Mariners offense continues to scuffle in 5-1 loss to Twins

SEATTLE – The back of his gray jersey, already darker in spots than the rest of his teammates due to his profuse sweating, was now one dark color as well parts of most of the sleeves and the chest.

Pablo Lopez was laboring.

He’d already allowed a solo homer to Mitch Haniger to start the third inning and his pitch count was growing at a rapid rate.

A two-out walk to Cal Raleigh left him pacing around the mound in disgust. Even after Lopez struck out Mitch Garver on his 32nd pitch of the inning for the third out, stranding a pair of runners, his outing seemed very much in doubt.

The Mariners had forced Lopez to throw 66 pitches in the first three innings, putting him on a pace to be done early — a goal of any team’s hitting approach.

Instead, the All-Star right-hander came back with 1-2-3 innings in the fourth (nine pitches), fifth (nine pitches) and sixth (10 pitches) to provide the Twins a quality start, setting up the Twins bullpen for the late innings and never allowing the Mariners’ listless offense to generate any momentum or real scoring threats.

Seattle’s 5-1 loss to Minnesota offered yet more evidence of the two biggest concerns surrounding this team — lack of consistent production from an offense that swings and misses too much and minimal bullpen depth with middle relievers that struggle to miss bats and avoid base runners — as it tries to maintain a lead in the American League West and win its first division title since 2001.

Besides mustering only one run on the night, the Mariners’ bullpen turned a workable start provided by starter Bryce Miller and a one-run deficit into a four-run chasm in the sixth inning.

Miller needed 87 pitches to grind through five innings against the Twins, using a variety of different deliveries and a heavy dose of split-finger fastballs against hitters that make meals of four-seam fastballs. He gave up two runs on five hits with a walk and six strikeouts.

He allowed a base runner in every inning but the first.

With the heart of the Twins order leading off the sixth inning, manager Scott Servais called on right-hander Trent Thornton to try and keep the deficit to one run. Thornton has at times looked like a reliever poised to take on a larger role, including his clutch save to close out the previous road trip.

But he gave up back-to-back singles to start the inning and later left a fastball in the middle of the plate to Byron Buxton, which was quickly turned into a three-run homer.