Mariners bats mostly quiet, Kikuchi struggles in loss to Padres
The Mariners are still winless three games into this five-game “homestand” in California.
Pushed out of the Pacific Northwest for much of the week due to lingering wildfire smoke, the Mariners were swept in two games by the Giants in San Francisco, and their first night in San Diego wasn’t better.
They dropped their fourth consecutive game Friday night, this one a 6-1 loss to the Padres at Petco Park.
The Astros also lost, meaning even following another disappointing defeat, Seattle (22-29) remains only three games back of Houston in the race for the American League West’s second playoff spot. Nine games remain for the Mariners to try to make up the ground.
Seattle never sent more than four batters to the plate in an inning Friday, managed only three hits — only one of which left the infield — and put next to nothing together against San Diego starter Chris Paddack, who allowed an infield single and two walks in his six scoreless innings while striking out three. Paddack nearly faced the minimum, retiring all but three of the 21 batters he saw.
Evan White and Ty France collected infield singles in the game, but Seattle’s only other hit was White’s 403-foot blast to the third deck in left off Pierce Johnson that ended a shutout in the eighth. It was White’s sixth homer of the season. He finished 2-for-3.
“Nice to see him pick it up and hopefully he can continue here down the stretch,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said on a postgame video call. “Good game for him.”
The Padres took advantage of Mariners starter Yusei Kikuchi’s early command issues, collecting five runs through the first four innings.
“Yusei really struggled command-wise,” Servais said. “I thought coming out of the chute in the first inning, I thought he looked great. I thought we were going to be in great shape tonight.
“And the command issues got him, and the walks. ... Disappointing outing for Yusei. I thought his stuff was pretty good. A little out of whack mechanically. He kept kind of missing with his fastball, he was pulling them tonight. That’s something we hadn’t seen before.”
Kikuchi quickly worked through the first inning, but ran into jams in each of his final three frames. He did enough to work out of San Diego putting runners on the corners in the second, but he was missing early and often in his eighth start of the season, and the Padres finally broke through in the third.
Two Padres batters drew walks before Trent Grisham eventually scored on one of Kikuchi’s three wild pitches. Kikuchi got out of the inning without further damage, but wasn’t so fortunate in the fourth, allowing four runs and facing eight batters in his final inning.
Two base hits and another walk loaded the bases, and a Grisham grounder pushed a second run across. Manny Machado later cleared the bases by crushing a low slider for a three-run homer to center — his first of two homers in the game — to make it 5-0.
Kikuchi matched his season-high allowing five runs on four hits in the four frames, and issued a career-high six walks and had eight three-ball counts while striking out three on 89 total pitches.
“Typically I’m able to make my adjustments in the game if there is some sort of mechanical issue, whether that’s the next batter or if it’s the next inning, but today I just wasn’t able to,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Kevin Ando.
Brandon Brennan, who recently returned from a lengthy stint on the injured list, tossed a pair of scoreless innings in relief for Seattle, allowing one hit and striking out three.
Walker Lockett pitched the final three frames, allowing one run — Machado’s second homer in the ninth — on two hits with a walk and a strikeout.
“I thought both Brandon Brennan and Walker Lockett were outstanding tonight out of our bullpen,” Servais said. “Really what we talk about is you’ve got to stay ahead in the count, you’ve got to control the strike zone, and those guys did a heck of a job tonight and had really good results.”
This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 9:47 PM.
