Mariners end July with fewest runs scored in MLB. ‘It’s not like guys aren’t trying’

By TJ Cotterill The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.) • August 1, 2018 6:00 pm
The Seattle Mariners’ Dee Gordon gets caught leaning too far off first base, and is picked off by Houston Astros pitcher Charlie Morton in the third inning, with first baseman Tyler White, left, making the tag on Tuesday, The struggling Mariners offense scored the fewest runs in MLB in the month of July. (Dean Rutz/Seattle Times/TNS)
The Seattle Mariners’ Dee Gordon gets caught leaning too far off first base, and is picked off by Houston Astros pitcher Charlie Morton in the third inning, with first baseman Tyler White, left, making the tag on Tuesday, The struggling Mariners offense scored the fewest runs in MLB in the month of July. (Dean Rutz/Seattle Times/TNS)

TJ Cotterill

The News Tribune

SEATTLE — This Seattle Mariners offense scored runs so frugally through July that a night like this to end the month only seemed a fitting end to capture it.

The Mariners’ 5-2 loss to the Houston Astros on Tuesday night at Safeco Field secured their place as the worst run-producing offense of any team in the majors for the month of July.

That’s a problem. The Mariners christened two of their new bullpen arms for the first time with right-hander Sam Tuivailala and Zach Duke making their Mariners debuts, but relief arms aren’t much help when the Mariners only managed to muster runs in the fourth and sixth innings.

“It seemed like our at-bats were better as the game went on,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “But, still, tough to win when you only score two.”

They were trailing 3-2 in the ninth when Duke, who was one of three American League pitchers with at least 30 appearances to not have allowed a home run this season, allowed a two-run home run to Josh Reddick after arriving in Seattle at 2:15 a.m. Tuesday.

That was the second home run the lefty specialist has allowed to a left-handed hitter in the past three seasons.

So the Astros took a 5-2 lead after their 15 hits into the bottom of the ninth — and this was a lineup missing three of its best hitters, Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and George Springer, to injuries.

The Mariners’ loss sends them to 63-44 and back to four games behind the Astros (68-41) in the American League West and one game ahead of the Oakland Athletics (63-46).

That’s back-to-back nights the Mariners have scored two runs, albeit against tough Astros starting pitching. They averaged 3.35 runs per game in July after averaging at least four runs the previous three months, including 4.74 the opening month. They scored 77 runs in July, with the next-closest team being the Tigers, who scored 83.

The Mariners went 10-13 in the month. The Cleveland Indians scored twice as many runs as the Mariners in July.

“No doubt — we haven’t been able to put big numbers up there,” Servais said. “We’ve had innings here and there but it’s going to take everybody contributing. It’s not just the one guy to go up there and hit the big three-run homer or something like that. Everybody has to keep grinding through it.”

That’s not to take away from Houston’s pitching, with the best starting rotation in the American League.

But this has been a theme for longer than this Astros series.

“When I first got here we were scoring a lot of runs, the offense was moving and I think right now we’re just going through a phase,” said Denard Span, who went 2-for-3 with a triple and has been the least of the Mariners’ offensive concerns. Span is batting .301 (47-for-156) since joining the Mariners from the Rays on May 28.

“Obviously we want to be successful. It’s not like guys aren’t trying hard. Everybody is competing up here and we’re trying hard whether somebody is in scoring position or not. Guys are trying to do their jobs.”

Though, Servais said earlier this week that sometimes the key, especially in baseball, is not trying too hard.

“But we have to continue to find a way to create some more traffic on the bases,” Servais said.

The Mariners did strike first when Jean Segura took Astros starter Charlie Morton yard to lead off the fourth inning. That’s the 13th home run Morton’s allowed in 21 starts this season and the eighth this year for Segura.

The Mariners hadn’t allowed the Astros to score through 13 innings to begin this three-game series after Monday’s shutout.

But speedy Tony Kemp, who took over for Springer in center field in the second inning, led off with a double and then scored on Josh Reddick’s single two batters later to tie it.

Mike Leake had kept the Astros off balance with his mixture of varied arm slots and pitches early, retiring each of the first eight batters he faced before Kemp’s single with two outs in the third.

But the Astros hit him hard in his final two frames. Alex Bregman led off the sixth with a double and Evan Gattis dropped a two-run home run into Edgar’s Cantina past the left-field wall for a 3-1 Astros lead.

“I felt good early, mix and matching and keeping them off balance,” Leake said. “Then I threw a curveball to Gattis that stayed up. I feel like he was just in his zone where he likes to hit balls.”

The Mariners pulled back to within one in the bottom of the sixth when Mitch Haniger’s RBI single (his 69th run batted in of the season) scored Jean Segura from second base).

Nothing else, though.

“Pretty good pitching,” Servais said. “We had a hard time getting anything going against Morton, who is obviously very good. Good sinker, good curveball. And I thought Mike Leake threw the ball really well.”