Sheffield's tough start and other takeaways

SEATTLE -- Justus Sheffield will again head back to the drawing board after another tough start headlined by hard contact and mislocation, a correlation rooted in a rhythm issue he’s experiencing on the mound that he and Seattle’s braintrust haven’t quite cracked.

The Mariners’ left-hander wasn’t tagged as hard as regularly as his last time out, but home runs to Brendan Rodgers and Trevor Story put Seattle in a bind with the way Colorado’s Germán Márquez was pitching. Márquez carried a perfect game into the sixth inning and helped lead the road-weary Rockies to just their sixth victory away from Denver this season, a 5-2 decision on Wednesday at T-Mobile Park.

• Box score

Even in defeat, the Mariners capped their best homestand of the season by winning seven of these nine games in Seattle, which has put them two games above .500 (39-37).

The Mariners now embark on a road trip against the White Sox and Blue Jays, both contenders, which should further provide a competitive yardstick to further gauge where Seattle stands at the three-month point of the season.

But before looking ahead, here are three takeaways from a sun-soaked afternoon in front of 11,141:

1. Sheffield is still sorting things out

After limiting opposing hitters to just eight home runs over his first 21 career outings from 2018-20, Sheffield has now surrendered 13 in ‘21 alone, including four straight starts with at least two.

So, what’s the root of the issue?

Sheffield put himself in a bind early by veering from the strike zone in 0-0 counts, mostly to the arm side, and he wound up throwing just eight first-pitch strikes to the 20 batters he faced. Part of that remains his struggles to locate his fastball low in the zone to righties. Instead, he’s bleeding too high and inside, essentially providing feast pitches for sluggers like Rodgers, who lifted his shot into Seattle’s bullpen and scored Charlie Blackmon, who drew a leadoff walk.

“I feel like I'm still putting a little bit of extra on it, right towards the end when my foot is landing, especially on the heater,” Sheffield said. “I get that heater going up and away, when I'm trying to drive it in. It's like my body wants to get there, but my arm is lagging behind. So, it’s just one of those things where I just got to continue to work on in between outings.”

Sheffield’s slider had more mixed results. At times looking like the elite chase pitch -- like during the 14-pitch at-bat against Joshua Fuentes that he eventually won with a strikeout to strand two runners -- and at others, it lacked movement and deception, such as the 79-mph offering that Story sent 390 feet into Edgar’s Cantina.

But overall, Sheffield and the Mariners are confident that his issues are merely mechanical and fixable. Sheffield went through -- and worked out of -- a similar stretch in the Minors in 2019.

“I think it's way more fixable. Back then, I think it was more mental than anything,” Sheffield said. “I feel good. I feel good mentally. … I still feel like I'm in attack mode. I’m still going after guys. It's just little, small adjustments that I need to make to where I feel like that if I do make them, I can turn this whole thing around.”

2. J.P. continues All-Star push

Even on a quiet day at the dish for everyone else, J.P. Crawford continued to shine. After he made a remarkable snag to rob Yonathan Daza of a first-inning line drive, Seattle’s standout shortstop went 2-for-4 with a double, extending his hit streak to 10 games.

That raised his batting average to .337 out of the leadoff spot, which trails only Cincinnati’s Jesse Winker (.339) for the MLB lead (min. 90 plate appearances). Crawford has become the everyday No. 1 hitter since June 1, when the club bumped Jarred Kelenic down in the order. For the month, Crawford leads the team in batting average (.365), on-base percentage (.411) and slugging (.511), thanks to three homers.

• Vote J.P. for the 2021 All-Star Game

For the season, Crawford is now hitting .284/.342/.407 for a .749 OPS that is 75 points higher than last season. He also trails only the Rangers’ Isiah Kiner-Falefa among all MLB shortstops with plus-8 defensive runs saved, putting him in the conversation for his second straight Gold Glove Award.

3. Trammell breaks up perfecto, scores 31,000th run

Taylor Trammell spelled Seattle from going on perfect-game watch by pulling a hanging slider from Márquez over the right-field wall, one out shy of the seventh inning, his first deep fly since rejoining the team on June 1 and sixth of the season. It also represented a franchise milestone, marking Seattle’s 31,000th run.

“Just reading pretty much everything that [Márquez] did previously to most of the left-handed hitters … he was working them a lot earlier in the count, a lot of offspeed," Trammell said. "So I got into the AB, was ready for the fastball, but I saw the slider up, so I just put my hands to it and it felt really good off the bat.”