It was a terrible first inning for the Mariners, in what would eventually be an 8-3 loss to the Nationals on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Cole Young flew out on the first pitch of the game. Julio Rodr\u00edguez struck out on the next three. And Josh Naylor popped out on the first pitch he saw. That\u2019s right: Nationals\u2019 starter Cade Cavalli needed just five pitches to set down the Mariners in the top half of the first.<\/p>\n
The bottom half was somehow worse. After a quick out, Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. hit a grounder toward first. Naylor ranged to his right, snatched the ball with a back hand, turned, and lobbed to\u2026 nobody really. Luis Castillo was covering the bag and didn\u2019t \u2014 well, couldn\u2019t \u2014 make much of an effort at the ball as it skittered toward the dugout. Another groundout moved Garc\u00eda to second, and a single from C.J. Abrams would score the game\u2019s first run. Daylen Lile yanked a hanging slider off the wall in right field that Victor Robles over ran, allowing Lile into third with an RBI triple<\/a>. Dylan Crews would score him with a single a few pitches later. It was 3-0 after the first.<\/p>\n And you know what. I\u2019ll admit it. I fell asleep after that.<\/p>\n It was a true summertime baseball nap. A muted game on a Saturday afternoon, the time on the baseball calendar where the season feels old but not quite late. An open window with the sounds of a gorgeous, 76-degree day filtering through, which today mostly meant birds and bugs and sirens. And a too-full couch with a 50-pound dog at my feet, every shift and sigh and fart waking me just long enough to glimpse at the score. I dreamt of a wonderful place, filled with fire and brimstone, and there were all these guys in teal pajamas sticking tridents in my butt. And-<\/p>\n Oh, the game. Well, let\u2019s see what happened from there, shall we?<\/p>\n The Mariners would briefly come back to tie the game. Cavalli pretty well dominated through the first four innings, facing just one over the minimum. That\u2019s not a surprise, as he\u2019s pretty good. But things fell apart for him in the fifth. Dominic Canzone got plunked to lead off. Victor Robles nearly had extra bases on a shot to center, but Crews ran it down<\/a> with a nice leaping grab. Mitch Garver put runners on the corners with a single of his own.<\/p>\n That brought up Colt Emerson:<\/p>\n Emerson got a fastball up and in and crushed it into the upper deck for his sixth home run of the year. It\u2019s been an odd debut for Emerson. He\u2019s swung at bad pitches, whiffed a ton, and hasn\u2019t really squared up the ball. Still, he\u2019s gotten the most out of the good contact he\u2019s made, and it\u2019s obvious why the Mariners were willing to commit to him before seeing him in the majors. He wasn\u2019t really supposed to be good right away \u2014 his call up was one of circumstance rather than readiness \u2014 and I won\u2019t be at all concerned when his line starts to slump. But I\u2019ve been saying that for a while now, and I\u2019m still waiting.<\/p>\n As far as I can tell, that was it for fun things in this game. Garc\u00eda would hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning to give the Nats a 5-3 lead. The Mariners would threaten in the seventh with a pair of singles and a walk to load the bases. But with two outs, Naylor hit a weak fly out to center to end the threat.<\/p>\n Dan Wilson turned to former National Jos\u00e9 Ferrer in the seventh. A double, walk and single made it 6-3. Wilson then turned to Eduard Bazardo. With runners on second and third, Crews hit a hard grounder to Emerson at short, who made a dive-ish to his left and fired to plate to get the runner (after a review).<\/p>\n