WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Maybe it’s a Northern California thing.
On this night, it was also a Dan Wilson thing with some late decisions that didn’t work out for the Mariners.
For the first time in nearly a month, the Mariners experienced the feeling of losing consecutive games after falling 7-6 in 11 innings to the Athletics on Monday night in the opener of a three-game series.
The last time the M’s dropped back-to-back games was the weekend of April 4-6 when they were a battered and frustrated club leaving San Francisco after being swept by the Giants in three painful losses.
It says something about what they’ve done over the past 28 days that leading into Monday’s game any loss was immediately followed by a victory.
But after losing Sunday’s series finale in Texas and dropping Monday’s opener that run came to an end.
And how the conclusion played out centered on a couple of decisions by the Mariners manager.
“That’s on me, and that’s a tough way to lose,” Wilson said.
For being only two innings, the 10th and 11th innings Monday were chaotic.
The M’s took a 6-5 lead in the top of the 10th when Cal Raleigh aggressively tagged up and scored from third base on Miles Mastrobuoni’s fly ball to left field.
But the lead didn’t last long, as Jacob Wilson singled on the first pitch of the bottom of the inning from M’s closer Andrés Muñoz to score JJ Bleday. It was the first run — earned or unearned — allowed this season by Muñoz in his 17th appearance.
Muñoz walked Nick Kurtz, and former Mariner Luis Urías reached when catcher’s interference was called on Raleigh.
But then Muñoz was at his best, striking out Lawrence Butler looking, getting Brent Rooker swinging after falling behind 3-1 in the count and getting Tyler Soderstrom looking to send the game to the 11th.
Seattle did nothing in the top of the 11th. In the bottom of the inning Wilson’s single off Casey Legumina scored Soderstrom and ended the M’s first game in the A’s temporary minor-league home on a night that at times had a minor-league feel.
But it was what led to Jacob Wilson’s hit that had the Mariners manager answering questions about his thought process.
With one out and Soderstrom at third, Wilson called for intentional walks of Shea Langeliers and Bleday to load the bases, hoping for a double play to escape the jam.
“[Jacob] Wilson puts the ball on the ground, and we were hoping we’d get it on the ground,” Wilson said. “He put it on the ground but was able to get it through.”
Choosing to face Jacob Wilson — son of former Mariners shortstop Jack Wilson (2009-11) — rather than Bleday was questionable to begin with.
Wilson started the day fifth in the majors in batting with a .333 average and led all AL rookies in hits, RBI and runs. With runners on base, Wilson was hitting .423 and had struck out just twice all season in that scenario.
Bleday entered Monday hitting only .174 against right-handed pitchers and was 4 for 31 this season at the plate when the score is tied.
Additionally, the M’s had the middle infield playing in, rather than at double-play depth.
Coupled with the shuffle of pinch hitters in extras, it led to Jorge Polanco playing at second base in the 11th inning and Leo Rivas pushed to left field. Left fielder Randy Arozarena was unavailable for the game due to a sore hamstring.
It was a recipe for a final outcome where it was fair to debate the manager’s process.
“We were hoping for a ball on the ground and being able to get somebody there, and we just weren’t able to do it,” Wilson said.
Another focus for Seattle after this loss will be another shaky start by Bryce Miller, in which he continued to struggle in some aspect.
In every outing there’s been something off. A lack of control. A drop in velocity. Some arm soreness. Some back soreness.
There isn’t a start this year when Miller has put together the package that made him relatively consistent and at times overpowering last season. Something’s been amiss, and it continued against the A’s.
“It took me two innings to get the feel of the off-speed [pitch],” Miller said. “I think the fastball was fine throughout the game, but the first two innings I had no feel of the off-speed and just took too long to adjust.”
This time it was Miller’s inability to finish off batters and led to some deep counts and long innings.
When Miller found himself in an advantageous count, he simply couldn’t put hitters away. His only strikeout came on a splitter in the fourth inning when Bleday unsuccessfully waved through it.
It was Miller’s fewest strikeout total since July 10 against San Diego. But that night Miller threw six shutout innings against the Padres.
Against the A’s, Miller watched hitters reach base six times among the 20 batters he faced when they had two strikes. Rooker was hit by a pitch, Soderstrom singled, and Miguel Andújar hit a sacrifice fly to score a run in the first inning, all three actions coming with two strikes.
Bleday doubled on a 3-2 pitch in the second and scored on Wilson’s RBI single, also with two strikes.
And leading off the fourth inning, Langeliers homered to left field just out of the reach of Mastrobuoni’s leap at the wall on a 1-2 pitch.
Entering Monday, Miller had allowed just nine hits in 74 plate appearances this season in two-strike situations. Miller needed 94 pitches to finish four innings in his shortest outing of the season and one of eight starts in his career when he didn’t pitch into the fifth inning.
“They’re a pretty pesky offense as well, so you got to give them credit. But at the end of the day, I got to execute pitches, especially early and in two-strike counts to put batters away and not let innings drag on,” Miller said.
Carlos Vargas worked two solid innings of relief, but the A’s took a 5-4 lead in the seventh on Rooker’s leadoff double and Langeliers’ eventual sacrifice fly against Collin Snider.
Offensively, the M’s again got most of the production from the bottom of the batting order. Ben Williamson had a pair of two-out RBI singles that were well placed and not hit particularly hard.
Williamson floated a two-out single to center field that capped the M’s four-run third inning that came with an exit velocity of 68.5 mph.
His RBI single in the eighth inning was even more unlikely, a 65.5-mph fluttering flare that fell into a triangle in shallow right field no one could reach. Raleigh scored, and the Mariners were even at 5-5.
Williamson’s hit in the third came toward the end of an inning when nine batters came to the plate and most of the damage came with two outs. Polanco had a one-out RBI single but Rowdy Tellez’s double, Mastrobuoni’s single and Williamson’s single all came with two outs and plated runs that gave the M’s a 4-2 lead.
The M’s had a chance to take the lead in the eighth after Williamson’s hit, but Leo Rivas hit a fly ball to center field.
In the ninth, J.P. Crawford and Julio Rodríguez walked against A’s flamethrower Mason Miller, the second coming with two outs.
But Miller was able to strike out Raleigh on a slider after Raleigh fouled off five of the first six pitches of the at-bat.
