SEATTLE — Through the season’s first two months, the Seattle Mariners have submitted surprisingly few performances with which to reasonably quibble. They entered Sunday in first place in the American League West. They’ve come from behind in 13 of their victories. They’ve hit three walk-off home runs. They’ve yet to lose a road series.
Yet here they were at Safeco Field on Sunday afternoon, unable for the third consecutive day to accomplish what seemed one of the simpler tasks in baseball this season.
They could not beat the Minnesota Twins — the struggling, sputtering, worst-record-in-the-American League. Minnesota Twins.
Those Twins hammered Seattle starter Taijuan Walker for three home runs in the first four innings, chasing him before the end of the fifth in a 5-4, sweep-clinching Minnesota victory played before a crowd of 33,748 at Safeco Field.
Franklin Gutierrez’s two-out, two-run homer off Twins closer Kevin Jepsen in the ninth gave the Mariners a chance, but pinch-hitter Dae-Ho Lee struck out to end the game.
“We’ve got to get back to where we were — try to score early, so that way you get more chances for the starting pitcher to pitch more comfortable,” said Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano. “It’s hard to pitch when you’re losing or in a tight, close game. We’ve got to go back and try to score early, not wait until the last two, three innings.”
The Mariners fell to 10-14 at home this season, a curious mark for a team that entered Sunday within a half-game of the best record in the A.L. They have also been swept in three home series this year.
“I can’t put my finger on one particular thing,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “We just didn’t play well in those series, and we’ll get back at it (Monday). We’ve got a good clubhouse and we’ve got a good team. We’ve got a couple guys that are out right now — that certainly affects things — but gives an opportunity for other players to step up, and that’s what you’ve got to do.
“It takes more than 25 guys to get deep in the season and play meaningful games. That’s where we’re going to be, no doubt in my mind. Along the way, we’re going to have a few bumps in the road. We have a bump in the road right now. We’ll be OK.”
They did score, and lead, in each of the first two innings. Cano hit a line-drive over the right-field fence in the first, his team-best 15th home run of the season. And Kyle Seager scored on a wild pitch in the second after leading off that inning with a double.
But the Twins (15-34) got on the board with Robbie Grossman’s solo homer to right-center in the top of the second, then back-to-back home runs by Joe Mauer and Miguel Sano to start the fourth. Minnesota added another run on catcher Juan Centeno’s two-out, RBI double later that inning.
Walker was pulled with one out in the fifth after he walked Sano to load the bases. The Twins scored their fifth run on a fielder’s choice groundout by Grossman against Mariners reliever Vidal Nuno.
Walker said Mauer and Sano each homered against off-speed pitches — “should have been fastball and wasn’t,” he said — and that he felt he went away from his fastball too often.
“I thought Taijuan’s stuff was just OK,” Servais said. “He was trying to compete, trying to find it, but he made some mistakes and they got him.”
Nuno helped spare Seattle’s bullpen by pitching 22⁄3 mostly clean innings of relief, striking out four batters and allowing only one hit. Steve Johnson and Joel Peralta each worked a scoreless inning, too. But the damage was done against Walker, who was not the only Mariners starter to struggle this weekend against the league’s worst team. Felix Hernandez yielded six runs in six innings on Friday. Wade Miley allowed five runs in four innings on Saturday.
“Our guys have struggled a little bit. It’s going to happen,” Servais said. “Unfortunately, it all happened at the same time this series.”
Seattle (28-21) also didn’t hit much against Twins starter Ricky Nolasco, who struck out seven batters in six innings to earn his second victory of the season. Cano had his homer and a single. Seager had his double. That was it against Nolasco, though Gutierrez’s homer in the ninth — Adam Lind had just singled with two outs and nobody on — made it interesting. But the Twins still left Seattle with their first road sweep of the season.
Oddly, Safeco seems a fine place for visitors to make that happen.
“One of those series,” Servais surmised. “They beat us.”
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