Mariners play great infield defense and forget all other parts of baseball game, lose 6-3 to Royals

Emerson Hancock has a tough night, offense squanders opportunities, Mariners lose 5-3

It’s been a tough go over the last few starts for Emerson Hancock, although it was easy enough to handwave away: the Wrigley game, with the wind and the intense heat, followed by the nightmarish rain delay in Minnesota; these are conditions that would test any pitcher. But tonight it was pleasant, sunny and calm in Seattle in front of a home crowd of 22,351 (and several hundred dogs), hyped-up from an exhilarating win last night. But what should have been a soft landing for Hancock was anything but, as he struggled and scrapped through six grueling innings, allowing the Royals to score five runs on seven hits, including several spicily-hit balls. This is, uh, not what you want to see from your starter:

Very little was working tonight for Hancock early on in this game. His velo was down, meaning he couldn’t squeak a 94 mph sinker past Jonathan India, who doubled to lead off the game and then came around to score on a sharply-struck single up the middle from Maikel Garcia. More troublingly, his command was off: he led off the second with a walk to rookie Jac Caglianone, who then immediately scored when Nick Loftin went turn-and-burn on a slider inside. The bottom third of the Royals lineup then added on another run thanks to a Nick Rave line drive and a Kyle Isbel groundout that could have been more damaging if not for some stellar play from Cole Young.

Actually, Hancock’s infield defense was the one thing consistently working for him tonight. Ben Williamson made some tough plays at third, in the first inning handling both a 37.6 mph EV dribbler from Vinnie Pasquantino and a 107 mph hot shot off the bat of Salvador Perez.

Apparently the broadcast was rich in Ben Williamson trivia tonight (yes he does do the crossword often, that William and Mary education is no joke), so I’ll add a tidbit of my own. Williamson’s glove is embroidered “Papa Bear” for reasons I don’t yet know—maybe because they both enjoy fishing? Williamson was definitely fishing out his share of ground balls tonight.

In the second, Randy Arozarena, continuing his hot streak from last night, made sure the Mariners wouldn’t be shut out against Royals starter Michael Lorenzen:

Annoyingly, this could have been a two-run shot because Jorge Polanco had singled earlier, but he got picked off first. “I thought Lorenzen had a pretty quick move on that,” said Dan Wilson postgame, but that doesn’t really take the sting off it. The Seattle Mariners: the living embodiment of Michael’s description of frozen yogurt.

The Mariners failed to add on against Lorenzen though, and despite another few solid frames from Hancock, he found himself in trouble again in the fifth, allowing a leadoff single to Bobby Witt Jr. followed by a ringing double to Pasquantino; both runners then scored on a Salvador Perez double that just missed leaving the yard to make it 5-1.

Nice guys Luke Raley and Ben Williamson teamed up for an answer-back inning in the bottom of the fifth, combining for a pair of doubles to give the Mariners their second run of the day. Cole Young advanced Williamson to third on a deep flyout—still looking for that first big-league home run—and then J.P. Crawford parachuted a little hit into left, again going oppo, to bring Ben home, tighten the game up to 5-3, and knock Lorenzen out of the game all in one fell swoop.

Meanwhile, Dan Wilson opted to stick with Hancock in the sixth. Hancock repaid his manager by getting his first two outs, pushing his pitch count up to 99. Wilson opted to leave Hancock in, but Hancock then nicked India with a sinker inside, leaving him to face Bobby Witt Jr. with a runner on. Once again, disaster was averted by Williamson, who snagged the 103 mph hot shot from Witt’s bat deep at third and made a strong throw across the diamond to help salvage as much as he could of Hancock’s day. “I needed a couple plays, and they helped me get through six,” said Hancock postgame.

The Mariners had a chance to come back in the sixth, getting two on with one out—Cal Raleigh struck out to lead off the inning, in an uncharacteristically tough night for him—but Donovan Solano, pinch-hitting for Raley against the lefty Angel Zerpa, grounded into an inning-ending double play, quashing any nascent good vibes. The Solanossaince has ended, things are very Baroque now.

In the seventh, after weekend warrior Eduard Bazardo hung a zero despite a Salvador Perez double, the Mariners had yet another chance. Zerpa walked the first two hitters he saw, pinch-hitter Dylan Moore and Williamson, prompting Matt Quataro to go to his bullpen again and fetch former Athletic Lucas Erceg to face Cole Young. Yet another double play later, Moore was standing on third, where he’d remain standing as Crawford grounded out to end the inning. Hard to hang this loss entirely on Hancock when the offense squandered opportunities like this.

Dan Wilson sent Juan Burgos out in the eighth to make his long-awaited debut, facing the bottom of the Royals order. Showcasing a 96 mph sinker and a hard cutter, Burgos got two quick lazy flyouts before battling Kyle Isbel for seven pitches, finally getting a called strike three for his first big-league punchout. It was one bit of good in an overall frustrating night.

The Royals used one of their leverage arms, Steven Cruz, to put down the Mariners with ease in the bottom of the eighth, sending the youngster Burgos back out, this time to face the top of the Royals lineup. No easy landings tonight at all, then. Burgos was able to strike out India on a nasty sweeper, but gave up a deep double to Witt that turned into a triple when he stole third, as he is wont to do. A harmless infield popup from Pasquantino gave Burgos a second out, but he then walked the free-swinging Maikel Garcia to bring up the specter of Salvador Perez, who went after the first pitch he saw for an RBI single.

Carlos Estévez took care of what remained of the Mariners in the ninth. Overall, this was a loss that felt like one of those games; a five-run hole is hard to dig out of, even though the Mariners had opportunities to do so. Sometimes the other team is just better, or luckier, or hits more balls hard against a flagging starter. But with the Astros playing the hapless Rockies, the Mariners have now sunk to a season-low seven games back. They don’t have the luxury of playing many more games like this, especially as Houston cruises through a schedule that would make a Mattress King jealous. Someone—either the starting pitcher, or the offense, or ideally both—needs to step in, and step up.