Los Angeles Dodgers Score Six Unanswered Runs to Down Seattle Mariners
Tuesday was a game that the Seattle Mariners should have won. They led through six innings, they got to Los Angeles Dodgers starter Walker Buehler, Mariners reliever Collin Snider helped retire all five batters he faced and they handed the ball to the oft-capable hands of their All-Star reliever Andres Munoz late in the game.
Instead, Los Angeles got to Munoz, scored six unanswered runs starting in the fourth inning and won 6-3 against Seattle on Tuesday.
The loss dropped the Mariners to 64-63 on the season and kept them five games behind the Houston Astros in the American League West. Seattle has gone 1-7 on this current road trip.
"Really proud of our guys. I thought we competed our tails off really from the first pitch tonight," Mariners manager Scott Servais said in a postgame interview Tuesday. "We did some really good things against their starter to get him out of the ball game early. We certainly had a chance to get more than just the three runs we did. ... We've had a few (gut punches) this year. ... (Have) to focus on where we're at in the moment. We played a good game today. We got to come back tomorrow and do it again. They got a really good team. We know that. And they're completely healthy right now."
Jorge Polanco put Seattle up 2-0 in the top of the first after a two-out, two-run single with the bases loaded. Polanco had his third RBI of the game in the top of the fourth with a double. That hit put the Mariners up 3-0. It was the last run that Seattle scored.
Polo puts another tally on the board ✍️ pic.twitter.com/V8Oas530Qn
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 21, 2024
Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux his second home run in as many days in the bottom of the fourth to get his team on the board. Max Muncy also hit his second home run in two games in the same innings to cut the Marners' advantage down to 3-2.
Lux's home run ended up having potential dire consequences for Seattle. Center fielder Victor Robles collided with the wall going for the catch and was down on the ground for a moment favoring his hip — the same hip that's been nagging Robles for several weeks now.
Robles was eventually pulled from the game and Randy Arozarena moved over from left field to center field to replace him.
According to a tweet from the Seattle Times' Ryan Divish, Robles likely won't be in the lineup for the series finale on Wednesday. He'll be day-to-day.
Robles injured his hip when crashing into the wall. He likely won’t be in the lineup for the series finale
— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) August 21, 2024
Mookie Betts hit an RBI double in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game at 3-3.
Jason Heyward entered the game as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the eighth and in his only at-bat hit a go-ahead three-run homer to right field to give the Dodgers the eventual final of 6-3. The home run came against Munoz. It's the second consecutive game Munoz has given up a hit and at least one earned run after not giving up a single one of either for over a month.
The Mariners had eight hits for the game. Just one of them came after the fourth inning (a Leo Rivas double in the top of the ninth).
Seattle now has 35 games left in the schedule and have seen their playoff odds dip from over 50% at the start of the road trip to below 20%, according to FanGraphs. It's lost all three road series. Two of them were against sub-.500 teams (the Detroit Tigers and the Pittsburgh Pirates).
With last night's loss in Los Angeles, the Mariners have fallen behind the Astros to a season-high five games back in the AL West ... Their playoff odds from @fangraphs have tumbled significantly, too.
— Daniel Kramer (@DKramer_) August 20, 2024
On this road trip alone, they've dropped from 56.6% to 16.1%. pic.twitter.com/TG4NoqvLN6
It's about time to scoreboard watch for the playoff race and with every loss the Mariners will have less and less leeway to slip up. Seattle almost has to play perfect the rest of the way to earn its way to October.
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