Mariners limp home after loss to Angels to end 2-6 road trip

ANAHEIM, Calif. — For a few weeks now, manager Scott Servais has felt there have been glimpses of what he insists are the real Mariners beginning to surface.

A team that can marry solid starting pitching and relieving with dependable defense and timely offense to go on a big run and get back into playoff contention.

But every time he does, the team that he hopes is not the real Mariners emerges, instead.

Such was the case here Sunday where the Mariners backed up one of their better wins of the season with one of their more perplexing losses, falling 9-4 to the Los Angeles Angels.

The Angels hit a home run two pitches into the game en route to hammering Mariner starter Logan Gilbert, who was coming off his best outing of the season five days prior in San Diego.

Gilbert departed two batters into the fourth, having allowed eight hits and seven runs, six earned.

And while the offense clubbed nine hits and had a runner on base in all but one inning, Seattle couldn’t get the big hit when it really mattered while also again falling victim to some sloppy play — notably, two errors and a runner picked off first base — the kind of miscues that have been too regular of an occurrence of late.

The upshot was a 2-6 road trip to Texas, San Diego and Anaheim that left Seattle at 31-33 and in fourth place in the AL West, 10 games behind the leading Rangers, and also now suddenly 3.5 behind the third-place Angels.

Servais had spoken optimistically before Sunday’s game of getting a win that at least would put a feel-good ending to a mostly torturous trip and maybe indicate the tide was beginning to turn after a 6-2 win Saturday night in which the Mariners got a season-high 16 hits to pair with timely pitching.

“A rough road trip,’’ Servais said. “Obviously we did not play very good, clean baseball at all on this road trip. Right when I think we are starting to turn the corner a little we continue to take a step backwards. So it’s frustrating in that regard.’’

Gilbert’s outing was especially perplexing. He gave up just three hits and one run in seven innings in a win Tuesday in San Diego, and the Mariners moved him up in the rotation — swapping spots with rookie Bryce Miller — to keep him on his regular five days’ rest, and also maybe with an eye to winning the series against the Angels, with Miller coming off two rough outings.

But Angels leadoff hitter Taylor Ward hammered Gilbert’s second pitch, a high fastball, for a home run and the home team never let up.

The Angels scored two in the first, another in the second on the first of two homers by Zach Neto and three more in the third, including a two-run double by Matt Thaiss, to take a 6-0 lead.

The Mariners got two back in the fourth on a two-run homer by a heating-up Teoscar Hernandez.

But after an error by shortstop J.P. Crawford — his second in three nights — to lead off the fourth, Gilbert then hit Ward and was pulled. It was Gilbert’s shortest outing since midway through his rookie season in 2021.

“Obviously Logan did not have his A game today and they were on it early,’’ Servais said. “The fastball command wasn’t great. He tried to use his slider and off-speed pitches to work his way through it but it was just a struggle with him.’’

Gilbert also struggled for answers later.

“Yeah it was a tough one, just terrible,’’ said Gilbert, who fell to 4-4. “Execution, my stuff wasn’t good. So pretty much the whole day just wasn’t able to make an adjustment.’’

And he said he was as perplexed as everyone else why he pitched so differently against the Angels than he had against the Padres.

“Yeah it’s weird,’’ he said. “That’s how baseball goes. But it’s my job, especially after they score in the first inning, to make an adjustment and shut them down and try to keep them there.’’

Gilbert said he tried to rely on his slider more, but to no avail.

“Yeah it was just over the middle of the plate,’’ he said. “They put some good swings on it. Just bad execution all the way around.’’

Servais liked that the Mariners got a hit in all but two innings, and after falling behind 7-2 in the fourth brought the potential tying or go-ahead run to the plate in the sixth and seventh innings.

But typifying the way things are going, Hernandez — who had hits in his first three at-bats — struck out looking with two on to end the seventh.

“I thought this series we did some positive things offensively,’’ he said. “We got hits. Got guys on base. But getting big hits and keeping rallies going has been an issue.’’

So, too, remains the sloppy play – such as France being picked off first to end the first inning — for which Servais said he has no real answer.

“Yeah I’m frustrated by it,’’ he said. “I think we all are. I think at times it’s lack of focus. These are things that we’ve talked about and it’s really important not to give up outs on the bases. We’ve addressed it multiple times. We make mistakes at critical times, and you are not going to win in this league doing that.’’

In the quiet of an expectedly tomb-like Mariner clubhouse afterward, Hernandez and a few other vets sat huddled in a corner, talking softly.

When he emerged to speak to the media, he vowed that the players will continue to search for answers, and ultimately show Servais that the real team he thinks is there is still within reach.

“I mean it (the road trip) was not the way we wanted, obviously,’’ Hernandez said. “But that is the game. We need to keep fighting and try harder and do the little things and change some things if you have to and just go for it.’’