DETROIT — The soft spot in the Seattle Mariners’ bullpen — a tendency to give up home runs — isn’t a surprise. Club officials knew what they were getting when they revamped their reliever corps in the off-season.
“We are not a ground-ball staff,” manager Scott Servais said. “That’s why some of them were available. Everybody wants the strikeout/ground ball guy. They’re not always available. Sometimes you get the strikeout/fly ball guy.
“That’s kind of how we’re built.”
Right now, those fly balls are killing the Mariners.
They lost 8-7 to Detroit in 13 innings Monday when Vidal Nuno gave up a walk-off homer to Justin Upton. Earlier, Nick Vincent surrendered a one-run lead by giving up a two-run homer to Upton.
In Sunday’s 2-1 loss at Boston, it was rookie Edwin Diaz who allowed a homer to Mookie Betts in the seventh inning. The current road trip started June 14 when a three-run lead at Tampa Bay slipped away when Vincent gave up a tying homer.
“The one thing we’ve have done,” general manager Jerry Dipoto said, “is we have blown leads. As good as they’ve been (overall), we’ve blown leads. And those are painful, and they stick with you. But you trust the group.”
That group, overall, entered Tuesday with a 3.20 ERA that ranked third among American League bullpens. Further, the Mariners’s relief corps has surrendered 28 homers. Not great but not awful. Five AL teams have allowed more.
But they’ve often come at momentum-swinging times. Seventeen of those 28 homers either surrendered a lead, broke a tie or contributed directly to blowing a lead in an eventual loss.
“It seems like we’ve given up a few more (than expected),” Servais said. “Especially lately and in bigger spots. They’re coming at tough spots where it’s tough to absorb. They are bigger when they’re late in the game like that.”
Here’s the breakdown:
¦ Closer Steve Cishek (who has a 2.56 ERA): five homers in 312/3 innings. One came in a tie game and became the winning run; two more turned leads into tie games; another surrendered a lead in a loss.
¦ Vincent (3.24): five homers in 331/3 innings. One broke a tie in a loss, one turned a lead into a deficit and two turned leads into deficits.
¦ Joaquin Benoit (3.78): three homers in 162/3 innings. One turned a two-run lead into a tie, and another turned a tie into a three-run deficit.
¦ Nuno (1.95): three homers in 272/3 innings. He gave up Monday’s walk-off blast Monday to Upton.
¦ Mike Montgomery (2.72): one homer in 39 2/3 innings, but that one homer was a tie-breaking blast June 11 in the 11th inning by Texas’ Rougned Odor.
¦ Diaz (2.35): one homer in 7 2/3 innings, but it was a tie-breaking blast Sunday by Betts in the seventh inning at Boston.
¦ Joel Peralta (5.40): seven homers in 231/3 innings before he was designated June 2 for assignment. Two turned one-run leads into ties, three others fueled opposition comebacks that turned into losses.
¦ Steve Johnson (4.32) three homers in 162/3 innings before he was designated June 17 for assignment. None of them came with the game on the line.
“A lot of the pitches haven’t been great pitches,” Servais said. “They’ve been up. And they get squared up. With our bullpen, we do strike them out, but it’s more of a fly-ball-type staff that we have down there.
“Once in a while, the fly balls are going to carry out.”
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