M’s pounded by Cubs 12-1 in first trip to Wrigley Field since 2007

Published 4:10 pm Friday, July 29, 2016

CHICAGO — It’s been nine years since the Seattle Mariners last played at Wrigley Field. Not long enough, apparently, if their sadly thorough surrender in Friday’s 12-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs is any indication.

The only real drama, after the Cubs struck for five early runs, was whether heavy rains in the Chicago area would stay away long enough for the game to become official.

The rains came but not with sufficient intensity to stop the game until the bottom of the seventh. That was far too late to provide any benefit to the Mariners, who trailed by 11 runs at that point.

“We got beat,” said second baseman Robinson Cano, who had two of the Mariners’ eight hits. “They got men in scoring position and took advantage of pitches over the plate.”

Boy, did they. The Cubs’ 12 runs marked their highest total of the season at Wrigley. And the game resumed, anyway, after a delay of 1 hour, 14 minutes, which only made a long day even longer for the Mariners.

Utility infielder Luis Sardinas pitched the eighth inning and, of course, retired three straight hitters.

Everything before that was pretty grim, although the Mariners avoided a shutout on Shawn O’Malley’s two-out RBI single in the ninth inning against former teammate Mike Montgomery.

Hisashi Iwakuma, who had won five in a row, lasted just three innings before exiting — and not for a pinch hitter. He gave up five runs and eight hits after allowing only three runs combined in his three previous starts.

“Kuma wasn’t on, obviously,” manager Scott Servais said. “He had a little tightness going on. It was tough to get loose. Then he got loose, and he just wasn’t sharp.”

Iwakuma said he felt loose by the time the game started.

“I didn’t feel tightness or soreness during the game,” he said. “It was there when I started the bullpen, but I was able to get loose. I’m OK, though. I just couldn’t keep the ball down.

“Everything I missed was up in the zone, which kind of cost me.”

It marked Iwakuma’s shortest start in nearly two years: since Aug. 24, 2014, when he exited after 2 1/3 innings in an 8-6 loss at Boston.

The Cubs rocked Iwakuma (11-7) for three two-out runs in the second inning, when Chris Coghlan supplied a two-run single. Struggling Jason Heyward delivered a two-run homer in the third inning.

It got a lot worse after Iwakuma departed, but those five early runs were plenty for Tacoma’s own Jon Lester, who turned dominant after squelching a first-inning threat.

“The same guy that I saw all those years in Boston,” Cano said. “The guy knows how to pitch.”

Lester (11-4) yielded four hits in six shutout innings before the Cubs went to their bullpen for Justin Grimm. It was 11-0 at that point. The rain delay started after Grimm worked one scoreless inning.

It was still 5-0 entering the Chicago sixth.

Former starter Nathan Karns had worked two scoreless innings after replacing Iwakuma, but he pancaked in what escalated into six-run sixth. After David Ross led off with a homer, Karns walked the bases loaded.

Anthony Rizzo then squibbed a grounder past third, which resulted in a three-run double for a 9-0 lead. Vidal Nuno replaced Karns, whose ERA climbed to 5.15 after giving up five runs in two-plus innings.

It probably didn’t matter, but Rizzo didn’t appear to tag up on Heyward’s foul fly to left against Nuno before scoring when Franklin Gutierrez stumbled over the bullpen mound.

The Mariners appealed the play, but umpire Eric Cooper allowed the run.

It was that kind of day.

The Cubs added another run before the inning ended. They scored their final run in the seventh inning, after play resumed, against Tom Wilhelmsen.

The loss dropped the Mariners to 51-50 with two more games remaining in Chicago before they return to Safeco Field for a 10-game homestand — the longest of the season.

“It was a bad day,” Servais said. “We’ve got to get better at playing in these day games. We come out slow, it seems, for whatever reason. Against a good club, you’ve got to come out to play from the first inning on.”

The Mariners are actually 18-18 in day games. On Saturday, though, it was easy to believe otherwise.