ARLINGTON, Texas – In the quiet of the visitors’ clubhouse at Globe Life Field, following the Mariners’ 3-2 loss to the Rangers, Luke Raley sat staring into his locker, reliving the top of the ninth inning. His face and eyes were red with emotion.
He knew he would be asked about his decision not to go for second on a leadoff hit down the third-base line. He didn’t make an excuse or hide from what really happened.
He stood up and said: “I missed first base. It’s that plain and simple.”
Always hustling on even a routine out, he was thinking double off the bat when he saw the hard ground ball off Rangers reliever Jakob Junis get through the infield and head into foul territory. With the Mariners trailing by a run, a leadoff double in the top of the ninth would be an ideal start to a rally.
But about halfway between first base and second base, he stopped and retreated to first diving into the bag.
It had nothing to do with the ball bouncing right to Wyatt Langford, who quickly fired it toward second base albeit awkwardly and well off-target.
Raley didn’t want to be called out for missing first base. He didn’t want one mistake to become two.
“I was just gonna keep going, but it hit me as I was going, like, ‘what if anyone saw it,” he said. ‘I know playing first base last year, I was always looking for that. I was just trying to make too tight of a turn. I knew I had to go and try to get in scoring position. But realization hit me, if someone saw it, it would be better for me being on first base than not on base at all. Just a stupid mistake.”
Raley still got to second when J.P. Crawford followed with a single to center. The Mariners had the tying run on second and the go ahead run on first with no outs. But they never advanced beyond that station. Dom Canzone hit a flyball to left field that wasn’t deep enough for Raley to tag up on. Cole Young followed with a fly ball to center that always wasn’t enough for Raley to try and score on. A groundball or fly ball to right field would’ve done the job. The Mariners couldn’t get a hit or make a productive out. The game ended when catcher Kyle Higashioka hustled to grab Brendan Donovan’s swinging bunt, firing to first to just get the final out.
But Raley continued to blame himself.
“That shouldn’t have been the situation,” he said. “If I hit first base, I believe I get to second relatively easily, and J.P.’s ball probably scores me, and if it doesn’t, I’m on third base with Dom and Cole coming and both of their balls are deep enough for a sac fly. It’s unfortunate. I don’t even know what to say. It just can’t happen.”
But it did.
Still, Raley shouldn’t shoulder all the blame for the Mariners’ fourth straight loss, and sixth in their last season games.
The Mariners still only had two runs over the first eight innings, a night after scoring one run. Seattle finished the game 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight runners on base.
“As opposed to last night, where we weren’t able to get traffic tonight, we got some traffic out there,” manager Dan Wilson said. “We were able to work a couple walks and get a couple base hits, but not able to get the significant runs across tonight.”
It’s been a persistent problem early in the season.
“Sometimes we get a little anxious and sometimes we try to do too much in those situations,” Wilson said.
The runs need to come sooner rather than later. The Mariners are continuing to squander strong pitching outings at an alarming rate.
George Kirby gave the Mariners a quality start, working eight innings, allowing three runs on six hits with no walks and three strikeouts. It’s the deepest any Mariners starter has gone this season.
Of the eight innings pitched, Kirby held the Rangers scoreless in seven of them, taking advantage of their aggressive approach and willingness to swing early in the counts for some quick outs and efficient innings.
Kirby pitched with a 1-0 lead that was provided before even taking the mound. Donovan hammered Nathan Eovaldi’s first pitch of the game – a 95-mph fastball out over the plate – into the seats in right field for his second leadoff homer of the season and fifth of his career.
Unlike the previous night’s game, the Mariners didn’t allow a first-inning solo homer to be their only offense for the game. Nope, they showed improvement, scoring one more run on the night instead.
In the fifth inning, they made it a 2-0 lead. With Young on second, Cal Raleigh dumped a single to right-center off Eovaldi for some insurance.
Unfortunately, Kirby’s one bad inning of his outing came in the bottom of the fifth. Joc Pederson reached on an infield single and moved to second on Donovan’s throwing error on the play. He scored moments later on Evan Carter’s single to right-center. An irritated Kirby still had the lead, but it was clear he was bothered by giving up the run. His ire would only grow when he misplaced a sinker to Kyle Higashioka two pitches later. The mistake was turned into a two-run homer to left.
“It was just the one homer,” Kirby said. “It was 98 to his hands and he cheated to it. It is what it is. I was pissed. But what I’m trying to do is just stay in control and not let those things bother me, and kind of just keep going and flush it. Take a breath, have a plan, and then go back in control.” Kirby did that. He retired the next 11 hitters in a row. The Mariners didn’t have to use another pitcher on the night, though they would’ve had tied the game in the ninth.