Mariners offense remains in cryptobiosis, lose to Orioles 4-3

A disappointing end to a disappointing homestand

This summer I’ve decided to do the Seattle Public Library’s Book Bingo, a great program which really challenges participants to stretch and grow in their reading habits. I’m not usually a nonfiction reader, especially in-season when I can use all the frothy escapism I can get, but I’m really enjoying Nature Obscura by local writer Kelly Brenner, a closely-observed study of urban micro-habitats. I never realized one could find tardigrades, or “water bears,” right here in our Pacific Northwest moss. Tardigrades, I learned from Brenner’s book, are capable of responding to threats by entering “cryptobiosis,” a sort of living-dead state where all metabolic processes are suspended. It’s an apt metaphor for the Mariners offense over the month of May—and now stretching into June—as they turned in another clunker today, leading to a sweep at the hands of the lowly Orioles.

“The ball’s just not bouncing our way,” said manager Dan Wilson. Except today it literally was; the Mariners’ xBA of .277 wasn’t as high as it’s been in other games they lost, but it was higher than the Orioles’ .255.

It was a frustrating loss on a day when the batted ball luck finally started to go the Mariners’ way. Jorge Polanco doubled in the first inning, shooting a Zach Eflin fastball just fair down the first base line and winning the .500 xBA toss-up, but Julio Rodríguez followed with a four-pitch strikeout for the second out and Cal Raleigh flew out right at the wall for the third out of the inning. In the second, it was almost a mirror image when Rowdy Tellez shot a fastball down the left field line (unlike the more fleet-footed Polanco, Tellez only made it to first); Leody Taveras followed with his first hit in what felt like forever, parachuting a little single (77 mph EV!) into center field. But the mini-rally came to a halt there: Mastrobuoni put the ball on the ground, narrowly avoiding a double play, but forcing Cole Young into a high-pressure situation, and the rookie struck out to end the inning. Perhaps the rookie isn’t in such a tough position if the first out of the inning wasn’t this abysmal at-bat from Randy Arozarena:

Perhaps as a response to this offensive showing, Woo allowed his first run of the day in the next inning, creating what folks are calling the most fielding independent pitching run of all time: he walked the nine-hole hitter Maverick Handley (Maverick Handley!!!), who advanced to second on a wild pitch and then third on a flyout, and then scored on yet another wild pitch.

The Mariners’ offensive third inning was a remix of the first two, like a DJ quickly running out of gimmicks. The BABIP gods gifted J.P. Crawford another hit, as a parachute into left field found safe purchase on the grass. But Polanco then mirrored Mastrobuoni’s groundball hit, narrowly avoiding a double play of his own. Julio struck out, but Polanco was able to steal second during his at-bat. That brought up Cal this time in a big spot, instead of the rookie Young and Cal, as he so often has this season, came through:

Things took an optimistic turn in the fifth. J.P. Crawford collected his third hit of the day already, starting the inning off with a leadoff double over the head of Heston Kjerstad, who did not exactly cover himself in glory in right field during this series. Crawford advanced to third on a Polanco swinging bunt, but then Julio grounded out, once again putting it in Cal’s hands.

Something that’s important for you to know is that the Orioles had a long mound meeting before Cal came up to bat. During this meeting I assume things were said like, “perhaps we should not pitch to this guy, currently doing things to baseballs not seen since Coca-Cola had literal cocaine in it.” Or maybe “let’s walk West Coast Aaron Judge, shall we?” Or even, “hey, the guy coming up behind him struck out at three pitches earlier, let’s pitch to him instead.”

That is not what the Orioles decided to do:

Brenner’s book is full of the wonders of nature. I am full of wonder at the Orioles’ decision-making process here.

But it would turn out not to matter. Bryan Woo, so often the Mariners’ steadiest hand in the rotation, wobbled in the sixth inning. He opened the inning with a leadoff walk to Jackson Holliday, missing on some close pitches but missing nonetheless. Once again, a leadoff walk would sting Woo, as, in a battle with Adley Rutschman where Rutschman had fouled off three consecutive pitches, Woo made a costly mistake and hung a slider right in the middle of the plate that Rutschman punished over the fence for a game-tying homer.

That one was on Woo; it probably wasn’t his fault that Gunner Henderson turned on a pitch inside and was able to sneak it over the right-field fence for a go-ahead home run, but that is what happened, to put the Orioles up 4-3. Someone puked in front of the press box during this inning, which is a little heavy-handed as a metaphor but not inaccurate.

Postgame, Woo said he felt like he was “getting away with some stuff” in the game, acknowledging he didn’t have his full complement of pitches. He wasn’t able to throw either his sweeper or his changeup much, and of the five total he did throw, he got one swing and threw two as wild pitches. “I was just too predictable,” said Woo, although he reiterated that the chief culprit in his day was the two leadoff walks.

The Mariners would not be able to come up with another run against Keegan Akin, Andrew Kittredge, and Bryan Baker. At least when the tardigrades hang out in cryptobiosis they get some much-needed rest.

A brief moment of joy in an otherwise stinkerful day: Carlos Vargas was again stirred from his bullpen slumber, on a day when John Trupin wrote about how heavily the bullpen has been taxed, using Vargas as the literal cover boy for his article. After coughing up the lead in yesterday’s game, Vargas, presented with a clean slate of an inning and the bottom three of the Orioles lineup, worked an effective 1-2-3 seventh inning that included him fielding a ball cleanly (PFPs - they work!) and a nasty strikeout of Jorge Mateo on a cutter.

Casey Legumina also posted a clean inning, and these are the kinds of wins we have to find on a day when there is precious little else to celebrate, outside of Cal Raleigh continuing to be superhuman—which somehow is even more vexing on a day like today, when his efforts go for naught.

Brennan writes of the tardigrades she kept that one weekend, the little petri dish of watery moss where she kept them dried out, and the microscopic wiggles subsided. Knowing that tardigrades have been known to endure much more than a weekend of neglect, she rehydrated the moss and waited.

“A few hours later I poked around in the dish and found a tardigrade, compressed and unmoving. I prodded it with one of my dissecting tools and it moved a little, as though it were just waking up. Very slowly its legs rehydrated, like a balloon being blown up, until it was in a spread-eagle position. Eventually it started moving and righted itself, becoming more active.”

Tardigrades can survive nuclear radiation, deep freezes and boiling summers, even space. One hopes the Mariners season can survive this ice age into which the offense (non-Cal-Raleigh edition) has fallen. Instead, though, it was the Baltimore beat writers in the elevator down to the clubhouses giddily what-if-ing a season’s revival - “hey, they might just screw around and do it” - the Mariners once again playing host to another team’s regeneration, while their own playoff hopes remain in cryptobiosis.