ANAHEIM -- Luke Raley couldn’t have led off the top of the ninth inning any better. With the Mariners trailing by a run and facing flamethrower Ben Joyce, Raley ripped the first pitch he saw down the right-field line for a single. The tying run was now on first base, Raley did what he needed to do, and the Mariners were in business.

But it all fell apart on the very next pitch. Pinch-hitter J.P. Crawford chopped the ball down the right-field line -- right into Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel’s glove. Schanuel stepped on first and threw out Raley, who hesitated on the basepaths and tried to leg out the throw. Josh Rojas put up a valiant effort in the next at-bat but ultimately whiffed on the eighth pitch he saw -- a 103 mph fastball -- to strike out and seal the Mariners’ 3-2 loss to the Angels at Angel Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

“I got a bad read on the ball, I thought it was chopped worse than it was,” Raley said. “I thought he was going to have to come up and get it, and I wanted to make sure I was in the throwing lane. I just brought myself way too far inside and couldn’t slide properly. When it comes down to it, I made a mistake.”

That’s what it came down to on Sunday afternoon for the Mariners: mistakes. Whether it was Raley misreading the ball on the basepaths, a ground ball just getting past the outstretched glove of shortstop Leo Rivas to score two baserunners, or starter Bryce Miller giving up a leadoff home run, the small details added up and came back to haunt Seattle as it dropped the series to the Angels.

“When you get into one-run games, anything can make a big difference like that,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “Tough play. The ball going off of Rivas’ glove as well, dives for it and makes a great effort, just off the glove. It’s a game of inches. That’s what they always say, and today it certainly was.”

Miller, who has had a solid season on the mound, also had his struggles. Aside from the leadoff home run, Miller uncharacteristically fell behind in the count repeatedly as he struggled to locate his fastball, resulting in him facing three-ball counts 12 times across his 4 2/3 innings.

Miller said after the game that the command of his fastball was “kind of all over” and that the heat may have been a factor.

“Just got to get that back dialed in and we’ll be good to go,” he said. “It was a hot day. I had a couple splitters that slipped out too. Weird game.”

The bats weren’t without their problems, either. The Mariners managed to get just two hits off Angels starter Caden Dana in his Major League debut. They drew five walks as a team but also left six runners on base and three in scoring position. They were 0-for-4 with RISP.

The Mariners, who once held a 10-game lead in the AL West, now find themselves trailing the Houston Astros in the division by six games. They’re also 5 1/2 games out of the third Wild card spot.

If they don’t find consistency in the season's final month, the Mariners will be precisely where they are now: on the outside looking in. They know this, and catcher Cal Raleigh knows there is little room for mistakes like the ones they made.

“We got one more month,” Raleigh said. “We got to treat it like it’s a sprint, not a marathon. We just got to find a way to get it done, or else we’re going to be sitting at home come playoff time. We got to find a way to make it happen, however it is.”