SEATTLE -- The Mariners were bitten by Cleveland’s pesky case of small ball, a few poor defensive miscues that the Guardians exploited, shaky command from Robbie Ray that led to five walks and too big of a hole to dig out of.

It led to a 9-4 loss on Friday night at T-Mobile Park and a clubhouse ready to quickly turn the page following a game that had early-season kinks.

• Box score

“Obviously, just not a not a clean game,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “You walk eight guys [total] and you make three errors, you're not going to win that ballgame. So we'll let it go. We'll come back tomorrow.”

Here’s how things went south for Seattle:

Ray’s inconsistency
Ray struggled to find the strike zone from the outset, issuing consecutive four-pitch walks in the first inning to switch-hitting José Ramírez and Josh Bell that ballooned his pitch count to 26. He had another four-pitch walk in the second to Mike Zunino that put two on and eventually led to a two-run flyout (yes, and more on this momentarily).

And it kept going. Ray couldn’t locate his fastball at the top rail and struggled to get Cleveland to regularly bite on his slider, eventually leaving after giving up a two-run double to Steven Kwan that dropped on the left-field foul line with one out in the fourth. Kwan finished with a whopping five RBIs.

After arguably the most productive spring on Seattle’s pitching staff, it was a disappointing 2023 debut for Ray.

“I felt like the fastball was just kind of misfiring, and tonight everything was kind of just up and out of the zone, kind of non-competitive,” Ray said. “One of those nights where I just had trouble finding the top of the zone and really driving the ball through.”

The poor plays in the field 
The first run on the two-run flyout was due to poor luck. Attempting to prevent a sacrifice fly, Teoscar Hernández hurled the ball toward home, but it hit Zunino’s shoulder as the former Mariner returned to first base and caromed toward the third-base dugout. Backing up the plate, Ray scurried to field the ball and made a cross-body throw in desperation that sailed toward the first-base dugout and allowed the second run to score easily.

The other hiccup manifested on a double-play attempt in the fifth, with Seattle trailing by one. Shortstop J.P. Crawford’s feed to Kolten Wong sailed out of the second baseman’s glove, leading to the new Mariner being charged an error, Seattle’s third of the night. Any double play at first would’ve been close, perhaps unsuccessful, especially with Andrés Giménez, the hitter, dialing up a 29.3 foot-per-second sprint speed. But it should’ve at least netted one out. 

So instead of two outs with one on, it was one out with two on, and the Guardians extended the inning with five more batters (when it should’ve been two) and three more runs (when it should’ve been zero). 

“We played them very well last year because we played very clean baseball against them,” Servais said. “And when you make a mistake, they jump on it and take advantage of it, and that's what happened tonight.”

All that small ball 
Cleveland scored five unearned runs, manufactured via Seattle’s three errors -- tying its season high from 2022, done thrice. But the Guardians also scored four earned runs playing their specialized brand of baseball. 

• Kwan followed the two-error play with a sacrifice fly to right -- nothing flashy, but productive. 

• His double that ended Ray’s night barely landed fair and had just a 57.9 mph exit velocity, easily MLB’s lowest on an extra-base hit two days into the season. But it followed Ray’s fifth walk, to Zunino, and a single, to Myles Straw, both of whom completed a double steal with Kwan in the box.

• Their final run came via a single to center from Josh Naylor that allowed Ramírez to score easily from third. But Ramírez only reached third after Eugenio Suárez left it wide open when making a routine throw on a groundout the at-bat prior.

“That's what they do,” Servais said. “They grind you out. They are very aggressive running the bases. They're really athletic. They're a good team.”

These teams have played nine times since Aug. 25, and though the Mariners had lost only one of those matchups before Friday, they’ve mostly been close. Seattle and Cleveland were on a fast track to meet in the postseason before seeding shifted late -- with the point being that they match up well, have similar styles of play and know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.