SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners weren’t able to muster the timely at-bats they needed and lost 5-1 to the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday at T-Mobile Park. It was the fourth-straight win for the Orioles and dropped the Mariners to 32-27. The Houston Astros took a half-game lead in the American League West over the M’s after their loss.

“On the offensive side, we had some traffic in certain occasions. But not able to get it in,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said in a postgame interview. “I thought (Baltimore starting pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano) was very tough tonight. Had a good (splitter) and I thought he was locating the fastball pretty well and had us in check. Tough night tonight.”

Neither team was able to truly separate for most of the game. The Orioles struck first after Adley Rutschman scored on an RBI sacrifice fly hit by Roman Urias in the top of the first.

Seattle knotted the game 1-1 after Rowdy Tellez hit a solo home run to right field in the bottom of the second.

Baltimore pulled ahead again in the top of the fifth after Rutschman scored his second run on an RBI single hit by Ryan O’Hearn. That inning was more notable for a scary moment for Mariners starting pitcher George Kirby.

Urias hit a hard liner up the middle at Kirby to end the inning. It deflected favorably for Seattle and Urias was out at first to end the inning. Kirby had the ball ricochet off his throwing hand into his face, and walked back to the dugout with blood trickling from his mouth at the end of the inning.

That play marked the end of Kirby’s night. He finished with three strikeouts, one walk and two earned runs on eight hits in five innings of work.

Wilson said after the game that Kirby seemed fine, and Kirby said that the liner didn’t hurt and there was nothing wrong with either his hand or his face. Wilson said the plan is for Kirby to get x-rays Wednesday.

“(Feeling) pretty good,” Kirby said after the game. “Didn’t even hurt, honestly. It got my hand — like 50/50 hand (and) mouth. But we’re good.”

Aside from the liner, Kirby’s day had some good mixed with the bad. He threw 95 pitches — a season-high for him since being activated off the injured list May 22 — but 50 of those pitches came in the first two innings (30 in the first, 20 in the second). A lot of the damage done was on softly-hit ground balls, which Kirby felt were more due to good swings by the O’s than bad location or delivery by him.

“Sinkers, some really good curveballs executed below the zone,” Kirby said. “Yeah. I think I did a lot better job this weekend making my pitches. Still would like to get ahead a little more. But I thought this was a great step in the right direction. And, yeah, felt great.”

After Kirby’s exit, the Orioles started to pull away. Colton Cowser hit a solo home run to left field to lead-off the top of the sixth.

Baltimore extended its lead further in the of the ninth courtesy of a Heston Kjerstad RBI double and Jackson Holliday run-scoring single. Those two hits resulted in the eventual final of 5-1.

Before Kjerstad and Holliday’s ninth-inning hits, Seattle had an opportunity to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth. Sugano’s day was done after he pitched seven innings, fanned five, walked one and allowed one earned run on five hits (one home run), and the M’s looked ready to take advantage of the opposing bullpen.

The Mariners had runners on the corners with one out. Miles Mastrobuoni was moved to third on a J.P. Crawford single. Crawford finished a team-high 3-for-4 on the night.

Jorge Polanco fouled out and Julio Rodriguez struck out swinging, leaving Mastrobuoni and Crawford stranded. Seattle finished 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and left five on base.

The Mariners will have an opportunity to snap Baltimore’s win streak in Game 2 of the series at 6:40 p.m. PT on Wednesday. Emerson Hancock will start for Seattle and Cade Povich will start for the Orioles.

DAN WILSON PRAISES MARINERS RELIEVER EDUARD BAZARDO: The fifth-year pitcher has been a reliable arm for the Mariners in several different situations. CLICK HERE

TOP MARINERS EXEC REAFFIRMS TEAM’S STANCE ON HARRY FORD: Mariners fans have clamored for a position change in order to fast track the top 100 prospect to the big leagues. CLICK HERE

MARINERS LEGEND RANDY JOHNSON DISCUSSES SHARED LEGACY WITH ICHIRO SUZUKI: While discussing his future jersey retirement, the multi-time Cy Young winner talked about the connection he had with Suzuki. CLICK HERE

Continue to follow our Inside the Mariners coverage on social media by liking us on Facebook and by following Teren Kowatsch and Brady Farkas on “X” @Teren_Kowatsch and @RefuseToLosePod. You can subscribe to the “Refuse to Lose” podcast by clicking HERE.