It's barely mid-April, but Seattle Mariners fans across the land are sighing "not again."
Yes, again. A franchise that has suffered so many losing seasons over its 37-year history (26) defied the baseball gods and declared itself 'all in' this year, adding All Star second baseman Robinson Canoe and other pieces in the hopes of competing. And yet, the M's stand just 7-11 after eighteen games, fourth in the American League West and six games off the pace set by the Oakland A's.
As a microcosm of the season to date, the series finale against Miami was a painful indicator of exactly why the M's have started so slowly.
Brandon Maurer pressed into duty
On the heels of a crushing (literally) walk-off grand slam home run by Giancarlo Stanton Friday night and a dispiriting 7-0 loss on Saturday, the Mariners hoped to salvage the finale of a three-game series against the Marlins. With Hisachi Iwakuma and Taijuan Walker still on the DL and journeyman Blake Beavan having recently joined them, healthy starting pitchers were at a premium. Thus, Brandon Maurer was called up to start the game.
When on his game and at full strength, the 23-year old Maurer has a plus fastball and three other pitches in his arsenal. Like most young pitchers, consistency has been his biggest problem, not to mention that his splits aganst left-handed hitters have been, charitably speaking, lousy. Last season's 5-8, 6.30 stat line in Seattle was a clear indication that he just wasn't ready for prime time, at least one year ago. His spring training numbers this year did little to change that assessment.
Maurer starts the game throwing darts
Having said that, Maurer showed signs of life in the minors this year, striking out 17 in just 8 1/3 innings. Despite Maurer's recent back injury and with the M's woefully short of options, the right hander took the mound and held the Marlins hitless through four innings, striking out four and walking just one. "Felt good through the first four," he said. "I wish I would've gone a little longer, but I did what I could get done."
Meanwhile, Seattle scratched out single runs in the second and fourth innings. Cory Hart doubled to lead off the second inning, advanced to third on Dustin Ackley's ground out to second base and scored on Justin Smoak's sacrifce fly to right. In the fourth, Robinson Cano doubled to left, took third on Hart's long fly ball out to right and scored on Ackley's sacrifice fly to center fielder Marcell Ozuna.
Lloyd McLendon goes to the bullpen in the 5th
The Marlins scored their first run in the fifth. Maurer retired Casey McGehee, then gave up an infield single to Garrett Jones. After Adeiny Hechavarria walked, Donovan Solano lined a single to center, scoring Jones. Maurer was pulled in favor of Dominic Leone, who struck out Jeff Mathis and got Reed Johnson on a ground out to shortstop to end the inning.
"He was tired. He was exhausted," said M's skipper Lloyd McLendon. "He did good in the time he was in there."
With that, the battle of the bullpens ensued.
Leone, Joe Beimel and Danny Farquhar combined to shut down the Marlins for 2 1/3 innings, striking out two. In the eighth, Charlie Furbush gave up a ringing double to Mike Yelich and was replaced by the hard-throwing Tom Wilhelmsen. Wilhelmsen retired Ozuna on a fly ball to right field, and — due in larger part to his walk-off grand slam less than 48 hours earlier — intentionally walked Giancarlo Stanton. However, he unintentionally walked McGeehee, loading the bases and setting up the pivotal play of the game.
Instant replay bites the M's once again
Wilhelmsen was trying to keep the ball in the infield to possibly turn a double play or, at the very least, set up a play at the plate. Sure enough, Jones grounded the ball to first baseman Justin Smoak. Smoak had trouble gripping the ball for a split second before firing it home, In a bang-bang play, Yelich was called out by home plate umpire Ed Hickox. Marlins manager Mike Redmond appealed, and the call was overturned shortly thereafter. On the heels of Friday's loss, in which the pivotal ninth inning was extended due to an overturned fielder's choice at third, the call was particularly painful, especially since Hechavarria knocked in the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly. "I fielded it and threw it, but he just got a heck of a jump," Smoak said, referring to Yelich's foot crossing the plate an instant before the ball arrived. "It was a bang-bang play."
The M's made things interesting in the ninth, getting the tying run to third with just one out. However, both Nick Franklin and Michael Saunders struck out against Marlins' closer Steve Cishek to end the game. With that, Seattle's losing streak reached a season-high six games.
“It’s all right, we’ll get out of this,” assured Wilhelmsen. “We are a much better team than this. We know what we have going here. It’s just a bump in the road.” McClendon agreed: “We’ll keep searching, keep working on it and hopefully get it right tomorrow night.”
With Felix scheduled to climb the hill, Mariners fans sure hope so, lest this season really starts coming off the rails.