By Bob Dutton
The News Tribune
The last thing the Mariners needed Tuesday night was for Baltimore right-hander Dylan Bundy, a former first-round pick, to harness all of his gifts and pitch the best game of his career.
The Mariners got just one hit in a 4-0 loss to Bundy and the Orioles at Camden Yards, which extended their skid to four games and dropped them back under .500 at 66-67.
That one hit was a shift-beating bunt single by Kyle Seager with one out in the fourth inning. Bundy (13-8) struck out a career-high 12 while walking two and hitting one batter in a thoroughly dominating 116-pitch performance.
“Dylan Bundy was outstanding,” manager Scott Servais said. “He had good stuff, and he executed. He was all over the different quadrants of the strike zone, and we just got nothing going offensively.
“We’ve talked often on this road trip that we have to hit, we have to score runs, we just haven’t done that the last three or four days. We really got nothing going tonight at all, and I attribute a lot of it to (Bundy).”
It was the first complete game — and first shutout — of Bundy’s career. But this had been building. He entered the night on a run of four straight quality starts and had struck out 10 in two of his three previous starts.
The Mariners were overmatched all night in suffering their third one-hit loss of the season. Servais said there was “no doubt” that Bundy delivered the best performance this season by an opposing pitcher.
“He was ahead in the count,” Servais said. “He was using all of his pitches. The changeups early in the game. Some breaking balls later and elevated the fastball. You’ve got to tip your cap to him.”
The loss dropped the Mariners to 21⁄2 games behind Minnesota, pending the outcome of the Twins’ game in Chicago, in the race for the American League’s final wild-card berth.
Mariners starter Erasmo Ramirez (5-5) deserved better after limiting the Orioles to a pair of solo homers in six innings.
Jonathan Schoop opened the scoring with a 416-foot bomb with two outs in the first inning, but Manny Machado’s leadoff drive in the sixth inning barely skimmed over the left-field wall.
James Pazos and Casey Lawrence each gave up a leadoff homer after replacing Ramirez. Welington Castillo opened with seventh with a drive against Pazos, and Machado got his second of the game to start the eighth against Lawrence.
