Mariners: 5 takeaways from tough series versus Houston Astros

4) Sheffield has worst outing of the season

Following a tough outing in his first start of the season, Justus Sheffield had shown some promise in his last two appearances. Unfortunately for the Mariners, he had his worst performance of the season on Monday night.

Sheffield allowed a career-high 12 hits along with five runs — four of which were earned – in 5.1 innings. He also gave up a walk and had a season-low four strikeouts, as he notched up his second loss of 2021.

One of the most alarming aspects of the 24-year-old’s performance, was the lack of command he had with his slider. Despite being his best pitch, just 11 of his 27 sliders went for strikes.

Another factor which contributed to Sheffield’s tough outing, was the ground ball. As Servais said to the media following the game:

“Sheff lives on the ground and just off the top my head, it seemed like there were maybe six or seven ground balls that got through. He was very aggressive …

“Unfortunately, that’s a good lineup. It’s a very deep lineup and they strung some things together against him.”

In this respect, 11 of the 12 hits Sheffield allowed went for singles. For some context, consider that heading into Monday night, he was eighth in the AL with a 50.0 percent ground ball rate since the start of the 2020 season.

Of course, it didn’t help that the 2014 first round draft pick was facing Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and Yordan Alvarez, who collectively had seven hits on the night. None of the trio were in the lineup for the previous series against the Mariners in Seattle.

Altuve and Alvarez were particularly productive, as both had three hits and a run. They also combined for three RBI in a game where the Astros had success in some key two-out and two-strike situations.

Sheffield discussed this issue after the game. Speaking to the media, he said:

“It was just a few pitches with two strikes that I left up. The one in the first inning to Alvarez when he hit the double, then the one that Altuve hit to left field and they end up scoring two.

“If I could get two pitches back tonight, it would definitely be those two. It was tough trying to get that thing going.”

Of course one bad outing is not something to panic about, especially when you consider what Sheffield showed he is capable of in his previous two games. However, it will be important for him to find a way to bounce back in his next start, this coming Sunday against the Los Angeles Angels.

NEXT: A CASE OF BAD TIMING