M’s pitching continues to struggle in loss to Rangers

By Ryan Divish

The Seattle Times

ARLINGTON, Texas — If you were to watch the past three games between the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners in the sweltering heat of Globe Life Park, it would’ve been difficult to differentiate which team was still playing for a postseason bid and which team had waved the white flag on the season being a success in May.

Yes, Seattle is supposed to be the team playing for something more than pride in the season’s final months — a premise that is fading with each game. It wasn’t noticeable for more than an inning or two over the three-game series vs. a Rangers team that’s been in the American League West basement since April 9.

The Mariners went into the rare and unwanted afternoon game in Texas on Wednesday looking to pick up a much-needed series win with their most consistent and successful starting pitcher on the mound.

Unfortunately for them, lefty Marco Gonzales delivered one of his worst performances since the first days of the 2018 season. The pitchers behind him performed at a level somewhere between ineffective and awful. The offense couldn’t manage to score more than two runs off of old friend Yovani Gallardo, something the rest of the league figured out how to do two seasons ago.

The result was an 11-7 loss for Seattle.

The Mariners are now 11-19 since July 1. and it’s not trending toward the positive. It certainly won’t help going to Houston for a four-game series versus the defending World Series champs and current division leaders. The Mariners have played beyond poorly against the Astros — 16-31 over the last three seasons, including 7-15 at Minute Maid Park. Throw in the fact that they’ll face Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Charlie Morton and Dallas Keuchel and it doesn’t seem promising.

“We didn’t have a good series,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “We need to get it turned around. People are frustrated and ticked off and all that other stuff.”

That other stuff could have a wide range of possibilities, none of them positive.

The Mariners came into the day two games back of the Oakland Athletics in the race for the second wild card. They could be five or six games back after that series in Houston if something isn’t corrected quickly. The road trip-ending series with the A’s might be more about postseason survival than securing a lead.

“Steady is the key,” Servais said. “We are going into Houston for a big series there against a good team. We need to pull together. It does no good to kind of fraction apart.”

Gonzales struggled from his first pitch of the game. His command, which is key for success, wavered and wandered, particularly with his offspeed pitches.

“They were aggressive and I was a little up in the zone,” he said. “That doesn’t help. It’s not a good combo against this team. (My) curveball had a little less bite today and the changeup was pushing a little bit so it stayed up in the zone.”

Given a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, he gave it right back and more, allowing two runs in the top of the first, aided by another fielding error from Kyle Seager at third base. Gonzales would fight his way through five innings, allowing a plethora of hits and baserunners. After a lengthy, but scoreless second inning, the Rangers piled up three runs on him in the third inning, including a two-run homer from Joey Gallo — the first of two that Gonzales allowed against the mammoth slugger. Gallo’s second homer — a solo shot that barely cleared the wall and stayed fair in right field — was part of a two-run fifth inning.

Gonzales’ final line: five innings pitched, seven earned runs on 12 hits with no walks and three strikeouts. The hits and runs allowed were both season highs.

“(That’s) not what we’ve typically seen out of Marco,” Servais said.

Meanwhile, Gallardo, who had been released by three teams this season, pitched six innings, allowing two runs on six hits with three walks and two strikeouts.

Still, the Rangers failures this season aren’t without reason, which is why the Mariners found themselves down just 6-5 after a four-run top of the seventh, highlighted by a two-run single from Jean Segura, a run-scoring single from Mitch Haniger and a few mistakes from the Rangers.

“We caught a couple of breaks and we got a couple of big hits there to get within one,” Servais said. “We started to see the game flip in our favor. Unfortunately, you have to go out and put a zero up after that and we weren’t able to do that.”

Zach Duke, who was acquired to be a left-handed specialist out of the bullpen, struggled for another outing. He gave up four runs on four hits in the bottom of the seventh inning, putting the game out of reach. After giving up an infield single Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Duke allowed three straight run-scoring doubles to Ronald Guzman, Willie Calhoun and Jurickson Profar.

“I left some balls up in the zone today,” Duke said. “I didn’t execute wel, and that’s what happens — they hit the ball into the gap. I’ve got to be better. I’m better than what I’ve been so far. I have to start proving it.”

A one-run deficit had ballooned to five runs when the inning finally ended.

“To fight back like we did and get into a pretty good spot and not keep it going,” Servais said. “It’s frustrating.”