The juxtaposition of the two teams was beyond blatant, and it wasn’t because one team wore horrible black baseball shorts.
No, the gulf between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Seattle Mariners in terms of talent, performance, competitiveness and relentlessness seemed larger than the geographic distance separating the two teams.
The Rays are everything the Mariners want to be and believe they can be, but have rarely offered any glimpses beyond a game or two that they could be. And considering how the last week has gone, it doesn’t get any better.
Friday’s series opener against the Rays – the team with the best record in baseball – got off to a promising start.
The Mariners went four runs ahead of Rays ace Shane McClanahan, the current leader in winning the American League Cy Young Award, in the second inning.
The game ended with batsman-designate Mike Ford throwing 68-mph “fastballs” in the ninth inning, earning a nice standing ovation from the rest of the announced crowd of 37,063. They only stayed for post-game fireworks and boos for the Mariners and their miserable performance as the end, fittingly a strikeout by Julio Rodriguez, ensued and the Rays’ 15-4 defeat became official.
“It started very positively tonight,” said manager Scott Servais. “Of course it ended up being ugly”
So what the heck happened in the middle?
Well, starter Bryce Miller had to leave with an out in the fourth inning because of a blister on his middle finger.
The Mariners didn’t score another run after the second inning and didn’t even threaten to hit and get four walks in the last seven innings.
And Seattle’s bullpen endured one of the worst implosions of the season, giving up eight runs in an endless eighth inning.
Adding it all up comes down to the Mariners’ third loss in a row, which somehow felt worse than Tuesday’s extra-innings failure, Wednesday’s embarrassing series loss to the losing Nationals when it was beaten by Patrick Corbin, one of the …worst starting pitchers in the MLB.
“We gave up eight runs in the eighth inning,” Servais said. “We have to be better. You can make all the excuses you want, we didn’t pitch well in the eighth inning tonight. We need to figure out how to change it. I’ve said that many times and to be honest, I’m tired of saying it.”
The hour-long players-only meeting before pre-game practice would have been a nice anecdote if they had won, especially if McClanahan was in the starting XI.
Instead, it will be another example of the saying, “Good teams win games; Bad teams have meetings.”
In the early evening heat and crowd on Friday night, T-Mobile Park rocked and energized as the Mariners passed McClanahan, scored four runs in the second inning and Miller knocked out five hitters in his first two innings.
In the second, Teoscar Hernandez took the lead with a double to right field and Tom Murphy blew his fourth home run of the season.
Seattle continued to extend the 2-0 lead. Cal Raleigh walked, Jarred Kelenic blooped a single into right field, and Jose Caballero loaded the bases with a single into left field.
That brought JP Crawford, the Mariners’ top clutch hitter of the season, to the plate.
Crawford pulled a 1-1 slider through the right side of the infield for a single that hit both Raleigh and Kelenic for a 4-0 lead.
“We did what we had to do against the starter, probably could have added a run or two against him,” said Servais. “But you feel good about getting him out there in the third inning. Then they closed us down.”
The four allowed runs set a season-high for McClanahan, who left the game after a scoreless third inning.
With McClanahan out and so was Miller, it seemed like the Mariners would claim the win. He hadn’t conceded a hit in the first three innings and hit six batters.
“The way the game started, I would have given anything that we would win the game,” he said. “We rolled. Every time you take the ERA leader out after three innings and score four points against him in an inning… and that combines with my feel and the look of their swings and the energy in the building. But sometimes things turn and they haven’t worked out in our favor.”
After tricking Wander Franco into flying to center, Miller looked at the middle finger of his right hand and began rubbing it against his thumb. A blister that had formed had ruptured, causing discomfort.
“It happened a few times in college, and it happened a few weeks ago, too,” he said. “I noticed it in the third. It was as if a large blister of blood had formed. I went in and they cut off my fingernail. But I … looked down after a couple of pitches in the fourth and there was blood all over my fingernail and all over the ball.”
Servais and head athletic coach Kyle Torgerson came out to check on Miller. After a brief chat, Miller stayed in the game believing he could pull it off.
But he went to Luke Raley, threw some wayward break shots and showed a slight drop in fastball speed.
“When I throw my fastball and the hard slider and the other slider, the pressure is right there on the inside of that middle finger, so it’s not really an ideal spot to get a blister,” Miller said.
Trouble continued when Randy Arozarena stepped onto the scene. But instead of accompanying the Rays’ cleanup hitter, Miller trailed a 92-mph fastball in the zone, but not high enough.
Arozarena swept the ball over the wall in left field for a two-run home run.
It became clear that Miller could not continue trying to overcome the discomfort. Servais and Torgerson went out again to check on Miller and he was taken out of the game.
“It’s frustrating that they weren’t even really close to anything up until then,” Miller said of the Rays’ batsmen. “Then I finally had to get out, forced the bullpen to throw five innings and everything spun while I felt like if I stay in I go six or seven innings and it’s a completely different ball game.”
The Rays had a fifth-round run against Matt Brash and a sixth-round run against Trevor Gott.
But the eighth inning was something to see or to forget.
Andres Munoz played a second inning in relief against the core of the Rays order and never recorded an out. He gave Raley a double and Arozarena a single. When Eugenio Suarez failed to knock out Isaac Paredes’ soft grounder and Raley scored from third position, the tie was broken. And then the deficit grew. The Rays hit out at left-hander Gabe Speier, who faced five batters and conceded four hits. His only out was a sac fly that resulted in a run.
The booing in the eighth inning wasn’t vicious, but it wasn’t friendly either.
“We have very passionate fans and I definitely understand that,” Servais said. “They give up eight runs in the eighth inning. Nobody will like that. I know how I feel, I know how our players feel and that’s where we are right now. We need to play better baseball. This is the bottom line. And we are definitely capable of doing that. It won’t be like we wake up one day and suddenly turn around. We have to make it.”
BOX score