Seattle Mariners’ Offensive Woes Continue as it Gets Smothered by Baltimore Orioles’ Pitching

SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners were tasked with stopping one of the most dynamic offenses in the league on Tuesday in the first game of a series against the Baltimore Orioles. The good news: the Mariners successfully stifled the Orioles’ offense. The bad news: Seattle’s offense was nonexistent, resulting in a 2-0 win for Baltimore at T-Mobile Park.

It’s the third-straight loss for the Mariners, who fell to 47-40 on the year. Here’s a breakdown on everything that happened in Tuesday’s cross-country American League contest:

Offense. There’s not much else to be said. Seattle’s offense mustered just two hits for the game. Its best chance to score didn’t come until the bottom of the ninth with the game-tying runs at second and third and the go-ahead run at the plate. Both those base runners got on base via hit-by-pitches.

The Mariners missed out on the walk-off opportunity and the chance to get in a position to score in general. Seattle had three at-bats with runners in scoring position, and went 0-for-3. That makes the Mariners 5-for-35 with runners in scoring position in its last four games, including the most recent three-game series against the Minnesota Twins.

Seattle’s starting pitcher George Kirby did his job. He went 6 1/3 innings pitched and struck out five batters while letting up two earned runs on seven hits and walked one batter.

Manager Scott Servais bumped Julio Rodriguez down to seventh in the lineup to, in his words, give him a breather and try to get more hitters comfortable. It didn’t have the results he or Rodriguez wanted. Josh Rojas was the lone Mariner to earn a hit and Rodriguez went 0-for-4 and struck out twice — the second time in the ninth inning to end the game with two men on.

Orioles first baseman Ryan O’Hearn hit an RBI single in the top of the fourth to put his team up 1-0 .

Baltimore extended its lead to 2-0 in the top of the seventh courtesy of an RBI single from Cedric Mullins.

Mariners reliever Austin Voth came in for the last two outs of the seventh inning and helped leave the bases loaded to prevent the Orioles from tacking on any further runs.

Rodriguez struck out swinging in the ninth with Luke Raley at third base and Ryan Bliss at second, giving Baltimore the win and preventing a potential game-tying or go-ahead scenario for the Mariners.

This was a winnable game for Seattle. Many of its losses have been winnable games. Luckily for the Mariners, the Houston Astros also lost 7-6 to the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday, keeping Seattle’s lead at three games in the American League West. … Unluckily, the offensive woes continue for the Mariners. The best performance in the lineup came from Rojas, who accounted for both of Seattle’s hits. … Kirby took the loss and fell to a 7-6 record on the year. … The Mariners’ pitching staff combined for seven strikeouts and two walks for the game. … Logan Gilbert will get the start in Game 2 of the series at 7:10 p.m. PST on Wednesday. He will face Dean Kremer for the Orioles.

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