Dormant offense lets Gonzales down

A tough night against an emerging star on the mound coupled with six hard-hit balls that failed to land for hits kept the Mariners from generating much at the plate in a 2-0 loss to the Astros on Tuesday at Minute Maid Park.

Marco Gonzales did his part by pitching six innings and limiting the damage to just two runs.

• Box score

He had some traffic in the fourth inning, but overall he was superb for the second straight pitchers' duel, this time against Cristian Javier. A Seattle bullpen that has statistically been one of the American League’s best kept the Astros quiet the rest of the way.

But ultimately, it was the Mariners’ lack of offense -- just two hits, both from Kyle Seager -- that kept Seattle from keeping pace and possibly overcoming an Astros club that is quickly surging up the AL West ranks after returning Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Yordan Alvarez and Martín Maldonado from the COVID-19 injured list recently. All four were out when the Mariners won two of three in a matchup last weekend in Seattle.

The Mariners now find themselves on their first three-game losing streak of the season.

“It doesn't feel like we've lost three in a row,” Gonzales said. “To be honest, the mood, the energy in this clubhouse is great every day. It's consistent. Guys put in the work and believe in the process. So, it's a long year. You can't get down about losing a couple in a row. It's going to happen.”

Alvarez got the Astros on the board with a sacrifice fly in the fourth, and Bregman, who had doubled, accounted for the second run when he scored on a single by Kyle Tucker. Gonzales allowed just three other hits but walked three against 25 batters faced.

Javier put three other baserunners on via walks, but he overcame those free passes with six strikeouts over seven innings, which lowered his ERA to 0.87 after four starts.

The Mariners also had six batted balls over 95 mph -- the threshold that Statcast classifies as hard hit -- that went for outs. Seager’s two both landed, and he now has an AL-best 37 hard-hit balls this season.

“I thought we hit some balls really hard tonight -- we had four or five lineouts that needed to go our way, and it didn't happen tonight,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “So, you know, tough game.”

Gonzales had his curveball working superbly, particularly early, including an impressive rebound from a 3-0 count to punch out Carlos Correa in the second inning and punctuate his second straight 1-2-3 frame. And he worked around a walk in the third and reached just 35 pitches before his traffic-heavy fourth.

He also isn’t relying nearly as much on his cutter, though he says that’s by design at this stage in the season.

“I feel like that's what's made me the pitcher that I am, is my ability to change my sequence, change my pitch usage as I'm able to during the game,” Gonzales said. “And to be honest, we didn't need a ton tonight.”

Overall, it was a welcome sign for the Mariners’ No. 1 starter after his first three starts, over which he compiled an 8.22 ERA, allowed six homers and walked seven, the same number as all of 2020. He also pitched seven innings of one-run ball in a 1-0 loss to the Dodgers on April 20.

“Heck of an outing again by Marco,” Servais said. “He threw the ball just outstanding tonight. You can't do a whole lot better other than we got shut out on the other side. So not a whole lot of run support for Marco the last couple times out there, but he continues to throw the ball great after a couple rocky starts to start the season. He's back to being Marco Gonzales again.”

Kendall Graveman and Anthony Misiewicz each pitched a critical inning on Tuesday to keep a possible rally intact for the offense. Both have been unscored upon to start the season, Graveman in eight outings and Misiewicz in nine.

The Mariners’ offense, however, will attempt to regroup and reload on Wednesday against Zack Greinke, who tossed eight shutout innings in a 1-0 win against them on April 17 at T-Mobile Park.