Seattle lost the final game of the series 2-1 against Tampa Bay Sunday afternoon, off of another stellar showing of former Cy Young winner Cliff Lee. The Mariners fell to 14-23 before heading to Oakland for a short series, and remain in the bottom of the AL West.
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The Mariners have developed a trend on their current road trip, in that they will jump ahead early in the game only to fall short and give up the lead in the final innings. This was also apparent in the Chicago White Sox series last month, those of you who remember.
Seattle actually managed to out-hit the offensively powerful Rays (6 to 5), but failed to do it in a timely manner. The first and only run for the Mariners occurred in the 5th, by way of a Michael Saunders single to right, scoring Josh Wilson, earning his sixth RBI of the season (fifth of this road trip).
The aforementioned Cliff Lee was stunning as usual on the mound, going 8.0 innings allowing 2 runs off of 5 hits, and earned a season-high 10 strikeouts. Lee unfortunately suffered the loss as he gave up a crucial triple in the bottom of the 8th off the bat of the speedy Carl Crawford. Gabe Kapler drove him home the next at-bat, soaring a sacrifice fly out into left, which sealed the envelope for the weekend series.
The M’s make their way to Oakland tonight and face the division-rival Athletics in a short two-game series. First pitch occurs at 7:05pm local time, as Seattle provides a struggling Ryan Rowland-Smith (0-3, 6.44) on the mound to face Oakland’s Gio Gonzalez (3-3, 4.08).
Reach Jacob Kehle at nextseasonsports@gmail.com
