By Charles Hamaker

Seattle, WA – Familiar struggles remain present for the Seattle Mariners, especially so on a windy night that saw them get shutout until the seventh inning against the Cleveland Guardians as starter Shane Bieber blanked the Mariners through six innings and the bullpen did just enough to hold Seattle down, preventing any sort of comeback attempt. With the loss tonight to the Guardians, the Mariners will look to get back to better baseball in tomorrow’s day game to determine a winner of the series as they’ll have George Kirby back on the mound. This year's Seattle team continues to show mixed singles throughout the very early part of the season, as the offense remains to look as though they don’t have solid traction quite yet and their top starter in the rotation hasn’t been able to put together a complete outing just yet.

Former Seattle Mariners pitcher Bob Wolcott (1995-1997) threw out the ceremonial first pitch ahead of this game against the Cleveland Guardians. (Photos by Liz Wolter)

Bieber blanks the Mariners

Outside of one instance back in 2021, Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Shane Bieber has seen success when pitching against the Mariners here at T-Mobile Park. That sort of success continued in tonight’s game as Bieber kept his perfect ERA of 0.00 that way by pitching six shutout innings with no walks and nine strikeouts, while allowing six hits on the night to Seattle. The best chance that the Mariners had to create some trouble against Bieber came in the first inning, as singles from Julio Rodriguez and Jorge Polanco with one out had Seattle in some business, but Mitch Haniger and Mitch Garver failed to keep the line moving and they were never able to get more than one base runner on against the Guardians starter throughout the rest of his night. The Mariners were able to get hard contact off Bieber throughout the course of the game, but the ball wasn’t headed away from Guardians fielders and thus Seattle had nothing to show for it outside of the occasional base hit.

On the other side of things as Cleveland faced off against Mariners top rotation starter Luis Castillo, the Guardians lineup was getting sliced and diced for the first three innings before four runs between the fourth and fifth innings gave them a lead that they’d hold the rest of the night and saw Castillo again falter, similar to his Opening Day start. In that fourth inning, a Jose Ramirez leadoff single seemed as though it was going to be erased after Castillo got Josh Naylor and Tyler Freeman to both pop out to Mariners third baseman Josh Rojas in foul territory. A Will Brennan single that should’ve been no more than that turned into more as Seattle outfielder Mitch Haniger got caught surprised on the bounce that the ball took towards him. Ramirez was full motor around the bases to score and break the scoreless tie, and a Bo Naylor homer immediately after the Brennan single and error charged to Haniger saw this game have a three-run swing just like that. After another largely lifeless inning by Seattle in the bottom of the fourth outside of a Mitch Garver double, the Guardians got a double from Brayan Rocchio followed by a single from Steven Kwan to add that fourth run, as Josh Rojas’ throw from third base was offline to result in another error.

Some life, but nothing more than that

The only Mariners offense in tonight’s game came during the seventh inning for Seattle, after Shane Bieber had exited the game. Cleveland had brought in reliever Eli Morgan to begin the game and the Mariners were able to take advantage early, as a single from Cal Raleigh and a Ty France walk put runners on with no outs. A Josh Rojas double down the third base line drove Raleigh in from second base and advanced France to third, prompting the Guardians to call upon reliever Scott Barlow to try and put the fire out. Barlow did his job, as while J.P. Crawford’s grounder scored a run it did put the second out of the inning on the board and Julio Rodriguez flew out to left field to end that inning. The Guardians had added a run in the top of the seventh courtesy of singles by Jose Ramirez and Josh Naylor followed by a sacrifice fly by Tyler Freeman, meaning that this two-run burst by the Mariners had left their deficit at three-runs, and they weren’t able to cut it down any further than that.

Another example of struggling offense

Seattle’s offensive struggles continue, and it seems like a mixture of a few things instead of some simple issue that can be looked at directly and addressed head on. Some Mariners have been making hard contact and haven’t gotten the necessary bounces/expected luck for where the ball will bounce or the trajectory that it will take, others are making mostly poor swing decisions at the plate and others are decently pulling their weight to begin the season but are getting washed out because the other batters during that inning aren’t doing their job to pass the baton and keep the line moving. Some of these issues should even out over the course of the season, as we get away from the colder weather at this point of the year and in this area, and when you’re not facing the sorts of pitching that the Guardians have in their rotation and bullpen. Nonetheless, the talk in the offseason from the hitters and coaching staff about being better at the plate does have folks wondering what’s going on and why that talk and seemingly belief that they were going to be better early on isn’t materializing into anything substantial quite yet.

Quick Mariners notes

Attendance at tonight’s game was 20,646
- That’s 43% capacity of T-Mobile Park (47,943)
The Red Oberto boat won tonight’s Hydro Challenge!
- 2024 Hydro Challenge leaderboard so far
  - Red boat: 2 wins
  - Green boat: 2 wins
  - Yellow boat: 2 wins
“King” the Salmon won tonight’s “Salmon Run”
- 2024 Salmon Run leaderboard so far
  - Sockeye: 4 wins
  - King: 2 wins
  - Silver and Humpy: No wins
The Mariners drop the 2nd game of their series against Cleveland 5-2 and fall to 3-3 on the season.
Ty France extends his team-best hitting-streak to five games with a double in the 5th inning…he is 7-for-17 (.412) over that span with 1 double, 1 RBI, 2 runs scored, 2 walks and 4 strikeouts.

France is batting .333 (7x21) through his first 6 games this season, the 2nd-highest batting average of his career through 6 games of a season (best: .360/9x25 in 2023)

Cal Raleigh produced his first multi-hit game of the year with two singles.
Mitch Haniger finished the game with 1-for-4 with a double

He is batting .286 (6x21) with 2 doubles, 1 home run, 3 RBI and a .872 OPS.

Josh Rojas went 1-for-4 with 1 double and 1 RBI in today’s game and has now hit safely in each of his first 4 games this season.

Rojas also registered 5 putouts, 1 shy of matching the franchise record for most putouts in a game by a 3rd baseman (done 4x, last: France, 9/26/20 vs. OAK)

Designated hitter Mitch Garver went 1-for-3 with 1 double and 1 walk in tonight’s game, and is now getting on base at a .333 clip and slugging .400 (.733 OPS).
Luis Castillo tossed 5.2 innings and gave up 4 runs on 10 hits and 1 walk (intentional) with 7 strikeouts…

He has struck out 7 or more batters in 17 games since the beginning of 2023, T-3rd most in the AL during that span.

The Seattle bullpen (Tayler Saucedo, Cody Bolton and Collin Snider) tallied 3.1 relief innings…they combined for 2 hits, 1 run (earned), 0 walks and 4 strikeouts.

What’s next?

Following tonight’s loss to the Cleveland Guardians to even up the series at a game each, the series finale and the final game of this Opening homestand for the Seattle Mariners is tomorrow. The Wednesday, April 3rd contest between the Guardians and our Mariners has a first pitch time of 1:10PM PDT for a getaway matinee game ahead of the first Seattle road trip of the season. Cleveland will have Logan T. Allen on the mound to duel Seattle’s George Kirby, in a game that will be broadcast on Root Sports Northwest within their market (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska) and on ESPN+/NHLPP nationwide. This game is the third and final of three consecutive contests at T-Mobile Park where the first 10,000 fans through the gates can walk away with a Julio Rodriguez “No Fly Zone” bobblehead.

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