Royals, Mariners offense kick down Logan Gilbert’s sandcastle, Mariners lose 2-4

One step forward, many steps back

The thing about the way the Mariners have been skating through this season with historically great pitching and subpar offense is it’s extremely nerve-wracking to watch. The starting pitcher carefully builds a beautiful sandcastle inning by inning, while opposing hitters attempt to lap away at its foundation like the endless roll of the tide. This is standard. Except also, the starting pitcher has to also fend off his own offense, who steadfastly refuse to provide anything in the way of reinforcements. Tonight was another such carefully-constructed gem thrown by the starting pitcher left to wither in the benign neglect of the offense, as the Mariners yet again squandered an excellent start by Logan Gilbert en route to a 2-4 loss.

Acting like his dismal, getaway day start against the Twins never even happened, Logan Gilbert was in full Walter mode for six of his seven innings tonight, spoiler alert. He opened the game with three strikeouts, putting an exclamation point on his first inning by striking out Vinnie Pasquantino on a fastball that came in at 99.2 mph—per Zach Mason, the fifth-fastest pitch Gilbert has ever thrown in his career.

Admittedly, Gilbert got some help from his defense to keep the bases as clean as he did. A leadoff single in the second from Salvador Pérez—on a pitch that was located practically in the other batter’s box—was wiped away with a neatly turned 3-4-3 double play the next batter, and in the third, Sam Haggerty reminded Hunter Renfroe, trying to stretch a single into a double, that time comes for us all:

In the fourth, it was Josh Rojas’s turn to help out his pitcher, snagging a smoked grounder off the bat of Maikel García (104.2!) to help Gilbert to another 1-2-3 inning. But truthfully, Logan didn’t need that much help from his defense today, as he cut through the Royals’ lineup with deadly efficiency, holding the line strong until the seventh inning.

What Gilbert did need: runs. What he did not get: runs. The Mariners finally clawed onto the board in the fourth against Michael Wacha. After his teammates made two quick outs, Luke Raley ambushed a first-pitch curveball from Wacha and lasered it into the right field seats. Servais said pregame that Raley is at his best when he’s pulling the ball and getting into his power, and he certainly did so here:

These are the kind of blazing homers that I’d watch Raley hit basketfuls of during BP, only to have them disappear like something out of a fairy tale as soon as the lights came on. It’s a tough spot for Raley when the team isn’t hitting well: does he risk a big swing to try to impact the game, or focus on getting on base since the rest of the team struggles with it? The past couple of days have showed us what a Luke Raley who isn’t consumed with trying to keep the line moving can do, but the rest of the offense needs to step it up so Raley can continue to be his best self in the box.

Raley’s solo shot was all the Mariners could scare up off Wacha over his six innings of work, sending Gilbert back out in the seventh still clinging to a 1-0 lead as the tide continued to roll in. The seventh inning opened, as most bad innings do, with a leadoff walk to the tough-to-strike-out Bobby Witt Jr., followed by a booted double play ball by Rojas. Rojas was able to recover and get the runner at first, but that left the dangerous Witt Jr. at second. The Mariners then intentionally walked Salvador Pérez, hoping to strike gold once again, as twice in a row Michael Massey had come to the plate with a runner on and hit into 3-6-3 double plays. Sadly, Massey made just one out on a strikeout, bringing up Nelson Velázquez, whose Three True Outcome Dial had unfortunately just clicked over from “strikeout” to “home run,” as he found a slider in but still well on the plate to his liking.

The Royals went on to add on against the Mariners’ bullpen, as a leadoff walk followed by a sacrifice bunt, because the Royals do love themselves a bunt, cashed in for another run on a Maikel García single. That only dug the hole deeper for a Mariners lineup that collected all of four hits tonight, three off Wacha and two off John Schreiber, who worked a solid almost-two innings of relief before departing in the eighth inning after being hit by a comebacker off the bat of Julio Rodríguez. The Royals brought on their closer a batter early, hard-throwing James McArthur, who gave up a single to Ty France, but Cal Raleigh struck out to end the threat.

McArthur, back out for the ninth, gave up a home run to Mitch Haniger before fully stomping upon the last remains of Gilbert’s once-beautiful sandcastle by striking out Dylan Moore and getting Luis Urías to pop out softly.

Per Mariners PR, that home run is Haniger’s 55th at T-Mobile Park, moving him past Edgar and Ichiro, with 54 apiece, for seventh-most in ballpark history. If we are to take some solace from this game, let it be Mitch Haniger with a three-hit night with a walk and no strikeouts, perhaps turning a corner from his offensive doldrums that have plagued him over the start of the season. The home run is the big hit, but it’s also encouraging to see Mitch go down in an 0-2 hole, as he did during his at-bat in the second that ended in a single, work his way to a full count and get a reward for it. I wrote the other day about how the Mariners are seeing a lot of pitches and working full counts but not getting anything for it, but not Mitch; in 34 plate appearances this year with a full count, he’s slashing .375/.559./708, with 10 walks and 12 strikeouts. For contrast, Shohei Ohtani has been in full counts this year 29 times; he’s slashing .143/.357/.143, with seven walks and eight strikeouts.

And another piece of solace: yet another tidy, two-and-a-half hour game ensuring that after a long day of getting sunburned at the beach, fans were able to tuck in for an early night with the hope of a better day tomorrow.