Mariners Pitching Fails Against Royals

The first game of the series against Kansas City Royals back at T-Mobile Park on Monday night looked like for a while a victory in the Mariners' hand but it didn't turn out to be. The final score was 6-4. 

The Royals began the game scoring two runs in the first inning off of “opener” Tayler Scott. So far the Mariners don’t look to have much success with the opener though I think it is a good idea. In my opinion, they need to stick with one pitcher as the opener.

Tayler Scott lasted only two-thirds of an inning before Tommy Milone came in. Scott had given up two runs but I wouldn’t say it wasn’t really his fault because with two outs the Royals hitter Cheslor Cuthbert hit a blooper into shallow right field between second baseman Dee Gordon and right fielder Domingo Santana. It has been happening a lot lately where the opposing team gets bloopers early on in games. Either Santana needs to play in further with two outs or more communication between Gordon and Santana.

The Mariners responded with a run in the third inning and three more in the fourth on a home run by catcher Tom Murphy. It was his sixth home run in his last eight games starting. He has eight home runs on the season. He has been a pleasant surprise as the number two catcher. He is hitting .300 on the season.

Tommy Milone did a fine job going six and one-third innings giving up three hits, one run, no walks and striking out six. He should have had the victory but relievers Anthony Bass who recorded the loss and Gerson Batista couldn’t stop the Royals. Bass gave up a two-run homer in the eighth while Batista gave up a home run in the ninth.

What we do know right now a lot of the Mariners losses going forward will be like this game having a bullpen that is mediocre at best. Manager Scott Servais can only throw pitchers out there but any one’s guess what may happen and most of the time not good.

Now we have to see if the Mariners can bounce back and win the final two games of the series. Yusei Kikuchi goes Tuesday night followed by Marco Gonzales on Wednesday. Both of them will need to go a good six innings for the Mariners to win. The Royals have had trouble scoring runs as of late so we hope this is a good sign they had their offense only go in game one.

How the Mariners are measured has to do with how they play against the Royals and the Orioles coming up since they are not very good teams either. We just hope the Mariners are at least a little better than both those teams. Go M’s.