When the Seattle Mariners ventured east to start a nine-game road trip, their offense must have stayed behind. After scoring 26 runs in a four-game winning streak last week, the Mariners have put up just four combined in their past three games, all losses. They aim to turn things around when they visit the Pittsburgh Pirates in the opener of a three-game set on Friday.
"This is kind of what our season's been like," Mariners manager Scott Servais said. "It's been good, it's been bad. It kind of goes up-down.
This club has shown the ability to be resilient and bounce back. ..
. I believe in the group that we have, but we've got to bounce -- we got to bounce back quickly." Seattle managed just one hit, a double in the fifth inning, in falling 2-1 to the host Detroit Tigers on Thursday.
The Mariners got a run in the first inning on four walks, and still led 1-0 until the Tigers scored twice in the eighth. Seattle went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and sits three games behind the first-place Houston Astros in the American League West. The Mariners are 3 1/2 back of the final wild card.
"We have to be better offensively; there's no other way around it," Servais said. "You're just not going to win games in this league -- (with) one run, two runs -- no matter how good your pitching is." The Mariners got a stellar outing from starting pitcher Bryce Miller, who held Detroit to two hits over seven innings while fanning nine.
They hope for more of the same from Logan Gilbert (7.