SEATTLE -- One day after suffering left hip soreness upon crashing into the right-field wall, Lazaro Montes was out of the Mariners’ lineup on Saturday.
But both the rookie and manager Dan Wilson were optimistic about his status and potential availability off the bench.
“Just glad to hear that it’s nothing serious, and another reminder that youth is a beautiful thing,” Wilson said.
It’s unlikely that Montes -- the Mariners’ No. 5 prospect per MLB Pipeline-- would’ve been in the starting lineup anyway, as Seattle squared off against A’s left-hander Jeffrey Springs.
Montes went through pregame work with head athletic trainer Kyle Torgerson and was in good spirits. X-rays came back negative on Friday, shortly after Montes was forced to exit his third career game in the fifth inning of an eventual 7-6 loss.
The play occurred when Montes attempted to corral Zack Gelof’s deep fly ball to right-center that resulted in an RBI triple to put the Athletics up 6-5.
Montes fielded a single from Carlos Cortes after his hard crash, and Wilson said that’s when the 21-year-old felt the hip injury a bit more, prompting the coaching staff to remove him.
Montes, who was 0-for-2 in two at-bats Friday, had an incredible debut for the Mariners in Boston on Tuesday. He had two hits, including his first big league homer in Seattle's 9-6 win. He was the sixth player in club history to hit a home run on their debut.
“Laz is a big guy, and for him to run into the wall there, lucky it wasn't a lot worse than it was,” Wilson said.
September's slate couldn’t have been more of a golden opportunity for the Mariners: five games against the Rangers and Astros to gain ground in the division, and five series against three of the worst teams in baseball. But Seattle’s postseason aspirations are shrinking. With the Astros winning their third straight, the Mariners sit seven games back of the AL West lead, and six for the final Wild Card spot with 20 remaining.
Consecutive losses against the Athletics have dug the Mariners in abyss, dropping to 10 games under .500. Seattle’s most steady starter in Gilbert was tagged for a season-high-tying seven earned runs in 4 2/3 innings.
He gave up four homers in the third inning alone, becoming the first pitcher in franchise history to do so.
And no one was more distraught than Gilbert, who became the seventh player to record 1,000 career innings with the club in a forgettable outing.
“I was pretty disappointed,” he said. “I mean, this game we have to win and [I] let the team down for sure."
It was a unique outing overall for Gilbert. He tied a season high with 10 strikeouts and picked off his fourth runner of the year, but also allowed eight hits and walked two.
Gilbert felt he was executing his pitches, but mentioned that it was possible he was “falling into patterns" that the Athletics exploited. All four homers by the Athletics were hit in the lower zone of the plate.
“Kind of confusing,” he said.
And it couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time for the Mariners.
“Terrible, terrible timing,” Gilbert said.