Pregame fight was ugly, but Mariners loss to Orioles got uglier

Of all the ways for the guillotine to fall on this Seattle Mariners season … a season that started so clutch, so electric, so energetic. A season that had their general manager illustrating their team chemistry by saying their players all take the same cab.

Who predicted after all that that by early September they’d be shoving and cursing at each other in their clubhouse? Who predicted their offense would become so lifeless, and their ability to seemingly storm back into every game would turn so quickly the other direction?

And who predicted they’d look more little-league than their young Baltimore Orioles counterpart, who entered with the fewest wins in the major leagues?

For a night it seemed almost two decades of Mariners organizational mediocrity reared its ugly head, and it showed with their playoff hopes hanging by a thread in a 5-3 loss to the Orioles on Tuesday in what felt like some of the most hushed final innings of the season, save for some boos, at Safeco Field with a season-low 11,265 in attendance (the ninth-lowest attended game in Safeco history).

Mariners manager Scott Servais was asked if that pregame scuffle that broke out in the Mariners’ clubhouse might have carried into the game.

“No,” he said. “I thought our guys were ready to play. Quite frankly, I thought we would come out and really get after them.”

Servais’ tone, though, was somber after the loss, with the Mariners failing to gain ground on the Oakland Athletics for the American League’s final wild card to the playoffs. Seattle got some help from the New York Yankees, who rallied to beat the A’s and keep the Mariners’ deficit at 5½ games.

But the Mariners (77-62) still lost ground because now there’s just 23 games remaining.

They needed to beat the Orioles.

Instead they made baffling blunders, had next to no life on offense and allowed 15 hits.

An Orioles runner scored on a sacrifice fly from second base. They let two would-be pop flies drop. They pulled starter Wade LeBlanc, who has only allowed one run over his past three starts, after 68 pitches despite that he had thrown six scoreless innings.

The Mariners had a 1-0 lead entering the seventh inning before bringing in right-hander Adam Warren, who allowed a solo home run to the first batter he faced in the seventh inning.

So why take LeBlanc out?

“That pocket of guys swung really well against him,” Servais said, of the Orioles bottom part of the order that went a combined 3-for-7 against LeBlanc. “And I thought he did exactly what he needed to do over six scoreless innings. It’s what you’re hoping for and you go to the bullpen after that.

“And he got through the sixth but there was traffic there and he got a big double-play ball. It’s a decision we make as a group and the pitching guys and ultimately it’s me. But I felt good about it and where we were at in the lineup. Adam just wasn’t on tonight and it’s been a struggle for him.”

And, really, that should have been fine. The Mariners just continue to struggle offensively and have had to rely on the pitching staff to shut every team down.

That worked on Monday in their 2-1 win. Not this night.

“It’s really tough to win a 1-0 game every night,” Servais said. “You got to score more runs and put more pressure on the other team and we haven’t done that.

“Offensively it was a struggle again and that’s been a common theme here. You try different things and you try to get guys going in different ways, but we haven’t been able to get it done here recently.”

And this all came after some Mariners players, it wasn’t clear who, were seen and heard shoving and shouting at each other after media were asked to leave what is normally an open clubhouse before the game.

This certainly had all the feel of a club staring at 17 seasons without a playoff appearance.

“We are playing hard — I don’t want to say we need more energy,” Robinson Cano said. “We’re all here on the same page and you get everyone here showing up every day and wanting to win and they want to go out fighting and it’s not going to go your way every time.

“It’s a long season and sometimes you’re going to be tired or not have the same energy. But what I love is they come in here and fight and compete and they give everything they got.”

But Cano declined to talk about the fight that transpired in the Mariners’ clubhouse before the game.

“I don’t want to talk about that,” Cano said. “Whatever happens in here stays in here. It didn’t affect anyone in here. All was good and everybody was good.

“Whatever happens in here stays in here, that’s what I can say.”

Cano appeared to cut through the pregame tension with one of his sweet swings. He caught a splitter in the middle of the plate and lined it over the right-field wall for a solo home run in the first inning, his seventh homer of the season.

That seemed like it might be the primer to get the Mariners’ bats charged.

Except that was the only run this offense would score against Alex Cobb, who entered with a 5.11 season ERA. They only added two more runs in the eighth because Ryon Healy’s potential inning-ending double-play ball got past Orioles first baseman Trey Mancini in the eighth inning with the bases loaded.

With the tying run at second, pinch-hitter Chris Herrmann struck out on a 3-2 pitch.

LeBlanc kept Baltimore’s not-any-better offense at bay through six scoreless innings, with plenty of help from Ben Gamel’s defense.

Gamel threw out Chris Davis at the plate with a seed of a throw on Breyvic Valera’s two-out single to right field. He later made a full-extension diving catch in foul territory to strand a runner at second in the fifth inning.

And when the Orioles led off with back-to-back singles on LeBlanc in the sixth, he got out of it with a double play in Adam Jones’ at-bat before Jean Segura chased down a fly ball into center field from Davis for the final out.

LeBlanc had thrown 68 pitches through six scoreless innings.

After Warren allowed the tying homer, he then allowed two more singles before lefty Zach Duke relieved him and got another diving catch from Gamel in right field for the first out.

What followed was ugly.

Jonathan Villar singled in a run for a 2-1 Orioles lead before right-hander Nick Vincent entered … and the Orioles got a sacrifice fly the next batter, with a runner scoring from second base.

At least, that’s the official score on that play. Joey Rickard hit a fly ball to Denard Span in left field with runners at first and second, the lead runner advanced and, sensing the Mariners were going to try to get the runner at third, Villar headed for second.

Dee Gordon got the relay and Villar had an amazing slide to stop, avoid the tag and run back toward first base.

Gordon chased, and Valera took off from third to home, so Gordon stopped to fire to the plate – only he had trouble getting the ball out of his glove and threw too late.

So not only did Valera score, but Villar then made his way into second base, anyway, and then scored on Trey Mancini’s ensuing double.

So 4-1, Orioles. It took 38 pitches with three relievers to get through the seventh after LeBlanc’s 68 pitches in six innings.

Baltimore picked up one more run on Chris Davis’ single in the top of the ninth.

Three takeaways:

Offense?

The bigger concern with that final score should be how many the Mariners scored.

They got Robinson Cano’s solo home run in the first inning, but nothing else after that, even against Orioles right-hander Alex Cobb, who entered with a 5.11 season ERA.

They had chances. Nelson Cruz had two on with two outs in the third inning but grounded out. David Freitas led off with a single in the fifth before Dee Gordon grounded into a fielder’s choice and Mitch Haniger into a double play.

Cano and Cruz were on with one out in the sixth but Denard Span and Ryon Healy each grounded out.

And Freitas doubled in the seventh with one out, but Gordon and Haniger stranded him.

That’s the theme for this Mariners offense this season – not plating the runners even when they’re on base.

“This is a game, there’s ups and downs and you just got to keep fighting,” Cano said. “And I always say that the worst thing you can do is hang your head. You got to keep going out and grinding and you also need to understand that they have pitchers on the other side.”

Second-half slide

The Mariners have gone from what was once an 11-game lead on the Athletics in the American League West to a 5½-game deficit in large part because the A’s just don’t seem to lose, but also because the Mariners have hovered below .500 ball in a slumping second half.

After Tuesday’s loss, Seattle is 19-23 since the All-Star break.

Benny Ballgame

Ben Gamel doesn’t ever seen to get enough credit for his skills defensively. He’s certainly never afraid to put his body on the line.

Three stellar defensive plays in this one.

One was his full-extension dive, Gamels’ long hair flowing in the air, on a ball in foul territory. He landed on the dirt and hopped quickly to his feet to keep former Mariner John Andreoli at second base.

That set up Wade LeBlanc’s inning-ending strikeout.

And Gamel saved a run earlier when he jumped on a bloop single and fired home to throw out Chris Davis at the plate. Breyvic Valera singled to right field with two outs in the second inning and two on base before Gamel’s throw.

He added another diving catch (yes, another) with two on and no outs in the seventh inning when he stretched on a low line drive in front of him for the catch.

Play of the game

The Mariners would have been out of the inning if Dee Gordon had been able to reach for the tag on Jonathan Villar at second base.

But Villar’s slide stopped him just short on his way to second base on Joey Rickard’s fly out to left field. Breyvic Valera had already advanced from second to third on the tag up and the Mariners tried to get Villar at second.

So Villar turned back toward first base, Gordon chased and Breyvic took off for home. Gordon had him but he had trouble getting the ball out of his glove and the throw was not only late, but Villar still advanced to second base.

What a swing. The Orioles then got one more run on Trey Mancini’s ensuing double.

So instead of a 2-1 Mariners deficit with the out there, it would be 4-1 after that seventh inning.

Top batter

Robinson Cano went 3-for-4 with the first-inning home run and he reached base four total times because he also drew a third-inning walk.

For the Orioles, Trey Mancini went 3-for-4 with an RBI double and Renato Nunez went 3-for-4 with the game-tying home run in the seventh.

Top pitcher

Wade LeBlanc lowered his season ERA to 3.55 with six scoreless innings. He allowed six hits, one walk and struck out four on 68 pitches. He exited to a 1-0 lead.

For the Orioles, Alex Cobb also pitched six innings, allowing four hits, one run and three walks with two strikeouts after entering with a 5.11 season ERA.

This story was originally published September 4, 2018 at 10:29 PM.