Yesterday the Mariners made the most of their mopportunity against the Astros; the same unfortunately cannot be said for today’s series opener against the Padres. The Mariners put up some good at-bats but were again unable to come through with a big hit, dropping the first game of the Vedder Cup against the Padres by a score of 4-1.
Bryan Woo made it three straight Mariners starters in a row working through the seventh inning, giving up three runs across his seven innings of work but also needing
to navigate around eight hits. It feels wildly unfair to Woo to call a quality start not his best work, but scratching below the surface of Woo’s outing, there were some uncharacteristic mistakes, largely concentrated in the third inning.
Woo lost his iron-fist command of the zone somewhat in the third, failing to throw a first-pitch strike to the first five of the seven hitters he faced in the inning – an overall issue in this game, as Woo only threw 15 of 29 first-pitch strikes. He fell behind Ramón Laureano 2-0 before sending a fastball into the middle-lower part of the zone that Laureano punished for a triple (thanks to some semi-adventurous fielding from Luke Raley); Laureano would come home on a single from Fernando Tatís on a 1-0 slider, tying up the game at 1-1 after the Mariners had scored an early run.
If Woo had been able to cap the damage there, this game might have had a different outcome, but things continued to be a struggle for Woo in the inning. He went to a full count with Jackson Merrill, who eventually singled on the seventh pitch of the at-bat and then stole second. Woo was still close to escaping trouble, getting Manny Machado to pop out for the second out of the inning and getting ahead of Xander Bogaerts 0-2, but he “threw two really bad sliders” – his words – to Bogaerts, again going to a full count before leaving a sweeper too much on the plate for a two-RBI hit.
To his credit, Woo made adjustments and was able to finish strong, but unfortunately those three runs would be all the Padres would need, although they did add another in the eighth against Casey Legumina. But the offense, maybe struggling with some form of shock after four days of facing the Astros’ limping pitching staff, could only manage one run against the Padres pitching staff, despite Michael King showing some inefficiency and allowing a handful of baserunners between hits and free passes. It looked like the Mariners might be able to break things open against King in the second inning, loading the bases with one out, but all they could manage was a sacrifice fly from Dominic Canzone as Cole Young was punched out looking at King’s wicked sinker to end the inning.
The Mariners were able to get King out of the game after the sixth, but lefty Adrian Morejon put down Cole Young and Brendan Donovan (and pinch-hitter Patrick Wisdom) with ease, and in the eighth Jason Adam also hung a zero thanks to Josh Naylor hitting into a double play. The Padres were then able to activate their human cheat code in Mason Miller, who dispatched his trio of hitters on 15 pitches and we’ll consider it a win because he only struck out one of them (Luke Raley). A’s pitcher Mason Miller was terrifying; the Padres version is an utter nightmare. See you when you’re closing the All-Star Game for the National League in July, MM, and hopefully not before then.
For a loss, there were some positives to take away from this game. The Mariners did create traffic on the bases, showing some of the lessons they learned from the Astros series wouldn’t be left behind in Seattle. They only struck out six times (and once against Mason Miller, which does not count), and worked three walks – two of which were taken by Julio Rodríguez, which is very encouraging. If the early Julio turnaround is coming, it’s going to need to be driven by him forcing pitchers to get into the zone against him by proving he won’t expand. The problems that plagued this lineup in those early season losses are still there – once again, only Randy Arozarena showed any kind of consistency in the top half of the lineup, providing two of the Mariners’ four hits and putting up a good battle against MechaMiller – but feeling more muted than during their double digit strikeout-paloozas despite the Padres possessing a pitching staff on par with some of the early staffs they’ve faced like Cleveland or New York. It’s totally fair not to trust this offense yet, but there are cathedrals roadside chapels here for those with eyes to see.
