Suárez's 3-hit game spoiled as Mariners' East Coast woes continue

PHILADELPHIA -- The Mariners knew that this East Coast road trip was going to be one of their most challenging of the season, a four-city weave with no off-days that included the Little League Classic and two flights on Sunday alone, followed by a 2 a.m. arrival to Philadelphia in the wee hours of Monday morning. And their final opponent is a legitimate World Series contender and housed in one of the sport’s most hostile environments.

Yet despite those uphill factors, these are the types of stretches that contending teams should expect come October -- which made Seattle’s 6-4 loss on Tuesday night to the Phillies all the more deflating, especially given that the club had tied the game with a three-run seventh inning despite minimal offensive traction to that point.

“We've had a really tough road trip so far, but we never give up,” said Eugenio Suárez, who had his first multihit game since rejoining the Mariners at the Trade Deadline. “I think our mentality is to stay in the game and fight in the games. ... We’ve got to come tomorrow with a different mentality, stay focused and win games.”

The Mariners have now lost four in a row, their longest skid since dropping five straight to the Orioles and Angels from June 3-7. They’re also 2-6 on this road trip that’s culminating at Citizens Bank Park, where the red-hot Phillies have scored 18 runs on 28 hits (including seven homers) through the first two games.

The Mariners will look to avoid being swept for the first time since a three-gamer at Yankee Stadium just before the All-Star break, a series that represented their season’s low point.

“This is where we're at,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “This is the time of the year, time of the season, and when we come out, we've got to put this one behind us.”

Suárez was nearly Tuesday night’s hero after ripping a game-tying two-run double down the third-base line with two outs in the seventh. That sequence came immediately after they drew three straight walks, the first of which ended the night of Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez after a career-high-tying 12 strikeouts.

But the Phils emphatically answered in the eighth, on consecutive fastballs from reliever Matt Brash, who surrendered an opposite-field leadoff single to Bryce Harper on the outer half, and then a 431-foot, two-run homer to J.T. Realmuto over the heart of the plate.

“J.T., he's a tough hitter,” Wilson said. “He's a guy that has been in situations like that and understands what to do. And he was able to get something that maybe not a lot of guys can get to.”

Those daggers set up prized Trade Deadline acquisition Jhoan Duran -- who the Mariners nearly acquired before Philly swooped in at the last minute -- for a 1-2-3 ninth, capped by a three-pitch strikeout to Cal Raleigh, all on heaters at 101.9 mph or higher.

Despite Seattle’s shortcomings over the past week, the club (68-59) remains just 1 1/2 games out of the American League West lead, as the Astros (69-57) also stumbled with a 1-0 walk-off defeat in Detroit on Tuesday for their third straight loss.

The Mariners were playing catch-up from the get-go on Tuesday, after Bryce Miller surrendered a solo homer to Kyle Schwarber in the first inning of his much-anticipated return from the injured list. Seattle tied the game shortly after in the third with doubles from J.P. Crawford and Randy Arozarena.

But Miller then stumbled a half-inning later, with a walk to No. 9 hitter Bryson Stott, a single to leadoff man Trea Turner, a sacrifice fly to Harper and an RBI single to Realmuto. The Phillies also stole three bases off him in the frame.

“The main thing is I've got to be quicker to the plate,” Miller said. “They were taking off.”

Miller carried his velocity over the 85-pitch outing -- he was up to 96.5 mph in his fifth and final inning and averaged 95.9 mph on his four-seamer for the night -- and finished the fifth by going 1-2-3 to Schwarber, Harper and Realmuto.

There was a foundation to build on for Miller after missing over two months with his second bout of right elbow inflammation related to bone spurs in his pitching elbow. But overall, Seattle’s 6.08 ERA on this road trip has illuminated why things have been unforgiving.