Milone allows season-high 6 runs in loss to Texas, Santana leaves with elbow injury
For the first time since June, and just the fifth time this season, the Seattle Mariners opted not to run an opener out ahead of Tommy Milone.
Mariners manager Scott Servais said before Tuesday’s loss at T-Mobile Park that, with four lefties positioned in the first six spots of the Rangers’ order, it wouldn’t make much sense to throw a right-hander the first inning.
But, the seemingly favorable matchup for the left-handed throwing Milone wasn’t enough to slow this frustrated Texas team. Three lefties hammered homers off Milone as part of a six-run surge in the first three innings, and the Mariners’ offense never recovered in a 7-2 loss that also snapped an eight-game losing streak for Texas.
“Tommy, Marco (Gonzales), Wade (LeBlanc) — those left-handers we have (who pitch to contact), they’ve got to be fine, they’ve got to be on the edges, they’ve got to execute their pitches,” Servais said. “Certainly when they’re not, it can get loud, and the Rangers have power, they certainly showed that tonight.
“It is about executing your pitches and staying on the edges, and when you don’t do that in this league you pay the price.”
Shin-Soo Choo wasted no time giving the Rangers an early advantage, ambushing Milone’s first pitch for a solo homer.
Milone then allowed a pair of base hits to open the second — the second on a shallow liner by Logan Forsythe that Domingo Santana misjudged trying to make a sliding catch in right. Santana made an off-balance throw to try to catch Roughned Odor advancing to third, but the throw was late.
An Asdrubal Cabrera sac fly to right scored Odor, despite another hard throw by Santana trying to catch the runner, and Tim Federowicz singled in Forsythe.
Santana was removed from the game in the top of the third with right elbow soreness, and replaced by rookie utility player Dylan Moore. Servais said Santana has been dealing with the soreness since returning from the All-Star break, but it hadn’t bothered him extensively until the pair of throws in the second.
“He’s been treating it a little bit,” Servais said. “I think it was probably the first throw he made (that aggravated it). He was a little off-balance after he got up and dove for the ball, and then he let a second one go. He was concerned about it. We are, too.”
Initial tests on the elbow were OK, Servais said, but Santana will have an MRI on Wednesday morning to assess the injury.
The Mariners continue to cycle through players, having already used 56 this season, and just placed second baseman Dee Gordon on the injured list for the second time this season earlier in the day.
“It is challenging,” Servais said. “It certainly gives younger guys opportunity. But, when you’re playing younger guys or inexperienced guys, you have to be patient and go through the growing pains.”
Nomar Mazara led off the third with a solo shot that reached the third deck in right, Joey Gallo reached on a bunt single, and Odor hit his first of two homers in the game on a two-run shot to right to make it 6-1.
“Obviously early in the ballgame tonight Tommy wasn’t quite as sharp,” Servais said. “They were on him, very aggressive from the first pitch on. Certainly Choo jumped on the first pitch of the game. You don’t often see that, but he did, and put them up early.
“It took him a while to get into some rhythm and really locating his pitches. He made some mistakes in the middle of the plate. I will give him a ton of credit. He hung in there and threw three zeros up there. It did keep us in the ballgame, and kind of away from using everybody in our bullpen, which is a good job by him not to hang his head, and come back and compete and fight. He made good pitches there in the last three innings, but a little too late.”
The back end of Milone’s outing was much more efficient than the front. He retired 10 of the final 11 batters he faced, including striking out the side in the fifth, but the meaningful damage was done.
Milone allowed the season-high six runs on nine hits while striking out five on 90 pitches across six innings. Milone said his stuff felt OK, but he had trouble finishing off hitters.
“I continued the same plan, just when I got ahead, I made sure I finished pitches and didn’t leave it over the plate like I was the first three innings,” Milone said. “Finishing was the biggest thing tonight, and I wasn’t able to do it over the first three.”
A pair of recent bullpen acquisitions thew well enough in the final three innings, but in lower leverage situations, with Seattle already trailing by four runs. Matt Carasiti pitched a scoreless seventh on his 28th birthday — it was his first MLB appearance on his birthday. Matt Magill, who reported to the club from Minnesota on Monday, allowed Odor’s second homer of the game on a solo shot in the eighth, but otherwise worked an efficient eighth and ninth.
A night after ripping off seven runs against the Rangers, Seattle’s bats drifted back into a familiar slump, managing just two runs (or less) for the 31st time in 104 games.
The Mariners managed to even the score in the first against Texas opener Brett Martin when Omar Narvaez singled in Mallex Smith, who also singled to open the inning.
But, they couldn’t string together much against Pedro Payano, who was making just his second appearance in the majors and limited Seattle to just one run on three hits over the next five innings while striking out seven. Tim Beckham doubled in the fourth, but was stranded. Kristopher Negron then singled in the fifth, and J.P. Crawford delivered an RBI double down the right-field line to score Negron from first and make it 6-2.
This story was originally published July 23, 2019 at 9:49 PM.
