Mariners drop series to Athletics, fall to bottom of AL West

By Charles Hamaker

Seattle, WA – The Seattle Mariners lost their second game in a row to the Oakland Athletics, by a score of 4-2. With the loss, the Mariners drop to last place in the American League West. Starting pitcher Robbie Ray had a solid outing until the 6th inning, when he gave up a two-run homer to Elvis Andrus. The Mariners failed to get much going offensively yet again, only putting up two runs. Those two runs came on an RBI single and a wild pitch.

Robbie Ray started for Seattle in the loss (Photo Henry Wei)

Offensive inconsistency continues

At times, the Seattle offense can put numbers up. The Mariners have plated six or more runs eleven times this season, and do best when they score four or more runs (15-10 record). Seattle just has too many players in their lineup that continuously have bad plate appearance after bad plate appearance. In today’s game, four players grounded into double plays, and the team went 1-7 with runners in scoring position. Way too often has Seattle stranded men on base, especially in scoring position, due to bad decisions in the batter's box. Regardless of whether or not that is a coaching issue or a player issue, something has to change if Seattle wants to climb out of the cellar.

After back-to-back games with a homer, young star Julio Rodriguez went 0-3 (Photo Henry Wei)

Ray fine in outing

Seattle starter Robbie Ray had a solid outing going through five innings, allowing only one run on a solo homer by Seth Brown. You can live with solo homers. It doesn’t help if your offense does quite literally nothing for you, but that factors into the paragraph above. Ray was generating a lot of whiffs, totaling 24 swings and misses. No other pitcher in the ballgame even reached double digits. While Ray did tie his season high in strikeouts with ten, the two-run homer extended the Oakland lead to three, and that overshadows anything else.

Photo Henry Wei

The Mariners will have a day off before a three-game series against the Houston Astros, and they very well need it. Houston sits atop the division, one game ahead of the Anaheim Angels. Young star shortstop Jeremy Pena and the Astros play Seattle for the third series this season, with both teams winning a set each. Chris Flexen will be on the mound for Seattle in the Friday matchup, as Houston will have Justin Verlander starting.