O’s one loss away from 100th of year
Hitters go 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position
SEATTLE — On the middle stop of the Orioles’ longest road trip of the season by distance — a three-city jaunt that will cover more than 5,800 miles by the time they return to Baltimore — they seemed to arrive in Seattle at just the right time.
A Mariners team that is fighting for its playoff life drew more attention for a clubhouse tussle that occurred before Tuesday night’s game, then showed little life against the struggling Orioles. On Wednesday night, Seattle committed three errors in a four-batter stretch to allow the Orioles back into the game in the middle innings.
But the Orioles (41-99) — now one game away from suffering their 100th loss of the season — couldn’t take advantage of a Mariners team seemingly ready to collapse and lost for the fifth time time in the first six games of their trip to Kansas City, Seattle and Tampa Bay.
The Orioles failed in the clutch in their 5-2 loss to the Mariners, stranding 10 base runners and going 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position.
In four of this trip’s first six games, the Orioles have scored two runs or fewer.
Orioles starter Andrew Cashner lasted just 41⁄ innings, the three runs off him coming on solo homers, including back-toback blasts by Nelson Cruz and Denard Span that turned a one-run lead into a one-run deficit and chased the right-hander from the game after 100 pitches.
The Orioles had their hits but couldn’t get a clutch one. And the Mariners defense did everything to oblige the visitors a big @Tampa Bay, 6:10 p.m., MASN2 Orioles starter Andrew Cashner, left, watches as Seattle’s Denard Span circles the bases in the fifth inning after Span homered during the Mariners’ win Wednesday night. inning in the fifth.
With the Orioles trailing 1-0 on Mitch Haniger’s third-inning homer, leadoff hitter Cedric Mullins reached on a double and scored on shortstop Jean Segura’s throwing error on Jonathan Villar’s ground ball.
After Trey Mancini flied out, Segura couldn’t come up with a chopper by Adam Jones, the ball hitting off his glove and into left field, enabling Villar to score and give the Orioles a 2-1 lead. Chris Davis then reached on a throwing error by second baseman Dee Gordon, who was positioned in shallow right on the shift.
But the Orioles didn’t take advantage, leaving runners at the corners when Renato Núñez hit into an inning-ending groundout.
In all, the Orioles left five runners in scoring position, including three at third base.
After Mariners starter Mike Leake allowed two runs on seven hits over six innings, three relievers combined to hold the Orioles to one hit over three scoreless innings, including a 1-2-3 ninth by closer Edwin Díaz, who recorded his 53rd save. The Orioles didn’t draw a single walk in the game.
They failed to score Jones after his leadoff double in the second. In the fourth, they put their first two batters on base on singles by Jones and Davis, but Núñez struck out, Tim Beckham flied out to center and Joey Rickard grounded out in front of the plate. They put two on with one out in the sixth, but Mullins popped up weakly and Villar grounded out to third.
The three home runs Cashner allowed were his most since his first start of the season, when he allowed three to the Minnesota Twins on March 31.
Heabandoned two of his better pitches — his two-seam sinking fastball and his slider — instead relying on his four-seamer and changeup.
Cruz’s game-tying homer in the fifth game off a 1-2 four-seam fastball that Cashner hung up in the zone, and Span’s ensuing blast came off a 2-0 changeup.
The Mariners added two insurance runs in the seventh. Cruz doubled into leftcenter with one out off Mike Wright Jr., then scored on a single off Sean Gilmartin by Span, who landed on second on the throw home and then stole third. Gilmartin left after hitting Kyle Seager, and Ben Gamel’s sacrifice fly off Ryan Meisinger scored Span and gave the Mariners a 5-2 lead.