TORONTO -- The Seattle Mariners’ Sunday trip through Rogers Centre ended the way too many of these games have ended lately: with another blank offensive night, another crooked inning against them, and another step backward in a season that is slipping fast.
Seattle fell 7-0 to the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon, completing the sweep and sending the Mariners back to a season-worst nine games under .500 at 64-73. The 4-2 homestand that briefly offered some good feelings is gone now, and the club heads to Boston for the final stop of a six-game East Coast swing with the playoff picture looking thinner by the day.
The Mariners are 4.5 games behind the Houston Astros in the American League West, though a Houston win on Sunday would move that gap to 5.0 with 25 games left. The schedule ahead is supposed to give Seattle a shot, but that optimism is fading quickly.
Logan Gilbert needed to steady things after Seattle dropped the first two games of the series, but the opening inning turned into a rough start to the afternoon. He walked leadoff man Brett Bateman, and that mistake came back to bite him when Bateman scored on a two-run homer from Alejandro Kirk.
Bateman was a problem all series. He kept finding ways to bother the Mariners, whether through walks, opposite-field singles or stolen bases.
Max Scherzer, meanwhile, looked nothing like a pitcher carrying an ERA over seven into the game. He went seven shutout innings, struck out 10 and allowed only one hit. The strikeout total doubled his season high, and the outing moved him to the ninth-most strikeouts in MLB history.
Seattle’s issues on the bases continued to pile up, too. The Blue Jays stole a base from Bateman on Sunday after Alejandro Kirk and George Springer ran wild on Saturday. Myles Straw, who did damage from the No. 9 spot in each of the last two games, also had a stolen base in his pocket, though the Mariners got a break when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. fouled off the pitch.
The defense didn’t help either. With Toronto already ahead 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth, Guerrero hit a ground ball under JP Crawford’s glove at shortstop, allowing Straw to score. The play was ruled a double, but anyone watching knew it wasn’t.
And when Seattle did get a chance to do something at the plate, it vanished quickly. Taylor Ward walked with two outs in the second inning, moved to second on a wild pitch and stayed there when Cole Young popped up.
In the fourth, Cal Raleigh doubled with two outs, but Josh Naylor struck out to end that threat. That Raleigh double was Seattle’s only hit.
The one bright note from the series belonged to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., at least from a Mariners perspective. He entered the weekend without a home run at Rogers Centre this year, which was an unusual note in itself, and he still didn’t go deep against Seattle.
Gilbert took the loss, allowing three earned runs over five innings. He gave up six hits and one walk while striking out four. He is now 11-8 with a 3.42 ERA.
He is scheduled to pitch at home over the weekend against the Athletics at T-Mobile Park.
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