‘We will turn the page’: Mariners swept by Texas. Season-defining homestand looms
Any pitch served middle-middle to the dangerous Corey Seager is a mistake — but on Sunday, Bryan Woo’s first-pitch slider to an AL MVP candidate was surely the offering he wanted back most.
With two outs in the third inning, and Seager representing the go-ahead run, Texas’ shortstop dropped his barrel on a breaking ball Woo left belt-high. Seager deposited his 33rd home run of the season into the right-field seats at Globe Life Field, handing the Rangers a lead that soon ballooned.
This series was Seattle’s most important of the season, which began Friday night with a trio of clubs within one game atop the AL West. These three games in Texas were Seattle’s best chance to supplant the Rangers, and it would have set the Mariners’ sights on their first division title since 2001.
But Texas jumped Woo for four home runs Sunday — two by 2B Marcus Semien — and the Rangers completed a series sweep of the Mariners in contests that carried playoff-like weight.
“It definitely hurts a little more… it means a little more,” Woo said, aware of the stakes. “But, you’ve got to find a way to get back to it tomorrow.”
The Rangers finished with six homers Sunday, which fended off Seattle’s ensuing rally and propelled a 9-8 victory in the finale. It came down to the final at-bat, but Seattle’s late-inning comeback halted with the tying run at second base and a sellout crowd at Globe Life Field on its feet. Eugenio Suarez’s two-out, two-strike double went for naught when pinch-hitter Dominic Canzone grounded out to first.
What could have been a magical, momentum-building comeback fell just short.
Texas closer Jose Leclerc sprinted to first base, fielded the game-ending putout, and screamed as the packed house erupted: “Let’s go!”
“(Bryan) made some mistakes,” manager Scott Servais said. “They’ve got a really good offensive team. In this ballpark, (Texas) can do some damage against you up-and-down the lineup.”
Julio Rodriguez charged Seattle’s late rally, including an eighth-inning double that, at the time, put the go-ahead run in scoring position. In the sixth, he and Cal Raleigh drew two-out walks before Tesocar Hernandez, Jarred Kelenic, and Suarez stacked run-scoring singles that brought the Mariners within one.
“We were not giving things up,” Rodriguez said. That’s when we’re the best, when we’re not giving it up. … We’re able to put some good at-bats (together), get some runs.”
Now begins the season-defining homestand. Seven more games with rivals from Texas loom – three with the Astros and four more with the Rangers.
“I cannot wait to get home,” Rodriguez said. “It’s definitely special being in front of the home crowd.”
The Mariners trail the Astros for the final wild card allocation by 0.5 games, and a three-game series between the clubs begins Monday at T-Mobile Park – another opportunity to bolster playoff position, even with divisional hopes fading.
“We are far from over,” Servais said. “There’s no question about it.”
But it only highlights Seattle’s sweep as a missed opportunity to gain precious ground.
The Mariners brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the ninth inning of Friday’s opener before Ty France grounded out with the bases loaded to end the game, 8-5.
Texas blanked Seattle in Saturday’s middle game, 2-0, with a pair of soft-contact RBI singles that evaded Mariners infielders. Logan Gilbert was solid across 5.2 innings, albeit in a loss without run support.
“They were pretty good pitches,” Gilbert said of blooped RBI singles that gave Texas the deciding lead. “You’d love swing-and-miss at a time like that. But soft contact sometimes is just as good, or all you can ask for. … It’s one of those games that didn’t go our way, even though any other day, it could’ve.
“I see how close we were. … A couple of bloops, so close.”
Seattle stranded 20 combined runners Friday and Saturday. Mounting pressure, and desperation, then shifted onto the shoulders of Woo.
“We’ve got to keep on fighting,” Rodriguez said. “Regardless of what happened, that’s already in the past. We’ve got to be able to move on from it, because we’re still there. We’re still here.
“We’ve still got a chance, and we’re here for a reason. It’s not just luck. It’s not just because things are falling our way or nothing. We’re working and we’re here right now. I feel like we’ve just got to keep on going.”
HOUSTON COLLAPSE GIVES SEATTLE LIFE
The Mariners weren’t the only AL-West contender to be swept aside this weekend.
Houston, in front of their faithful at Minute Maid Park, were wiped away in three games to 102-loss Kansas City. Fans booed while the Royals pounced for six early runs Sunday and held their lead in a 6-5 contest that the Astros desperately needed.
Houston dropped the first two games in each of their last four series: Oakland, Baltimore, and Kansas City twice.
“We got some help,” Servais said Sunday. “Which is what we needed.”
It has, perhaps single-handedly, kept Seattle within reasonable striking distance of a playoff spot. It also widened Texas’ lead in the division.
“You just have to keep going,” Ty France said after Saturday’s loss. “[Toronto and Houston] lost. It still gives us a shot. As long as we can play our game, get back home… we’ll be in a good spot.”
The winner of Monday night’s opener between the Mariners and Astros seizes control of the final wild card allocation and moves the other beneath the postseason picture. And both clubs are throwing their aces: Seattle’s Luis Castillo meets the future Hall-of-Famer Justin Verlander for a 6:40 p.m. first pitch.
The stakes don’t get much higher.
Seattle’s odds to win the AL West, per FanGraphs – 6.3 percent.
Seattle’s odds to make the playoffs, per FanGraphs – 43.9 percent.
“We’re gonna see (Texas) again,” Servais said. “We’re gonna see them again in four more days.”
SHORT HOPS
– OF Julio Rodriguez is the first player age 22-or-younger with 36 doubles, 36 stolen bases, and 100 or more RBI in a season in 115 years, per Mariners PR.
– Cal Raleigh leads MLB catchers in home runs (30) and became the first catcher in Mariners history to hit 30 homers in a season.
This story was originally published September 24, 2023 at 4:27 PM with the headline "‘We will turn the page’: Mariners swept by Texas. Season-defining homestand looms."
