Mariners turn in 2nd straight atypical pitching performance

BOSTON -- The Mariners were again ambushed at Fenway Park on Wednesday, but with a far more patient yet persistent Red Sox approach, and it led to the shortest non-injury start from Marco Gonzales in four years.

In a 12-3 loss that dropped Seattle back under .500 (21-22), Gonzales was tagged for eight earned runs, two shy of a career high, on two walks and eight hits, including a homer, exiting with two outs in the second inning at 66 pitches.

Seattle’s bullpen also had its struggles:

• Trevor Gott then immediately surrendered a double to Pablo Reyes that scored the two runners inherited and an RBI single from Jarren Duran that put the Mariners in a nine-run deficit -- far too big of a hole to dig out of.
• Matt Brash also labored in a low-leverage pocket, walking one, hitting one and loading the bases before escaping with no runs.
• Gabe Speier was also tagged for a season-high three runs in the fifth.

Amid some brutally windy and chilly conditions, it was an all-around uncharacteristic pitching performance from a staff that has been one of MLB’s best -- these past two days notwithstanding -- and it led to their most lopsided loss since last July 22 in Houston.

“We've let things get away from us here the last couple nights,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “But the core of our team is our pitching. They've got to keep us in the game, keep it under control early, and we just didn't do that [the] last two nights.”

The eight earned runs from Gonzales were two shy of a career high, dating to a June 2019 outing, and the 12 total were Seattle’s second most of the season, behind only the April 11 loss at Wrigley Field in which they blew a seven-run lead.

Wednesday’s loss snapped a stretch of four straight starts in which the Mariners won behind Gonzales, who aside from an eight-run (five earned) outing in Toronto on April 30, carried a 2.83 ERA over 28 2/3 innings the past six weeks. He’s been a quiet beacon of consistency.

“I'm not going to make excuses for my performance,” Gonzales said. “I feel like they had a good game plan against me. I didn't execute the way I wanted to. The result is what it is. I'm not going to blame the weather.”

One night after the Red Sox jumped all over Luis Castillo for four runs in the first and seven total (five earned), they showed a far more patient -- and characteristic -- approach against Gonzales, forcing him to throw 37 pitches in the opening frame and generating baserunners deep in counts.

In the first, Gonzales nearly escaped a bases-loaded jam with only one run allowed in the inning, after inducing a flyout from Kiké Hernández and pushing Pablo Reyes to a full count. But Reyes ripped a 109 mph double off the Green Monster for two runs on a fastball at the upper rail but lower than where Gonzales intended.

Then in the second, Gonzales gave up a double to Alex Verdugo and a two-run homer to Justin Turner over the Green Monster, via a hanging curveball, on consecutive pitches. He then walked Rob Refsnyder, was plunked on his right leg on a comebacker that went for a single from Masataka Yoshida, then a single through the hole into right to Hernández, which ended his night.

“With how they came out yesterday against Luis, I thought that I was going to get a little bit more of that today,” Gonzales said. “I wasn't anticipating it to that level. They had a good game plan coming out, like I said, they were hunting what they wanted to hunt. I felt like I just didn't get a chance to settle in and execute.”

Gonzales and the Mariners will be happy to get out of Fenway, especially following Wednesday’s cold and windy conditions, and move on from a ballpark where they’ve lost six of seven dating back to last year and have been outscored 55-35 in that stretch.

Now it’s on to Atlanta, where the first-place Braves await in a weekend of likely sellouts in what will be one of their more significant road series of this still young season.