena, and it was a rough game from Jorge Polanco. The bottom of the lineup did what it needed to and credit to Leody Taveras and Ben Williamson for picking up huge hits to get this game into extras, but this team scored three runs over 19 innings. It’s not good enough.
Questionable to Ugly: The Decision To Pull Andres Munoz
With the score tied at 2-2 and with no save decision possible, Dan Wilson made the right call to bring in Munoz with no save situation ever possible. As usual, the right-hander did his job and held the Nats scoreless and needing only 12 pitches.
My question is, why not bring Munoz in for the top of the 10th? The questioning for me is not about the fact that he hadn’t pitched since last Friday. You want to keep Munoz fresh and you want him to be fresh going forward. The reason I was surprised is that not only had Munoz only thrown 12 pitches, but you were facing 9-1-2, which includes CJ Abrams and Wood. Collin Snider is a solid reliever — we’ll talk about that, too — who gets the job done more often than not, but that’s asking a lot. I would want my best reliever out there for that situation.
Ugly, No Questionable About It: The 10th Inning
Snider usually gets the job done. He did not Thursday. He had terrible command, he gave up seven hits — including a three-run homer to Josh Bell — and seven runs while getting just one out. It was a very poor effort from a player who was a massive part of the Seattle bullpen but clearly has fallen behind Matt Brash and Carlos Vargas in the pecking order, and justifiably so. He wasn’t good today.
But he didn’t get much help. Taveras played an excellent game at the plate and threw out a runner in the eighth inning at the plate, but his defense in the outfield in the 10th was horrible. He misjudged two balls by feet — not inches, feet — and Snider really should have been out of this inning while allowing just the one run.
It was a horrible inning all around, and unfortunately, it perfectly punctuated the end to one of the worst series loss of the year. Bummer.
