PHILADELPHIA – After an injury-marred season, the Mariners starting staff is, finally, back to full health.
As the past two days have shown, though, the Mariners pitching operation is hardly back to full strength.
A day after George Kirby was roughed up in a loss to the New York Mets, Logan Gilbert had his worst start of the season in a 12-7 series-opening loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night at Citizens Bank Park.
The Mariners (68-58), after such a promising surge to open August, have lost five of six on this insufferable East Coast swing, with two more games to play here in Philly.
Gilbert surrendered six runs – all earned – on nine hits in just two innings, matching the shortest outing of his career.
After the game, Gilbert said his lack of command was his primary issue.
“Just didn’t really have great execution,” he said. “Just trying to get ahead and keep the ball down, and didn’t really do either of those very well.”
Gilbert left a slider over the middle of the plate that Trea Turner launched for a three-run homer in the second inning, and J.T. Realmuto added a 404-foot solo blast later in the inning, also on a hanging slider.
Bryce Harper’s 440-foot blast off Mariners reliever Casey Legumina into the second deck in right field extended the Phillies’ lead to 7-0 in the sixth inning.
Phillies lefty Ranger Suárez had a season-high 10 strikeouts, holding the Mariners to just four hits over 6.2 innings.
Mitch Garver homered with two outs in the seventh inning, his eighth of the season, to break up Suárez’s shutout bid.
Rookie Cole Young hit a mammoth three-run homer the fourth of his career – off Phillies reliever Jordan Romano to bring the Mariners within three at 7-4.
The Phillies quickly halted the Mariners’ momentum in the bottom of the seventh, in Legumina’s second inning of work.
Turner drove in a run with a double that landed on the chalk line in right field, and Harper added another majestic blast to make it 11-4.
At 440 and 448 feet, Harper has hit the two longest home runs of the season at Citizens Bank Park in back-to-back innings.
Mariners manager Dan Wilson was asked postgame if he considered turning to a leverage reliever after Young’s homer pulled the M’s within three runs.
“Those are always decisions that are difficult,” Wilson said. “You’ve got to weight it, weigh everything that you can. And I thought ‘Legs’ had a pretty good first inning and we decided to stay with him.”
The Phillies’ 21 hits are the most Mariners pitching has allowed in any game since Sept. 8, 2019 against Houston.
It’s the most hits for the Phillies in a game at Citizens Bank Park since July 6, 2009.
The Mariners added three mostly meaningless runs in the ninth inning off Phillies right-hander Nolan Hoffman, making his MLB debut. Hoffman, a Mariners fifth-round draft pick in 2018, ended the game with a strikeout of Cal Raleigh, the Mariners’ 2018 third-round pick. They were teammates with the Everett AquaSox later that summer.
Things don’t figure to get any easier for the Mariners on Tuesday, when the Phillies turn to another lefty, Cy Young candidate Cristopher Sánchez (11-4, 2.45 ERA).
Bryce Miller, sidelined with a bone spur in his elbow, is scheduled to be activated off the injured list and make his first start for the Mariners since June 6.
“Statistically, it obviously hasn’t been a good season, and I can’t change what’s already been done,” said the 26-year-old right-hander.
“My only goal moving forward is — it’s not to get my ERA down to 3-something or any of that. It’s just go out compete and finish strong and get us into the postseason and see how far we can go.”
Right fielder Dominic Canzone initially remained in the game after being hit in the left arm/wrist by a 88-mph sinker from Suárez. Luke Raley replaced Canzone, who said after the game that X-rays taken on his arm came back negative. There is no sign of a fracture, he said.