SEATTLE -- After a tremendous start to the season, the Mariners have come back to Earth with four straight losses, including a 6-4 setback to the Indians on Monday night.

It shouldn’t be a huge surprise, given no one expected Seattle to start the season at 13-2, and the reality check has come in the form of the Astros and Indians, two of the top clubs in the American League.

For what it’s worth, the Mariners are still a half-game ahead of Houston in the early AL West standings at 13-6, and continue bashing home runs at a record rate, with two more on Monday that puts them at 41 in 19 games. That’s a pace for 350 on the season, which would shatter last year’s MLB record of 267 by the Yankees.

So, yeah, that pace likely will slow eventually as well. But this season is still just getting rolling and we’re still learning what direction this Mariners team will take.

Here are three observations from the opening game against Cleveland:

1. Those other guys get paid, too… a lot

The Mariners’ offense finally slowed the last three days, but much of that has to do with who they’re facing. The last three opposing starters were Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole of the Astros, followed by Trevor Bauer of the Indians.

Those are three of the top six finalists in last year’s AL Cy Young Award voting -- earning a combined $54.5 million this year -- and that’s rough sledding for any opposing offense.

The Mariners totaled 16 hits and seven runs in those three games, with 40 strikeouts and four walks. The strikeouts are a bit alarming, though they didn’t seem to catch many breaks on borderline strike calls in favor of the elite pitchers, either.

“We just have to keep battling,” said Edwin Encarnacion, who had one of Seattle’s homers on Monday. “We know we’ve been facing good pitchers. We just need to keep focused on what we’ve been doing. I trust this team and these guys. We have great talent here and we’re going to be all right. These are tough games. We can play better than we’ve played.”

Seattle’s offense isn’t going to be as good as it looked in racking up five-plus runs in 14 of its first 15 games, nor is it going to be as bad as it appeared against Verlander, Cole and Bauer, who combined for 30 strikeouts in 18 2/3 innings.

“We are going to have some ups and downs throughout the season,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “We’re just in one of those little lulls right now, and a lot of it has been driven by the pitching we’ve been facing.”

2. Yusei Kikuchi is learning on the job

Mariners starter Kikuchi is still adjusting to life in the Majors, and part of that is learning how to pitch to hitters he’s never seen before.

Whether that’s the only reason or not, Kikuchi has been a very slow starter in his first five outings, including Monday when he gave up two runs on three hits and a walk in the first before settling in and giving Seattle six innings of three-run ball.

In his five starts, Kikuchi has an 8.10 ERA and opposing teams are hitting .333 against him in the first two innings. From the third inning on, the ERA is 2.04 with a .164 batting average.

That’s a significant difference and something the Mariners certainly want to figure out.

“Once he gets rolling later in the game, his tempo picks up and everything comes a little easier for him,” Servais said. “But again, he gives us six innings and we’re right in the ballgame.”

Kikuchi prides himself on preparation and studies plenty of video, but there’s nothing like seeing how hitters actually react to your pitches and being able to work off that.

“These last three starts I’ve been giving up runs early in the game,” Kikuchi said through translator Justin Novak. “I am going through scouting reports and preparing myself, but that’s something I need to work on going forward.”

3. Bullpen and defense remain keys

The Mariners’ offense has helped overcome shortcomings in other areas in the first few weeks, but it’s impossible to win many close games without playing good defense and getting strong results from the relief crew.

Both those areas have shown signs of improvement, but Monday didn’t go well as relievers Zac Rosscup, Connor Sadzeck and Shawn Armstrong surrendered two critical runs in the eighth without allowing a hit, thanks to four walks, a hit batter and two wild pitches.

Additionally, two throwing errors on shortstop Tim Beckham in the ninth allowed an unearned run that provided some cushion for Cleveland.

“The eighth inning got a little crazy with the walks,” Servais said. “We have to control the strike zone and we didn’t do that tonight out of the bullpen. Disappointing. I thought over the weekend we played pretty crisp ball. It just got away from us late in the game tonight.

“We threw to the wrong base and didn’t execute some other things. We’re going to have nights like that. You can have nights with the bat, but it was a little hiccup tonight defensively.”