Mariners fall two behind Kansas City after 8
Originally published September 15, 2014 at 10:09 PM | Page modified September 15, 2014 at 10:55 PM
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ANAHEIM, Calif. - Perhaps words like catastrophe and disaster are a bit much in describing all that went wrong on Monday night at Angels Stadium and all that has gone awry in the last eight games.
Really, there is a more a disturbing word that could be used to describe the Mariners current state of losing - a trend.
In their last eight games, the Mariners have lost six of them in a variety of ways. They've played sloppy and lost. They've had their closer implode and lost. They've played well enough to win, but still lost.
But the 8-1 drubbing put on them by the Angels was easily far more wearisome, because they were done it almost as quickly as the game started.
And it leads to this question:
Can they put an end to the losing in time to realize their postseason hopes?
Yes, mathematically they are quite alive at 80-69. Even with the loss and the Royals' improbably rallying for a 4-3 win over the White Sox, Seattle remains two games back for the second wild card with 13 games left to play. Easy math says that deficit can be overcome.
But seeing how the Mariners have played over the last eight games, the math seems deceiving.
On a night when they needed Hisashi Iwakuma to pitch like the dominant all-star of a year ago against a hard-hitting Angels lineup, the Mariners got second straight poor start from the veteran right-hander.
After working two perfect innings, Iwakuma's outing started to take on water in the third inning. With two outs, he walked No. 9 hitter Efren Navarro on four straight pitches - an indicator that his command was shaky.
Kole Calhoun followed with a soft single up the middle and Iwakuma then walked Mike Trout to load the bases. It was the first time this season that he had walked two batters in an inning.
Albert Pujols unloaded the bases after a grueling seven-pitch at-bat where he fell behind 0-2 and fouled off four pitches in a row before reaching down and one-handing a low splitter out of the strike zone down the left-field line for a three-run double. Pujols came into that at-bat 3 for 23 off Iwakuma in his career.
Pujols was lifted after reaching second base with cramping in his left hamstring. But it didn't matter. The Angels kept scoring.
Howie Kendrick followed with a stinging double into right-center to score pinch runner Tony Campana to make it 4-0.
Iwakuma finally got out of the third inning, but he wouldn't make it out of the fourth inning.
David Freese led off the fourth with a towering solo homer to center field on a 1-0 hanging slider to make it 5-0. After giving up a single, getting an out and giving up another single, McClendon lifted Iwakuma.
But two more runs were tacked on to his pitching line when reliever Dominic Leone gave up a two-out single to Campana to make it 7-0.
Iwakuma's final line of 31/3 innings pitched, seven runs on six hits with two walks and four strikeouts was one of the worst of his career. It piggybacked onto a previous start where he gave up four runs on six hits in 41/3 innings. After going eight shutout innings against the Phillies on Aug. 19, Iwakuma has lasted six innings just once in his next five starts. In those five starts, he's pitched 211/3 innings and given up 22 runs for a 9.28 earned-run average. It's unusual to see the steady Iwakuma struggle in such fashion
While the Angels were crossing home plate at a prodigious rate, the Mariners couldn't even find their way into scoring position let along score many runs.
But a day after setting a dubious club record after shutout for the 17th time this season, the Mariners avoided adding to that total. Though it was in doubt for the first seen innings.
Logan Morrison doubled off Angels starter Matt Shoemaker to start the eighth inning. He advanced to third on Michael Saunders' ground ball to second and scored on Humberto Quintero's ground ball to short. That snapped a streak of 19 consecutive innings without a run.
Ryan Divish: 206-464-2373 or rdivish@seattletimes.com.
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