Road woes continue -- but so does Mariners' confidence in a turnaround

CLEVELAND -- On Friday, Mariners manager Dan Wilson lamented his team’s inability to score any additional runs after their first-inning barrage.

That same theme played out on Saturday -- albeit without the early attack.

After finishing Friday with eight straight scoreless innings, the Mariners' offense woke up from its slumber too late Saturday in a 4-3 loss to the Guardians at Progressive Field.

"Another tough one tonight,” Wilson said.

The loss spoiled a strong outing on the mound from Logan Gilbert, who tallied his second straight quality start, allowing three runs in six innings.

The Guardians’ first run against Gilbert came in the fourth inning on an RBI single from Bo Naylor. He drove in José Ramírez, who reached on a single and advanced to scoring position on a wild pitch.

The big blow came in the sixth inning when Kyle Manzardo tagged Gilbert for a two-out, two-run home run on a slider that got too much of the plate.

"It feels like most of the stuff’s there,” Gilbert said. “For the most part I made pitches with guys on; I just left one up.”

The homer was set up by a five-pitch walk to Ramírez in the at-bat prior that featured three uncompetitive pitches.

"Looking back, I was being a little too fine there,” Gilbert said. “He took a good splitter, but the sliders weren’t as aggressive.”

Jorge Polanco provided Gilbert with his lone run of support with a solo home run off Guardians starter Gavin Williams in the seventh inning -- the 150th of Polanco's 12-year career.

Seattle’s other two runs came in the eighth inning when Julio Rodríguez crushed a two-run home run onto the Home Run Porch in left field off Guardians reliever Hunter Gaddis.

While the Mariners have five players on the roster with 20+ home runs this year, they also entered play on Saturday 21st in baseball in batting average (.242). And, as the past 48 hours have shown, that lack of ability to get on base consistently could end up being more important in October than the ability to hit the ball over the fence.

"We’ve just got to finish the game,” said Cal Raleigh, who leads baseball with 50 home runs but is 0-for-5 in the series with three walks. “We’re in these games. As bad we’ve played [on the road] we’ve had chances to win. We’re just missing the one hit or one pitch. I’m not too worried.”

The Mariners also had a great chance to score wiped away in the sixth inning when Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan, a three-time Gold Glove winner, laid out to make a fantastic catch to rob Josh Naylor of extra bases.

About four hours before Kwan hit the dirt on Progressive Field’s warning track, Naylor sat in Progressive Field’s visiting dugout and talked about the connection he had formed with Kwan during his time with the Guardians.

That may change after Kwan’s incredible flash of the leather.

"Great defensive play,” Wilson said. “I thought Naylor hit that ball right where he wanted it in the gap. I thought for sure it was going to hit off the wall if it didn't drop. It seemed like Kwan came out of nowhere and made the catch.”

The Mariners' loss means they’re now just two games up on the Royals for the final Wild Card spot in the American League and three ahead of the Guardians. With a sweep tomorrow, the Guardians would even up the head-to-head record between the two teams after Seattle swept their previous matchup earlier this year.

Head-to-head record is the first tiebreaker used when determining a tie between two teams.

"It happens to be the way it is right now, but it’s up to us to turn that around,” Wilson said. “We’ll get it done."

The loss extended the Mariners’ road losing streak to seven games dating back to their win over the Mets at Citi Field on Aug. 15. The loss also secured a series win for Cleveland, which means the Mariners will end the weekend having not won a road series since their sweep of the Tigers in the series prior to the All-Star break.

“We’re not far off, but this is the time of the year where we can’t let little things add up,” Gilbert said.