Today’s loss to the Red Sox left much to be desired, but it started out promisingly enough. Emerson Hancock was clean the first time through the order, picking up four strikeouts, three of which came because a Red Sox hitter left the bat on his shoulder.
The rearranged left side of the infield even made a couple very nice plays. J.P. Crawford, who some had left for dead, gets today’s Sun Hat Award for shoveling the ball from his glove up to Colt Emerson on a 5-6-3 double play and later snatching a hot shot out of the air.
The Mariners even grabbed an early 1-0 lead thanks to a Crawford walk and line drives into left-center from Cal Raleigh and Josh Naylor.
But things quickly took a left turn. The Sox led off the fourth with their first hit when a ground ball split the left side. Despite Hancock striking out the next batter, he then left a cutter over the heart of the plate that Wilyer Abreu sent nearly to the batter’s eye to give Boston a 2-1 lead. The fifth inning saw another hit and an embarrassing error from tonight’s left fielder, Connor Joe, who got his glove to the ball pretty easily but then just refused to actually catch it.
By the sixth inning, Hancock was left holding the bag for an offense that couldn’t get anything going against Connelly Early. A single and a walk looked like it was setting off a retro Hancock spiral, of the type it seemed like he’d left in Arkansas. But another four-pitch walk loaded the bases, Dan came out, and Elvis left the building.
With leverage lefty Jose A. Ferrer and his 50% groundball rate coming out in relief, it seemed like the Mariners might get out of it. And indeed, Ferrer got not one, not two, but three easy groundballs, but for the second night in a row, the BABIP monster left a bad taste in my mouth. The score had bubbled up to 5-1 by the time the Mariners finally left the field.
It wouldn’t have mattered so much if the Mariners offense could hit a left-handed pitcher. And they had a bunch of chances against Early, who pitched the game with two left feet, hitting three batters and nearly a couple more. But the Mariners bats’ futility against south paws hardly comes out of left field at this point. They couldn’t get a single hit after the first inning, and left five runners on base.
Left to your imagination, this is a dominant roster, but they find themselves about halfway through the season back at .500 and leading the division only thanks to their rivals’ incompetence. It’ll probably be fine in the end, but if they don’t want to get left at the postseason altar, they’re going to have to get right.
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