Mariners Noon Number: 2

The Seattle Mariners are 2 for 16 with runners in scoring position in the first two games – both losses – in a four-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays.

It’s also the number of runs the M’s have scored, both coming on Nelson Cruz’ two-run homer in the first inning of Thursday’s game.

It’s not really for the pitching. The M’s have faced Marco Estrada, a pretty good veteran, and Joe Biagini, a second-year pitcher who made his third start of his career.

It’s okay to have a tough night against Estrada. He struck out eight in six innings, has an All-Star appearance to his credit in 2016 and came in 10th in Cy Young balloting in 2015. So he’s a good pitcher.

But Biagini has neither the track record nor pedigree of his mentor in the Jays’ rotation. he struck out just three over five innings and didn’t really show anything dominant, just good control of his there useful pitches.

The coincidence in these power outage games? No Robinson Cano. The slugger has missed the past two games with that tweaked quad that wasn’t supposed to be a problem.

But it’s really emblematic of a bigger trend. For the season, the M’s are hitting a robust .283/.370/.438 at home and .245/.321/.409 on the road.

Overall, the Mariners are fourth in all of baseball and second in the A.L. in runs scored, so things could be worse. But they’d be better if they could figure out how to push a few more across on the road.