ATLANTA – With each road failure, a number growing rapidly at the wrong time in the season, Dan Wilson has predicted his team would bounce back the next day with a win.
The steadfast belief in his players’ resiliency as much as their talent has never wavered in the Mariners’ manager. But with Friday night’s 4-1 loss to the Braves at Truist Park, it will now be four straight games without that expected victory.
The Mariners are reeling.
Not even a much-needed off day to delay the losing and provide some rest for a fatigued lineup and bullpen could help right this team’s road woes.
The Mariners have lost four straight games and six of seven on this nine-game trip. Seattle has dropped 13 of its last 16 road games.
With the loss, the Mariners (73-68) remained 31/2 games behind the Astros in the American League West.
“Tough ballgame tonight,” Wilson said, searching for words and sentences to describe yet another loss.
The words “bounce back” were not said.
With the scored tied at 1-all going into the bottom of the eighth and the top of the Braves’ batting order scheduled to hit, Wilson handed the ball to lefty Gabe Speier . One of the Mariners’ better performers out of the ‘pen this season, Speier faced four batters and didn’t record an out.
Jurickson Profar’s bouncing ball into left-center turned into a hustle double with the Mariners outfielders playing deep to avoid giving up a double.
“It’s always tough with a guy at second base and nobody out,” Wilson said.
The Mariners got a bad break when left-handed hitting Matt Olson hit a low top-spin line drive that hit off the mound and bounced high over J.P. Crawford’s head and into center to score Profar. Crawford was lined up to make a play on the ball and threw his hands up in disgust as the Braves took a 2-1 lead.
Speier’s next pitch – a 95-mph sinker left in the middle of the plate – was ambushed by Ozzie Albies, who sent a deep fly ball to right field. Right fielder Dom Canzone over ran the ball as he neared the wall and couldn’t reach back to make a catch. It went for a run-scoring triple and a 3-1 lead. Drake Baldwin made it 4-1, ripping a groundball through the right side with the infield playing on the grass.
“Gabe has been so consistent for us out there, and tonight they were just able to sort of use the middle of the field and get some hits,” Wilson said. “Their approach on him was good and they were able to put them back-to-back.”
The Mariners, who struggled to score their one run in the game, certainly weren’t going to make up a three-run deficit in the ninth.
Seattle wasted a solid start from Logan Gilbert. The lanky right-hander pitched six innings, allowing one run on five hits with a walk and seven strikeouts. Gilbert’s lone run allowed came in a first inning that could’ve been much worse.
The Braves loaded the bases with no outs as Profar led off with a double, Olson worked a walk and Albies singled to right. Gilbert shrugged off the less-than-ideal start, striking out Baldwin for the first out. Ha-Seong Kim was able to score Profar with a sacrifice fly to center, but Gilbert struck out Michael Harris II to end the inning without any further damage.
“Not the way you draw it up,” Gilbert said. “I was just a little bit off there to start. They had a couple good swings too, and then a bad walk. But I felt like we settled in pretty good, and felt a little more synced up after that. I was just trying to get back to what I do and be aggressive and challenge them and get out of the inning and minimize it.”
Gilbert worked around baserunners in the next three innings, but he was able to use his splitfinger fastball to key strikeouts.
“It felt good out here,” Gilbert said. “It’s weird in humid places like Baltimore, my hands got a little too sticky, and the splitter wasn’t great because the humidity mixed with the rosin. I tried to be a little bit careful on that before the game, and I think it helped me out just having a normal feel for the splitter and not feeling like it was stuck in my hand.”
While Gilbert was good, his counterpart – Sale – was just as good if not better. In his second start since coming off the injured list, the veteran lefty pitched 62/3 innings, allowing one run on four hits with no walks and nine strikeouts. Using a high 90s fastball and a slider in the mid 70s, Sale had Seattle hitters off balance and flailing.
“He’s tough,” Wilson said. “He knows what he’s doing. We knew that going in, and he made some good pitches on us. We were also able to get our hits on occasion. But he doesn’t let you string too many together, and that’s what makes him so effective.”
Sale’s one run allowed came after he exited the game with two outs in the seventh and a 1-0 lead. With Jorge Polanco on first base, Dylan Lee, Sale’s replacement, gave up a single to Canzone that moved Polanco to second and another single to Leo Rivas that allowed the tying run to score. Wilson called on rookie Harry Ford, an Atlanta native, to make his MLB debut and face the left-handed throwing Lee with Canzone on third and Rivas on first. It didn’t go well. Lee fired three nasty sliders to Ford for three swings and misses.
The top of the Mariners’ order – Randy Arozarena, Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez and Eugenio Suárez – went 1 for 11 against Sale with six strikeouts. Raleigh’s first-inning single was the lone hit from the group.