Mariners blow lead in disastrous ninth, dropping their fist loss of the season to the Boston Red Sox

The home run barrage continued Friday night at T-Mobile Park — but not exactly in favor of the Seattle Mariners.

Mallex Smith, Domingo Santana, and Omar Narvaez each hit solo shots in the first two innings as the Mariners again leaned on an explosive offense to build an early lead.

But, the Boston Red Sox hit three dingers of their own — including a three-run game-winner by pinch hitter Mitch Moreland in the top of the ninth — to hand the Mariners their first loss of the season, 7-6, in front of 29,002 in attendance.

“They won the World Series last year,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “They’ve been through a lot of things as a group over there. They kept battling all night, and kept putting pressure on us, and finally they got the big hit.”

The Mariners still hold the best record in baseball at 3-1, and have combined for 12 home runs in their first four games, but Friday night’s high-powered show in the early innings wasn’t quite enough.

Boston finally broke through in the ninth when Rafael Devers hit a leadoff double to left, and advanced to third on a passed ball. Mariners closer Hunter Strickland then hit Sam Travis with a pitch, giving the Red Sox runners at the corners with no outs.

That prompted a mound visit from Servais and Mariners trainer Rob Nodine.

“When we went to the mound, the guys on the bench had noticed it looked like he was kind of shaking his arm,” Servais said. “We just think he was a little tight. He had a tough time getting loose in the pen.

“I’ll have the doctors take a look at him tonight, but we went to the mound and talked to him there, and he said, ‘I’m fine, I’ll get through it, I’m going to get these guys out.’ And obviously it didn’t work out for him. Disappointing end to a pretty good ball game.”

Ryon Healy, who moved from third base to first midway through the game, then threw out Devers at home on a fielder’s choice for the first out, but Boston maintained two base runners.

Moreland made the Mariners pay the next at-bat, launching a 2-0 fastball over the right-field fence to give Boston its first lead of the game at 7-6. The Mariners couldn’t respond in the bottom half of the inning.

Strickland (0-1, 11.57 ERA), who earned a pair of saves in the Mariners’ Japan series, was tagged with his first loss, pitching just 1/3 of an inning and allowing the go-ahead three-run homer.

He was icing his right shoulder after the game, and said he will go through the Mariners’ medical evaluation process to find out what’s next. Strickland is the only reliever in Seattle’s bullpen who has had a set role so far this season.

“I was all over the place,” Strickland said. “Everybody saw it. It wasn’t good at all. ... I just wasn’t comfortable, obviously, but that’s no excuse. I’ve still got to make pitches regardless.

“I don’t know what’s going on. I felt some tightness, and we’ll evaluate it and go from there.”

Early on, it appeared the Mariners were on their way to a fourth consecutive win to open the 2019 season.

Smith, back from an elbow injury that shortened his spring, hit the first lead-off homer of his career on the second pitch of the game to give the Mariners a lead they never lost.

Santana, who has hit safely in each of Seattle’s first four games, launched his third homer of the season 403 feet into the visiting bullpen in left two batters later.

And, catcher Narvaez recorded his first hit of the season with a solo shot that just cleared the right-field fence in the second inning.

Seven Mariners players — including those three, Healy, Tim Beckham, Edwin Encarnacion and Mitch Haniger — have already recorded a home run this season.

The Mariners tacked on three more runs in the fourth to build a 6-1 cushion. Beckham, who is on an 11-game hitting streak dating back to last September with the Orioles, opened the inning with a double.

Narvaez followed with a single, and Healy with a double that drove in Beckham. Narvaez scored on a sacrifice fly by Dee Gordon, and Healy on a sac fly by Smith.

“I thought we did a lot of things offensively early in the game,” Servais said. “We were on (Red Sox starter Nathan) Eovaldi, on all of his stuff. We hit a few balls out of the park. I thought the at-bats were really good. Unfortunately we couldn’t seal the deal at the end tonight.”

Mariners rookie left-hander Yusei Kikuchi (0-0, 2.53 ERA) was in line for a win in his second start, allowing just two earned runs on four hits, striking out five and walking none. He threw 86 pitches in six innings of work.

“The curve ball was effective like it always is. I thought his slider was probably a little bit better tonight than it was over in Japan. Good life on the fastball. Even worked in some changeups tonight,” Servais said. “He used all of his stuff. I was really happy with his outing.”

Both of the earned runs Kikuchi allowed were solo home runs — to Xander Bogaerts in the second, and J.D. Martinez in the sixth. Rafael Devers also scratched across a run for Boston during a double play in the fifth, after reaching on a throwing error by Beckham.

“Both of those home runs, I left the ball in the zone and they put a really good swing on it and pretty much just hit the ball perfectly out of the ball park,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Justin Novak. “I felt like there’s a lot more stronger hitters over here.

“With that being said, I had a lot of pitches that came off my fingers really well, and I was able to get a bunch of swings and misses and a lot of jam shots, so I was very happy about that, and it helps me build my confidence moving forward.”

Kikuchi made his MLB debut in his native Japan last week, and was just as impressive in his home debut in Seattle. He has allowed just three earned runs on eight hits in 10 2/3 innings of work.

But, his solid outing Friday was erased late.

He left with a 6-3 lead entering the seventh inning, and Boston got one run back on a solo home run by Christian Vazquez to open the eighth.

The Red Sox loaded the bases with one out, but reliever Cory Gearrin eventually ended the threat with a 1-2-3 double play. Gearrin got Eduardo Nunez to hit a soft one-hopper about halfway down the first-base line, scooped the ball and threw out the lead runner at home. Narvaez doubled up Nunez at first.

“We were in a little predicament there in the eighth,” Servais said. “Give Cory Gearrin a ton of credit. He made a heck of a play first of all, but he just didn’t give in, kept working grinding that’s what he does.

“It was an unbelievable play he made, just the awareness to come home with it and then force the runner to kind of stop in the middle of the base line. When we got through the eighth, I thought we were in great shape, it just didn’t work out.”

The Mariners were held scoreless in each of the final five frames, including a trio of strikouts in the bottom of the eighth.

Then came the disastrous ninth.

This story was originally published March 29, 2019 at 10:34 PM.