Adjustments pay off for Gilbert in strong start

TORONTO -- The Mariners received hugely positive news on Tuesday after J.P. Crawford avoided what looked like a significant lower body injury, one that had him limping out of the batter’s box on a groundout, easing himself into the dugout and retreating immediately into the clubhouse.

But all is well with Seattle’s shortstop. He awkwardly hit himself with his bat on the outside of his back (left) ankle on a windmill swing during the ninth inning of a 3-0 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre, but he was already feeling better when the clubhouse opened to reporters moments later.

Crawford’s injury prognosis and the best start of the season for Logan Gilbert on most nights would be an optimistic development. Yet that was about all that the Mariners had to cheer about following their sixth shutout loss of the season, which tied Oakland for an MLB-high and represented their 15th loss in their past 20 games.

“We’ve got to change the record,” manager Scott Servais said. “It’s the same old song.”

Gilbert carried nearly all of the load on Tuesday, and if there was a bright spot, it was the continued development of the towering right-hander. He struck out nine again for the second straight start, a season high, while completing seven innings for just the third time in his 32 career outings. Moreover, he seemed to correct some of the command issues that crept into his delivery in recent outings, as he had 13 walks in his previous four starts and just two against Toronto.

Asked if he was more motivated this week after a grand slam accounted for all of the runs against him in his previous outing, Gilbert said: “Definitely. I always want to improve every time out there, and I feel like I'm in a pretty good spot right now with the adjustments I’ve made recently. There's still more work to do, but I feel like I'm kind of headed in the right direction.”

Despite recently turning just 25 years old, Gilbert continues to show a baseball acumen and an ability to make midgame adjustments on the fly. On Tuesday, it involved dialing up his fastball at the top of the strike zone to bail himself out of jams. He averaged 96.7 mph on his heater, a whopping 1.3 mph above his season average, while also throwing the fastest pitch of his career, at 99 mph. Gilbert generated a season-high 16 whiffs, including 10 on the fastball.

“I think it sets everything up,” Gilbert said. “I tried to use everything how I could, but I felt like I had a good fastball tonight and I tried to play off that. Then the curve and slider, good enough.”

The Blue Jays, who beat up on Gilbert during his late-August skid last season, were certainly impressed by his development.

“I usually don't give guys credit, but he's got good stuff,” Toronto manager Charlie Montoyo said. “That's one of the best arms I've seen in this league. We battled to get three runs, but that pitching was outstanding."

Those three runs all came via one swing -- which was the identical case of run production against Gilbert his last time out.

With the bases loaded, Gilbert threw a 96.8 mph heater up and in to George Springer, who muscled it into right field at the cost of breaking his bat. Right fielder Steven Souza Jr., with a late jump, needed to cover 77 feet in 4.6 seconds but came up just short on a play that had a 70% catch probability, per Statcast. Had the ball landed in front of Souza, it might’ve led to just one run.

“It's always tough, but with the alignments and stuff like that, usually it works,” Gilbert said of the play coming just short. “He just happened to put it right where people weren't. It happens. It’s baseball.”

And given the way that the Mariners have been hitting lately, that three-run swing quickly became too much to overcome.

There were moments to strike, notably when they had the bases loaded in the second inning for Souza and two on in the eighth for Adam Frazier, then Ty France. But Souza hit into a 6-4-3, inning-ending double play, Frazier was caught looking on a borderline called strike three and France lined out to right. Those moments represented four of the five runners they stranded.

“We have runners on, and we just can't seem to get that big hit right now,” Crawford said. “We’ve just got to keep putting together good ABs, and hopefully someone picks us up one day.”