Mariners' early lead slips away after costly miscues

TORONTO -- By the time Eduard Bazardo realized what was happening, it was already too late.

The Mariners’ pivot reliever stood on home plate fielding a relay throw from Cal Raleigh after a wild pitch on a bases-loaded walk during a tense fifth inning on Saturday. One run was already in, obviously, but Bazardo appeared completely unaware that another was, quite literally, right on his heels.

Upon the full-count sinker spiking into the dirt and to the backstop, Toronto speedster Brett Bateman had aggressively rounded third base and slid head-first through the plate.

And he did so after Bazardo had already corralled Raleigh’s throw, seemingly with time to make the tag -- for what would’ve been the third out.

“As loud as you can yell, you're not going to be able to hear that with the crowd the way they were,” manager Dan Wilson said, “and the second run was able to score.”

Added Raleigh: “It's not really communicating. It's just being prepared and knowing that there's maybe a play at the plate. I know it's a weird play, but you’ve still got to be ready for anything.”

If it wasn’t the day’s decisive run, it was certainly the most glaring in Seattle’s 4-3 loss.

And in a cruel coincidence, the batter that took the free pass was George Springer, who was facing Bazardo for the first time since crushing that soul-sucking homer in Game 7 of last year’s ALCS -- right here at Rogers Centre.

The stakes weren’t as high on Saturday. But they were exacerbated by the sloppy mistakes that have been an epitome within Seattle’s season.

“I'd say it's just more that you just need to be prepared,” Raleigh said, “and pretty much say, 'Just screw everything else.' You've got to be 'give it everything you’ve got’ tonight. You can't live for tomorrow.

“You can't focus on yourself. Be focused on the team. ‘What can I do for the team today? When I get in there, am I prepared? Am I ready to go?’ And that's kind of what I see. It's just the preparation, the readiness, to me, just having your head in the game when you are in there.”

Wilson was also asked about cleaning up such mental miscues, which have compounded as the Mariners dropped to eight games under .500 (64-72).

“It's hard to say what the play at the plate would have looked like,” Wilson said. “But, you don't want to see those kinds of things, and that was a tough one.”

To be sure, that one play loomed large, but the Mariners did still cling to a 3-2 lead by the time Bazardo escaped the jam. It was in the sixth, when José A. Ferrer took over, that they lost the lead for good -- capping four unanswered runs from the Blue Jays after Seattle took a 3-0 lead early.

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The day’s truest culprit were the seven walks issued -- two from Bazardo, two from Ferrer that each came around to score and three from rookie Kade Anderson, who was making his second MLB start and was operating on a threshold of around 80 pitches.

He wound up throwing 85, departing with one out in the fifth after surrendering a single to Myles Straw and a walk to Bateman -- which put him on base for the eventual bang-bang play at the plate.

“It doesn't feel great, by any means,” Anderson said of how his day ended. “I gave the team a chance to win. That's all you can ask for at the end of the day, but yeah, in the end, I wish it could've gone a little bit different.”

There are days that the Mariners have simply been outplayed. But this one looked and felt like one they gave away.

Raleigh put them on the board with a solo homer in the second, his 11th in this building, that was shaping up to be a continuation of his Toronto torment. Then in the fourth, Taylor Ward ambushed a first-pitch fastball with the bases loaded that plated two more.

Both knocks were against starter José Soriano, who appeared to be on the ropes, but wound up clearing the seventh. From the fifth inning on, the Mariners went 2-for-17.

“We've just got to be able to hold that lead,” Raleigh said. “But at the same time, we kind of went stagnant there for a while at the plate, and we've just got to find ways to get runners on. Whether that's walking, bunting -- just finding ways to put the pressure on them, and to keep applying that pressure is important. We just didn't do that tonight.”