SEATTLE — Never has a Mariners team been more excited to travel to Cleveland.
Following a frustrating 4-3 loss on Wednesday afternoon where they failed to take advantage of the plethora of free base runners provided by Angels starter Shohei Ohtani, the Mariners finished a disappointing opening homestand with only two wins in seven games.
They will spend their off day in scenic Cleveland and then open a three-game series on Friday at Progressive Field vs. the Guardians, who took three of four games from them on the recent homestand.
Seattle managed just one run against Ohtani, who allowed three hits, walked four and hit two batters with pitches over six innings. He threw a whopping 111 pitches, including 69 over the first three.
A pair of soft singles — not towering homers — from Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani proved to be the difference in defeat.
With two outs in the seventh inning and the Mariners trailing 2-1, Andres Munoz entered the game to face Trout. A first-pitch 99 mph sinker got in on Trout and he hit weak dribbler to shortstop. The problem was that he hit it so softly — an exit velocity of 68 mph — that J.P. Crawford couldn’t make a play anywhere and the run the scored. It brought Ohtani to the plate.
After hitting a homer that still might be going in the first game of the series, he’d been largely quiet.
Munoz got ahead 1-2 and tried to put Ohtani away with a slider on the outside corner. Instead, Ohtani made a lunging swing and the ball hit off the end of his bat and down the third base line past Eugenio Suarez, who was playing him to pull. The result was a soft ground ball with an exit velocity of 68 mph as well that allowed Taylor Ward to score from second base.
Two soft hits, two runs scored and a 4-1 lead.
The Mariners rallied with two runs in the seventh inning on an RBI double from Ty France and a run-scoring single from Eugenio Suarez.
But they failed to complete the comeback. J.P. Crawford singled with one out in the ninth giving Seattle’s two most productive hitters this season a chance to tie the game. Instead, Julio Rodriguez grounded into a force play and Ty France struck out to end the game.
Right-hander Chris Flexen gave the Mariners a solid if not lengthy outing in his first start since being reinserted into the rotation. He pitched five innings, allowing two runs on two hits with two walks and four strikeouts. The two runs allowed came in the second inning on one swing of the bat.
Seattle grabbed a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning when Julio Rodriguez worked a leadoff walk, moved up a base when Ty France also drew a walk and later came around to score on Eugenio Suarez’s single to right field. France tried to score on a overthrow to third on the play, but was thrown out at home.
That one-run lead didn’t last long. Flexen gave up a one-out single to Gio Urshela and then made mistake with two outs, leaving a cutter over the middle of the plate to rookie Logan O’Hoppe, who quickly deposited it off the out-of-town scoreboard for 2-1 lead.
Flexen didn’t allow another base runner from there, retiring the next 10 hitters he faced.
