Bullpen woes continue as Mariners drop double-digit loss to A’s
The Mariners will have to continue to search for answers in their bullpen when the Angels come to town.
They sure didn’t have any for the A’s.
Seattle stumbled to its third loss to Oakland in as many days Monday night at T-Mobile Park, this time with a glaring 11-1 score, and the situation was all too familiar.
Mariners starter Justus Sheffield did enough to keep Seattle in a good spot before he was pulled with two outs in the fifth, but everything unraveled from there. Collectively, Seattle’s bullpen gave up seven runs on eight hits, issued nine walks and hit three batters.
“Not a fun game to watch by any standards,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said in his postgame video call with reporters. “We walked a lot of guys tonight, we did not control the strike zone and unfortunately it got ugly there.
“Nothing we can do about this one. We’ve got to get in the shower, wash it away and we’ve got the Angels coming in, and get back on track here tomorrow.”
Seattle’s bullpen gave up early leads in two games over the weekend, and again played a critical role in this series finale loss.
Saturday it was Nick Margevicius who gave up the tying two-run homer to Chad Pinder that wiped away a shutout performance from starter Yusei Kikuchi. The Mariners lost in extra innings.
Sunday it was rookie Anthony Misiewicz who served up the winning three-run knock to Ramon Laureano that erased Kendall Graveman’s early lead in another loss.
Here’s how it all played out Monday:
Sheffield, still seeking his first big league win, was sharp through his first four innings, allowing just a base hit and a walk. He at one point retired 12 of 13 batters before his outing got dicey in the fifth.
“Honestly I liked the way I was throwing the ball,” he said. “I felt like I was out there attacking those guys and going right at them.”
The otherwise solid start shifted when Sheffield issued a nine-pitch walk to Khris Davis with one out in the fifth. He started ahead of Davis 0-2.
“Davis is seeing the ball much better now,” Servais said. “I know he’s off to a slow start, but certainly has been one of the better power hitters in our league for a long time, and he just couldn’t put him away. He made good pitches. Davis kept fouling them off.
“It was a walk at the time, it didn’t look like that big of deal, but it led to some other things coming behind that.”
Back-to-back base hits followed to load the bases, but Sheffield then struck out Marcus Semien with a nasty slider for the second out, and for a brief moment looked like he might escape the jam.
“That’s one thing that has stood out, even the small sample size that we’ve seen of Sheff making starts at the big league level, is he does have a way of getting out of trouble,” Servais said. “We saw that last year. A hit, a walk, whatever. He’s got the weapons to pitch out of it.
“He can usually keep the ball on the ground and he’s got a strikeout pitch with the slider, so feel good about him out here. Even when he is in trouble that he can make pitches to get out of it, and he almost got out of that one in the fifth, just not quite enough tonight.”
Following the strikeout, Laureano pushed across two runs with a single to give the A’s a 2-1 lead they never lost, and at 30 pitches for the inning — and 86 for his outing — Sheffield was done.
“Even in those sticky situations, I feel like I have the confidence to get myself out of it and made some pitches tonight, but they hit them where our guys weren’t,” Sheffield said. “So, move on from it, and learn from it and continue to fight when guys are on in tough situations like that.”
The Mariners turned to recently-acquired veteran Bryan Shaw to clean up. But, the inning only got worse.
Shaw’s two inherited base runners promptly scored on a passed ball and a single, closing the book on Sheffield, who finished with 4 2/3 innings, four runs on four hits, two walks and five strikeouts. He pitched better than the final line appeared.
It took Shaw eight batters to record his only out of the game, and he gave up four runs on five hits — four singles and double — and two walks. His ERA in four appearances this season is 27.00.
“Bryan Shaw is struggling, there’s no question about it,” Servais said. “When we acquired him, brought him in, certainly he’s had a ton of experience and a lot of success in this league. The last couple of years have been rough for him over in Colorado trying to give him some information, some things that might help him get the results he’s looking for.
“ ... We’ve got to get him back on track. Certainly like him and love the experience factor he brings to our bullpen, but it’s about getting them out at this level and he’ll continue to make some adjustments and hopefully be a big part of what we’re trying to do here through the remainder of this season.”
The A’s sent 14 batters to the plate in the disastrous inning. They combined for eight hits and three walks.
It could have been even worse — Oakland left the bases loaded on a merciful fly ball to left by Marcus Semien, who recorded two of the three outs in the inning.
The game continued to snowball for the Mariners from there.
Zac Grotz pitched a pair of innings, allowing a solo homer to Khris Davis in the seventh before loading the bases and walking in a run.
Nestor Cortes gave up another run in the ninth on a single to Matt Olson to push Seattle’s deficit to an even 10 runs.
The A’s had multiple base runners in every inning a Seattle reliever pitched. The Mariners continue to carry the worst combined bullpen ERA in the American League at 6.65.
Seattle’s only run came in the third when Kyle Seager, who finished 2-for-3 with a walk, doubled in J.P. Crawford to make it 1-0.
Seager, Shed Long Jr. and Mallex Smith combined for Seattle’s only four hits. Mariners batters struck out 12 times.
Rookie outfielder Kyle Lewis’ hitting streak ended at 10 games after he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, but he still leads the majors with 17 hits this season.
This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 9:14 PM.
