I knew I was in for it when I titled this post the way I did; leave it to the Mariners to lose 2 of 3 to the worst team in baseball.

Since I can’t make this post one huge SIGH, I guess I’ll get into it. The first game was weird, but fine. Marco Gonzales went 6 innings and gave up 3 unearned runs (two separate errors aided in the Diamondbacks scoring in back-to-back innings). The game was tied 3-3 after three innings thanks to a J.P. Crawford solo bomb and a Tom Murphy 2-run bomb. France singled in a run in the fifth, and Murphy hit his second homer of the game in the sixth for a little insurance (which we needed when Diego Castillo gave up a run in the eighth). Otherwise, the bullpen was lights out, with Steckenrider striking out the side in the ninth to get the save, preserving a 5-4 win.

I had high hopes for Saturday, with Chris Flexen on the mound, but he fell apart in the fourth and finished the game after 5 innings, giving up 5 runs. Haniger and Kelenic homered in 3 runs, but that was all she wrote. We ultimately lost 7-3, as the D-Squad bullpen – led by Justus Sheffield giving up 2 runs in 1 inning – was employed to finish out the string.

I had reduced hopes for Sunday, with Yusei Kikuchi going, but he did all right (5 innings, 1 run). It’s weird that a guy who generated 8 strikeouts and only threw 76 pitches wasn’t graced with a sixth inning to pitch through, but I’d put the loss of this game half on Servais (for making the call) and at least partially on Kikuchi himself (for being so unreliable lately, that the team felt it had no choice but to get out from under his start before he had a chance to ruin things). Either way, Anthony Misiewicz gets a good chunk of the blame all by himself, as he came in and immediately fell apart, getting zero outs and giving up 3 runs. Eric Swanson gave up another run later on, and the offense just couldn’t do enough. We went into the ninth inning down 5-2 (Haniger and Moore homered earlier), before Kelenic hit a 2-run bomb to pull it to 5-4. But, the rally died there.

That’s yet another inexcusable series defeat by the Mariners. Add that to us losing 3/4 at home to the Royals and losing 5/6 to the Tigers in the first half of the season; what is it with us getting demolished by shitty teams?

The Red Sox came to town to start their series yesterday; this is REALLY do-or-die stuff here. Other than our remaining games against the A’s, this is the last chance we have to directly affect a team in the wild card hunt with us. Winning this series isn’t just ideal, it’s mandatory. Sweeping would be ideal, of course, but it’s hard to see that happening. Yesterday was a good start, though.