CHICAGO -- Mariners manager Scott Servais has talked about the little things being the difference between the team his club is now and the team they hope to become.
During Seattle’s two-game series against the Cubs, those “little things” became the difference between taking two games from the Cubs and leaving Chicago empty handed.
“As we continue to let our guys grow, they’ll get better at it going forward,” Servais said. “They will.”
The Mariners kept Cubs starter Jon Lester on the ropes, but despite several opportunities, couldn’t deliver the knockout blow as the Cubs defeated Seattle, 6-1, in Tuesday night’s series finale at Wrigley Field.
The Mariners loaded the bases in the first inning on a Dylan Moore single and walks to Austin Nola and Kyle Seager, and seemed to be in a position to do damage early. Chicago’s veteran southpaw escaped the threat without allowing a runner to cross home plate.
“He keeps making his pitch. He doesn't give in to the hitter. Even if it's a bad count, he still will try to make his pitch. You might see that backdoor, 2-0 cutter. You might see a backdoor, 2-0 curveball,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “It's not just, 'Here comes my fastball.' That's the thing that I've noticed about him. Regardless of the count, when there's runners on base, it's what he wants to do in that moment, and he doesn't cower from it. We've seen it for the last several years."
The Mariners would load the bases again in the fifth and sixth innings, but couldn’t find a way to get a big hit until the eighth inning on Daniel Vogelbach’s RBI single, which plated their only run. Seattle finished the game 2-for-11 with seven strikeouts with runners in scoring position.
“We had the bases loaded three times in the first six innings against Lester and we couldn’t cash in,” Servais said. “Frustrating game in the fact that, you think you can be right there and get back in it, and we just never got it going offensively. You need that big two-, three-run double and we didn’t get it done tonight.”
Home runs sting pitching, again
While struggles with runners in scoring position would be the offense’s undoing, it was the long ball for Seattle’s pitching staff.
While Félix Hernández didn’t make many mistakes in laboring through three innings of work, Willson Contreras made him pay for leaving a curveball hanging over the heart of the plate, depositing it into the left-field bleachers. Contreras’ 450-foot shot, per Statcast, gave the Cubs a 1-0 second-inning lead.
“I did throw a lot of curveballs,” Hernandez said. “He got a good pitch to hit.”
Wade LeBlanc, who came into the game in relief of Hernandez in the fourth inning, would surrender a three-run homer to Nicholas Castellanos in the bottom of the fifth inning as Chicago extended its lead to 5-0. Kyle Schwarber added a solo home run in the seventh inning, off Erik Swanson.
The Mariners came into Tuesday’s game tied for the second most home runs allowed in MLB this season, and raised their total to 263.