ANAHEIM, Calif. — It’s one thing to get shutdown by a former Cy Young Award winner in Dallas Keuchel. And it’s understandable for hitting struggles against Lances McCullers and his curveball of death because he did that to them last season and to other teams around baseball.
But the Seattle Mariners’ offense, or lack of it, is not a just a byproduct of facing tough starting pitching. No, they faced Charlie Morton, rookie Joe Musgrove and on Friday, the well-traveled Jesse Chavez—none of which are considered elite—over the last four games and produced minimally.
Friday’s 5-1 loss to the Angels offered another glimpse into what has been ailing this team to start the season—over-aggressive at-bats with runners in scoring position, lack of solid contact, way too many strikeouts and the three best hitters on the team providing only minimal production.
Once again, Seattle struggled hitting with runners in scoring position, going just 1 for 7 in that situation, running the season total to 4 for 37.
Chavez came into the game with an 0-6 record and 5.84 ERA vs. the Mariners in his career. Predictably, he carved up Seattle (1-4), allowing just one hit for five shutout innings. He allowed a run in the sixth and finished with six strikeouts.
The Mariners got a decent start from Yovani Gallardo, who pitched into the sixth inning (five complete), giving up three runs on eight hits with two walks and four strikeouts. But even if he had been better, the game’s outcome wouldn’t have been different.
The Angels grabbed a 1-0 lead off Gallardo in the first inning. He gave up a leadoff single to Yunel Escobar and a bloop double to left to Kole Calhoun to put runners on second and third for reigning American League MVP Mike Trout.
In possibly the best scenario for the Mariners, given their past dealings with Trout, Gallardo got him to hit a sacrifice fly to center.
Gallardo found himself in a similar situation in the third inning with Trout coming to the plate with one-out and runners on first and second. After Gallardo fell behind 3-0 in the count, the Mariners just signaled him to first for the intentional walk.
With the bases loaded, Gallardo executed perfectly to get out of the inning, coaxing a soft ground ball to third base from Albert Pujols and his tortoise-like running speed.
Kyle Seager fielded it cleanly and had an easy double play to turn. Instead, he made it hard, by dropping the ball as he was trying to throw to first base. The error allowed another run to score to make it 2-0. Gallardo worked himself out of the inning striking out C.J. Cron and getting Cameron Maybin to ground into a fielder’s choice.
Seattle sort of figured out the riddle that was Chavez in the sixth inning. With two outs, Mitch Haniger and Robinson Cano singled to put runners on the corners for Nelson Cruz. The slumping Mariners’ DH bounced a ground ball up the middle to score Haniger and make it 2-1.
With Seager coming to the plate and nobody warming in the bullpen, Angels manager Mike Scioscia creatively used a series of stalling tactics to get lefty Jose Alvarez warm enough to face Seager.
Alvarez struck out Seager swinging to end the inning.
The Mariners wouldn’t get close again. Gallardo gave up a leadoff homer to Maybin to start the bottom half of the inning to make it 3-1. It was stretched to 5-1 when Kole Calhoun blasted a two-run homer to right field off Casey Fien in the seventh.
