'Not happening right now': Seattle's hefty lead evaporates in record time

SEATTLE -- And just like that, first place slipped away.

On June 18, the Mariners beat Cleveland, which -- coupled with losses by the Rangers and Astros -- moved them 10 games up in the AL West.

It was the first time Seattle had led the division by double-digits since its 116-win season in 2001. That year, the Mariners were in first place with a 10-game lead on May 11, and never let the gap get back into single-digits. This year, it’s gone a whole lot differently.

The Mariners opened their second half with a 3-0 loss to the Astros on Friday night at T-Mobile Park, losing their lead in the AL West and falling to 52-47 on the season and behind Houston by percentage points.

“Great crowd, they were all jazzed up and ready to go,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t give them too much to get loud about.”

It took just 24 games for the Mariners to lose their 10-game divisional lead. That’s the shortest span to lose a double-digit lead in the divisional era (since 1969) -- by far, per Elias. Going into this year, the dubious record was held by the 1995 Angels, who led the AL West by 10 1/2 games on Aug. 16 before the famous “Refuse to Lose” Mariners stormed back and ultimately won the division in a one-game playoff. That gap was covered in 33 games.

Friday night, in particular, nine innings encapsulated the difference between the beginning of the season and the past month for Seattle.

From Opening Day to June 18, the Mariners hit a combined .222, 28th in the big leagues. But with runners in scoring position, the average jumped to .257 (17th in MLB) and their .756 OPS was 13th.

From June 19 to the All-Star break, the club’s hitting with runners in scoring position cratered. The Mariners hit .183 with runners within 180 feet of home plate (29th in MLB) with a .603 OPS (28th).

Friday, Seattle went 0-for-4 with men in scoring position, and left six runners on base. The Mariners’ best opportunity came in the bottom of the fifth, when Luke Raley drew a leadoff walk and Victor Robles reached on a bunt single to set the table for the top of the order, but J.P. Crawford popped out to shallow center and Josh Rojas hit into an inning-ending double play.

That was the third inning in which the Mariners put a man in scoring position, but all they managed in the first two was a two-out walk to Julio Rodríguez to load the bases in the third, followed by a soft lineout off the bat of Cal Raleigh.

When the Mariners left Progressive Field in Cleveland on June 18, they had a clutch score (a FanGraphs metric designed to quantify a team’s performance in high-leverage situations) of 3.05, third-best in the league. Since then, it’s fallen to -1.20 -- 25th in baseball -- while the Astros have climbed from last to 14th.

Speaking of Houston, the Astros got all their offense Friday by cashing in on one chance. In the top of the third, the visitors took the lead on a leadoff double followed by a Jose Altuve bunt single, with a run coming around on Seattle’s second error in the field. Then, a pair of free passes loaded the bases for Yainer Diaz, who chipped a two-run single into right to blow the inning open.

“They cashed in,” Servais said. “They got a big hit with runners in scoring position. That’s something we were not able to do, again tonight. We’ve got to keep on going. Our group understands where we’re at. Offense has been a struggle for us here. We’re trying different things to unlock it and get it going, but it’s just not happening right now.”

And once again, the ice-cold hitting made another solid outing on the hill go for naught. Luis Castillo came back from his one rough inning with four straight scoreless frames, finishing with just three strikeouts, but logging his 13th quality start.

Seattle’s 59 quality starts lead the Majors, but the Mariners have lost 16 of them.

“Not for lack of effort, and certainly our pitching staff continues to do a really good job of to keep us in games,” Servais said. “But we’ve got to step up and score.”