The Mariners were in quest of their 74th win of the season Sunday, playing against an Oakland team that won 74 games last year.
This isnt last year. The As of 2012 have turned into one of the behemoths of the American League. The Mariners dont have nearly the skill level to deal with the fiery determination of a team that has 91 wins and still has a chance to win the AL West.
Seattle left the basepaths littered with runners but had the usual trouble turning them into runs. The As couldnt get anything much going against Seattle starter Erasmo Ramirez, but Oakland came back to crush the Mariner bullpen for the third time in the three-game set for a 5-2 win.
Yoenis Cespedes hit a one-out solo homer off Shawn Kelley to snap a 2-2 tie in the eighth, and Josh Reddick followed that with a two-run bomb off Lucas Luetge to complete a three-game sweep, Oaklands seventh consecutive win over Seattle.
The Mariner bullpen, mostly young and obviously unused to the length of a big league season and the number of innings required of them, clearly has hit the wall. The As scored 12 runs in 7.1 innings off Seattle relievers in and pinned losses on setup men Oliver Perez Saturday and Kelley Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Seattle offense in th series scored just one run against Oakland relievers in 13.1 innings.
Particularly galling for manager Eric Wedge was the seventh inning. Brendan Ryan led off with a double and Trayvon Robinson, playing after Franklin Gutierrez came up with a groin injury, singled. But Ryan had trouble judging the ball, broke poorly off second base and only made it to third when he probably should have scored.
Then Casper Wells, Kyle Seager and Jesus Montero all struck out. That lack of performance remains a major issue for Wedge.
This has been the story of our season offensively, Wedge said. Collectively, weve got to do better and finish innings off. When you have 11 or 12 hits in a game, youve got to do better than a couple of runs. (And with men on third base) weve got to put the ball in play.
Getting hits with men in scoring position, for once, wasnt an issue. The Mariners went 5-for-15 with men at second or third. The trouble was they couldnt convert. Only two of the five hits produced a run.
The second inning saw three hits lead to Justin Smoak being thrown out at the plate. A leadoff double in the first, a leadoff double in the seventh and a one-out triple in the fifth produced zero runs.
The Mariners didnt get a base runner after Robinsons single, the last of the Mariners’ 11 hits. Ramirez gave up two runs crafted around a jam-shot Cespedes triple in the first inning, but when the 22-year-old rookie left the game in the seventh, hed allowed no additional runs and just three hits.
He did have trouble with his control, walking four after having walked just four in his first seven starts of the season.
I thought he did a good job of keeping the ball down; he was missing in the right spots, Wedge said. It wasnt the same command were used to. You dont see him walk guys like that. I thought he pitched a real good ball game for us.
That couldnt be said of the Seattle relievers.
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We may not have the firepower, but within a couple of days Seattle Hootervillians will be treated to the obligatory yearly round of stories encompassing the theme of “The Mariners have a good core of young and upcoming players, and should show some real improvement next year, perhaps even contending or being close.”
We may not have the firepower, but within a couple of days Seattle Hootervillians will be treated to the obligatory yearly round of stories encompassing the theme of “The Mariners have a good core of young and upcoming players, and should show some real improvement next year, perhaps even contending or being close.”