By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – In game two of their August 6th doubleheader, the Seattle Mariners fell in an embarrassing 7-1 loss to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Just a few hours after the game one win against the Angels, the Mariners seemed like the Hyde side of their Jekyll and Hyde offense, despite collecting seven hits. Seattle only plated one, getting blown out and going down in the series.
Seattle starter Chris Flexen got rocked by the Angels (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
Flexen fails to hold Angels offense
Mariners starting pitcher Chris Flexen normally is able to give his team a quality starter or around that on a consistent business. While Flexen did go six innings for Seattle, the Angels made the most of their six hits in as many innings. Off of their six hits, Los Angeles plated five runs against Flexen, also thanks to two errors by the defense behind him. Stats wise, the Mariners have the best defense in baseball, but that didn’t show up in game two.
One of the two errors was more notable than the others, as Gold Glove winning shortstop JP Crawford recorded another error. Crawford has had multiple bad errors this season, and you have to wonder if it’s just bad luck or something different. Surely, Seattle's captain will bounce back.
Ty France has been one of the few consistent bright spots for Seattle (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
Seattle's offensive inconsistency rears its ugly head
The Mariners have a problem with consistency on offense. While players like Julio Rodriguez and Ty France have been the brightest spots in the lineup, failing to get much more out of seven of the starting nine batters is hurting the ballclub.
Adam Frazier had a horrid strike a month ago, but has been on a great hitting form since. Eugenio Suarez has stuck to his label of a true three outcome hitter outside of a solid stretch earlier in the season. Carlos Santana has had his moments as a great trade edition, but more than a .201 batting average would be optimal. JP Crawfords overall season has been solid, but his last 15 games have been poor. Kyle Lewis has been disappointing since his first stint of the season, essentially becoming an easy out. Luis Torrens has been bad all season, resulting in the team acquiring backup catcher Curt Casali from the San Francisco Giants via trade, and even Casali does not have impressive numbers.
A serious issue
The overall point being in mentioning the players in today’s lineup is that this ballclub cannot afford to keep losing games to teams like the Angels. Los Angeles has been one of the worst teams in all of baseball these past two months, and are without superstar Mike Trout. Other superstar Shohei Ohtani has been playing poorly lately as well, essentially leaving the Angels starless.
Expectations have been set for this season. The organization has essentially told the fanbase and city of Seattle that the club will at minimum make the playoffs this season. At the current moment, you are still in a playoff spot (second wildcard seed). The Mariners are losing ground to teams like the Rays, Orioles, and White Sox. On the one hand, several of the teams battling with Seattle in the playoff hunt will play each other and that should mitigate the teams gaining on them. Bottom line, the Mariners need to do better.
Jesse Winker has been a walk drawing machine for Seattle (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
Quick notes
Four of Seattle’s nine batters went hitless in the game.
The Mariners left eleven runners on base in today’s game
Seattle reliever Andres Munoz has 13 relief appearances this season in which he struck out three or more batters.
Mariners left fielder Jesse Winker is the first Mariners player to draw three or more walks in back-to-back games since Edgar Martinez on September 17th and 18th in 2002.
What’s next?
Tomorrow, Sunday August 7th is the series finale of the four-game series. First pitch is at 1:10PM PST tomorrow, as Marco Gonzales will get the start for the Mariners. Seattle will need Marco to be better than three of his last four outings, having given up at least five runs in each of those three.
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