SEATTLE—On a night when a win seemed more important than vital, a baserunning mistake killed their chances to take a lead and their best reliever gave up two runs in the eighth inning to send them to defeat.
In the effort to subdue off the slow crawl toward mathematical elimination with each passing day, the Mariners obviously needed to win on Tuesday at Safeco Field.
But when the Minnesota Twins, possessors of the second wild-card spot, lost in New York, the importance of victory doubled.
What did the Mariners do?
They delivered their own version baseball self-immolation in a 3-1 loss to the Texas Rangers.
With the loss, the Mariners fell to 74-77 and remain four games back in the wild card with 11 games left to play. The Twins have lost four of their last give games, Seattle has responded by losing its last four games. Wild card baseball, you gotta love it.
With the score tied at 1-1, Seattle had the potential go-ahead run thrown out at third base with one out in the bottom of the seventh, killing its best chance to take the lead. It was followed by right-hander Nick Vincent, who had dominated at Safeco Field so much of the season but struggled of late, giving up two runs in the top of the eighth.
To be fair, Yonder Alonso, who joined the team in August, wasn’t part of the menagerie of mistakes the first four months of the season. But he was the guilty party on this occasion.
After drawing a pinch-hit walk, he advanced to third on Mike Zunino’s single to right center off right-hander Tony Barnette. With runners on the corners, Guillermo Heredia came to the plate trying to find a way to score the not-exactly fleet-footed Alonso from third.
Two pitches into the at-bat, Heredia squared around as if to bunt and push the ball between the mound and first base. It wasn’t a suicide squeeze because Alonso did not break for home as the pitch was delivered. The ball darted outside and Heredia pulled the bat back. However, Alonso was too aggressive on his secondary lead. Catcher Robinson Chirinos fired to third and Alonso was picked off easily. In a season filled with costly baserunning mistakes, that one could rank near the top.
Predictably, Heredia singled moments later. But with two outs, Ben Gamel flew out and the inning was over.
Mariners manager Scott Servais went to Vincent to pitch the eighth as he had done so many times this season. Few pitchers had been more consistently dependable than the right-hander.
But Vincent gave up a leadoff double to pinch-hitter Carlos Gomez and a bunt single on a sacrifice attempt to Delino DeShields. Shin Soo-Choo scored the go-ahead run on a sac fly to right. The Rangers added an insurance run on Elvis Andrus’ broken-bat single through the left side to make it 3-1.
The loss ruined another solid outing from Mariners starter Mike Leake.
Leake has been an innings-eating aberration to what has transpired for much of the season. Acquired on Aug. 31 from the St. Louis Cardinals, the veteran right-hander made his fourth start for the Mariners. And like the previous three, it was solid. Leake pitched 62/3 innings, allowing one run on six hits with no walks and five strikeouts.
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