Mariners lineup doesn’t come through in 4-2 loss to Tigers

After a recent resurgence by the Mariners offense, the problems which have plagued them all season have returned in the past couple of games.

While it was just an eight-game sample starting with the beginning of the Chicago White Sox series, it seemed like perhaps the Seattle Mariners lineup had finally found its groove. Coinciding with the arrival of Randy Arozarena and then Justin Turner, they had scored a combined 57 runs in the aforementioned eight games, for an average of 7.125 per contest.

The Mariners had gone 6-2 during this streak, to remain at the top of the AL West. And the comeback from 5-0 down to beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-5 in extra innings in the eighth game, seemed to be a defining moment in the 2024 season and something to galvanize the players.

Instead, the Mariners returned to the problems which have plagued them all year long, in Sunday’s series finale versus the Phillies. The lineup basically wasted a strong start from Logan Gilbert, and were blanked 6-0.

The Rock does his bit

Unfortunately for the fans, these issues continued into Tuesday night’s series opener against the Detroit Tigers. Luis Castillo had a fine outing, but it was all for nought, as the Mariners’ bats could only muster five hits and two runs in a 4-2 loss.

Castillo flew through the first three innings, before finally getting himself into some trouble in the top of the fourth, as the Tigers took a 1-0 lead. He would allow another two earned runs an inning later, as the visitors increased their advantage to 3-0 and never looked back.

Yes Castillo wasn’t at his best per se, but it should have still been good enough on average. However, thanks to the lack of offense by the Mariners, he now leads AL starters with 11 losses.

On the night, the three-time All-Star gave up eight hits and the aforementioned three earned runs in 6.0 innings. He allowed no walks, while equalling a season high with nine strikeouts, as he went 99 pitches.

For his part, despite being unhappy with the final result and being extremely competitive, Castillo knows he pitched decently enough. Speaking to the media through his interpreter post game, he said:

“They weren’t able to make good contact enough for the ball to get hit for a homer or anything. So, for me, seeing that tells me that I was doing something good.”

Mariners lineup struggles to respond

After the Tigers had made it 3-0 in the top of the fifth, the Mariners finally got on the board in the bottom of the inning. However, they could only muster a solo blast from Luke Raley, to pull to within 3-1.

It did look like the home side was gearing up for a comeback in the bottom of the sixth, when they got two men on base with no outs. However, they were unable to capitalize and were made to pay in the top of the eighth, when the Tigers added another run to make it 4-1.

Still, it seemed as if the Mariners still had a chance in the bottom of the ninth, after some good fortune. Jorge Polanco avoided what appeared to be a certain out due to an error by a couple of Tigers outfielders, helping Cade Marlowe to come home and pull his team to within 4-2.

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A polarizing decision by Servais

This led to manager Scott Servais deciding to have Mitch Garver pinch hit for Raley, with a man on base and two outs, with the opportunity to tie the ball game. However, he subsequently struck out and the game was over.

There will be those who understandably criticise the decision to bring in Garver, who has struggled immensely this season and seemingly can’t get anything going right now. He has only managed to successively hit in one of his past 12 games, and overall has a .166 batting average and .615 OPS on the year following Tuesday’s action.

However, we would just counter with the rationale that Garver needed something to get him going and get back some self-belief. Can you just imagine what a hit in this situation would have done for his confidence?

In any event the gamble failed, but there was plenty of blame to go around with the lineup and their lack of impact with the bats. Speaking to the media afterwards, Servais said:

“You have to do some things offensively. You need some things to go your way, and they didn’t.”

It doesn’t help when one of the Mariners’ few strong bats right now in Turner, gets hit on the hand by a pitch in the bottom of the seventh innings. Fortunately it was nothing serious with X-rays coming back negative, but he is now day-to-day, which alludes to missing a game or two.

With the loss the Mariners drop to 59-55 and are now 0.5 games ahead of the Houston Astros. They’ll try to end their two-game losing streak on Wednesday night, as they send George Kirby to the mound.

At this point, it seems like the race to win the AL West will pretty much go down to the wire. How confident are you in the Mariners finishing ahead of the Astros and Texas Rangers? Let us know in the comments section below.