Mariners lose fourth straight as defense makes three crucial errors

PITTSBURGH – Too passive.

That was the assessment from Scott Servais of the Mariners’ offensive performance during his club’s uninspiring stop in Detroit to start this nine-day, three-city trip.

The Mariners manager had a simple plan going into Pittsburgh to try to change that.

“Don’t wait around. Let’s just go make it happen,” Servais said Friday afternoon. “My job is to try to point the ship in a different direction, and that’s where I want to go. I want to be super aggressive. I want to go after it.”

The Mariners, to begin, executed that game plan against Pirates rookie phenom Paul Skenes. They took swings – big swings – early in counts, and they mostly laid off borderline pitches off the plate, drawing four walks and creating traffic on the basepaths.

Ultimately, though, the same issues resurfaced yet again for the Mariners lineup in a 5-3 loss Friday night at PNC Park.

Luke Raley belted a two-run homer off Skenes to give the Mariners a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning, but the Mariners (63-60) couldn’t hold it.

They couldn’t cash in with the one clutch hit they need right now – desperately need.

They couldn’t play clean defense.

And they couldn’t reverse their misfortunes on the road.

Even with their most consistent starting pitcher, Logan Gilbert, on the mound Friday, the Mariners lost their fourth game in a row.

The Pirates (57-64), meanwhile, snapped their 10-game losing streak.

“There’s a lot of baseball yet to go, and people can say what they want to say. I believe in our guys,” Servais said after the game. “We’ve got to fight through it. We need to get some big hits, though. That’s what it’s about.”

A day earlier, the Mariners had suffered probably their most demoralizing defeat of the season, getting one-hit by the Tigers. The mood in the clubhouse Thursday afternoon in Detroit was as sullen as it’s been all season.

Coming into Friday, the Mariners knew what awaited them in Pittsburgh – baseball’s most hyped pitching prospect in a decade.

Skenes has a blazing fastball and a mostly untouchable arsenal, and he started the All-Star Game for the National League last month as a 22-year-old rookie.

He’s legit.

But the Mariners delivered on their plan, and they believed they made strides in playing more care-free Friday. Perhaps that’s only baby steps – and, yes, results are all that matter, particularly this time of year – but that’s at least some sign of progress, yeah?

“I thought our at-bats tonight were very good, very competitive against Skenes. We didn’t chase him around. We were on the fastball. He’s a good pitcher – one of the best young pitchers in the game,” Servais said. “… It’s not the result we’re looking for tonight. But I thought the effort sticking to the plan, it was there. Clearly there.”

After Jorge Polanco drew a leadoff walk in the fourth, Raley worked a 3-1 count and hammered a fastball Skenes left over the middle of the plate. The ball jumped off Raley’s bat at 112.5 mph, the hardest hit Skenes has allowed all season.

The Mariners, though, couldn’t muster any more off Skenes.

They had a prime opportunity – after the Pirates had taken a 3-2 lead – to tie the score in the sixth inning when Julio Rodriguez turned on a 96-mph fastball from Skenes and ripped it down the left-field line for a leadoff double.

Rodriguez moved to third with one out on Polanco’s deep fly out to right field, and Raley followed with a walk to put runners at the corners.

After a mound visit, Skenes was able to induce a first-pitch swing from Dominic Canzone, who hit a sinker right to shortstop Oneil Cruz for a rather routine inning-ending 6-3 double play, ending the Mariners’ last best threat.

The Mariners have 14 hits in 151 at-bats on this road trip so far, an .093 batting average.

“It hurts all the same, honestly,” Raley said. “We should be going out there and executing the game plan every day. It’s one of those things, like, just keep doing your preparation and doing exactly what you need to be doing to be ready by (first pitch). …

“And it’s hard because, like, I look around the clubhouse and I see everybody doing it. You’ve got to keep showing up and playing the game and hope that the big hit starts coming – and it doesn’t stop coming.”

Polanco hit a leadoff homer off Pirates closer David Bednar to get the Mariners within 5-3.

Raley followed with a sharp single to right, but Bednar struck out Canzone, Mitch Haniger and Justin Turner to end it.

The Mariners matched a season-high with three errors and didn’t do much to support Gilbert, who was tagged for four runs (three earned) in 61/3 innings.

The only positive for the Mariners coming out of this day: The Astros lost at home to the White Sox, meaning Houston’s lead in the AL West stayed at three games with 39 of them remaining.

So the Mariners didn’t lose any more ground, at least. But they still have so much of it to make up, and Servais said he believes in plan to do so.

“I want us to be as aggressive as we possibly can,” he said Friday night. “That’s running the bases. That’s in the batter’s box. It’s on the mound. … That’s the way we want to play. That’s what we need to do, and then let the chips fall where they may after that.”