Gilbert again bit by lack of run support

OAKLAND -- Logan Gilbert has been walking the tightest of tightropes across Major League Baseball all season, and his extreme lack of a margin for error cost the Mariners in a 2-1 loss to the A’s on Wednesday night at the Coliseum.

That proved to be the case in the fifth inning, when Gilbert sailed a wide pickoff attempt down the first-base line and into the Coliseum’s cavernous foul territory for an error, which allowed Daz Cameron -- son of Mariners icon Mike -- to go first-to-third. Cameron then scored on a passed ball from Gilbert to catcher Cal Raleigh three pitches later.

That was the final run that Seattle’s towering righty surrendered, paired with a solo homer ambushed on a first-pitch fastball from Zack Gelof to lead off the third. Gilbert surrendered just five hits and walked nobody over seven innings, lowering his ERA from 3.29 to 3.12. But his lack of run support proved to be the difference in Seattle snapping a eight-game win streak in Oakland dating back to September 2022.

"It's just tough, that one inning kind of got away from it a little bit,” Gilbert said. “I feel like it's on me, throwing the ball away and then the wild pitch there."

Gilbert shook off the kinks of a tough five-start stretch in which he had a 5.97 ERA and was hit to a .797 OPS. Still, the Mariners fell to 1-5 in his past six outings after Wednesday.

A deeper look, however, reveals that Gilbert hasn’t had much wiggle room for hiccups like the solo homer and error on Wednesday. Entering play, he was receiving the third-lowest run support average (2.58 per outing) among 73 qualified pitchers, and he’s now received zero in consecutive starts, including last Thursday’s loss to the Astros at T-Mobile Park.

Conversely, when the Mariners plate at least three with Gilbert on the mound -- the threshold needed for victory on Wednesday -- they are 40-9 over his four-year career, and Gilbert is 32-0 in those contests as the pitcher of record.

“Every time he steps on the mound, you feel like you've got a chance to win, no matter who we are up against,” Julio Rodríguez said. “I know he's always doing an unbelievable job preparing himself, getting ready to do what he just did. It's unbelievable to see him pitch every day, but they just kind of played the better game today.”

The Mariners’ bats mustered just four hits and didn’t notch their first until J.P. Crawford ripped a 382-foot double off the right-center-field wall to lead off the seventh. That also ended a perfect game bid for A’s starter Joey Estes, who was relieved two batters later.

The Mariners were nearly shut out for just the fourth time -- and second in a row behind Gilbert -- before Rodríguez crushed a 402-foot solo homer to lead off the ninth.

He did so against a 102.5 mph fastball from A's All-Star candidate Mason Miller, tied for the third-fastest pitch connected on for a homer by any MLB hitter since pitches were first tracked in 2008, and easily the best for a Mariner. The previous high for Seattle was 100.4 mph by Mike Ford last June 24 against Orioles All-Star Félix Bautista.

Miller became the latest high-caliber reliever that the Mariners have had success against -- joining the Orioles' Yennier Cano, the Yankees' Clay Holmes and the Astros' Josh Hader and Ryan Pressly, among others -- but they’re still looking for more mojo earlier in games.

"It just shows our tendencies, that we're going to go out there and compete,” Rodríguez said of the late-game efforts. “It doesn't matter who is on the other side. I feel like that's one of the identities of this team, and it shows."

Seattle’s best run-scoring opportunity came with the bases loaded in the seventh, when A’s manager Mark Kotsay brought in lefty T.J. McFarland, at which point manager Scott Servais pinch-hit Mitch Garver for Luke Raley. Garver worked a full count but hit into an inning-ending groundout to halt the rally.

“Any night we lose, we're obviously not happy with our result,” Crawford said. “But they jumped ahead early, unfortunately we rallied too late and we lost.”

The loss snapped the Mariners’ eight-game win streak at the Coliseum and was only their third in their past 18 games overall against Oakland dating back to the start of last season. They can still go for the series win on Thursday, which would be their first on the road since in Houston from May 3-5.