Mariners cough up lead and fall to Rangers, lose ground in wild-card chase
ARLINGTON, Texas – Most demoralizing loss of the season? The Mariners have had their share of those – it’s an agonizingly long list, to be sure – and Sunday’s 6-5 loss to the Texas Rangers has to rank right up there.
But with the start of one last road series in Houston looming Monday – and one last chance to chip away at the Astros’ five-game lead in the American League West, with six games remaining – the Mariners say they’re determined not to dwell on Sunday’s lost opportunity.
“We’ve been in this spot before,” manager Dan Wilson said. “Our backs have been against the wall for a while, and we’ve just got to keep fighting.”
The Mariners (80-76) blew a five-run lead and, worse yet, blew a prime chance to gain traction in the AL playoff chase.
They’re two games back of the surging Detroit Tigers (82-74) and the slumping Kansas City Royals (82-74) for the third and final wild-card spot.
“Obviously, a tough one – one you don’t want to lose,” Cal Raleigh said. “But we don’t really have a lot of time to sit on and stew, so forget about it. Throw it away. Move on to the next one. It’s a big series here with Houston.”
The only saving grace for the Mariners: The Astros (85-71) also failed to complete a sweep, blowing a four-run lead at home to the Los Angeles Angels in a 9-8 loss.
Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez, certified Mariner Menace, left the game with a knee injury, the extent of which was not immediately clear.
The Mariners turn to Texas native Bryce Miller for Monday’s opener at Minute Maid Park.
“We know (the Astros) have their best pitchers going and they’re going to want to beat us and take the division,” Raleigh said. “We’re going to do our best to combat that and go in there – we have a job to do as well. At the end of the day, we’re up for the challenge and we want to go in there and we want to beat them and we want to keep this thing rolling.”
Staked a 5-0 lead, Bryan Woo surrendered four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning – three when Wyatt Langford crushed a hanging slider over the wall in left field – and the Rangers won it on Marcus Semien’s walkoff off Andres Muñoz in the bottom of the ninth.
“It’s a tough one to swallow, obviously,” Wilson said.
Leody Taveras homered off JT Chargois in the seventh to tie it up at 5-5.
In the ninth, Taveras singled with two outs of Muñoz, stole second and scored on Semien’s hard-hit ground ball past third base.
Dylan Moore’s two-out single off Rangers starter Andrew Heaney drove in Justin Turner from second in the second inning, and Cal Raleigh hit his team-leading 31st homer in the third inning to give the Mariners a 2-0 lead.
The Mariners scored three runs with two outs in the sixth inning to make it 5-0.
Moore doubled with two outs to chase Heaney, putting two runners in scoring position.
Victor Robles followed with a two-out, two-strike, two-run single to left field, driving in Jorge Polanco and Moore to make it 4-0.
Robles promptly stole second base, and then scored from second on a wild sequence in which he was nearly picked off at second – only to advance to third on an overthrow and then advance home on a second overthrow.
Vintage Victor, folks.
That made it 5-0.
It didn’t last long.
Woo had breezed through the first five innings, allowing just two singles and facing just one over the minimum. But he allowed three straight singles to Taveras, Semien and Josh Smith – one off the glove off Moore’s at third base – and then Langford hit a first-pitch slider 396 feet out to get the Rangers with 5-4.
“Honestly, (he felt) pretty sloppy most of the night – falling behind, not usually how it’s been this year,” Woo said. “They a couple of hits (in the sixth) – nothing I was really too concerned about. Not an awful pitch to Langford; maybe not the right pitch, but you just can’t fall behind like I did and have success.”
The Mariners had won 20 consecutive games when scoring five runs or more.
This is their first loss when scoring at least five since July 29 at Boston (a 14-7 loss).