Takeaway
Home is where the hard is. The Mariners continued to make life difficult at Safeco Field Tuesday, when they extended their winless streak at home to five games with an 8-0 loss to the Texas Rangers. Ex-Mariner Adrian Beltre drove in five runs. The good news was that only 13,376 fans paid to see it. Bold prediction: This team will win a home game this year. But if it doesn’t happen Wednesday, there won’t be another opportunity until the final week of April.
Essential moment
Having jumped out to a 2-0 lead behind four consecutive singles that opened the third inning, the Rangers blew the game open on Beltre’s three-run shot to left. Beltre gave Texas a 5-0 lead on the 415th home run of his career, and No. 55 at Safeco Field. They were much easier to take for Seattle fans when he was hitting them in the bottom of innings.
Pitchers
Starter Wade Miley didn’t exactly endear himself to Mariners fans during his home debut. He threw a solid first two innings and pitched through the sixth, but was tagged for five runs in the third. The bullpen continues to falter after a great start to the season. Tony Zych (1 IP, 1 H, 2 ER) was the latest reliever to get touched up. Mariners pitchers allowed 12 hits.
Hitters
CF Nori Aoki extended his season-opening hitting streak to seven games with a fifth-inning single. That was about it for the offense. Nelson Cruz, Robinson Cano and Kyle Seager combined to go 0-for-8 as Texas starter Derek Holland rolled through the lineup three times. Seattle had four hits while getting shut out for the first time this season.
Words
“We have a lot of season ahead of us. It’s a different team than the last few seasons. It’s easy for the fans to say, ‘Here we go again.’ But it’s the same team that (won two games last week) in Texas.” — Manager Scott Servais
Noteworthy
Seattle is 0-5 at home this season and has a 2-9 record at Safeco Field over its past two homestands dating back to last season. The last time the Mariners finished a homestand with a winning record was in early August. Since then, Seattle has a 10-17 home record . . . Texas rookie RF Nomar Mazara stole extra-base hits from C Chris Iannetta and CF Leonys Martin over the first three innings. He made a diving catch of an Iannetta fly ball near the foul line in the second, then sprinted to the warning track in right-center to take one away from Martin an inning later.
Next
The Mariners wrap up their homestand with a 12:40 p.m. game against Texas Wednesday. They take Thursday off before opening up an East Coast road trip at the Yankees Friday. RHP Taijuan Walker (0-0, 3.00 ERA) goes against Rangers RHP A.J. Griffin (1-0, 4.50 ERA).
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="2217315 https://sportspressnw.wpengine.com/?p=2217315">15 Comments
What makes the M’s even more pathetic & sad is the fact that not only is their farm system basically bare, but the Rangers & Astros who are both contenders, also have good prospects. We’re watching one now in Mazara, who of course hasn’t had any problems hitting at Safeco & has stolen multiple extra base hits away from these sorry M’s. The Astros have so many good young players it’s ridiculous. The M’s have a loonnngggg way to go…..
… and they’ve also been going there for a long time …. and they look to be on schedule to once again not arrive on time.
The M’s seem like they’re doing a rerun episode from the old TV Twilight Zone.
Perhaps the one where bookish Burgess Meredith survives a nuclear holocaust and discovers he finally will have time to do all the reading he wants, then breaks his glasses?
That is a classic… and Meredith didn’t sing or tap dance in front of a panel of past their prime judges.
That’s what happens when player development is poor. Dipoto can’t fix that in a year.
It’s a new day, all he needs to do is Google It…
Again, its getting late early. now hitting .151 on this homestand. pathetic
According to Dave Sims last nite….. everything is great, the sky is not falling in as it appears.
Well, actually, he’s right.
The baseball sky is falling in….. these guys are done in April. They can’t win at home obviously.
He could be right but his pay check comes from …?
I can’t believe the M’s actually have TWO baserunners & less than 1 out….
Once again Beltre strikes & drives in a run, although that silly shift can be credited for that. So the M’s use the shift about the same as the opposition, yet they continue to be out hit & out scored in every single game….. maybe there’s a problem? Does Walker have any pitches other than fastballs that usually miss the strikezone?
Apparently today is Groundhog Day….. So just like Sunday, Peralta enters the game late with a 1 run lead & immediately serves up a game tying HR to the exact same location in LF. And Sims thinks the fans don’t know what they’re watching every game.