Baseball is a beautiful game, manager Scott Servais says, and an equally cruel one. But rarely is baseball cruel. Quiet bats and brutal injury breaks have snowballed, and the have now dropped 20 of 29 games.
Their once-double-digit lead in the American League West evaporated into a deficit, plagued by an MLB-high 1,066 strikeouts and MLB-low .216 batting average. They are without for at least 10 days.
The star outfielder nearly completed a remarkable, high-soaring catch into the wall in Sunday’s game, but instead collapsed to the dirt with a right high ankle sprain. They are without shortstop and unofficial captain , who took the second pitch of Monday’s game to the right hand, fracturing his pinkie finger. They are without , the longtime first baseman designated for assignment on Tuesday afternoon and the first roster casualty for an offense still searching for consistent production.
And yet Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to the was rock bottom, when high-leverage setup man injured his right knee in the eighth inning upon balking the go-ahead run into scoring position. The starting pitching? Still elite. , , and surrendered one total earned run in three combined starts at T-Mobile Park – but the Mariners were swept for the first time this season, scoring just once in each game.
Distinct boos echoed from nearly 40,000 faithful as lifted Wednesday’s game-sealing flyout to center field and Seattle officially fell one full game behind in the division standings. the Mariners leag.