Seattle's win streak snapped in subdued SF finale

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Mariners could take solace leaving Oracle Park knowing that they won their second straight series, tied a season-high win streak at four and showed some reinvigorated energy the past few days. The glaring downside in that consolation is that it didn’t carry over to Wednesday’s series finale against the Giants, which featured a quiet, 2-0 loss.

Seattle was plagued by three critical plays in the field and failing to cash in with traffic, and it ended with the club being shut out for the fifth time this year but the first since June 2 at Texas.

Julio Rodríguez momentarily took his eyes off a sky-high fly ball from LaMonte Wade Jr. that turned into San Francisco’s second run instead of the fifth inning’s second out. Teoscar Hernández also took an elongated route to a ball that landed along the wall in foul territory that allowed Luis Matos to race for a standup triple, though Matos was stranded there.

Playing at the hot corner, José Caballero was the victim of a would-be groundout in the third that caromed off third base and into left field, putting runners on the corners and setting up Wade to break a scoreless tie with a 346-foot sacrifice fly.

On a night when run production was limited, those moments loomed large, as the Mariners went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded six baserunners, including leadoff doubles in the fifth and sixth.

“We had a few chances and you really need to cash in on those and weren't able to do it,” manager Scott Servais said. “We won the series. That was the goal coming over. You'd certainly like to get a sweep, but we understand that they've got a good club.”

The Mariners had 10 hard-hit balls (classified by Statcast as anything beyond 95 mph) and each of the game’s six hardest besides Brandon Crawford’s 108 mph double off Matt Festa in the eighth. Yet they couldn’t find the barrel against the two-seam fastball that Giants starter Alex Cobb utilized for nine outs and zero hits surrendered.

As has been the case in most of the Mariners’ 43 losses, it wasn’t related to pitching.

Even with the pressure of making a spot start in place of Bryce Miller, who’s on the IL with a right middle finger blister, veteran Tommy Milone held the Giants to just two runs (one earned, due to the error), on four hits in 4 1/3 innings. His pitfall proved to be four walks, one of which came around to score after the quirky play when the ball bounced off third.

Similarly to his April 14 start against Colorado, when he gave up one run in 4 2/3 innings, he’ll likely be designated for assignment on Thursday to open his 40-man roster spot. If he clears waivers, Milone could return to Triple-A Tacoma and remain a depth piece if needed -- which could certainly be the case as the Mariners monitor the second-half workloads of rookies Miller and Bryan Woo, who wowed in his homecoming to the Bay Area on Monday.

“It's something that I'm used to, I guess, at this point,” the 36-year-old Milone said of going up and down. “I don't know if that makes it any better. Again, I'm grateful for the opportunity. So, each time I come up, I just want to show up and show them the pitcher that I am and how I have been doing down in Triple-A.”

Next up for the Mariners is a four-gamer in Houston, a venue that they know all too well but haven’t returned to since a tense American League Division Series last October. Seattle is 7-32 at Minute Maid Park since the start of 2019 (including postseason), with only one series win there in that stretch.

“Houston hasn't always been kind to us,” Servais said. “But you've got to go in there and you've got to get after it. They're not 100 percent healthy, but we've got to go in and play well and pitch well and get timely hits. That’s what it takes on the road.”

Yet for all of their struggles there, this weekend represents a huge opportunity for the Mariners to finish the first half on a huge high note.