Mariners lose back and forth battle with Athletics as pitching crumbles
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – The Seattle Mariners fell to the Oakland Athletics in the second game of the series, by a score of 7-5. Seattle had some solid offensive going as the game got going, but fell silent after the fifth inning. The Athletics kept scoring, plating three runners after the fifth inning in order to take the win in Seattle. With that loss, Seattle has not won back-to-back games since late April. The Mariners record in the month of May drops to seven wins, and 16 losses.
Ty France had three RBI's in the game (Photo Henry Wei)
Pitching staff collapses
The Mariners bullpen has not been up to the level it was last year, but that was expected. This, coupled with young starter George Kirby getting roughed up, saw Seattle give up 13 hits to a bad Oakland team. Kirby went only five innings, surrendering eight hits to a last place in the AL West Athletics teams, and giving up four earned runs. Relievers Drew Steckenrider and Anthony Misiewicz would come in following Kirby, but those two gave up three innings combined, those runs being the reason why Seattle did not earn another one-run victory. The woes of the bullpen are bad, but should be expected due to the fact that bullpens are hard to gauge year-by-year. The success of Seattle’s pitching staff as a whole is critical to their hopes of winning, and for a while they have let the team down.
George Kirby relatively struggled in his fourth career start (Photo Henry Wei)
Kyle Lewis returns
2020 American League Rookie of the Year Kyle Lewis made his long-awaited return to the Mariners after not seeing action with them since May 31st of 2021. Lewis has had to battle through numerous gruesome knee injuries, so his story is one of resilience. Lewis returned to the lineup in this game after spending the beginning of the season in Tacoma with the Rainiers. In his return to Seattle, Lewis singled twice and had the hardest hit ball of the game, clocking in at 110MPH on the dot. While manager Scott Servais said that Lewis would not play in the outfield for the foreseeable future, having him back in the lineup at the designated hitter spot is a noticeable upgrade over who the team had been wheeling out there.
Kyle Lewis steps into the batters box (Photo Henry Wei)
Julio’s star continues to shine
Another young talented Mariners outfielder, Julio Rodriguez, continues to write his story at the ripe age of 21. Rodriguez homered against the Athletics for the second straight game, this one a two-run shot to left field that gave Seattle the lead back. Outside of the homer, Rodriguez was hitless. With that being taken into consideration, seeing the continued development of Rodriguez and how he is seeing the game slow down for him, should give Mariner fans goosebumps for years to come. Rodriguez is going to be special for a long tim, so you better have tickets to the J-Rod show before they sell out.
Julio Rodriguez rounds the base paths following his two-run homer (Photo Henry Wei)
The Mariners will take on the Athletics for a third and final time this series, in a mid-day matinee game. Mariners starter Robbie Ray will be on the mound for Seattle, as he duels Oakland’s Paul Blackburn. Blackburn currently sits at four wins and no losses on the year, with a stellar 1.91ERA. The Mariners have their work cut out for them as they look to win a series against a divisional opponent since mid-April.