Nasty, brutish, short: Mariners drop series finale to Red Sox, 3-1

Bats asleep again as two homers doom Mariners, but hey, at least the game was fast

Last night, Cal Raleigh talked about how important it is to be able to turn the page, as the Mariners rebounded from a dismal shutout loss to be the shutter-outers instead. But perhaps the Mariners should have remained on the page that saw them score eight runs, because once again the bats were quiet today in a sleepy 3-1 loss that handed the Mariners their fourth series loss of the month, leaving the Cleveland sweep their lone series win in the month of June.

Marcelo Mayer hit the ball hard three times against Woo last night and was the only Red Sox batter to record a hit, but was ultimately stymied in the shutout loss. He got his revenge today, getting the Red Sox on the board first with a solo homer, pouncing on the first pitch he saw from Luis Castillo. His homer today wasn’t hit nearly as hard as any of his balls in play last night, but he was able to get under it and launch it enough to get it out of the ballpark on a sunny and warm day.

The sun might have hurt the Mariners in the top of the second, but it helped them out in the bottom of the inning. Randy Arozarena drove the first pitch he saw from Crochet to the left-center and Jarren Duran had it, until he didn’t. The hit was generously ruled a double. Arozarena advanced to third on a Mitch Garver flyout, and then scored on a wild pitch. Donovan Solano and Ben Williamson followed that up with back-to-back ground ball singles, Solano going to the left past Mayer again and Williamson cuing a nubber between first and second (an xBA of a whopping .270), but with two outs, supposed lefty-killer leadoff man Dylan Moore struck out for the second time in as many at-bats. Spoiler alert, but that would be all the offense the Mariners could muster in this game, meaning outside of Cal Raleigh’s heroics last night, the Mariners scored one run on a hit and one run thanks to a sun ball/wild pitch in this entire series.

After the two teams traded zeroes in the third, the Red Sox were able to pull ahead in the fourth. Castillo walked Mayer on six not particularly-close pitches, and then Trevor Story went down and got a sinker at the bottom of the zone and was able to just pull it over the left-field fence for a two-run homer (out at 17/30 parks). Solo homers won’t kill you; two-run homers, with a tough lefty on the opposing mound, will do more damage. It’s a bit of a broken-clock scenario: Trevor Story has been ice-cold for the Sox this season, and against the Mariners in particular, going hitless against them in every game...until this one.

“It was a surprise,” said Castillo post-game. “That was a pitch that, for me, was perfect to get the double play, but he was able to put a really good swing on it, and that made the difference today.”

The Red Sox threatened again in the sixth, as Castillo issued a leadoff walk to Roman Anthony, who then recorded his first big-league stolen base, but Trevor Story wasn’t able to drive in another run, hitting a hot shot (106.7 EV) that Dylan Moore handled well at short, turning away the Rex Sox with Castillo’s pitch count sitting at a cool 86.

Meanwhile, Crochet started the sixth at 84 pitches, but that didn’t matter, as he sawed through the Mariners 1-2-3, adding another two strikeouts to bring his day’s total to eight.

Despite Castillo likely having gas left in the tank, the Mariners opted to bring in Carlos Vargas to work the seventh, again trying to get some work in for the bullpen before tomorrow’s off-day. He posted a clean inning, as did Gabe Speier and Eduard Bazardo behind him. It certainly wasn’t the pitching’s fault today.

The Red Sox countered with Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman, who shut down the bottom and top of the order, respectively. Greg Weissert had the ninth and was wild, walking Arozarena with one out,

About the nicest thing to be said about today’s game is it was short: a tidy two hours, fourteen minutes (which happens to be my birthday. That’s a stinky present, though, Mariners).

Because this recap was about as meh as the game was, here are some other things of note that happened in this game:

• Cal Raleigh recorded the first hit in this game, smoking a double past a diving Marcelo Mayer on the first pitch he saw from Crochet. If you’re throwing Cal Raleigh a fastball on the plate right now, be grateful it’s only a double.
• Donovan Solano made this very slick play which saved Story’s homer from being a three-run shot, not that it would have mattered.

• In an otherwise uneventful fourth inning for the Mariners, Mitch Garver stung the first pitch he saw from Crochet for a line-drive single that came off the bat at 107.7 mph. Keep plugging away, GarvSauce.
• Dylan Moore did single in the fifth off Crochet. The Mariners didn’t do anything with it, but it felt fair to note, although his earlier two strikeouts came in more leverage situations.
• With Eduard Bazardo and Carlos Vargas each pitching a scoreless inning today, they remain virtually neck-and-neck in stats for the season, which is the kind of thing that passes for interesting around here when the offense plays this poorly.