CHICAGO -- One of the Mariners’ biggest calling cards last season en route to ending a 20-year postseason drought was a knack for winning one-run games. Seattle led MLB with 34 such victories.
While there’s still plenty of time to turn things around this season, the 2023 campaign so far has been a different story.
The Mariners dropped to 1-4 in one-run games Monday in a 3-2, 10-inning loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field -- the latest chapter being one of not executing and missing opportunities.
“It’s early,” outfielder Jarred Kelenic said. “Stuff happens, you know? It just didn't go our way. We just had a couple of missed opportunities, but it’s early, and nobody in that clubhouse right now is stressing.”
Here are a few key moments highlighting where things went wrong for the Mariners:
Squandering Castillo’s start
Seattle got another strong start from Luis Castillo, and excellent support from a bullpen that has seen a lot of action in recent days.
Castillo entered the day riding an impressive scoreless streak to start the season, and while that came to an end after 14 2/3 innings, he still held the Cubs to two earned runs in six innings. He worked around heavy traffic in the fourth inning, when the Cubs scored both of their runs off him, to contain the damage.
“Luis Castillo continues to do what we've seen him do so far this year -- and really, since he’s had a Mariners uniform on,” manager Scott Servais said.
However, the Mariners had a slow night against Cubs starter Drew Smyly. Even when they rallied to load the bases in the fourth, they came away with just one run via an AJ Pollock sac fly. Seattle managed just six hits and three walks on the night.
“We didn't get a ton going offensively,” Servais said. “We had some chances there with the bases loaded and couldn't execute or get the runs in.”
Executing on the basepaths
After the early missed chance, the Mariners had the beginnings of another opportunity in the eighth. But things came undone on the bases.
With the Cubs leading 2-1, Cooper Hummel led off the inning with a double. But when J.P. Crawford hit a grounder up the middle, Hummel was thrown out by Dansby Swanson as he tried to advance to third base.
Unofficial conventional wisdom says that when a batter hits a ground ball with a runner on second, the runner should advance if the ball is behind him, and stay put if the ball is in front. Hummel followed the literal meaning of the maxim, but based on where Swanson was positioned, it was more like a gray area.
“The ball was hit behind him, but you know, Swanson [was] standing right there,” Servais said. “Not the customary play. But certainly, a player of Swanson's caliber, he knows where he's at and had plenty of time to throw him out at third.”
Kelenic gave the Mariners a clean slate in the ninth, crushing a game-tying home run that registered a 111.1 mph exit velocity off the video board in right field. Kolten Wong followed that with a one-out base hit. But when he tried to steal second base, Yan Gomes threw him out to end the inning.
“I tip my hat to Yan Gomes on the play,” Servais said. “Unbelievable. He picks the ball in the dirt, we had the right pitch to run on. He made a play, you know? He picked the ball in the dirt and threw the guy out -- probably the 1.85 or 1.9 [pop time].
“You’ve got to tip your hat. We put pressure on them there; you're trying to go ahead there.”
The Cubs followed that same blueprint when they staged their game-winning rally in the bottom of the 10th inning. Nick Madrigal -- starting the inning on second base as the automatic runner -- stole third with a well-timed move, taking off as Matt Brash began his windup. Brash pivoted toward second, and was too late to throw Madrigal out at third. Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner hit a walk-off single a few pitches later.
“We’ve got to slow it down a little bit,” Servais said. “We had the guy picked off; we had the right play on. Matt wasn't expecting him to be as far off as he was and caught him off guard a little bit and didn't make an accurate throw, but that's what you got to do.
“I've often said it's not winning the extra-inning games; it’s just not losing them. And I felt like the three that we've lost, we've kind of given them away, because we haven't made a defensive play.”