This story was originally published by Dead Spin
When the Seattle Mariners ventured east to start a nine-game road trip, their offense must have stayed behind.
After scoring 26 runs in a four-game winning streak last week, the Mariners have put up just four combined in their past three games, all losses. They aim to turn things around when they visit the Pittsburgh Pirates in the opener of a three-game set on Friday.
“This is kind of what our season’s been like,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “It’s been good, it’s been bad. It kind of goes up-down. This club has shown the ability to be resilient and bounce back. … I believe in the group that we have, but we’ve got to bounce — we got to bounce back quickly.”
Seattle managed just one hit, a double in the fifth inning, in falling 2-1 to the host Detroit Tigers on Thursday. The Mariners got a run in the first inning on four walks, and still led 1-0 until the Tigers scored twice in the eighth.
Seattle went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and sits three games behind the first-place Houston Astros in the American League West. The Mariners are 3 1/2 back of the final wild card.
“We have to be better offensively; there’s no other way around it,” Servais said. “You’re just not going to win games in this league — (with) one run, two runs — no matter how good your pitching is.”
The Mariners got a stellar outing from starting pitcher Bryce Miller, who held Detroit to two hits over seven innings while fanning nine. They hope for more of the same from Logan Gilbert (7-8, 2.91 ERA) on Friday. The righty, who is facing the Pirates for the first time, has held opponents to one run on seven hits in his past two games, spanning 13 innings.
The Pirates, meanwhile, will hand the ball to rookie phenom Paul Skenes (6-2, 2.25) as they return home, looking to snap a 10-game losing streak.
Skenes allowed four runs, the most in his 15 starts, in his last outing on Saturday, a 4-1 loss to the host Los Angeles Dodgers. His two losses have come in his past four games, with two no-decisions.
“I think we have a really good team, and we know what we can do,” said pitcher Mitch Keller, who started Wednesday. “It’s just not clicking for us right now.”
The Pirates have plummeted to last in the National League Central and 7 1/2 games out of a wild-card spot. They have been outscored 60-33 over the course of their slide, including two or fewer runs in four of their past five games.
“I think, No. 1, we’ve chased too much. I think that goes to the point where we have some offensive players that are trying to do a little too much now,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “And when you do a little too much, you end up getting out of your hitting zones. It looks like that’s where we’re at right now. We need to flush and move on.”
–Field Level Media
