Seager’s homer the only run Mariners manage off Kershaw as they drop loss to Dodgers
Clayton Kershaw turned in his best outing of the season to this point Thursday afternoon at T-Mobile Park, and the Mariners could do little more than watch.
“He’s one of the best pitchers in the game for a reason,” Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager said on a video call postgame. “You know you’re in for a battle. You know when you’re facing guys of that caliber that it’s going to be a tough day, and you’ve just got to kind of grind.
“He was definitely sharp today, located well, he was spinning it well. The cutter-slider was good, the curveball had some bite. That’s pretty standard him, I guess. ... He throws the ball with a lot of conviction, too. He’s coming right at you.”
Kershaw worked seven complete innings, allowing only one run — Seager’s solo homer in the fourth — on four hits while walking one and striking out a season-high 11.
The Dodgers bullpen closed the game out with relative ease in the final two innings, and didn’t allow another hit.
By the end of it all, the Mariners were on the wrong side of a 6-1 loss in their finale of this four-game, two-city series against Los Angeles. Seattle (8-19) has now lost eight of its past nine.
“We got shut down by a very good pitcher,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Kershaw was was on top of his game today with the good slider, cutter and then the curveball on top of that, which was really an effective pitch for him today against some of our young guys.”
Here’s a quick recap of the Mariners’ only four hits off Kershaw, because each had some significance in an otherwise slow offensive afternoon for Seattle:
▪ Rookie utility player Sam Haggerty logged the first with two outs in the third inning on a ground-rule double that bounced into the Mariners’ bullpen for the first extra-base hit of his young career.
▪ Seager clubbed his fifth homer of the season — and second off a left-hander — deep into the seats in right field in the fourth for Seattle’s only run of the game. It marked Seager’s 72nd career homer off a lefty. No left-handed batter has hit more homers off lefty pitchers since Seager’s debut in 2011.
“He’s got a knack,” Servais said. “He hits those lefties. He hits them out of the park.”
▪ Rookie center fielder Kyle Lewis ripped a single in the sixth — with an exit velocity of 106.7 mph — to extend his current hitting streak to five games. He continues to lead all rookies with 34 hits this season. (Lewis also walked in the first inning, and has now reached base in 23 of 26 games played this season.)
▪ Austin Nola, showing again his positional flexibility by appearing at first base for the first time this year, continued to produce with a single in the seventh.
But, that was all the Mariners could manage offensively. The Dodgers also only recorded four hits off Mariners starter Yusei Kikuchi, but they also drew four walks, and benefited from a seemingly missed call that contributed to the decisive four-run third inning.
Following a 12-day span between starts due to neck spasms, Kikuchi appeared in fine form his first two innings back.
“I was a little bit worried going in because it has been such a long time,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Kevin Ando. “But, early on ... I felt like everything was fine. The neck was feeling great.
“No fatigue. I didn’t feel any tiredness or anything like that.”
He retired the first six batters he faced, striking out three of them, before it all unraveled in the third. Kike Hernandez singled to open the inning before Kikuchi walked Austin Barnes. Kikuchi appeared to then get his first out of the inning seven pitches into the next at-bat, when Matt Beaty whiffed on a pitch down and out of the zone. Replays appeared to show Beaty’s bat missing the pitch by a few inches, but home plate umpire Adrian Johnson ruled it a foul tip after it hit the dirt.
Beaty took advantage immediately, sending the next pitch bouncing over the wall in right for a ground-rule double. Hernandez scored to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead they never lost.
Barnes then scored on a passed ball. A.J. Pollock later added a two-out single to score Beaty, and Bellinger a base hit to push Pollock across.
When the inning finally ended, Kikuchi had thrown 35 pitches, and never really dug out of the hole. He retired the Dodgers in order in the fourth, but ran into more trouble in the fifth. He was pulled after walking the bases loaded, his final two batters each getting a free pass on four pitches.
The five runs Kikuchi allowed on four hits in his 4 2/3 innings matched his season-high, as did his four walks. He struck out five and threw 89 pitches, primarily relying on his fastball and slider.
“He wasn’t quite as sharp and crisp and, I think,” Servais said. “With Yusei, Yusei’s stuff has been up, it’s ticked up the majority of the year. We didn’t see quite the bump today, which is not surprising. He hadn’t been out there in 12 days.
“The key with him, as it’s been all year, is you’ve got to use the curveball. and I think in the third inning he ran into fastball, hard cutter fastball, hard cutter he really didn’t have the soft pitch to slow them down on a number of those at bats and he has to continue to throw it. ... The back and forth pitch is really really important.”
Taylor Guilbeau took over for Kikuchi, threw a wild pitch that scored another Dodgers run, and walked Chris Taylor on four pitches to load the bases again before getting out of the jam.
Ljay Newsome made his major league debut in the sixth, and worked two 1-2-3 innings for the Mariners before finally relinquishing a solo homer to Bellinger in the eighth. Newsome finished three complete innings allowing the one run on three hits with a strikeout.
Rule 5 Draft pickup Yohan Ramirez threw a 1-2-3 frame for the Mariners in the ninth.
“I will say on the pitching side I was really happy for Ljay Newsome,” Servais said. “I thought he threw the ball great today. ... Ljay fills up the strike zone. I thought he did a great job for three innings today.
“And Yohan Ramirez again continues to build on what he’s got going this season, so some definite positives there deeper in the ballgame with some really young pitchers.”
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 6:57 PM.
