Seattle Mariners Offense Flounders Against Los Angeles Angels
It feels like a broken record to talk about the Seattle Mariners and missed opportunities. But that was the case yet again on Sunday in a 3-2 loss to the Los Angeles Angels. The defeat dropped the Mariners to 52-46 on the year. Seattle will head into the All-Star break with a 1.0 game lead over the Houston Astros in the American League West.
It was the Mariners' seventh series loss out of eight. They lost three straight games after opening the series with an 11-0 win.
"Offensively, we got to do a bit more than the two runs we got today," Mariners manager Scott Servais said in a postgame interview Sunday. "... We lost three games by one run in this series. Consistent offense was an issue here the last couple nights. Didn't get much going there and you got to do more offensively to win these series on the road."
Neither team could build much traction against each other early. Seattle starter Logan Gilbert had his third nine-strikeout game of the season (April 28 against the Arizona Diamondbacks and June 16 against the Texas Rangers being the other two). Los Angeles starter Carson Fulmer, normally a reliever who got a spot-start on Sunday, pitched 4.2 innings and struck out seven batters and allowed no hits.
The Mariners finally broke through and took a 1-0 lead in the top of the seventh courtesy of a solo home run from JP Crawford. It was the team's first hit of the game.
Big time knock by @jp_crawford! pic.twitter.com/OHHy0QEWnK
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) July 14, 2024
Seattle took a 2-0 lead an inning later. Victor Robles stole third and subsequently sprinted home after Angels catcher Logan O'Hoppe sent the ball into left field trying to catch Robles at third.
Aside from that, there wasn't really much for the Mariners to write home about. They left the bases loaded in the fifth and eighth innings. Seattle left the bases filled four times in its last two games.
Those potential runs came back to haunt the Mariners as Los Angeles right fielder Jo Adell hit a go-ahead three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth to left center for the eventual final of 3-2. The home run came off Austin Voth, who was replacing an injured Ryne Stanek. Stanek was put in the game after a questionable pulling of Gilbert.
The Mariners will return from the All-Star break on July 19 in the first of a three-game series against the Astros at 7:10 p.m. PST at T-Mobile Park.
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