SEATTLE \u2014 The sample size is small, but so are the batting averages of the heart of the Seattle Mariners order.<\/p>\n
The struggles of Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez and Josh Naylor highlighted a 5-3 defeat Wednesday that capped a 2-1 series loss to the New York Yankees.<\/p>\n
The Mariners, hoping to find a way to their first World Series in their 50th year of trying, fell to 3-4 in front of 23,415 fans at T-Mobile Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe faced some really tough pitching,\u201d Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. \u201cAnd no question about it, we faced some tough starters here with the Yankees, and they\u2019ve kept us a little quiet. But again, seeing some of the at-bats later in the ballgame today \u2014 and the way the guys have continued to make their adjustments \u2014 I think we\u2019ve got good things to come for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The struggles of Seattle\u2019s No. 2-3-4 hitters were somewhat obscured by strong starting pitching as the Mariners split a four-game series with Cleveland to open the season. The offensive struggles, coupled with uneven starting performances by Logan Gilbert in Tuesday\u2019s 5-0 loss and George Kirby in Wednesday\u2019s defeat, led to lopsided deficits that past two games.<\/p>\n
Some days, a starter can allow four runs and keep a team in a game. Not the way it\u2019s going for Seattle\u2019s All-Star caliber hitters, however.<\/p>\n
Seattle\u2019s offensive triumverate finished the seven-game homestand 7-for-78 (.090 batting average) with 10 walks, 30 strikeouts, five RBI and one extra-base hit.<\/p>\n
\u201cA couple days in a row now, we\u2019ve faced some pretty good starters over there,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cA couple of good outings, with (Max) Fried yesterday. And then (Cam) Schlitter today \u2014 thought had good stuff again, and made it tough on us offensively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raleigh put the Mariners briefly back into contention with a bases-loaded, 2-RBI single to trim the deficit to 4-2 in the bottom of the eighth. But the Yankees tacked on another run with Ben Rice\u2019s solo homer off reliever Cooper Criswell, and the M\u2019s top three batters by reputation finished the afternoon 1-for-11 with four strikeouts and no walks.<\/p>\n
Rice registered two of New York\u2019s six hits, scored twice and drove in a pair of runs.<\/p>\n
The Mariners fell behind by scores of 4-0 and 5-1 before giving themselves a chance with three runs in the final two innings. On a day when Kirby wasn\u2019t on like he\u2019d been in a 5-1 win over Cleveland during his first start of the year, the one-time All-Star needed more backing from his offense. <\/p>\n
Kirby (1-1) made it through six innings Wednesday, giving up four earned runs and striking out six batters while allowing five hits and three walks.<\/p>\n
All three free passes came around to score on 2-out hits, capped by Paul Goldschmidt\u2019s three-run home run in the sixth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just so critical to stay in the zone and make guys beat you,\u201d Kirby said. \u201cYeah, it just stinks. I felt really good that whole game. Two walks there in the sixth, and then the homer really stinks. So I just got to recommit, find a way to just get back in the zone and just keep battling.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Mariners No. 8 hitter Cole Young who battled until the final pitch as Seattle attempted to steal the series from New York.<\/p>\n
Naylor opened the ninth by closing the book on the Nos. 2-4 hitters\u2019 homestand with a groundout. Randy Arozarena smoked a line drive off the tip of third baseman Ryan McMahon\u2019s glove for a double, and later trotted home on Dominic Canzone\u2019s single to right.<\/p>\n
Young (1-for-4, run, strikeout) fouled off five pitches during a 10-pitch at-bat before driving a ball to right-center field, where it was caught for the final out by reigning American League MVP Aaron Judge, who was booed constantly throughout the series.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust a great at-bat from Cole again,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cIt really sort of typifies the way this team fights and fights, fights you until the end. And to see that from Cole, you know, to see the diving or the backhand play that he made today with the jump throw. He\u2019s really starting to feel the confidence, and I think really starting to feel the flow here a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirby got two outs to begin the first inning, but walked Cody Bellinger on a fastball that just missed low and inside. Bellinger stole second when Raleigh\u2019s throw went wide of shortstop Leo Rivas\u2019 glove. He came home on Rice\u2019s double down the left field line for the game\u2019s first run.<\/p>\n
Kirby walked two batters in the sixth inning, and paid for the passes again when Goldschmidt hit a fastball near the middle of the plate over the left field fence and into the Mariners bullpen for a 4-0 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWalks are going to happen,\u201d Wilson said. You know, it does seem like they come back to haunt you often, and that\u2019s why a big part of what we talk about is dominating the zone and getting ahead. And George does that very effectively. Every once in a while it\u2019s going to happen where you\u2019re going to walk a guy, but for the most part, I think George is on the attack, and I think that\u2019s where he\u2019s at his best, is when he\u2019s on the attack.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2014 The sample size is small, but so are the batting averages of the heart of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,7580],"class_list":{"0":"post-182970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news","11":"tag-seattle-mariners"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}