Mariners strike out 14 times, fall to Pirates again for 5th straight loss

PITTSBURGH – Julio Rodriguez was as upset as he’s been at any point in his career after the Mariners’ 7-2 loss to the Pirates on Saturday.

He stomped around the visitors clubhouse at PNC Park, darting in and out of the trainers room, in and out of the workout room, stopping for no one, talking to no one, a hard scowl framing his eyes.

He was upset, of course, about striking out to end the game with the bases loaded.

He was upset, too, that the Mariners offense had yet again failed to back up one of their aces in a game they desperately needed to win.

“I feel bad,” Rodriguez said. “Like, I personally feel bad when I cannot do the best I can to support the pitchers whenever I’m hitting. Because they show up every night and give us a chance every night.

“That’s why in at-bats like the (last) one today … it hit me harder because our pitchers are always coming out there and doing their best for us. And I feel like it’s only right for us to do the same thing for them, and whenever I personally cannot do that, then I get really frustrated.”

There was plenty of frustration to go around after the Mariners (63-61) lost their fifth straight game, matching their longest skid of the season.

They’re losing games to bad teams, losing ground in the AL West and their body language on the field suggests they might be losing hope at the worst possible time.

Rodriguez, after a workout and a shower, agreed to an interview about an hour after the game ended. He talked about the “courage and belief” it will take for the team to turn things around.

“Stay strong and keep pushing forward,” he said. “Obviously, it’s tough right now. But I feel like if you believe in yourself, it doesn’t matter how you want to look at it, you can get out of whatever it is that you’re in.”

Does he believe a hot streak is around the corner for this team?

“I don’t want to talk about, like, having a hot streak,” he said. “What I would like to have is a consistent footing. … Really good teams are really good teams every single day, no matter what, if they lose or win.”

It was mostly the same story for the Mariners offense against Pirates left-hander Bailey Falter, who came into the weekend with the lowest strikeout rate (5.93 K/9) in the majors. He left Saturday with eight strikeouts, matching his career high.

The Mariners got a few more hits Saturday – eight in all – than they had been getting early in this trip. But only one of those – a Jorge Polanco RBI double off Falter in the fifth – went for extra bases.

The Mariners finished with 14 strikeouts and only one walk Saturday.

In five games on this trip, the Mariners have 22 hits in 186 at-bats, a .118 average.

“We’re not playing good baseball. There’s no way to sugarcoat it,” manager Scott Servais said.

Randy Arozarena (five) and Dylan Moore (four) accounted for nine of Seattle’s strikeouts on Saturday.

Arozarena has struck out six straight at-bats going back to Friday night. He also misplayed a pop-up near the left-field line during the Pirates’ three-run seventh inning that effectively put the game out of reach Saturday.

After a strong first couple weeks with the Mariners, Arozarena is 1 for 18 in five games on this trip, with three walks, one hit by pitch and 11 strikeouts. He will almost certainly get a day off Sunday, Servais said.

“It’s been a struggle for him on this trip, like a lot of our guys,” Servais said. “But that’s part of being a pro. You’ve got to show up even when you’re not feeling great.”

Pirates reliever Domingo German walked Luke Raley to lead off the ninth and then plunked Mitch Garver and Leo Rivas on back-to-back pitches, loading the bases with no outs.

That prompted a call to Pirates closer David Bednar, who got Victor Robles to pop up, and then struck out Arozarena and Rodriguez to end it.

“We had a chance and I just didn’t feel happy with that at-bat,” Rodriguez said. “… I just hold myself up there. I just felt like that was important that I wanted to do for the team. It didn’t happen.”

Robles led off the game with a sharp single off Falter, then stole second. But Robles was erased on a baserunning blunder when he tried to advance to third on a grounder hit straight to shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who threw to third for the 6-5 putout.

Luis Castillo surrendered a leadoff homer to Kiner-Falefa on the second pitch he threw in the bottom of the first.

Robles drove in Mitch Haniger with a two-out single in the second inning.

Rowdy Tellez added a two-run homer in the fourth off a low slider from Castillo. That made it 3-1.

Rodriguez, still limited by a sprained ankle, singled in the fifth and scored all the way from first on Polanco’s double in the right-center gap.

That got the Mariners within 3-2.

They wouldn’t get any closer.

The Pirates had lost 10 straight coming into this series. They’ve now won two in a row against the Mariners.

“We’ve been kind of streaky throughout the whole season,” Haniger said. “Obviously, you don’t want any long losing streaks, but we’ll get hot and we’ll start to win a bunch of games and we’ll be right back where we need to be. But we have to just show up every day and prepare to win and keep playing hard, and things will turn.”