Mariners offense spoils a Logan Gilbert gem as M’s lose ground in AL West

ST. LOUIS – For seven innings Saturday night, Logan Gilbert was as good as ever. Maybe better than ever.

The revamped Mariners offense, meanwhile, was about as unwatchable as it has been at any point this season. (And, boy, that’s saying something.)

With no run support, and no wiggle room to work with, Gilbert made one mistake – maybe his only mistake all night – and the Cardinals punished him for it.

St. Louis catcher Pedro Pagés turned on a slider that Gilbert hung over the middle of the plate with one out in the eighth inning and sent it deep out to left field, a two-run homer to score the first and only runs of the game in the Cardinals’ 2-0 victory at Busch Stadium.

“It is frustrating when we can’t get runs on the board, for not just (Gilbert) but anybody,” M’s catcher Cal Raleigh said. “It just feels like you’re banging your head against the wall.”

It’s a similar script that has played out time and time again in this wayward season for the Mariners (72-71).

Saturday’s loss, though, was particularly egregious given that, 1, the Mariners’ hitters had appeared to find some momentum in the three previous games and, 2, the Astros had won earlier in the day.

That means the Mariners fell further back in the AL West – it’s now a 5½-game deficit (and 4½ in the wild card) with 19 games remaining.

“At this point, you know, we have to win every single game,” Gilbert said. “Forget about how you feel. Forget about how many innings you have (thrown). This is the only game that matters.”

That was Gilbert’s mentality going back out to the mound for the eighth inning in a scoreless game. He’d been nearly untouchable up to that point – having allowed only one hit and one walk, and doing so efficiently – and he was starting to think about a complete game.

“That’s the most competitive it’ll be,” Gilbert said. “You’re in a road park. This is a great baseball city. They have a good team. It’s a 0-0 ballgame. It’s exactly what you dream of. That’s the situation you want to be in eighth inning. Your cruising for most of the game and feel like you have all your pitches. So where would you rather be? That’s exactly what I love.”

But in a season filled with a bunch of them, Gilbert (7-11) was hit with another hard-luck loss.

In doing so, Gilbert became the first Mariners pitcher to lose a game in which he threw eight innings or more and allowed two or fewer hits since – how fitting is this – Felix Hernandez on Sept. 23, 2010, at Toronto.

There is, of course, a term for that, when a Seattle starter hurls a gem but has nothing but an “L” to show for it: Felix’d.

Perhaps Gilbert will inspire (is that the right word?) the next generation of Mariners fans to come up with a new name for it.

As much as he lamented the slider he threw to Pagés, Gilbert might have been even more upset about hitting the Cardinals’ Jordan Walker a few pitches earlier.

On a 3-2 pitch, Gilbert missed badly with a 95-mph sinker that plunked Walker on the arm, the first base runner for the Cardinals since the fifth inning.

That put a runner on for Pagés, who two pitches later got what might have been the only real hittable pitch the Cardinals got all night – and he belted it 402 feet out to left field.

Gilbert knew it immediately. The Mariners’ tall right-hander spun around the base of the mound and cursed himself. He didn’t even bother to watch the flight of the ball.

“Right now, it feels terrible,” Gilbert said. “Tomorrow I’m probably going to see more of the big picture, but we lost the game, obviously, on that pitch. So, I mean, it’s on me.”

Raleigh added some perspective to that.

“It’s not his fault,” Raleigh said. “He made one mistake all day, two mistakes. We couldn’t hit, couldn’t get guys in, so that’s on us. You couldn’t ask for much more from a pitcher. What he did today was really special.”

Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley retired the Mariners in the ninth to close it out for his 43rd save. Dylan Moore singled with two outs, but Helsley struck out Julio Rodriguez to end it.

The Mariners did little against Cardinals soft-tossing right-hander Kyle Gibson, who allowed just three hits over 6.2 innings with three walks and nine strikeouts.

They loaded the bases in the first inning and again in the seventh – but couldn’t push across a run either time.

The Mariners stranded 10 runners in all; that’s the first time the Mariners have been shut out while stranding 10 runners since Sept. 18, 2018 at Houston.

This was the ninth time the M’s were shutout and the 47th time they were held to five hits or fewer, most in MLB this season (and a franchise record).

So, yeah, so much for all that offensive momentum.

“Really tough one tonight, losing it late,” manager Dan Wilson said. “Just didn’t get the big hit when we needed it. And it’s gonna happen sometimes, for sure.”