Mariners fail to find hangover cure, lose 7-2

the whole road trip has been a hangover amirite

If last weekend’s sweep of the Mets - capped off with a 12-1 trouncing on Sunday Night Baseball - was the wild night out, one that spawns the “last night was a movie” meme, this road trip has been the hangover. Not any old hangover, either - the post-30 hangover that can take multiple days to shake. The series against Detroit was brutal as we all know, and last night’s Apple TV affair wasn’t much better. Still, with breakfast baseball on the horizon and Luis Castillo on the mound coming off of that dominant nationally televised performance, today seemed like a good opportunity to shake it off and finally get at least one wheel back on track.

That, uh, did not happen.

Things looked grim right out of the gate. Víctor Robles led off the game with a base hit into left and promptly stole second with one out, but Julio chopped a ground ball to the shortstop, who threw out Robles inexplicably trying to move to third. A TOOTBLAN in the first inning? Yikes! Jorge Polanco blooped a single into right to put runners on the corners with two outs, but a harmless Justin Turner groundout let Pittsburgh starter Bailey Falter off the hook.

Opening the bottom of the inning, Isiah Kiner-Falefa greeted Castillo with a solo shot on a 1-0 sinker that didn’t quite sink, and two pitches in, the M’s were already playing from behind. Castillo did limit damage over the next few innings, a pesky nine-pitch walk to Bryan De La Cruz leading off the second the only real blemish, but as has felt all too common lately, even a one-run deficit seemed to border on insurmountable.

Against all odds, it wasn’t! Dylan Moore did start the second by striking out - en route to a golden sombrero - but Mitch Haniger snuck a single past Oneil Cruz, and after a can of corn off the bat of Mitch Garver, Leo Rivas and Robles notched back-to-back knocks to tie the game at one apiece. Stringing hits together? Well, I never!

Alas, it didn’t stay that way for long. Despite Castillo settling in after the leadoff bomb, Cruz got things going for the Pirates in the fourth with a leadoff nine-pitch walk (~fun fact: each of Castillo’s three walks on the day took nine pitches. That’ll eat at your efficiency!), and while he did get Joey Bart on strikes, Rowdy Tellez made it an even worse nightmare than a one-run deficit: a multi-run one.

Jorge Polanco did cut into that lead in the top of the fifth with a pretty oppo double to score Julio from first (!), but that was the extent of Mariner runs today. Castillo did pitch into the sixth, but a leadoff double from Bart and a De La Cruz single into right - in which he made it to second on a bobble from Luke Raley, who entered the game after Mitch Haniger was lifted due to a quad injury - ended his day at 5.1 innings. The triumvirate of JT Chargois, Tayler Saucedo, and Trent Thornton didn’t so much to stop the bleeding, either, as the Pirates pushed across three more in the bottom of the seventh thanks to a solo dinger from nine-hole hitter Jared Triolo, a single from IKF, and back-to-back doubles off the bats of Bart and Tellez. If you’re really hunting for positives, though, Troy Taylor worked a clean eighth with a strikeout in his third big league appearance.

There was one final tease in the ninth, though, with Domingo Germán entering the game and immediately walking Luke Raley and issuing back-to-back hit by pitches to Garver and Rivas to load the bases with nobody out. Even with the five-run deficit, I don’t blame anyone for perking up their ears.

You know how that turned out, though: Derek Shelton fearlessly brought in closer David Bednar, who got Robles on an easy flyout before striking out Randy Arozarena and Julio to end the game. Arozarena had a particularly brutal day, wearing the platinum sombrero and losing the grip on his bat flailing at strike three his final time up. Yeesh.

The Mariners will look to avoid the sweep tomorrow in another breakfast affair. George Kirby will start against a Pirates pitcher who is yet to be determined; old friend Marco Gonzales was slated to start before going back on the injured list, effectively ending his season. The hangover might still be pounding, but hey, maybe tomorrow the M’s can start off their day with some pickle juice.