DENVER -- The Mariners had this one in hand, then watched it slip away in a hurry.
Seattle opened with power, built a 3-0 lead and still ended up on the wrong side of a 5-3 loss to Colorado on Saturday night, a result that pushed them closer to elimination in both the American League West and Wild Card races before they leave Denver.
“We made our bed,” Cal Raleigh said. “We’ve got to lay in it.”
The timing made the night sting even more. Texas beat Toronto earlier Saturday to move into sole possession of first place in the AL West, sitting at 78-77.
Houston followed at 77-78, one game back. That left Seattle staring at a possible division elimination as soon as Sunday afternoon, if another loss at Coors Field is paired with another Rangers win over the Blue Jays.
The Mariners could also be knocked out of the final AL Wild Card spot on Sunday if the White Sox beat the Tigers, no matter what happens in the series finale in Denver.
What happened against Colorado fit the pattern that has haunted Seattle so often lately. The offense flashed early, then went quiet.
The defense leaked runs. The bullpen couldn’t hold the line.
Raleigh got it started by launching the longest homer of his career, a Statcast-projected 459-footer in the first inning. Randy Arozarena added another blast in the third, a 435-foot shot that stretched the lead to 3-0.
That should have been enough to settle the game. Instead, the Mariners never scored again. They finished 5-for-24 and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
Raleigh said the offense never kept the pressure on.
“I think it's a combination of both,” Raleigh said. “I'm more worried about what we're doing, what our guys are doing. And like I said, when you just don't apply the pressure, you're kind of giving the pitcher an easy way out.
“It was good to get on early, but you've got to keep going. You can't feel satisfied by any means, and that’s kind of what I saw.”
Seattle also handed Colorado extra chances in the field, and those mistakes proved costly. The Mariners entered the game last in MLB in outs above average at minus-53 and fielding run value at minus-52, and the errors came at exactly the wrong time.
In the third inning, two straight miscues turned a harmless-looking sequence into a run. Raleigh made a wide throw while trying to catch speedster Jake McCarthy at first base, then on the next play couldn’t handle a relay throw from Dominic Canzone after a flyout, allowing McCarthy to score. Canzone was charged with the error, and McCarthy would have been stranded without it.
“I should know better,” Raleigh said.
Bryce Miller at least showed signs of turning a corner after a rough summer stretch. He allowed just one unearned run and had much better fastball command, but he exited with one out in the sixth after back-to-back singles.
That opened the door for the bullpen collapse in the seventh. Carlos Vargas, José A. Ferrer and Cooper Criswell combined to give up four runs and erase the lead.
Vargas allowed two one-out singles, putting runners on the corners for Ferrer. Ferrer got a swinging bunt grounder that still produced an RBI and cut the lead to 3-2. Then, with two outs, another ground ball should have ended the inning, but third baseman Weston Wilson bobbled it, keeping the rally alive.
TJ Rumfield then punched a ball between J.P. Crawford and Michael Arroyo up the middle to tie it, with both infielders shifted. Criswell followed by walking his first batter to load the bases, then surrendered a two-run single into shallow center that gave Colorado the lead for good.
“A lot of contact on their part that was on the ground, and we were able to knock it down, but not able to make a play,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “And those are always tough, especially in this ballpark.”
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