TORONTO — Maybe the Mariners can reclaim their bats at Customs when they cross the border on their way back to Safeco Field.
Sunday completed a miserable four-game weekend for the Mariners at the Rogers Centre when they suffered a 3-2 walk-off loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.
The end came when Kevin Pillar crushed a two-out homer in the ninth inning against Mariners closer Edwin Diaz. It was a no-doubter; a 412-foot drive over the left-field wall.
Diaz (1-2) hadn’t pitched since Tuesday but said he “was feeling great.” He got two quick outs before hanging a slider to Pillar.
“I just missed the location,” Diaz said, “and he hit that ball pretty good. He was ready for that pitch. I wanted to go down and away, and I left it in the middle.”
It’s easy to focus on Diaz’s hanging slider, or the fastball that James Pazos teed up for Justin Smoak’s two-run homer in the sixth inning. But the key stat is this: The Mariners scored six runs in losing four games to Toronto.
“That’s really what cooled off,” manager Scott Servais acknowledged. “Our bats. As good as we were going the last couple of games at home, and then picked it up in Philly…we just didn’t have that (production).
“The line was not moving. I talk all the time about passing the baton and keeping the line moving. That just wasn’t the case in this series. They did a (great) job pitching against us.”
The Mariners led 1-0 when they pulled starter Ariel Miranda after a leadoff walk in the sixth inning pushed him to 100 pitches.
Pazos struck out Kendrys Morales, but Smoak lined a 419-foot fastball over the left-center wall. The Blue Jays led 2-1.
Jarrod Dyson pulled the Mariners even with a leadoff homer in the seventh, a 376-foot drive to right against former Mariners reliever Dominic Leone.
It was Dyson’s eighth career homer in 1,482 career at-bats.
“It was a good swing,” he said. “Just not enough to put us over the top.”