CLEVELAND – The Mariners can continue to “battle” and “show plenty of fight,” the mantras of manager Dan Wilson when describing his team’s effort. But at some point soon, they need to start executing and winning in games not played in T-Mobile Park.
Remember, fight and battle aren’t categories for postseason qualification. And achieving that playoff goal, once almost seemingly like a given, is growing less certain with each road failure.
Seattle dropped its seventh consecutive road game on Saturday night with a disappointing 4-3 loss to the Cleveland Guardians. The Mariners will try to avoid being swept on Sunday afternoon with right-hander Bryce Miller getting the start.
“Another tough one tonight,” Wilson said. “Our guys fought back after getting down 3-0. To be able to come back with the couple homers and make it a game – we’ve seen that fight in them. It was there again tonight, but we just came up a little bit short.”
The Mariners have been coming up a little short in road games far too often for a team with postseason aspirations. They haven’t won a road series since sweeping the Tigers in a three-game series leading into All-Star break. They split a four-game series at Anaheim after the break and then dropped road series to the A’s, Orioles, Mets, Phillies and now the Guardians. That’s a 5-13 record in road games after the All-Star break.
“That’s something that we want to turn around and turn around quickly,” Wilson said. “We have the ability to turn it around and that’s what we’re gonna do.”
It’s sort of difficult to win a division title when you can’t win on the road. The loss was somewhat mitigated with the Astros losing to the Angels. The Mariners (72-64) remain three games behind Houston (75-61) in the American League West.
“It doesn’t help to be close to winning these games, we have to find a way to win them,” said Logan Gilbert. “It’s not like everybody’s not trying or doing their part, but there are just little things we need to do. I think it will happen, but it’s a matter of making it happen sooner rather than later.”
The Mariners have struggled to put a complete game together in their recent woes. One aspect always seems to be lacking or misfiring.
“We have to finish games,” Cal Raleigh said. “We are in these games, you look at yesterday, and even back in Philly, where even as bad as we played we still had chances to win. We have to finish. We need go get the big hit or make the one pitch.”
Gilbert gave the Mariners a workable start, pitching six innings while allowing three runs on four hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
Former Lake City High and Washington State standout Kyle Manzardo was responsible for most of the damage with a two-run homer in the sixth inning.
Gilbert’s teammates provided him zero runs of support over the first six innings against Cleveland starter Gavin Williams.
Going back to Friday’s walk-off loss where they scored four runs in the first inning and went scoreless the rest of the way, the Mariners went 14 innings without scoring. Jorge Polanco ended the drought with one out in the seventh, smashing a solo blast to right field for his 22nd homer of the year.
After Caleb Ferguson allowed a run in relief in the bottom of the seventh the Mariners trailed 4-1.
Julio Rodríguez cut the lead to 4-3 in the eighth, smashing a two-run homer to left field. But the Cleveland bullpen closed out Seattle in the ninth.
Naylor puts emotions aside
On Friday night, Josh Naylor played his first game at Progressive Field as a visitor. It was also his first game against the Guardians, who traded him to the Diamondbacks last offseason.
The feeling?
“Just another game we are trying to win,” Naylor said. “We’re in a really good position. I just want to help this team win.”
He received a nice ovation from the Friday night crowd when he was announced to hit in the first inning. He gave a few nods, said hello to his brother, who was catching, and home-plate umpire Nate Tomlinson.
“I always say hi to the catcher and the umpire in my first at-bat and then I keep it moving,” he said.
Nothing else?
“I’m just here to win,” he said. “I’m here to play hard. If he’s back there, cool, if he’s not, cool. He’s my competitor. At the end of the day, I want to do everything I can to win the game and have a good at-bat and help my team win.”