Rusty defense sinks Mariners in tough opening series

SEATTLE -- Cal Raleigh stood dejectedly in front of his locker late Sunday afternoon, shortly after he’d been at the center of the game-determining play in the Mariners’ 6-5, 10th-inning loss to Cleveland at T-Mobile Park, their third straight defeat in this season-opening series.

Instead of escaping a bases-loaded jam on a 1-2-3 double play that began with a dribbler to reliever Gabe Speier, the Mariners gave up the go-ahead run when Raleigh’s throw one-hopped past first baseman Ty France into foul territory and allowed baserunning extraordinaire José Ramírez to score from second.

It was a highly difficult play, especially given that Raleigh had to first field the throw from Speier for the force, and that Cleveland’s batter, Josh Naylor, narrowly -- and literally -- toed the line on the basepath running towards first. But to highly self-critical Raleigh, that didn’t matter.

“The game just kind of sped up, but I've got to know whether to eat that ball, or if he's running in line tight like that, I've got to make a better throw,” Raleigh said. “At the end of the day, I just didn't get it done.”

As Raleigh spoke in self-criticism, Julio Rodríguez chirped from the other end of the clubhouse, good-naturedly: “Tomorrow is another day.”

Such are the stakes for a Seattle team entering this season of huge anticipation.

While dropping three of their first four, the Mariners had some costly defensive plays beyond Raleigh’s and, before Sunday’s five-run showing, struggled to hit. It’s only four games, yet for a team that seemed to lack urgency early last season, at least publicly, until falling 10 games below .500 in mid-June, there’s more noticeable frustration.

“I think, yeah, there's a little bit of antsiness going on, just trying to get out there and get hot right away,” said Marco Gonzales, who pitched five innings and surrendered four runs. “And I think that that's something that will settle down as we go.”

Added shortstop J.P. Crawford: “Definitely, now we can take a deep breath. We’ve got our first series under our belt, and now we can focus on Anaheim coming in.”

Crawford was at the center of another momentum-swinging play in the field that, like Raleigh’s, also allowed Cleveland to capitalize. On a sky-high ball from Mike Zunino into shallow center leading off the seventh, Crawford and Rodríguez had a minor collision, and instead of leading to the first out of the inning, the pop-up turned into a double. Pinch-runner Will Brennan then scored when Steven Kwan ripped a one-out single, tying the game at 5. Each of the next two at-bats were outs, so had the play been made, Seattle likely would have retained a one-run lead.

Per Statcast, Rodríguez had a 95% catch probability on Zunino’s ball based on opportunity time (5.8 seconds) and distance needed (97 feet). But it was a gusty afternoon that became gustier when the roof went from open to closed in the sixth inning. And the sequence was eerily familiar to one that came in Seattle’s AL Wild Card Series win last year, when Crawford tied Game 2 with a ball to shallow center that led to a nasty collision between George Springer and Bo Bichette. Springer was carted off the field.

“I got cleated a little bit, but it was right in that Bermuda Triangle area where no one calls that ball,” Crawford said. “So you just keep going, and thankfully Julio went low or else it could have been a lot worse.”

Crawford wasn’t charged with an error, though Raleigh was in the 10th, the Mariners’ fourth of this young season after committing three on Friday, which created a hole too big to escape.

The Mariners led MLB in one-run wins in each of the past two seasons, with 34 last year and 33 in ‘21. In that context, Cleveland -- which had 28 one-run wins in ‘22, fifth most -- gave Seattle a taste of its own medicine on Sunday.

“We play in a lot of close games,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said, “and the reason we’ve been on the successful side and winning a lot of those is because we play clean at the end of the game. ... We just didn't finish the play and execute like we normally do, so we've got to clean that up. That's how we’ve put together successful runs here.”

Before this weekend, the most recent game at T-Mobile Park featured postseason baseball for the first time in two decades, so it’s understandable that all are eager. But it’s still wildly early.

“We have a really good team, we do,” Servais said. “We’re not playing as good as we can right now, but we will.”