Mariners snap series win streak with 6-3 loss to Blue Jays

Bats and bullpen can’t back up Logan Evans’ solid start

The Mariners’ string of series victories came to an unceremonious end tonight as the Mariners lost a disappointing game, 6-3, to Bowden Francis and the Blue Jays. Logan Evans gave the team five solid if unspectacular innings, but the offense wasn’t able to capitalize on opportunities, and the bullpen couldn’t prop up Evans’s effort.

I know the header picture of him here is of Evans looking sad, but really, he doesn’t have much to hang his head about tonight. His location was sharp and he was able to navigate around traffic, doing an overall good job of attacking the zone. Evans has spoken before about the importance of being in advantage counts so he can unleash the full range of his secondaries, but he started the game with an advantage inning, retiring the top three Blue Jays hitters on just nine pitches—all flyouts to right field on the sweeper.

The Mariners answered with a ten-pitch offensive inning of their own, where eight of the pitches were consumed in a J.P. Crawford strikeout, if that gives you an indication of what the attack plan was against Bowden Francis tonight. Things were looking like another quick inning in the second, but Rowdy Tellez made some of that aggressive early contact count, checking in with yet another dinger against his former team:

After his dominant first, Evans had to navigate a little traffic: a one-out single to Alejandro Kirk in the second, which he worked around with a nasty strikeout of last night’s hero Addison Barger, tying him in knots on a cutter, and yet another flyout to Taveras in right. In the third he navigated around a two-out double from Bo Bichette, with a little help from Ben Williamson, who scooped up a hard-hit ball off the bat of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the final out. Gold Glove-caliber third base defense, how we’ve missed you. Not long, but you’ve been missed.

The Mariners added on in the bottom of the fourth; Julio Rodríguez continued his strong stretch with a leadoff single, and then Francis walked Cal Raleigh on four pitches, wanting nothing to do with him. Randy Arozarena then jumped on a first-pitch slider for an RBI double.

The Mariners were able to add one more run thanks to some hustle from Cal on a shallow Leody Taveras sacrifice fly to right field; Blue Jays manager and chief Cal Detractor John Schneider wanted to challenge the call at home so hard he was practically levitating, but Cal was clearly in safely. Unfortunately, that’s all they got that inning, and the Blue Jays went on to add two of their own in the top of the fifth, as Evans suffered his first real control outage of the day. He walked the leadoff hitter Ernie Clement on four pitches (he was later erased on a fielder’s choice), and then fell behind Bichette 2-0 before plopping a 92.8 mph four-seamer in the middle of the plate where even Bichette, off to a slow start on the power front this year, could drive it over the fence for a two-run homer. Evans then walked Guerrero Jr. but was able to get out of the inning without further damage when Dalton Varsho popped out.

“It was kind of a look-in-the-mirror moment,” said Evans postgame. “Like, this can either keep snowballing, or I can learn from my last outing and go get an out here.”

After the Mariners went down quietly in the bottom of the inning, Evans tried to work through the sixth but couldn’t retire his first batter, George Springer. Dan Wilson went to his bullpen, getting lefty Gabe Speier to battle the righty Kirk, and Kirk started right away with a single to right field that pushed Springer to third with no one out. That brought up a heavier lefty pocket, but Addison Barger was able to get on a slider on the plate for an RBI fielder’s choice, tying the game and bringing out loud “let’s go Blue Jays” chants. Righty Ernie Clement then had what can only be described as a godawful at-bat against Speier, striking out on a half-swing on a slider at his shoetops, and lefty Nathan Lukes whiffed after a slider to cap the damage there.

The Mariners couldn’t come up with an answer-back inning from the top of the lineup, still facing Francis, whose pitch count was low due to the Mariners’ aggressive approach. Meanwhile, Dan WIlson countered with one of the spiciest arms from his ‘pen, bringing out Canadian Matt Brash for his first home appearance since September of 2023. Brash got two quick outs against Straw and Bichette before getting cute with Vladdy, trying to work in his curveball and new changeup, and walking him. He struck out Varsho to quell that threat, though. I don’t have video of that so here he is striking out Straw instead:

With his pitch count low, Schneider sent Francis out for the seventh inning to deal with the bottom of the Mariners’ lineup, the first time a starting pitcher had pitched in the seventh inning against the Mariners since April 7, when Hayden Wesneski of the Astros did it. Francis couldn’t quite clear the seventh, giving up a two-out single to Miles Mastrobuoni and a parachute base hit to Ben Williamson, but Mason Fluharty was able to get J.P. Crawford to fly out softly, with Crawford spiking his bat into the ground in annoyance as his career-high 16-game hitting streak came to an end.

Carlos Vargas worked the eighth and was shaky out of the gates: he walked Springer on five pitches, and then Springer took second easily. Vargas was able to get annoyance Kirk to fly out harmlessly, but then gave up an RBI single to other annoyance Barger, putting the Jays up 4-3. Clement then pounced on the first pitch he saw with the runner in motion to put runners on the corners with just one out. Vargas rebounded to strike out Lukes on a nasty sinker, but then gave up a two-run single to former Astro Myles Straw, still making Mariner fans lives’ miserable.

“[Vargas] has been our guy in those situations, and I had total trust he was going to get through it,” said Wilson postgame about leaving in Vargas to face Straw. “And I’m excited for him to get back out there, because I know he’s going to bounce back well.”

Eduard Bazardo came in to clean up the mess, striking out Vladdy, but the damage was done, as the fearsome Blue Jays bullpen—leading MLB in K%—shut the Mariners down from there.

With the Mariners in unfamiliar territory facing down a potential sweep at home, Dan Wilson chose to focus on the positive postgame: the Mariners’ historic streak of series wins, accomplishing something no Mariners team has done in the past two decades.

“I think when you look at that series streak, and what those guys in that clubhouse were able to accomplish, that’s pretty impressive. And let’s start another one. These guys have shown us over and over again just how strong they are. So keep it moving.”