The Mariners found a fresh way to lose Tuesday night, and it came wrapped in the kind of sloppiness that has become way too familiar. A 6-4 defeat to the Angels featured missed chances, defensive miscues, a blown opportunity to put the game away early, and another frustrating outing where Seattle kept handing away momentum.
It started badly in the second inning. Josh Lowe floated a two-out single into center, then Christian Moore followed with a softer fly ball that Julio Rodríguez couldn’t quite corral.
Laz Montes had to scramble to clean it up, and Lowe scored from first on the play. That was the first crack in the door.
Seattle answered right away. Cal Raleigh drew a walk, Julio Rodríguez crushed a middle-middle fastball from Grayson Rodriguez, and the Mariners were suddenly on top. The ball went 451 feet, and the blast briefly gave the home crowd something to latch onto.
But the inning could have been much bigger. Josh Naylor walked, Cole Young singled, and the Mariners had two on with nobody out.
Instead, Lazaro Montes rolled into a double play, killing the surge. Leo Rivas did salvage a run with a two-out RBI single that brought home Naylor, but J.P.
Crawford popped out to end it.
The Mariners kept creating traffic and then failing to cash it in. Randy Arozarena opened the second with a double but was stranded.
In the fourth, Young turned a strikeout into a walk after a challenge, Montes singled hard, and then Rivas grounded into an inning-ending double play. Seattle had chances to separate itself and never did.
That opened the door for the Angels in the fifth. Josh Lowe poked a weak leadoff double, and the inning turned messier from there.
Raleigh couldn’t handle a curveball in the dirt, Christian Moore reached on the dropped third strike, and Lowe eventually scored on a groundout to cut the lead. Then Zach Neto tied it by yanking a sinker from Bryan Woo into right field for an RBI hit.
Woo had been leaning on his curveball effectively, and the pitch had given him real success earlier in the night. He struck Neto out twice with it, and the numbers backed up how sharp it looked. But he moved away from it at a key moment, and the Angels made him pay.
Seattle briefly moved back in front in the bottom of the fifth. Rodríguez walked two, then uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Crawford, who had led off the inning, to score. Once again, though, the Mariners couldn’t add on.
The game slipped away in the sixth. Woo had already piled up eight strikeouts, but his pitch count had climbed, and the warning signs were there.
He opened the inning with a five-pitch walk, then hit Denzer Guzman. After a mound visit from Dan Wilson, Woo stayed in, and Christian Moore quickly worked ahead 3-0 before driving a fastball into center for the go-ahead double.
Woo was clearly tiring, and the Angels took full advantage.
Michael Rucker came in and stopped the bleeding, with Laz Montes helping by making a strong catch. By then, though, the Mariners were already in trouble, and the game had shifted hard.
The Angels added another run in the eighth against Cooper Criswell. He walked Denzer Guzman to start the inning, and Guzman eventually came around to score. Seattle, meanwhile, never scored again after the wild pitch in the fifth and went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
It was the kind of night that left the Mariners with missed opportunities everywhere you looked, and another loss that felt earned by the mistakes.
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