Mariners miss the mark at Target Field, lose 2-0

If a clunker falls in the forest...

Some losses, like today’s, wherein the Seattle Mariners managed just three hits and no runs against the Minnesota Twins, are a challenge to the sentiment that they all count the same. The 2-0 defeat tasted like air, felt like dirt, and ran off my back like water, assuming in this moment that I am a large, sentient, baseball-crazed gray duck.

There wasn’t enough to glom onto this afternoon. A frictionless loss, wherein the M’s brought a runner to second base in each of the first two innings and not once subsequently. Julio Rodríguez reached base twice, with a hit by pitch and a steal, then a single late, and Randy Arozarena did the same, albeit walking instead of taking a plunking and getting caught stealing to end his perfect streak. On a rain-drenched night, Seattle was driven down, down, into the ground over and over again by a near-impeccable Joe Ryan. Aided by a gigantic strike zone that benefitted George Kirby as well, it was a genuine pitcher’s duel of precision more than offensive impotence in many ways.

Still, the outcome was similar. Seattle might have deserved slightly better. A Cal Raleigh punchout early came well outside the zone, and Julio was stranded after Jorge Polanco blistered a line drive 110+ mph off the bat that was snatched from the sky by 2B Kody Clemens. Kirby’s hyper-efficiency led to his second-best outing since returning, and his lowest scoring, as he worked 6.0 frames with just one run, an inconvenient confluence of two hits of Minnesota’s mere three eked out against him. On a day where runs were scarce and no other fly balls found purchase, a Kody Clemens opposite field bomb felt like showboating in the seventh off Eduard Bazardo.

2-0, a drop in the bucket that counts the same as any thrilling victory. The best to be said for the offense was they demanded the use of Minnesota’s best relievers, leaving the Twins exposed in the final tilt of the four-game set. Here’s hoping.