TORONTO -- The Mariners want Mallex Smith to be aggressive on the base paths, but there’s a time and place and after another poor decision on the timing in Friday’s 7-3 loss to the Blue Jays, the young outfielder found his place was on the bench for Saturday’s game at Rogers Centre.

After a leadoff triple by Dee Gordon in the eighth inning Friday, Smith came to the plate with one out and drove in the run with a single to center. But with a four-run deficit and the team needing baserunners, Smith took off for second after a momentary bobble by Teoscar Hernandez and was easily thrown out to cut the legs out from under any potential rally.

On the heels of having just talked to the team in a pregame meeting Thursday about eliminating mental errors -- both in the field and on the bases after some sloppy baserunning, missed cutoff men and throwing to the wrong base in the previous few games -- manager Scott Servais had seen enough.

“He’ll sit on the bench with me,” Servais said prior to Saturday’s contest.

Whether Servais’ message is heard will likely decide how quickly Smith gets back in the lineup.

“I thought I delivered it [Thursday] and it certainly wasn’t noted,” he said. “We have to be smart. It’s part of the game. You can be very, very talented and skilled and produce numbers, but part of your game -- any game at the professional level -- you have to think the game. You have to understand the game.

“You have to know the scoreboard and situations and things like that. Those are areas he struggles at. You talk about it and say ‘I get it, I get it, I’m sorry, my bad.’ But that only goes so far. After a while, you just say, ‘OK, let’s take a little break.’ That’s where we’re at.”

After getting off to a rough start, Smith has slowly been building back his offensive numbers and has a .238/.305/.353 slash line in 102 games. The 26-year-old leads the Majors in stolen bases with 34, but learning to pick his spots remains a work in progress. And on a young team building for the future, Servais won’t tolerate repeated mental mistakes.

“It’s not acceptable,” he said. “We talked about it as a team yesterday. Everybody else got the message loud and clear. He made a mistake. Multiple times. One time, hey, I get it. Two times, we’re learning. Three times, that’s a little too much.”

Worth noting

• Right fielder Mitch Haniger’s rehab has been transferred from Class A Modesto to Triple-A Tacoma, but the 2018 All-Star is dealing with a sore lower back that is slowing his return now. Servais said the issue isn’t related to the ruptured testicle that sidelined Haniger since early June, but is from getting back into running and playing games after his lengthy layoff.

• Domingo Santana was out of the lineup for a third straight game on Saturday as Servais said the 27-year-old was getting a “mental break” after scuffling at the plate for the past few weeks. Santana, limited to designated hitter duties by a strained right elbow, has hit just .120 with two homers and four RBIs in his last 16 games while striking out 27 times in 60 plate appearances.

Servais said Santana would be back at DH on Sunday.