As Gilbert continues to shine, Mariners' bats can't back him

ST. LOUIS -- The visiting bullpen remained still, silent and mostly motionless deep into the eighth inning on Saturday night at Busch Stadium. But the first stir it saw delivered the ultimate gut punch.

Logan Gilbert was in the midst of a masterclass, turning in another gem in an All-Star season that should have him in consideration for the American League Cy Young Award. But one fateful pitch spoiled an otherwise stellar night.

Walking another tightrope deep into the outing, thanks to zero run support for the eighth time this season, Gilbert hit Jordan Walker on the right wrist in a full count, then three pitches later, hung a slider that Pedro Pagés ambushed and sent sailing into the crisp St. Louis night.

It landed smack dab in the middle of that visiting bullpen, right in front of Seattle’s relievers, just as a few were beginning to stretch. Andrés Muñoz stood still with both hands on his hips, his neck craned sharply to his left and at the ball, watching it bounce to a stop -- body language that suggested disbelief.

And with a scoreless night from a Mariners offense that over the past three days appeared to find new life, Gilbert and Seattle sunk to a 2-0 defeat.

“It just feels like you’re banging your head against a wall,” said Cal Raleigh, who was among the Mariners’ 10 stranded baserunners.

With Saturday’s loss, and coupled with Houston’s 11-5 win over Arizona, the Mariners dropped to 5 1/2 games back in the American League West standings, with just 19 games to play. But they remained 4 1/2 games out of the final AL Wild Card spot, with Boston and Detroit in between.

“Right now, it feels terrible,” Gilbert said. “I mean, tomorrow, I'm probably going to see more of the big picture. But we lost the game, obviously on that pitch. So that's something I really feel like it's on me.”

Gilbert has been pitching on a tightrope all season, entering play with the lowest run support average (2.86 per outing) among all qualified MLB starters. Over his 29 outings, he’s had eight with zero runs of support, nine with one run and another three with two runs. To clarify, these numbers are while he’s on the mound and don’t include scoring after he departs.

The Mariners are 5-20 this year when Gilbert receives fewer than three in an outing. Yet for his career, they are 44-10 when plating that many while he’s on the mound. That itself made nights like Saturday all the more familiar, at least in 2024.

And for those who’ve followed the franchise for years, it offered historically unflattering nostalgia, as Gilbert became the Mariners' first pitcher to take a loss despite clearing eight innings with two hits or fewer allowed since Sept. 23, 2010, at Toronto.

The pitcher that day was none other than Félix Hernández, whose 15 seasons in Seattle were synonymous for both his dominance and lack of run support.

“That's the most competitive it'll be -- you're in a road park, this is a great baseball city, they have a good team, 0-0 ballgame,” Gilbert said. “It's exactly what you dream of. ... That's exactly what I love, that's where I want to be. Obviously, one got away from me, but I just love competing. I love being out there.”

The fateful pitch from Gilbert was, in a way, paradoxical -- a slider, the offering that he generated a game-high nine whiffs on. The hit-by-pitch to Walker was on a four-seamer that leaked too far in. Other than that, Gilbert allowed just two baserunners, a walk to Alec Burleson in the fourth and a double to Lars Nootbaar in the fifth.

“That last at-bat, he started me off with a heater and then went curveball,” Pagés said. “And I was like, ‘I’m going to sit slider here and hopefully see it up and he ended throwing that pitch and I got a good swing off.”

The Mariners certainly had opportunities, none clearer than in the first inning, when they loaded the bases with one out and again in the seventh with two outs before coming away empty. And with those shortcomings, they’ve now lost each of Gilbert’s past five starts and nine of his past 10.

As Seattle attempts to mount a playoff push, Gilbert has mostly put them in position to win each time out. And the fact that the Mariners haven’t capitalized -- especially over a nearly two-month stretch now -- could be the difference of whether their season extends to October.