Mariners blow two huge leads, Red Sox batter Mariners into fifth consecutive loss
The Seattle Mariners had a four-run lead after the top of the first.
But the end of the inning, they were losing.
The Seattle Mariners had 10 runs by the end of the fourth inning and led by five.
But in this absurd game, no, that was not enough.
If you’re counting, that’s a four-run lead blown and later a five-run lead also blown, and in a game that included 34 hits and 24 runs, the Mariners lost, 14-10, against the Boston Red Sox on Friday at Fenway Park.
Yes, this was baseball, not football. And the Mariners (46-30) stretched their losing streak to a season-high five games – all against the Yankees and Red Sox.
“We got to get things turned around,” Mariners manager Scott Servais told reporters afterward. “A lot of momentum coming into this trip that’s not going well, obviously. Locking down wins on the road is not easy to do, but we certainly have guys who are capable of doing it. We got to get back on track, take the bull by the horns, step up and get it done.
“We just haven’t executed late in the game. No doubt, we should have won this one.”
If the Mariners are looking for a silver lining, they still have the fourth-most wins in the major leagues, including all of the National League, despite this five-game skid.
The problem: between Wade LeBlanc, James Pazos, Nick Vincent, Juan Nicasio, Nick Rumbelow and Roenis Elias – the Red Sox battered them for 20 hits, and only one of them was a home run.
Nicasio and Vincent combined to record two outs, and allow seven runs, with Nicasio taking the loss after being charged for five runs in the seventh.
“You got to pitch ahead, no question about it – you can’t just be locked in on one pitch,” Servais said. “They got on some fastballs tonight.”
What a ridiculous game.
What a maddening game for the Mariners after they also had a five-run lead against the Yankees two days earlier before eventually losing on Giancarlo Stanton’s walkoff home run.
But to think – Red Sox starting pitcher Steven Wright allowed 10 runs in 3 1/3 innings and he didn’t take the loss.
And to think – Nelson Cruz provided one of the finer games of his 14-year career with two three-run home runs and an RBI single, finishing 4-for-5 with seven RBI, and his team still didn’t win.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The knuckleball is incredibly tough to hit, but sometimes it can be squared up juuust right.<a href="https://twitter.com/ncboomstick23?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ncboomstick23</a> got all of this Steven Wright pitch, showing off some light-tower power with a 465-foot HR that marks the longest <a href="https://twitter.com/Mariners?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Mariners</a> blast of 2018. <a href="https://t.co/HbAWQ7uh0Y">pic.twitter.com/HbAWQ7uh0Y</a></p>— #Statcast (@statcast) <a href="https://twitter.com/statcast/status/1010304950197473290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 22, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Mariners led 10-5 entering the fifth inning with revived LeBlanc one out away from four scoreless innings after that five-run first inning.
But at Fenway, against these Red Sox and with the vagabond way this game was going – few had to believe that five-run lead was safe.
By the end of the fifth, the Mariners led, 10-6.
End of the sixth: Mariners led, 10-9.
End of the seventh: Red Sox led, 14-10.
Nick Vincent allowed a J.D. Martinez home run on the fourth pitch of Vincent’s first game back since being activated off the disabled list earlier in the day. Then Mitch Moreland’s triple and Xander Bogaerts’ RBI single before finally getting the one out he needed to get the Mariners out of the sixth.
Nicasio and Rumbelow weren’t much better in the seventh. He walked Mookie Betts to load the bases with one out, the Mariners clinging to a one-run lead, before Andrew Benintendi flared a bloop single into center field to tie the game. Martinez followed a batter later with a two-run single before Rumbelow entered and threw two wild pitches before Eduardo Nunez’s RBI single.
So five runs for the Red Sox in the seventh, and they outscored the Mariners 9-0 from the fifth inning on.
“It’s important we get it turned around quickly,” Servais said. “It going to take one or two of those guys stepping up. We have guys capable of doing it. They’ve done it before in their careers and they’ve done it earlier in the year.”
Martinez, who entered as the American League's RBI leader, went 4-for-5 with five RBI. His home run was a turning point in this game. The Red Sox feasted on the momentum.
To think there was someone who had a better night than him. Cruz went 4-for-5 with seven RBI and two home runs.
Check out the company Cruz is now in: Only Lou Gehrig (nine) and Ted Williams (six) have more games of at least seven RBIs in their careers than Cruz, who had his fifth such game on Friday – by the fourth inning. The players he's tied with: Joe DiMaggio, Jimmie Foxx and Alex Rodriguez.
Cruz launched the longest Mariners home run of the season in the first inning, tattooing the first knuckleball he saw from Red Sox starter Steven Wright 465 feet, careening off of the light tower past center field.
He rocked one 443 feet past center field, again, in the fourth for another three-run shot.
It was his second seven-RBI game as a Mariner and needed one more RBI to tie the Mariners single-game record of eight RBIs shared by Mike Cameron, Mike Blowers and Alvin Davis.
Still – not enough.
Some takeaways:
“Boomstick, Baby”
Talk about light-tower power.
Nelson Cruz crushed that home run 465 feet, with it careening off of a light tower. If you’re unsure of how far that is, no Mariners hitter has hit a ball farther so far this season and, according to MLB’s Statcast, only seven other players have hit a ball farther in the majors this year, with the St. Louis Cardinals’ Marcell Ozuna owning the No. 1 spot on that list with a 479-foot homer.
Then Cruz bashed a 443-foot shot over the Green Monster seats and out of the ballpark in the fourth inning for his 20th home run of the season.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">¡A lo profundo! <a href="https://twitter.com/ncboomstick23?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ncboomstick23</a> está , pega otro jonronazo de 3 carreras y ya tiene 7 carreras impulsadas esta noche.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LosMarineros?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LosMarineros</a> 10, Medias Rojas 5. <a href="https://t.co/mf66oGOmcw">pic.twitter.com/mf66oGOmcw</a></p>— Marineros de Seattle (@LosMarineros) <a href="https://twitter.com/LosMarineros/status/1010322628706365445?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 23, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
He’s heating up. Cruz has hit 13 of those 20 homers in less than a month, leading the majors in bombs since May 26.
Cruz’s seven RBI was one shy of tying the Mariners’ single-game record of eight, shared between Alvin Davis, Mike Blowers and Mike Cameron.
Cruz finished 4-for-5 — yet, somehow, he's still never hit three home runs in a game despite having 25 multi-homer games.
Bad bullpen
Nick Vincent was back after being activated from the disabled list earlier in the day.
He and Juan Nicasio combined to get two batters out in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively. And they combined to allow seven hits and seven runs.
Between them and James Pazos and Nick Rumbelow, the Mariners went from a 10-5 lead after four innings to a 14-10 deficit after seven.
Mariners relievers have combined to allow 18 runs during this five-game losing streak.
And all of that has occurred with their best reliever sitting on the bench. Edwin Diaz hasn’t pitched since June 16.
What the Wade?
Wade LeBlanc last squared off against Steven Wright and the Boston Red Sox six days ago and LeBlanc tossed a career game, pitching 7 2/3 shutout innings with nine strikeouts. Wright allowed just one run in the Mariners’ 1-0 win.
Friday’s rematch at Fenway Park?
Uh …
They combined to allow nine runs in the first inning.
Knuckerballer Wright entered the day with a 1.23 ERA … he exited after 3 1/3 innings and allowed 10 runs – all earned.
LeBlanc hadn’t allowed more than three runs in any of his previous nine starts … he allowed five in just the first inning in this one.
LeBlanc had thrown four pitches and allowed three hits and a run against the top of the Red Sox order. Four more pitches later it was four hits, two runs, still no outs and he didn’t get out of the inning until facing all nine of Boston’s batters and 25 pitches.
“They weren’t waiting around,” LeBlanc said. “It’s a really good lineup over there and it’s not easy to face any major league lineup two starts in a row, especially one as deep as that one.”
No, this was not a slow-pitch men’s league softball game, even though the first pitch to travel faster than 90 mph didn’t come until the middle of the fourth inning after Brian Johnson replaced Wright for Boston.
LeBlanc actually went on to pitch three consecutive scoreless innings after that disaster of a first inning. He exited after the Red Sox cut the Mariners’ lead to 10-6 on Rafael Devers’ two-out RBI single in the fifth.
LeBlanc’s final line: 4 2/3 innings, 11 hits allowed, six runs, one walk and two strikeouts on 76 pitches. That’s twice as many runs as he’d allowed in any of his previous nine starts entering this one.
LeBlanc had a 2.06 ERA as a starter this season entering the game, and since May 3 only the Indians’ Corey Kluber (1.82 ERA) and Tigers’ Justin Verlander (1.97 ERA) had better ERAs in that span than LeBlanc. So only trailing a couple of Cy Young pitchers.
Play of the game
J.D. Martinez sent a 90-mph fastball from Nick Vincent that was slightly up and out of the strike zone for a two-run home run out to center field in the sixth inning.
That turned the Mariners’ once 10-6 lead to 10-8 and the Red Sox were rolling after that, scoring five runs in the seventh inning.
That was Martinez’s 23rd home run of the season. He finished 4-for-5 with five RBI.
Top hitter
The Mariners had 14 hits, 10 of them came from the top four batters in their lineup – Dee Gordon (2-for-4), Mitch Haniger (2-for-3), Denard Span (2-for-5) and Nelson Cruz (4-for-5).
But Cruz – what a game. The two mammoth three-run home runs and the fifth game of at least seven RBI in his career.
Andrew Romine went 3-for-4, with hits in his first three at-bats and Ryon Healy hit his 14th home run of the season.
Top pitcher
Um … what pitching?
Credit the Red Sox’s bullpen, actually. After Steven Wright allowed 10 runs on 10 hits in the first 3 1/3 innings, Boston pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings after that.
Brian Johnson entered in relief and threw 2 2/3 scoreless innings against the Mariners, while Matt Barnes, Joe Kelly and Craig Kimbrel didn’t allow a hit in the ensuing three innings.
Not like the Mariners, who allowed nine hits and eight runs after Wade LeBlanc exited with two outs in the fifth inning.
Quotable
The Mariners first surrendered their 4-0 lead, trailing 5-4 after the first. Then they had a 10-5 lead that was eventually erased by the end of the seventh inning.
“It’s disappointing,” Servais said. “You get a five-run lead and you think you’re in pretty good shape, even though they have a good hitting ball club. We didn’t execute and pitch very well tonight, and that’s what happens.”
This story was originally published June 22, 2018 at 7:46 PM with the headline "Mariners blow two huge leads, Red Sox batter Mariners into fifth consecutive loss."