ATLANTA -- When Logan Gilbert fell into a bases-loaded jam with no outs in the first inning on Friday night, there was a here-we-go-again sense brewing at Truist Park.
Yet Gilbert remarkably worked out of it with only one run surrendered via a sacrifice fly, then proceeded to go on cruise control the rest of the way, working through the sixth inning and slicing his splitter through the Braves’ lineup for each of his seven strikeouts.
The problem for the Mariners, however, was that for as good as Gilbert was, Atlanta’s Chris Sale was even better.
Seattle struck out nine times against the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner and didn’t score until after he departed, a formula that eventually sunk the club to a 4-1 loss after Atlanta ambushed Gabe Speier for three runs in the eighth on just 10 pitches.
“That was the difference in the game,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “Gabe has been so consistent for us out there, and tonight, they were just able to sort of use the middle of the field and get some hits.”
The Mariners are 3 1/2 games behind the Astros in the AL West after their fourth straight loss, and with Houston losing to the Rangers, Texas is only a half-game behind Seattle for the third AL Wild Card spot.
With the outfield playing deeper than usual to begin the eighth, Braves leadoff man Jurickson Profar punched a 104.7 mph grounder up the middle and past shortstop J.P. Crawford, but it slowed enough when reaching the grass to allow Profar to race into second base. Three pitches later, Matt Olson lined one 106.9 mph off the front of the mound, way over Crawford and into center field to score Profar and break a 1-1 tie.
And from there, Atlanta was off and running.
On the very next pitch, Ozzie Albies connected on a middle-middle fastball that sailed high into right field and sliced enough to cause Dominic Canzone to overrun the potential catch and turn it into an RBI triple. Still with no outs, the infield was brought in, and Drake Baldwin followed with a chopping grounder past second baseman Jorge Polanco for the dagger.
“I think that their approach on [Speier] was good,” Wilson said, “and they hit some balls hard and used up the middle and found some holes up that way and just were able to put them back-to-back.”
If being swept in Tampa was defined by their starting pitchers scuffling mightily, Friday’s defeat for the Mariners was another mix of their bullpen breaking down late and having no wiggle room to work due to a lack of run production from their offense.
Overall, the Mariners are hitting .226 with a .670 OPS on this 1-6 road trip, both ranking 24th of 30 teams since the trip began last Friday. They badly missed Victor Robles on Friday -- for his glove on the possible catch in right and his bat against the tough lefty Sale -- though he’s expected to be activated from his seven-game suspension on Saturday.
Seattle had just five baserunners vs. Sale -- three singles and a ground-rule double from September callup Leo Rivas, along with a hit-by-pitch -- then just two hits the rest of the way, including a game-tying RBI single from Rivas immediately after Sale departed.
But after the clutch knock from Rivas, Harry Ford -- Seattle’s No. 4 prospect per MLB Pipeline -- was called on to make his MLB debut in his hometown as a pinch-hitter vs. lefty Dylan Lee, but he struck out swinging at three straight sliders below the zone.
Ford was also a September callup, selected from Triple-A Tacoma on Monday, but hadn’t played yet. It was a by-design effort to not thrust a first-timer into critical at-bats in a pennant race but instead use him to provide catching coverage when backstops Mitch Garver and Cal Raleigh were both in the starting lineup, such as Friday -- even though it wasn’t exactly a soft landing spot.
As for Gilbert, he’s now thrown three straight quality starts since one of his worst career outings on Aug. 18 in Philadelphia. It was an encouraging sign for a rotation that entered Friday with a 6.60 ERA on this road trip.
“It's nice, but we kind of know the situation we're in,” Gilbert said. “So there are bigger things at stake, and we've got to settle in and find a way to win.”
But the bullpen has also shouldered as significant of a brunt of the struggles, with a 5.48 ERA on this road trip after Speier’s three runs in the eighth -- a new season high for the lefty.