By Ryan Divish

The Seattle Times

CLEVELAND — The lopsided nature of several of the losses over the past eight games tends to place the focus on the Mariners pitching staff. Over the past eight games, Seattle has been outscored 59-29 while posting 2-6 record that includes a four-game losing streak. And, yes, the pitching has been bad during that time, posting a 5.13 ERA

And the number of errors committed — an eye-popping 15 — in that span, which led to 18 unearned runs, are difficult to look past as major contributions to the losing.

But there should also be a fair amount of blame placed on an offense that hasn’t just regressed but is in a protracted overall funk. Over those eight games, Seattle is averaging 3.6 runs per game with a team slash line of .188/.297/.289 with 14 doubles, four homers, 27 RBI, 37 walks and 84 strikeouts. Those numbers include the 14-2 pounding the Mariners put on the Rangers. If you remove that game from the mix, they are averaging just 2.14 runs per game.

Yes, they’ve been on the receiving end of some solid pitching performances from Chris Paddack and Jon Lester, but that’s only a peripheral excuse. The team-wide, grind-it-out approach at plate that led to so much success early hasn’t been completely maintained as players started to struggle individually.

“We haven’t been as consistent as far as driving pitch counts up,” manager Scott Servais said. “You’ll see it for an inning or two, but it just hasn’t been drawn out over the course of a four- or five-inning stretch like we were doing earlier in the season.

“We haven’t been quite as good. I don’t know if it’s a team approach, but you’ve seen certain guys that have started pressing a little bit and are maybe reverting back instead of staying with the plan. There’s the understanding that on certain nights when you face good pitching you aren’t going to hit two or three home runs, you have to grind through and take your single or take your walk. Sometimes when you do a little less, you get a little more in return. We have to get back to that.”

Servais sees it at varying times.

“It’s guys swinging a little too hard early in counts where maybe they weren’t doing that before,” Servais said.

Domingo Santana is an example of that approach regression.

In his first 19 games, Santana was slashing .354/.420/.557 with four doubles, four homers and 24 RBI with nine walks in 20 strikeouts. Given his past track record that pace of production wasn’t expected to continue, but his regression has been dramatic. Over the last 13 games, Santana has a .182/.246/.345 slash line with three doubles, two homers and six RBI with five walks and 19 strikeouts.

After a torrid stretch, Daniel Vogelbach has also significantly cooled off. In his last nine games, he’s got a .174/.321/.261 line with two doubles, two RBI and four walks.

Even the ultra-consistent Mitch Haniger is fighting through some issues. In his last 12 games, he’s got a .152/.316/.326 line with two doubles, two homers and four RBI. He does have 10 walks in that span.

Perhaps this road trip will help the Mariners relocate their approach. They have put up better offensive numbers away from T-Mobile Park thus far in 2019, which is also a product of the competition they’ve faced. But they are slashing .277/.364/.539 while averaging 7.1 runs per game in 15 road games.

The Mariners got a bit of a break with Indians shifting their pitching rotation and moving Trevor Bauer’s scheduled start from Sunday till Monday. Right-hander Cody Anderson will start on Sunday. Seattle will still have to face tough right-hander Carlos Carrasco on Saturday.

Note

Reliever Sam Tuivailala made his first appearance of his rehab assignment on Thursday night for High A Modesto. Tuivailala pitched a 1-2-3 inning for the Nuts. It was his first game action since suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon on Aug. 8 of last season in Texas. He had season-ending surgery to repair the tendon and was expected to be out a minimum of 10 months.

“All good,” Servais said of the report. “He felt good and he’ll continue to build arm strength on a normal pitching routine.”

A rehab assignment for a pitcher is 30 days, the Mariners could use all of that allotted time for Tuivailala to build him up since he wasn’t able to participate in spring training.

Fellow reliever Gerson Bautista (pectoral strain) pitched one inning in an extended spring training game on Friday afternoon. It was the second time he’s pitched in game action. He’s expected to report to a Mariners affiliate for a rehab assignment in the next few days.